Sunday 12 April 2015

Jiggs & Cheeks >>> Mr Cheeks

Much like Ball Wit' Us by Legit Ballaz, Hustle Til I Die by Jiggs & Cheeks manages to balance late '90s Midwest gangsta-rap and Bad Boy-style jigginess in equal measure on some Do Or DidDie type shit. In a perfect world, Jiggs & Cheeks would have had their regional 1999 debut CD re-released nationally by So So Def Records in 2000 with a couple of new tracks including a pre-fame KanYe production featuring guest verses from Loon & Cardan, and a Neptunes single with a fish-eye lens video of them strutting their stuff on a helicopter pad whilst clad in sleeveless orange leather boiler suits.

Jiggs & Cheeks - Hustle Til I Die
(From "The Don" North Pole album; 1999)


Maybe if Jermaine Dupri had done what he was 'pposed to do then the Jiggs & Cheeks album could have done those Harlem World The Movement numbers and that shit wouldn't be virtually unknown and so impossible to find nowadays unless you're a 30-something rap fan from northside Chicago, the Bork random gangsta-rap CD collector whose blog I first heard Hustle Til I Die and North Pole Anthem on back in 2009, or David Drake's dad. Ayo Drake - get your pa' to dig out your copy, rip it and then upload it to Zippyshare. You'll be Lester Got Bangz status in Latvia 4 life.

*EDIT* ANU found the album and uploaded it. DOWNLOAD THAT SHIT HERE!

19 comments:

  1. That pen and pixel cover alone makes me wanna hear this whole album and this song is awesome.

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  2. This is freeesh.

    That Cardan vid is so perfectly late-'90s: the shiny uni-colored suit, that lit-up fan thing, those gray-blue panels lookin like Richard Serra on a jiggy pipe dream. There was definitely a real Walmart industrial look in the videos of that era.

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  3. Man this is good.

    btw did you know Mos Def remade Jam On It at one point? Id say your heart broke in slo mo like Ralph when you heard that one.

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  4. http://somanyshrimp.com/2006/12/03/my-block/

    what no love for og rap blog posts

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  5. I've managed to avoid ever hearing Yeltsin Beyonce's Jam On It jack thankfully.

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  6. I'm already a legend in Latvia but anyway :

    http://www11.zippyshare.com/v/OrehtzcT/file.html

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  7. Holy shit, where did you find that?

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  8. Ohhh, Death Before Dishonour uses the same Sade sample as AZ's The Payback.

    Drake told me Mummato is almost as jiggy as Hustle Til I Die. About to go in now.

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  9. *damn son ! where'd you find this ?*

    on a good ol' p2p soft with a blue bird

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  10. Thumbs up like Bill Bixby at the end of every episode of The Incredible Hulk TV show.

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  11. This is a p great album front to back. 'never divide' is on the same level as 'gamble with ya life' 'hustle til i die' 'north pole anthem.' 'no surrender' is like BIBLE from liquid swords. 'give it to you' flips alexander o neal...

    in addition to chi gangster rap & jiggy raps there's an element of The Firm-esque mythos to it too IMHO, "Show Me Tha Money" with its strings & raps about helicopters and being represented by prestigious attorneys is very cinematic

    anyway i rep for this album hard

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  12. Jigginess is an overall vibe rather than a specific rap style. I'd definitely place The Firm album's in the jiggy canon.

    However, after hearing the full CD now you're right that it's definitely a lot closer to the jigginess of the Firm (or Pieces Of A Man or even Nore's first CD) than it is to Money, Power, Respect or the Harlem World album.

    A Jiggs & Cheeks track WITH lOON & Cardan over Minute Man-era KanYe would have been the shit though.

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  13. Can I get a re-up??? Zippy link is dead

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  14. DOMINATION!! Cheeks tha Don much love

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