Friday 15 March 2013

Goomba goomba

After that new Rae & AZ cut dropped yesterday, your boy Fredo was reminded of a late 90s mixtape minor-classic with that same damn sample by the Rap Game Jackie Aprille Jr. AKA Genovese :


Genovese, The Lox, Mo' Money & Richie Thumbs - Thumbs Up
(From some DJ Clue mixtape; 1997)


You know how Danny Bonaduce was the token whigga in every early 90s west coast video? Well, Genovese was his late 90s N.Y equivalent. A staple of DJ Clue mixtapes throughout 1997/1998 who made his debut on the Show Me The Money 'tape with Genovese Thesis featuring Styles P and was known to drop N-bombs like RiFF RaFF in those 2007 - 2009 videos on MySpace which have now been wiped from the internet, his story is way too convoluted to get into in full so here's the footnotes : the grandson of Vito Genovese, hung ten with The Lox since he went to high school in Yonkers with them, Biggie wanted to sign him, rumoured to be the reason that the Feds were following Biggie the night he was killed because they thought Biggie's mate D. Roc had ties to the Genovese crime family, dropped from Universal Records 3 weeks before the release of his debut album due to Jay-Z and Dame Dash having him blackballed after he tossed a few jabs in Jay's direction (the Roc-A-Fella posse track 4 Da Fam was essentially a sly Nelson Muntz "HA HA!" to Genovese since it used the same sample as the title track of his shelved album.)

While the mythology surrounding Genovese is way more interesting than the music he made, I'd sell my right big toenail for a CDQ version of Thumbs Up, and he did sound pretty great as the O.G Jae-Hood rhyming alongside The Lox on those old DJ Clue 'tapes. Speaking of which, if you thought Everything I Got was the first Lox song to interpolate the Cheers theme song, then get yo' timeline correct because this other mixtape minor-classic from Clue's aforementioned Show Me The Money 'tape pre-dated it by a decade :

The Lox ft. Kasino - Well Well Well
(From DJ Clue Show Me The Money mixtape; 1997)


Genovese strikes me as being the type of Rapper who vanity-Googles himself religiously, so plz don't have me shot up and then chopped up for the Jackie Aprille Jr. comparison, eh mate?

5 comments:

done said...

"rumoured to be the reason that the Feds were following Biggie the night he was killed because they thought Biggie's mate D. Roc had ties to the Genovese crime family"
-never heard this, damn.

Always thought Genovese sounded like Styles wrote his shit but listening to him now Im not so sure. My first time hearing Well Well Well and I luh that.

Still disturbed when I remember the first time I heard Jojo Pellegrino aka Rap Game Steve Martin In My Blue Heaven aka Big Baby Brendan Filone.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Wouldn't surprise me if Jada and/or Styles wrote all his lyrics on those old Clue mixtapes joints given that he uses both their flows and his rapping on them is so much better than any of his other stuff.

Hugo Alexandre said...

Whaaa...hearing early Jada and Styles P is dope.

bradley said...

i think that lox song is even better than the raekwon/az one

Fosterakahunter said...

Can this cat be considered a "wigger"?