Look how small Styles P is and how tall Black Rob is.  Wierd.

The biggest rapper and producer in 1997 was Sean "Puffy Puff Daddy P Diddy" Combs, a man who never wrote a bar nor touched a drum pad a day in his life.  Puffy really is the American dream: work your ass off to become established, as he did in his early days as an intern at Uptown Records taking a 2 hour train ride everyday to NY from DC, then promptly deflect everyone's shine back to yourself.  There's some deep metaphysics to those shiny suits after all.

I'm not here to bash Puffy or anything--he's made some GREAT music.   Unfortunately istening to No Way Out 11 years later, there's not enough of it on this LP. 

I have to confess: until I bought a copy of this CD on Half.com 3 weeks ago for $1.99 (you can pick up a copy right now for 75 cents HERE), I had never listened to the full album.  I had a dubbed cassette version from my homie in high school that manged to pack the great moments from this album onto Side A of a 60 minute Maxell.  After getting through the 17 tracks on the CD, that 30 minutes Maxell version is a better representation of what No Way Out COULD HAVE been.  It's like in "Be Kind Rewind": in retrospect, a 20 minute version of "Rush Hour 2" shot by two guys in Passaic, NJ is much more memorable than the 80 minute Brett Ratner snooze fest.  Less is more sometimes, especially in hip hop.

The one thing I hated most about the Jiggy Rap Era was the overuse of two instruments: the triangle and the windchime.  This isn't Jethro Tull we're talking about here: this is guys like Puffy and Jermaine Dupri hlating every hit single, featuring men talking about guns, drugs, and women, from hitting the manufacturing plant before they sprinkled their most IMPORTANT ingredient, the sounds that transform a rap song from "gritty, raw, and unpolished" to "delectable, bouncy, and mild mannered"--a motherfucking triangle. 

And a windchime.

In visual terms, the Jiggy Rap Era, still featuring some of the most disturbing inuendo's and blatant death threats of all time, contained this on a regular basis:

And this:

As a producer, I've been scarred from using either instrument when I'm making a beat because it gives me flashbacks to Jermaine Dupri's "Money Ain't a Thing" or "Been Around the World."  Listen to No Way Out and take a shot of whiskey everytime you hear a triangle or wind chime introduced: you will be setting fire to your cardigans, eating raw cabbage, and puking on the landlady by track 7, "Do You Know?" 

I will give Puffy credit for continuing the big, cinematic feel he used on Life After Death for his debut album.  It instantly separates itself from almost every other rap album of that era by how BIG and IMPORTANT things sound.  He pulled off the same trick on Jay-Z's American Gangster last year.  "Victory" is one of the greatest album openers in history.  "All About the Benjamins" could be most succesful mainstream posse cut since "Scenario," and the beat change-up for Big's verse still gives me goosebumps.  Even the intro for "Been Around the World" makes you await glory before David Bowie and Lisa Stansfield make uncomfortable love to each other on the beat.   

She too has been player hated.

The problem though is that No Way Out came out during the Clinton years of excess.  This album personifies the dominance of late 90s wealth, sensationalism, and monopoly of the CD retail chain store.  I remember everyone having a copy of this CD or tape but only liking the singles plus "Young Gs," "I Love You Baby," and "Senorita."  That leaves us with 10 tracks that are mostly forgettable mainly because Biggie, Ma$e, and the Lox weren't be featured on EVERY song (though they sure can ghostwrite 'em!).

Listening to Puffy "flow" and "rap" by himself for 4 minutes has historically been painful--and this album is probably his best performance as a rapper.  He has no confidence, his inflections are bad derivatives of whomever writes his bars, his delivery lacks charm/swagger/light heartedness, his threats have no credibility, etc.  He DOES sound great bragging about money and women ("Benjamins, "Seniorita", "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down").  He DOES sound horrible overacting as the "pained and introspective young man who is left carrying the superstar weight now that his superstar artist has died" on "No Way Out Intro," "What You Gonna Do?", "Pain," and "Is This the End?"  It's like Birdman trying to sing "Tears of a Clown."

