[Shelved Classics] CANIBUS - "Hip Hop For $ale"; OG w. Nottz

In the section "Shelved Classics" I take a look at albums by major hip hop artists that for one reason or another failed to either materialize at all or was completely changed from its original concept once they were finally released. Note that I might use the term "classic" in a rather loose sense in some of these cases. Today I'm writing about the sixth original album by Canibus, the legendary New York emcee who has a reputation for being notoriously hard to work with as evidenced by his many feuds and skipping of labels. "Hip Hop For $ale" was to be the follow up to his critically acclaimed "Rip The Jacker", an album where he had worked exclusively with one producer (Stoupe The Enemy Of Mankind) to achieve a consistant sound. For this album 'Bis aimed to repeat the One MC/One DJ formula by reaching out to the constantly underrated Nottz Raw.

Canibus and the VA beat master hooked up and started working on material for the as-of-yet untitled album. The combination was really something; Nottz's excellent brand of triumphant boom bap meshed well with Canibus' high level of lyricism and calm but precise delivery. The single "Hip Hop" was released to mixtape DJ's and created a decent buzz as even 'Bis haters needed to recognize the chemistry and classic hip-hop feel to the record. I'm not sure how much of the album the two actually completed, but an unfortunate falling out between the two would all but dead the projects true potential. The reason for the fall out was that Canibus manager had issued a mixtape to Sandbox Automatic called "The Vitruvian Man". The CD contained not one or two songs from the forthcoming but still unfinished new Canibus album but about half of the tracks the MC and producer had recorded together - and not in snippet or low quality versions either! This made Nottz pull out of the project and vowed to never work with 'Bis again, a fact that is very unfortunate considering the power of songs like "Back With Heat", "It's No Other Than" and "Hip Hop".

Having both the "Hip Hop For $ale" and "Virtuvian Man" at hand I thought it was only right to put together this Lost Tapes version of the material.. I used all the Nottz productions from the retail LP and added the  original songs not available on the LP from the "Vitruvian Man" to create an idea of what we might have heard where the real collaboration fulfilled. While the production here bears the trademark of Nottz's sound there are no guarantees that all of the beats are his since the "Vitruvian Man" did not come with any credits. Either way it's an interesting take on an album that in the end featured some brilliant moments, yet failed to live up to its potential. Enjoy!

01. "Hip Hop (What Ya Want)?" (Ft. Nottz)
02. "It's No Other Man"
03. "Back With Heat"
04. "Show 'Em Love"
05.  "I Gotcha" (Ft. D.M.P.)

06.  "What You Lookin' For"07  "They Dontr Know"
08. "Let Me Fuck You"
09." Full Battle Rattle"
10. "Dear Academy"

CANIBUS / NOTTZ - "Hip Hop 4 $ale" [OG LP]

CANIBUS / BRONZE NAZARETH - "Bronze Horses"

Canibus is back with another single from his upcoming album produced by Bronze Nazareth. Following the banger that was "Seismoluminescence" the duo is now back with a new track called "Bronze Horses". This also sees half a reunion of the Four Horsemen as Killah Priest stops by to drop a guest verse. Check it out below, I know it's been out a while, but I really haven't fel tlike updating the blog for some time, hopefully this will change now - song link provided by MacMedriaPromo, so peace to them.

CANIBUS - "Seismoluminescence"

Canibus has hooked up with Wu-Elementz producer Bronze Nazareth for his new album which is entitled "Time Flys, Life Dies... Phoenix Rise" and is slated for a May 12 release. Judging by the production talents of Bronze and the guest lists which packs features from the likes of Raekwon, Pete Rock, Kurupt, Killah Priest, Craig G and more, this should be the most interesting Canibus project in a good while. Check out the first single "Seismolumniescence" below, which packs a sick hardcore closer in the vein of the first "MMLP" single. 

Almighty Ft. Kool G Rap - "F.A.M."

The Almighty crew, led by Canibus, releases their album "The 2nd Coming" today in digital format and on CD. At the same time they lets loose of another single, featuring two names that is always sure to grab my attention - guest rhymer Kool G Rap and producer Domingo. The track is called "F.A.M." and is a pretty dope cut. Grab the album @ iTunes (Mp3) or Amazon (CD).

Almighty Ft. Vinnie Paz, Bronze Naz, Planet Asia & Canibus - "High Price Shot"

"High Price Shot" is the first single from the follow-up to super group The Almighty's follow-up to 2008:s "Oiginal S.I.N.". Just like on the first album, the tracklist is chock full of crazy guest apperances, and here we have Planet Asia, Vinnie Paz, Bronze Nazareth, and Canibus getting busy over group member JP Beat's addictive beat. Apparantly the loose collective now mainly consists of Canibus, JP Beats, Cappadonna, Bronze Nazareth & M-Eighty, Planet Asia and Nino Graye. "The 2nd Coming" drops on August 13 and will most likely be a truly banging album juding by the tracklist, which you can check here.

Canibus - "Rip the Jacker 2" Comin'

Ever since the Jamaican born, New York raised emcee known as Canibus came on the scene out of nowehere in the mid-'90s, he appeared as a lyrical and verbal storm. He was the next great hope, killing legends on their own shit when appearing on gems like The Lost Boyz & Canibus' "Beast From the East", Common's "Making A Name For Ourselves" and The Firm's "Despreados". The first downfall came when LL Cool J and Def Jam enlisted him as one of the guests on "4, 3, 2, 1", LL Cool J's classic posse cut from 1997. LL misinterpreted his verse, resulting in a beef with the rapper that, due to the still platnium selling, old school rapper's misinterpreted his line. According to 'Biz ths made 'Biz get somewhat blacklisted from the hip-hop game. And although his diss record "Second Round Knockout" was way better than anything LL put out in response.

Despite several records, that packed some heat but didn't come close to the hype 'Biz has built up through his guest verses. But then in 2003, Canibus hooked up with Jedi Mind Trick's own producer "Rip the Jacker" which again solidifies his status as a vicious emcee able to handle an entire album worth of material. The preceeding album had an incredible joint called "Poet Laurate" featuring nothing short of 100 bars. This concept was followed on "R.T.J." on the closing, and one of the LP's illest songs - "Poet Laurate II" where he kept spitting for 1,000 bars.

Now Canibus is preparing "Rip the Jacker 2" where the third installment which be a first for any rapper. Once again he steps up the "Poet Laurate" series and in this third volume he doesn't settle for no less than 10,000 bars spread out over a double disc DVD package.Soon available exclusivelty at Canibus Central. Check out the two amazing straming snippets, that's togethher run for about fifteen minutes as well as the choice to download both snippets when played back to back definitely gives you a look at into how incredible this will be. One thing's for sure, CANIBUS got BARS for days!

CANIBUS - "RT2" [TRAILER #1- DOWNLOAD]
CANIBUS - "RT2 [TRAILER #2 - DOWNLOAD]