Happy new year!!

Happy new year to all my readers, peace and blessings to you and yours. I've been busy over the last couple of weeks naturally so i haven't been able to give you my top-10 albums list and reviews yet but it's coming trust me. In the meantime here comes a little positivity from the god Coltrane and one of the best albums of all time. Take this with you into the new year!

STAY TUNED!!

Diamond D - "Dusty Fingers Vol. 1"

DJ Premier, Pete Rock, The RZA, Marley Marl and Large Pro are recognized as the absolute best in the producers game when it comes to that gritty sample-based dusty sound. But what about the four D.I.T.C. producers? They strangely are often missing from top-10 lists but i think that has less to do with their sound and more with Lord Finesse, Buckwild, Showbiz and Diamond D getting overlooked.

For me personally Diamond D is a the top 5 East Coast producers, and by far one of the best producers on the mic. After the shelved Ultimate Force album with Master Rob, Diamond's classic debut "Stunts, Blunts & Hip-Hop", Diamond soon became a sought-after producer. After his 2nd, very underrated album, "Hatred, Passions & Infidelity" he started getting placements on major records like The Fugees "The Score", Mos Def "Black On Both Sides" and Pharoahe Monch's "Internal Affairs" amongst others. It's from this period of time I have choosed to focus on when compiling this; the first in a series of D.I.T.C. producer installments. Enjoy it and if you're not familiar with this guys work give it a listen and drop a comment. If you're thirsty for more classic Diamond productions, make sure to check out "Dusty Fingers Vol. 2" as well.

01. D.I.T.C. - "Day One"
02. Mos Def - "Hip Hop"
03. Raekwon/Ghostface - "Rainy Dayz [RMX]"

04. Busta Rhymes - "Da Bus-A-Bus Part II"'

05. Brand Nubian - "Foundation"
06. Bumpy Knuckles - "Bumpy Bring it Home" (Ft. Billy Danze)
07. Xzibit - "Bird's Eye View" (Ft. Tha Alkaholiks)
08. Pharcyde - "Groupie Therapy"
09. Sadat X/Diamond - "Feel It"
10. Diamond D - "The Hiatus (Remix)" (Ft. Cru)
11. Organized Konfusion - "Questions"
12. Fugees - "The Score" (Ft. Diamond)
13. Busta Rhymes - "What The Fuck You Want"
14. Ras Kass - "Soul On Ice (Remix)"
15. Queen Latifah - "I Don't Know" (Ft. Sisqo)
16. Sadat X - "You Can't Deny"
17. Pharoahe Monch - "The Truth" (Ft. Talib Kweli & Common)
18. Unbound All-Stars - "Mumia 911" [Full Version]

DIAMOND D - "DUSTY FINGERS VOL. 1" (1996-2000)

Long lost Method Man original track

When Method Man was recording "Tical 2000: Judgement Day", one of the main producers he was working with to create the sound he was looking for was the criminally underrated (outside of Wu circles) True Master. The album caught a lot of bad flack for being all over the place and not living up to Meth's brilliant debut, but in hindsight it's actually a pretty damn good album. The LP is split up into two sections, one representing 1999 and the other representing 2000 - the new millenium, the representation of judgement day or doomsday. That second section of the album starts with a horn driven banger called "Party Crasher" that's credited to True Master in the liner notes. Fans of instrumentals soon noticed that the version included of "Party Crasher" on Def Jam's instrumental promo LP was a completely different beat. Method Man has expanded on the situation in interviews, explaining that what's heard on the instrumental album is the original True Master beat that Meth recorded the "Party Crasher" vocals over. For the retail version, an uncredited remix by executive producer The RZA was instead used, most likely as a last minute change considering the credits wasn't corrected before it went to pressing. According to Meth, he was a bigger fan of True Master's original version and was planning to add it when it came to reissue the album after enough copies had been sold. This never happened, and the original version has been added to the large pile of unreleased, almost mythical Wu cuts we're most likely never to hear. Even though we had the instrumental, the acapella version of "Party Crasher" was never made available.