No Way Out though is a great iPod album/overproduced EP.  Take the five singles, sprinkle in a few strong album cuts, and you're on your way to one of the best hip hop albums ever made.  It's fun to listen to Ma$e before Fabolous and Loon sodomized his steez and he quit rap to open a church only to close the church to fetch cherry Slurpees for 50 and co.  It's amazing to think that Biggie quietly dominated hip hop from '94-'97: outside of his 2 solo albums, his disappearing ink is all over Junior Mafia's Conspiracy, Lil' Kim Hardcore and Puffy's debut.  All the memorable singles and hooks feature him, and most of the themes of all three albums contain his DNA.

It's also a treat to hear the Lox before they became "The Lox."  Jadakiss was a more polished Nastradamus, combining street shit with impressive sounding namebrands.  Sheek Louch was the male version of Lil Kim with his harsh yet lighthearted delivery and penchant for rhyming words like "Sosa," "chocha," "Minnesota," "Chevy Novas," and "Alona."  And Styles still enjoyed offering some murder and punishment every 2 bars.

The Mockneck, the Red Glasses, and the Baldie: I Love the 90s!

The promise that Black Rob showed on "I Love You Baby" had me extremely excited for his debut Life Story, a very solid and overlooked debut album for Bad Boy when they were transitioning from Biggest Label in the Land to Playing Catch-Up to Roc-a-Fella and Ruff Ryders.   His voice was the perfect contrast to the soap opera strings and piano, and his storytelling skills showed lots of promise.  It's a shame he and G-Dep never got their props, both gritty NYC storytellers with dope voices.

******

As much as this write-up sounds like an Anti-Sean Combs piece, it's more of a realistic review of one of the most important figures in hip hop history and his best solo work to date.  There's no question that No Way Out is a classic hip hop album, but like most hip hop albums of the CD Age, it's 20-30 minutes too long.  However, the great moments are indelible--every single word on "Victory," Jay's verse on "Young G's," every apperance by Biggie, the Matthew Wilder hook on "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down."

Verdict:  Sift Through and Do You

NoahSife.com has learned Faith is straight gangsta!! Did you know that? I didn't but her tell all book explains just how she got down when it came to Biggie. Check it out:

Faith Evans had a brutal way of extracting revenge when The Notorious B.I.G. cheated on her. The R&B songbird hunted down his lovers and beat them to a pulp. “I thought maybe kicking some ass would get the word out that chicks better think twice before messing with my husband,” Evans writes in her new autobiography, “Keep the Faith.” Once, she hopped a red-eye to Virginia, where Biggie (real name Christopher Wallace) was touring, and found a young hottie in a plaid school uniform in his hotel room. She writes: “[I] jumped on top of her and started beating her ass . . . ‘Yo, Ma you need to chill!’ Big said, ‘I didn’t even [bleep] her!’ I mashed [her] in the face and then kicked her. ‘Yeah, well, you should have,’ I said.” Another time, she found a cutie’s photo and number in Biggie’s car, traced her to a Bronx apartment and, together with a male pal, gave her “a brief but thorough beat-down.”

I can't hate on Faith for holding it down for the King. I gotta admit, this shows me a totally different side of her, I always thought of her as the strong silent type. I really wanna read this book. I think it will be slightly different than the normal tell-alls. People really want to hear what she has to say.....

-NoahSife.com is the Best!

read more detail..

Anyways, I got a job today at Circuitcity again. I don't care because I need a job and they aren't forcing me to be a Tech again, so it won't be stressful while I'm at school. I'm really jealous of Brett's school; at UCSD there are fucking awesome upper division classes like one based on Friedrich Hegel and another one based strictly on the economic status of America from the Progressive Era until 1979. He told me like 2 other one's that sounded like the shit, but I don't remember them. Anyways, I guess I have some units that I can make up and raise my GPA so I can get into a real college instead of state school. Lately, when I see people with SDSU merchandise, I want to hit them. They are all bros with plaid shorts, flip flops, spikey hair, and Arnette/Spy sunglasses. I'm sure that most of them are smarter than I am, but I just don't want to associate myself with them. I am very fucking judgemental, as you already know.

Also, I bought a 1995 Volvo 960 wagon because Brett's car is dying and my bike isn't here yet. It's awesome and was only 1500$ after registration. I managed to fit 5 people, a 5150 head, a heavy duty cymbal stand + 18" crash, 2 hardshell guitar cases, 1 softshell bass case, 2 sonic maximizers, a double pedal, and a trashbag full of cables with a ton of room to spare. Also, it has 181HP and 200TQ in a station wagon, so I can smoke peepz still if needed. Still miss my A4 regardless. This paragraph is somewhat unimportant.

