[Comp] BLAQ POET & DJ PREMIER - "Blaq Poetic Justice"

 Earlier today I revisited one of my absolute favorite albums of 2009, "Tha Blaqprint", Blaq Poet's official full-length collaboration with DJ Premier. I, like many with me, first became aware of Poet's powerful presence and aggressive rhyming style via the excellent debut of Screwball, an album completely immersed in the ruff, rugged and raw New York City style boom bap. This is a path that Poet never steers away from - something which we all should be thankful for as he constantly delivers, giving us hardcore heads an injection of some pure, unfiltered hip hop shit. Going back to the Screwball album you could hear that he was extra charged up whenever he got a chance to murk a Preemo beat - especially evident on his solo outing "F.A.Y.B.A.N.". Not only that, but the legendary DJ himself often seems to hook up his nastiest beats when producing for rough edged cats that's heavy on the street element and possess aggresive flows. I'm talking cats like Bumpy Knuckles, M.O.P. and of course Poet. With these factors in mind it was a no brainer that the duo would hit the studio on and off for years, eventually creating enough material to be compiled into a full-length album... and then some.

When "Tha Blaqprint" was finally released in 2009, via Year Round Records, many of the tracks had been heard on radio shows and mixtapes going back as far as 2005. This caused some people to label the project a compilation or a street album, but personally I'd say that "Tha Blaqprint" is undoubtedly a proper album - as all of these songs saw their first true official release here and it's put together, sequenced and packaged like an album no matter how you slice and dice it. It would also mark the end of a long and fruitful partnership as Poet would leave Year Round a short while after the album dropped, which in one way is a shame but considering the fate of the other label signees like NYGz and MC Eiht it was probably for the better. Unfortunately the albums that have followed in its wake like "Blaq Poet Society" and "E.B.K." has certainly failed to grab me. Poet can be a thrill to listen to but his somewhat old school style and agressive street persona needs excellent beats to really shine through in my opinion. Not to say that he needs Premier to deliver quality material as there's plenty of stuff he has recorded in the last decade that's absolute heat but some of the producers he has worked with more recently just don't cut it for me. Anyway I'm truly glad that the Poet/Preem Co-Op worked as long as it actually did, providing us material to fill up two albums... and as I understand it they parted ways on remotely good terms so future colaborations is not an impossiblity.

For the first Lost Tapes compilation in 2016 I decided to bring together all the joints this power house duo cooked up outside of the 13 tracks found on "Tha Blaqprint". If you dug that album as much as me this little collection right here is nothing short of a blessing as there's plenty of material here that's just as good as the best shit on the aforementioned album. Some of these tracks was originally released on Poet's previous album "Rewind: Deja Screw", others appeared as B-sides to YRR 12" singles, and a few are guest apperances or remixes featuring Poet and Preemo. I hope you enjoy this one, but remember that you'll need to blast this shit LOUD AS FUCK to get the desired effect.

 

01. "2 The Stomach (Poet's Coming)" [2004]

02. "Ain't Nuttin Changed II" (Ft. MC Eiht & Young Maylay) [2009]

03. "Bang This!" [2005]

04. "N.H.B. (Nigga Hoe Bitch)" (w. The NYGz) [2007]

05. "Seen It All" (w. Screwball) [1999]

06. "We Gonna Ill" [2001]

07. "Vigilante" [Preemo's VHS Remix] (w. Venom) [2010]

08. "Poet Has Come" [2003]

09. "Watch Your Back" [2006]

10. "Too Strong" [2009]

11. "Just" [DJ Premier's JustRemixIt Mix] (w. Mark Ronson) [2008]

12. "F.A.Y.B.A.N." [1999]

13. "A Message From Poet" [2003]

BLAQ POET / DJ PREMIER - "BLAQ POETIC JUSTICE"