Now, enter my producer homie Rusty Wu-Chain from the Wu-Tang Corp Forums who was told that excerpting only the vocal track from a mastered song was strictly impossible. Amazingly enough, Rusty actually figured out how to do this (don't ask him about it though, it's his secret). I brought him the idea of juxtaposing Meth's vocals from the album version to the beat from the instrumental promo copy so we finally could hear this long lost Method Man / True Master collaboration. There was a lot of troubles in making it a reality, but now Rusty finally has made it happen, coming through in a major way with a great blend that's a fantastic representation of what we probably would have heard on "T2" had Meth had final say on that particular song. Enjoy this one, and major thanks and props for realizing my idea(s) Rusty, you're the man!

METHOD MAN - "PARTY CRASHER" ('Original Mix' Blend)

Merry X-mas w. Large Pro

Merry christmas to all my readers, hope y'all have a great holiday just like me and my fam. Here's a little gift for y'all, celebrating one of the greatest beat makers known as well as it's a second installment in the "Live With The Glasses" series, but while the first featured some of Paul's earlier work Volume II has everything Extra P produced between 2008 and 2010. If anyone think Large has lost any of his skills this tape will sure as hell prove them wrong. Compiled and with artwork by me.

01. Grand Puba - "Same Ol' Drama" (Ft. Large Pro)

02. Lord Finesse & DJ Mike Smooth - "Here I Come"  (Extra-P Remix)

03. Presto - "Conquer Mentality (Remix)" (Ft. OC, Sadat X & Large Pro)

04. Rhymefest - "Bad Self"

05. Termanology - "Sorry I Lied to You"

06. Planet Asia & Goldchain Military - "Organic Food"

07. NaS - "No Idea's Original" (Extra-P Remix)

08. Lil' Dap - "In My Life Time"

09. Sénor Kaos - "Slick Money" (Ft. P.So)

10. Joell Ortiz - "Ooh" (Ft. Iffy)

11. Earatik Statik - "No Problems" (Extra-P Remix)

12. Jak D - "Why You Wanna Do That" (Ft. Craig G, Sean Price & Large Pro)

13. Krumb Snatcha - "Mind Power"

14. Termanology - "Time Machine" (Ft. Reks)

15. Reks - "Stages"

16. U-God - "New Classic"

LARGE PRO - "THE LIVE GUY WIT' GLASSES VOL. II"

A.G and Fat Joe?!!

Maybe I should rename this place the D.I.T.C. blog considering the amount of Diggin' material I posted recently and will continue to do so. Yesterday we got the Show & KRS-One street single, 950 & AG's mixtape and E-Blaze's beat tape and today I present a real treat for y'all. Fat Joe hasn't rapped with anyone from his original D.I. crew for over a decade so I almost chocked on my sub when I got this in my inbox. AG and Fat Joe is both featured as guests on 950 Plus's street single "The Empire Strikes Back". BX STAND UP!

950 PLUS / AG / FAT JOE - "EMPIRE STRIKES BACK"

Q-Tip to produce Esperanza Spalding's LP

Q-Tip (or Kamaal Ibn Fareed) is one of the illest and most creative producers of all time, yet his name is rarely mentioned among the true greats which is a shame. He produced four classic LPs for one of hip-hop's most beloved groups together with DJ Ali Shaheed; A Tribe Called Quest. He created "One Love" for NaS, three joints on Mobb Deep's classic "The Infamous" plus mixed and guided that LP alot plus and pretty much discovered and managed Jay Dee amongst many other things. His solo albums ain't no shame either, the Jay-Dee/Tip collabo "Amplified" caught some flack when it first dropped but time has treated the LP good and 2008's "The Renaissance" was easily one of the stronger releases of 2008.

It's also well known that Kamaal is a great jazz head which has been evident ever since the Tribe days, the majority of samples used on those LPs came from jazz artists like Ronnie Foster, Ron Carter and Carl Tjader. In 2002 he recorded a jazz-fusion album for Arista Records as Kamaal The Abstract, named "Abstractisisms", featuring a live band instead of samples, a few rap verses but mostly Q-Tip singing. A very different record but still very good, and one of the guest musicians on that album was jazz guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. To return the favor Kamaal co-produced Rosenwinkel's full "Heartcore" album, which I can absolutely recommend if you're looking for some alternative music.

Yesterday Tip announced via Twitter that he will produce jazz bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding's fourth, as of yet untitled solo album. Most def one I'm looking forward to hearing.