We had practice for the first time in two months yesterday, and I still remember all but one BEAR song and I remembered 1.5 of 2 songs from our pop-punk band, as well as adding an extra one during practice. We have a singer, but he kind of played himself up too much and he basically listens to pop and nothing else, so he doesn't know how to write lyrics that don't end up sounding like Taking Back Sunday. He's a cool guy, but I think we are gonna keep looking. Although breakdowns are cheesy, we have some of them in our songs and he doesn't understand them. He won't understand our jokes about moshing or bros most likely either, so I have to tell him tomorrow that we are gonna pass on him as a singer. He's a nice guy so I'm pretty sure that he's not gonna throw a fit. We practiced in a studio (furnished with 2 half stacks, a pacific 5 peice, and a dual 12" PA) in Mira Mesa that ended up being like 13$ a person for our 3 hour practice, which did not seem unreasonable. I like the idea of blasting tunes at 1am.

While we were waiting for Marie to get her baby-killing pills, Matt and I began to reminisce of Xanga. I was such a tool when I was 14, I'm surprised that no one ever tried to fight me. I decided at age 14 that there was no god and that I was straightedge, so my screen name was INxGODxWExRUST. I never explictly said that I was edge when people that weren't my friends asked, but I assumed that people would notice this because of the three "x"s. I was such a tool. Goddamn. Anyways, look at this cool shit:

Buy this for me, please. I may have to make one on cafepress to satisfy my urge.

I NEED HELP. I started Netflix, and I have some movies in my queue, but I would like some more. So if you aren't an asshole, you should comment your top 5 favorite movies, so that I can rent them. According to my last post, the only people who aren't assholes are Brad and Amber. Fucking shit. They are the only ones who comment.

This weekend my mawmz is comming to visit. Mom FTW. She will probably buy us food. Matt just said "I gotta shit still. Imma go do it." That is unrelated to my mother, but I didn't want to start a new paragraph. Anyways, just paid rent and Brett for the remaining amount of the Volvo, so I have other bills besides utilites, internet, and food for a month. Stoked! Also this weekend, Anthony Green is playing at SOMA, which is about 7 miles from my house and tickets are 12$. I haven't gone to a show in a long time. I think that we are making a family (Matt, Marie, Brett, and I) trip to see some crappy metalcore bands on thursday because they are entertaining and great to laugh at. Parkway Drive, Misery Signals, Darkest Hour, Winds of Plague. All the shit I liked when I was 14 and 15. So cool.

If anyone wants to visit us in SD, airplane tickets through Virgin are only 50$ each way from SFO(I think Monterey also). We have a total of 2 couches, a very comfortable reclining chair (basically reclines to 180 degrees), and a queen sized futon. COME RAGE WITH THE WOLF PACK. I will make you some Pasta Roni or a grilled cheese sandwich.

I keep promising pictures, but I never actually post pictures. So don't expect any.

-Bigz0rz

Last Friday I moved to Los Angeles (you should be applauding)  Most can talk about switching coasts, lives, and pursuing their dreams (mine is film) but I did it.  It's kinda thrilling.  I moved into a PHAT apartment that I'm sharing with a fellow Grad Student Becky (names changed to protect the...you know...more on this later)

My first few days were spent buying all the "neccessities".  Those of you who thought like me that IKEA was "cheap" should think again.  I put that furniture together myself and I'm telling you, it's a brutal process.

After getting set up, I went about feeling out the area.  My roommate and I have had scattered hang out sessions, but I'm mostly here trying to network the shit out of the town.  Today I was offered an internship I can't take, and tomorrow I'm shooting hoops with a friend writing a soon to be produced Horror movie.  It's about a gay deer (no joke).

But let's rewind back to the day of departure, because I really should have been blogging then, but was unable to put my excitement aside.  My parents dropped me off at Philly International and my mom had a tear felt goodbye.  I agreed to let her visit, and I think she was consoled (for the time being) that things might just be OK.  Now I'm in the airport, nothing to do, and I decide, let me check out some 2pac videos to get me even more hype to live in LA.  I pull out my IPhone and youtube California Love.  Talk about a video.  George Clinton and Chris Tucker about to sacrifices some bitches?  That's a music video.  In sneaks Pac and Dre to save the day, and we're left bouncin.

