Ice Cube - It Was A Good Day remix
Rumour has it that the It Was A Good Day remix from the Check Yo Self remix EP is actually the original version of the song, but Ice Cube shat himself when Dre played him a pre-release version of The Chronic after they'd squashed their beef over the common-ground of their mutual hatred for Jerry Heller sometime around late summer 1992 and realised that his also-upcoming The Predator album didn't have any monster singles to compete with Dre Day, Nuthin' But A G Thang, and Let Me Ride, so he it hastily remixed by DJ Pooh to able able to keep neck-and-neck with Dre as the thenking of Gangsta-Rap. Like I say, this is all mere speculation which has never been officially verified by Cube or Pooh, but the vocals do sound at home on the beat and it seems awfully plausible when you consider that he also had Check Yo Self remixed into something far more accessible.
Ice Cube - It Was A Good Day
Obviously this was for the best as It Was A Good Day is a perfect Rap song and the biggest single of his career, but I can't help thinking it's a bit of a shame that the (alledged) original version ended up as just another superfluous 12" remix/future remastered cd bonus track when it's a luuurvely beat with those melancholy strings which pulls on your heart tubes as any vaguelly introspective Day-In-The-Life-Of.. Rap song should do, and lord knows Cube could've done with a few more beats like this on an album as patchily produced as Lethal Injection.
Bonus action :
Classic 4 part Eazy-E interview on Howard Stern during the promo-tour for It's On dissing Dre and proposing that he could beat the shit out of him and Snoop at the same time on Howard's New Years PPV, explaining the lyrics to Real Compton City G's to Howard, Robyn, and Jackie, talking about his multiple baby-mommas and when he deems it acceptable to hit a woman, and squirming when Howard invites his white record company stooges into the studio.
me and a mate used to argue over the 'Good Day' remix for ages. I still cant stand it. Never heard that story about it supposedly being the original though.
ReplyDeleteOh man...
ReplyDeleteRemember back in the days when you would be taping shit off the radio, and you steady had your finger on the pause button as to not record shit you didn't want?
When your 90min Maxell was full, you would go back and listen to the tapes, and there would be these tracks that the DJs would be mixing in, but it would cut off because that is where you hit pause.
THIS IS ONE OF THE TRACKS I CUT OFF!
Had no idea it was a remix to the Cube song. 17 years later...
I gotta go dig up my radio tapes.
The condition known as Itchypausebuttonfingeritis.
ReplyDeleteHip Hop Confession time.
ReplyDeleteOther than the singles, I've never heard Predator. Something about Wicked didn't sit right with me.
Am I missing much?
It's not as good as his first two albums or Kill At Will but it's definately worth investigating.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, I hadn't heard it.
ReplyDeleteThe flow sounds a little different to me, the version on predator is a seperate recording I reckon. I was interested to hear this and feel you could be right about this being recorded first but I prefer the 'original'.
Also @Boothe Predator is fanstastic, 'wicked' is one of the weakest tracks (it's prod. by Muggs), the production across the rest of albulm is massive.
It's definately a seperate recording to the one on The Predator because it's clean.
ReplyDeleteI seem to be in the minority in acually liking Wicked here.
Duh!
ReplyDeleteThanks for being polite to the first time commentor (i think) who obviously didn't listen all the way thru.
I like 'wickid' but don't think it's a standout, it sounds a little out out of place amongst the heavy p-funk type thing of the rest of the album, I woulda loved to have heard Cypress Hill on that track instead.
Great blog btw
I've heard some fantastic stuff i missed, particularly in the 99-09 post.
Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, i Dunno if I'd consider The Predator a "heavy p-funk sounding thing" as it's mostly all raw soul/funk samples (remember it was all recorded before Dre finished The Chronic), and although Wicked is obviously a rowdy record designed to appeal to white kids, it's still one of the most west-coast sounding tracks on there just because it uses the Funky Worm sample.
I was gonna say that I agreed with you that it's out of place, but then I remembered that the album also has a couple of other really hard, uptempo songs in When Will They Shoot and We Had To Tear This Mutha Up