So, this new Curren$y & DJ Hektikt Community Service 3.5 mixtape then; a thoroughly New Orleans release which commences and concludes with songs by C-Murder, which has a new Mannie Fresh joint at its centre, and which then features a grip of random Curren$y tracks including everything from old No Limit-era recordings right up to the original Monsta Beatz demo version of Famous before its Sade sample was replayed by Ski's studio band, albeit now titled Now I Am. Here's its two previously unheard (by me, anyway) highlights :
Curren$y - HotSpitta (200?)
Geez, and here was me thinking that Get Back by the 504 Boyz was the cheapest 'n' nastiest Neptunes reduplication Curren$y was involved in for No Limit Records. I've been tryna find one $pitta solo cut from his tenure with Percy Miller ever since I succumbed to his particular charms and, for once, the sound I had in my head of this mythical early material where dude was thuggin' out with his ornate flow over regionally ambiguous minimal synth beats which anyone from Mystikal to Fabolous to T.I to Philly's Most Wanted would've sounded comfortable rhyming over in 2001/2002 has been fully realized.
Mannie Fresh ft. The Show - We Gone Talk (2011)
Umm, so why didn't Curren$y get this beat since this is, y'know, his mixtape and a $pitta & Mannie Fresh track is long overdue since they were the briefest of label mates back in 2005? Bar the odd great single like And Then What and Front Back (which I've always contended was a much better single than What You Know) Mannie's production skills seemed to deteriorate after he was cast loose from Ca$h Money's safety net with his oodles of so-so album cuts throughout 2006, 2007, and 2008. Gingerbread Man, thankfully, was a return to form and We Gone Talk here is a banger if you fancy a contemporary variation on his vintage sound at its most Mantronix-esque. This The Show kid is alright here, but there's something a wee too Jay-Z-ish about his flow at times for my liking and I'd have prefered this as a Mannie solo cut instead since his much underrated Mind Of Mannie Fresh platter in 2004 saw him finally manage to synthesize the surreal flossin' of his Big Tymers persona with the humourous everyman relatability of DJ Quik and Diamond D into a persona which could carry an solo album.
BONUS POSSIBLY CURREN$Y APPROVED LINKS :
Oh shit, it's Skateboarder Magazine's Video Days 20 years reunion shoot with Gonz, the gawd Guy Mariano, Jason Lee, Rudy Johnson, and Jordan Richter : part 1, part 2, and part 3.
Six degrees of seperation between Video Days and Curren$y, anyone? Easy : Guy Mariano was part of Blind's Video Days team in 1991, Watermelon Man by Herbie Hancock was used as the backing track for Guy Mariano's section on Girl's Mouse video in 1995 and as the main sample in Pocket Full Of Furl by U.N.L.V & B.G on the Uptown 4 Life album released on Ca$h Money Records in 1997, Curren$y then signed to Ca$h Money in 2005 after an unsuccessful stint at No Limit.
i gave up on it ages ago, but there was this one skate video that had this lox freestyle over ice water by rae that i searched for for yonks to no avail, it was the least redundant beat jack id heard to that point and since. ring any bells?
ReplyDeletegonzo was that dude.
hear you on mannie he was like a different producer after cmr, but he seems to have gotten back to previous form, he had a bunch of bangers in that recent mystikal freestyle. those kinda vids can be misleading tho. i agree with you on front back but those people who say its better than the og are batshit, top 5 beat of all time to my ears. i kinda feel like Just wasted some of his best beats on tip at his laziest, then gave him his most god-awful ones when he returned to form. i like lazy tip tho in fairness, in some ways hes more charismatic and entertaining.
an entirely mannie produced mystikal album probably wont happen, but man just imagine how great thatd be. but yeh iv still yet to listen to that recent mannie album, im too afraid itll be shite.
It doesn't ring a bell and The Lox have literally hundreds of freestyles at this point. Can you remember what vid it was from?
ReplyDeleteMannie & Mystikal at this point would sure as fuck be better than Mannie & Juve 2011 project. Jesus, I finally checked out Juve's last album recently and he sounds like Mr Bighead the toad from Rocko's Modern Life nowadays.
Pretending that last Mannie album didn't happen is the best option.
nah its been years since iv seen it, my days of regularly watchin sate videos are long past. it was a long shot but just figured you mighta heard it.
ReplyDeleteyeah mystikals still got it.juvie's voice is one of the greatest but it always teetered on the edge of being annoying to me as time went on, it was inevitable itd be his downfall at some stage. and yeah hes pretty awful these days, im sick of getting my hopes up everytime i see a new video of his only to hear some watered down gack. change in rappers voices/deliveries is most often where they start to fall off in my opinion, krs being a prime example.
then again i felt the same way bout ag for a while but i came to my senses. i thought his recent album was great but it was very slept-on for some reason.
The hectoring about da 4 elementz didn't exactly help Krs either.
ReplyDeleteStill gotta check that A.G album out.
yeh go for the ag, its a contender for album of the year for me along with bastard, marcberg, revenue rerievin etc actually theres a bunch of em, 2010 was a really great year for rap
ReplyDeleteits kinda surprising how long kris lasted considering what a ridiculous nutbag he was.
in fact mannie had some pretty good productions in the last few years :
ReplyDeletewebbie & young dro - i know
ugk - the pimp & the bun
slim thug - show me love
rick ross - all i have in this world
plies - pants hang low
Totally agree on I Know, but not a huge fan of the others.
ReplyDeleteis there anyway i can get that original version of Curren$y's "Famous"? Cant find it anywhere online
ReplyDeleteAwww shit, it's totally vanished 😦
ReplyDelete