Now I also watched Biggie's Juicy, and I hadn't seen the video in a while.  I like the director way better, but as far as club banging, emotion pumping, theme to a city, California's got em BEAT.  Juciy has sick lyrics, I'll never protest that, we can all rhyme them in our sleep.  But Pac was fresh out of jail and that energy has kept the song as an anthem of pride for over a decade.

My flight from Philly was cool, I met a few LA dwelling folk and they were more than cordial.  My connecting flight in Phoenix was way more memorable.

We nearly missed my connecting flight to LAX so I had to run through the amazingly hot Phoenix airport.  I hate that place.  It's the worst airport I've visited (worse than Raliegh/Durham).  I make it to the gate because I am Usain Bolt, and there is the most beautiful Blonde to walk the earth, Maria Sharapova.  I let her in front of me immediately and had to think hard about who I was standing behind.  Her butt was so nice.  I sat down and she was behind me a row, and stared directly into my eyes.  Her mouth formed a smile and I think I let out an audible dumbfounded reaction.  The Canadian girl to my right (also really cute) confirmed it, it was Maria.

The flight was short and I chatted up the Canadian for a good hour (keeping her from her work, sorry Jessica) When I landed I took this photo to prove to you brutes I'm not lying.

It's her from the back, her butt isn't huge it's the angle.  So her posse met her there and I let my chance encounter with the world's richest, hottest, and my age woman athlete slip me by.  No matter, I got LA to conquer.

Til Next Time

-Jesse West

“Keep the Faith” autobiography, by Faith Evans and writer Aliya S. King, is very explosive.
Faith claims Tupac try to get at her but she turned him down, everybody saw the picture though.
She also describes what happened when Treach first introduced her to Tupac, and they agreed to collaborate on a song and being ambushed by Tupac at the premiere of "Waiting to Exhale".

Via Miss Info.

Excerpts From Faith Evans’ Autobiography after the jump.

Click pictures to make them bigger!!!

VS

On Saturday the 2nd, I got my tattoo, and packed my shit up and left for SD from Monterey. The ride wasn't nearly as excruciating as I assumed it would be, only took me about 5.5 hours after a break to check my tire and another to fill up the tank. I left at 1130pm, so there wasn't any traffic and I only saw one cop, so that would explain my 85mph average speed. The next week or so was spent doing absolutely nothing, and not having a job is as awesome or possibly more awesome than you would think. I didn't actually go to the beach until a couple days ago because I was waiting for my tattoo to finish healing. I love the beach. The ladies are much more fine down here than Monterey (IMO); a lot less clothing than up north. At 7-11, this chick had her ass hanging out of the bottom of her hotpants, and Matt said that she didn't have a very good face, but I didn't care. She was buying cigarettes, which is nasty, but I would've probably ignored that if she was able and willing (yeah, I just said that).

Yesterday, I sold my car and it feels relieving. I didn't want to buy gas or pay insurance on it anymore, and my motorcycle insurance is only 36$ a month. I'm stoked to get my motorcycle, but its going to be probably another week until it's here, so Matt and I will be riding lots of bikes. Today, we made a video about how much we like bikes. Watch the entire video, or you are gay. You're choice. It's got a plot twist/surprise in the middle, and it handles a very different kind of moral landscape than seen in most film school videos nowadays. Just kidding. It's awesome. Fucking watch it:

Before we uploaded the video it had awesome quality, but it got raped to fit onto youztubz.

As far as work goes, I'm taking my time to get a job. Since I sold my car and I bought the bike, I've got enough cash to not work for a few months if I didn't want to, but not having a job is getting boring. I wake up at noon and go to sleep at like 4 or 5am, and do nothing productive in the allotted time. I went to a open call for American Apparel because there are 3 within 10 miles of my house, but I think that I'm too fat to work there, so I've applied for like 5 different jobs as a stock boy, which would be tits. I have also been eating meat again, but I'm not really attached to it anymore. Although it does taste good.

I'm really stoked about signing up for Netflix, and I'm bouts to stream a movie or two tonight. I've only worn pants once for about 3 hours the entire time I've been in SD, and I love it. My room is pretty cool because it's really simple; I wouldn't be afraid to invite ladiez over. I've been eating a million grilled cheese sandwiches and I have had some form of pasta every single day. Matt and I painted his motorcycle flat black, and it looks wayyy better, as you can see in the video. I love the freeways in SD because I can get everywhere I've wanted to go in under 10 minutes. I bought some shoes for job interviews, and I feel like a business professional when I get all dressed up and take out my piercings. I could definitely pass for a yupie if I had 5 minutes to get ready beforehand.