E-Blaze - "For The Luv Of It, Vol. 1"

Eric Blaze was born and raised in Paris and in fell in love with hip-hop music in the '80s and while attending high school he started producing for local acts. As his love for beat-making grew he realized New York was the place to go to make a name for himself. Eventually becoming a resident of the mecca of hip-hop he slowly but surely started to make a name for himself; landing production on records by Screwball, Smiley The Ghetto Child, Infamous Mobb and Littles. Eventually Blaze caught the ear of D.I.T.C. virtuoso Show which led to him being the only guest-producer on Show & AG's brilliant 2008 EP "Live Hard". The relationship with the Diggin' In The Crates Crew continued to escalate as E-Blaze produced roughly half of OC & AG's collaborative album "Oasis" in 2009. Be on the lookout for E-Blaze in 2011 as he and Show has started a production company called Born Lordz and he certainly will get hired on a whole bunch of future releases. Visit E.Blaze's myspace for more info while you listen to the 20 instrumentals presented on the first installment of "For The Luv Of It".

01. E-Blaze - "Sad" (UNRELEASED)

02. OC & AG - "Put ir in the Box"

03. OC & AG - "Contagious"

04. Infamous Mobb - "Capital Q"

05.Kamakazee & Verse - "New Ball Game"

06. Show & AG - "Magic"

07. OC /& AG - "Against The Wall"

08. Kamakazee & Blaq Poet - "Right Here"

09. OC /& AG - "Everyday Life"

10. Kamakazee - "It's All Good"

11. OC /& AG - "Think About It"

12. Show & AG - "Experience"

13. Smiley The Ghetto Child - "Battlestar Galactica"

14. OC /& AG - "Keep It GoinfQ´"

15. 950 Plus & AG - "Does My Thang"

16. OC /& AG - "Realiry"¨

17. D.I.T.C. - "True Lies"

18. Grim Team & Kamakaaze - ""Hold Mine"

19. E-Blaze - "Roy" (UNRELEASED)

20. OC/& AG - ""God's Gift"

E-BLAZE - "FOR THE LUV VOL. 1"

Do you want "The Lost Tapes II" by Nas?

Fans of Nas has created an online petition for Def Jam to release his sequel to the brilliant "Lost Tapes", a compilation of classic unreleased Nas material and considering how good the first was this needs to get released. If you want to see Def Jam support this project you can help by signing up for this petition: CLICK THE LINK AND VOTE

New KRS-One / Showbiz

One of my absolute favorite MC's and one of my absolute favorite producers, what more could you ask for? They are about to drop an album called "Godsville" next year and here's the first single, my man Angry! put me on to this single so props to him. Below the download link you chan check out two trailers for the "Godsville" album where Show play some tracks from the forthcoming LP and speaks on how the project came together. Great watch!

KRS-One & Show - "SHOW POWER"

Celebrating Gang Starr, Part III

The third installment in my Gang Starr celebration series collects all the remixes that DJ Premier and The Guru did for the 12" singles and other forums. I only focused on the DJ Premier remixes, leaving out classic like Pete Rock's take on "The Militia" or Extra P's mix of "Gotta Get Over". With these three volumes plus the six official albums Gang Starr released we now got every recorded Preem/Guru collaboration ever done.

01. "Words I Manifest (Remix)"

02. "No More Mr. Nice Guy (Fed Up Mix)"

03. "Positivity (Whole World Mix)"

04. "Gotch U (Hunter Mix)"

05. "Just To Get A Rep (Extended Mix)"

06. "Check The Technique (Remix)"

07. "Jazz Thang (Movie Mix)"

08. "I've Lost My Ignorance" (w. Dream Warriors)

09. "Love Sick (Extended Mix)"

10. "Ex Girl to Next Girl (DJ Premier Remix)"

11. "DWYCK (Horny Mix)" (Ft. Nice & Smooth)

12. "Flip The Script (Minor Adjustment Mix)

13. "Doe in Advance (12" Remix)"

14. "You Know My Steez (3 Men & A Lady Remix)" (Ft. Lady Of Rage & Kurupt)

15. "Jazz Thang (Extended Instrumental Mix)" (Ft. Branford Marsalis)

GANG STARR - "MOVEMENT III: THE REMIXES"