School starts in a week from Monday, and I'm ready to get raging. I checked out the school last week when I was getting my prerequisites cleared, and it's fuckin' epic. Still a failcollege, but super nice looking at least.

This post/my life can be summed up in probably two words:

Optimism

Tits

I'll post some pictures of the bruh pad next post.

Biggie

six years ago, you
died..and i had dreams of you
in your blue pjs

it was like you were
telling me to look after
her–you were concerned

those last five years had
left her blind and gone, in ways
and you were still there.

———————————–

seriously, though
why do all the good ones go
way before their time?

pimp c, tupac, kurt
janis, jimi, biggie, jim
aaliyah, left-eye

and there’re even
more, it’s ridiculous and
even more, it’s sad.

———————————–

Anyway, I kind of went off on a haiku roll, but whatever.  Haikus are awesome & fun.  Plus, once you start doing it, you kind of want to do for hours afterwords.  Good times.

But yeah.  As of today, my grandpa’s been gone for six years.  it’s really hard to believe.  i feel like, in a lot of ways, i was robbed of time with him and i’m really sad about that.  on the other hand, though, i’m luckier than the other grandkids (i guess) in a lot of ways because, being the eldest grandchild, i had a lot more memories of him.  i still think, though, that my family could & should have made more of an effort to visit him & my grandma more…especially after she went blind.  i’m not going to lie to you, my grandma can be ridiculously annoying & sometimes it was a mystery as to how my grandpa was able to maintain his cool & be so patient with her.  i would have (and shamefully did a time or two; i’m only human.  plus, to be fair, i was 19 & naive.  so, whatever.) snapped on her.  he really was one of those one of a kind people and i feel like we all should have appreciated him a little more when he was here.

august in general is an angsty month, looking back on things.  there’s the whole grandpa deal, as discussed above.  then, there’s the whole car accident/totalling ordeal of august 2005.  and then, there’s hurricane katrina “fun” (if you wanna call being in a house two blocks from the gulf of mexico in the middle of that “fun”) of the same year.  finally, my fiance’s amazingly awesome grandpa passed away a year ago, now (seriously, he had a purple heart for his services in world war two and spent every day working in his garden up until he got sick with cancer at the age of 84…i’m pretty sure it’s 84.).  seriously, angst city.

to add to the angst is this whole business of the economy sucking a big one right now.  we need jobs desperately and it’s kind of a slow process at the moment.  i’m trying to get myself psyched and pumped and ready to make things happen.  i plan on listening to a lot of ugk and killer mike to help accomplish this.  their music is twenty kinds of motivational.  i plan on ddr-ing at least once a day from now on for at least 30 minutes (it’d be cool if james would maybe join me..hint, hint).  and writing something every day, even if it’s only a blog entry.  and a lot of other random junk.  maybe i’m just rambling about it here to make sure i actually stick to it.  but honestly, it’s like i have to.  if i don’t, nothing’s going to happen.  well, nothing positive anyway.  staying positive is one of the toughest things, especially if you’re from what i like to call “the angst generation”, like i suspect i might be.  i’ll be 25 in september, if that helps put that generation into perspective for you.

before i leave, let me go off on one more tangent.  seriously, what is up with all of the death?  i mean, bernie mac & now isaac hayes, too?  dayum!  that’s wack.  what makes it especially trippy is the whole fact that they had finished up a movie together not too long ago.  and then they died a day apart! seriously, what’s up?  all i know is that samuel l. jackson was in that bitch, too.  and if he dies, i’m gonna be sadder than a motherfucker.

*originally posted 08/10/08, for what it's worth ]]> http://chilanta.wordpress.com/?p=218 Sun, 10 Aug 2008 07:49:34 +0000 kappadonna21 http://chilanta.wordpress.com/?p=218

I didn't feel like uploading any of the tracks I heard today....not for nothin' but most of them were wack.  So I decided to put up this fire mixtape.  You may have heard of it...its called Ready to Die.

That's right! The Notorious BIG first studio album has been remixed (not by Puff) and a few bonuses have been added.

I know a lot of people will say Pac was better than Biggie....but I connected with Big's music more than any other rapper.

So like it of love it, here it is.

Download Ready To Die (OG MIX)

Russell Simmons is putting on a jewellery auction in the name of Russell Simmons Rush Community Affairs.  All the money is going into charities which should persuade some to look into it.  It will be interesting to see how much money these items go for.   

October 1st is the day set for Hip Hop's first jewellery auction thanks to Russell Simmons Rush Community Affairs. A percentage of the earnings will go to his foundation which helps non-profit organisations such as The Hip Hop Summit Action Network.

The jewellery will be available for the public to view from September 22nd to September 30th.

Iconic signature jewellery worn by some of Hip Hop's greatest stars such as The Notorious B.I.G, Tupac Shakur, LL Cool J, Lil' Jon, Missy Elliot, P. Diddy, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne and Jay-Z to name a few, are all expected to be included in the auction.

Source

[14:16] RM: I seriously want to wild out right now.
[14:17] RM: It's taking every ounce of my energy to stay quiet
[14:17] Randy: yup yup yup
[14:17] Randy: my internet player is playing "breakfast at tiffanys" right now [from the band Deep Blue Something]
[14:17] Randy: old school baby
[14:17] Randy: i'm about to sing
[14:17] RM: i got biggie
[14:17] Randy: hmm, aight urs is more dope

I was real reluctant to download this, and it's been on my radar for a while, at least a couple of weeks.  Biggie vs. The Rolling Stones??  The idea was so far out there that I wouldn't have even predicted it as a bad idea.  It's just one of those things.  I love pizza, and I love PB&J, but I would never mix em up, you know?  Scary stuff.  It's the same case.  Both the Stones and B.I.G. are incredible artists in their own field, but would it be good together?  Not to mention there's the issue of the mixtape producers.  I could download it and it would just be a lot of laser sounds with little girls sayin' "DJ CHRIS" every ten fucking seconds.  Well, I finally downloaded it last night...and I'm glad I did.  This shit is ill.

Before you listen to it, the idea seems a novelty, hardly something to take seriously, but when it's playing, you can really see/hear the idea.  Some of the mixups are totally amazing, too.  My favorite track right now, for example, is "Niggas Paint it Black" (Biggie's "Niggas Bleed" vs. "Stones' Paint it Black").  Just wait till you hear the "Juicy" vs. "She's a Rainbow" mixup, it'll put a smile on your face.  Granted, theres some of that mixtape stuff, sem-irritating intros and voiceovers, but its all in moderation, and I'm glad the producers stepped aside to showcase the samples.  Whether or not you admit to being a hipster, you're gonna have a hard time not rockin' (and rollin') to this at your next party (or after-party).

Download Mixtape Here courtesy of The Vibe Source

--Frosty Fresh

[caption id="attachment_205" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Omer Saar: The Green Album"][/caption]
01. Have A Good Time (Intro)
02. Das EFX - Real Hip-Hop
03. Jay-Z - Can’t Knock The Hustle
04. Feels Like Summer (Interlude)
05. Fugees - Fu-Gee-La
06. Mean Green feat. T.Money Green (bass)
07. Royce Da 5′9″ - Boom
08. Method Man & MF Doom - A New World
09. Ghostface Killah - Mighty Healthy
10. Summertime (Interlude)
11. Common - Communism
12. The Pharcyde, Notorious B.I.G. & De La Soul - Stakes Is High feat. T.Money Green (bass)
13. The Pharcyde - Passin’ Me By
14. Busta Rhymes - Woo-Hah!
15. Big L - MVP (Interlude)
16. AZ, Supreme NTM, Nas & Pharoahe Monch - Behind Closed Doors
17. Mos Def - Travelin’ Man feat. T.Money Green

DOWNLOAD HERE
From HERE.

Kick off this week with a blast from the past.

Here's a treat that came to us via. Peter Rosenburg's Facebook post over the weekend, Biggie's classic Ready to Die, mixed by DJ Semi, with added material including the original 'Friend of Mine' demo recording, Pete Rock's notorious Juicy remix, unreleased tracks (but why the Pepsi joint?!?!) and original album cuts.

Not entirely groundbreaking but a great excuse to bring back a classic for the next few days.
Grab it here and let us know how Rock the Bells was wicha hip hop self.