Monday, 4 September 2017

Dru Barbered


Dru Down - Weak Move
(From Fools From The Street album; 1993)


Tales from the 'hood: Dru Down's criminal exploits in Funktown edition. God bless Ant Banks for findin', freakin' and fanutin' that Blackbyrds sample so cleanly.

Not a lotta people know this, but Dru Down's Explicit Game album from 1994 was a rejigged reissue of his 1993 independent album Fools From The Street. Someone should hire Doctor Who to travel back in time and fire whichever A&R at Relativity Records thought it was a good idea to remove Dru Rules, Bigger Than What You Think and Weak Move from the tracklist of the reissue version. You just don't consign vintage Dru Down slaps with Ant Banks to the dustbin of obscurity like that.

Here at The Martorialist we want to live in a world where Dru Down deep cuts are considered equally as important as the deep cuts by east coast rappers like AZ or Grand Puba.
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9 comments:

  1. step one4 September 2017 at 21:30

    this is good. Need to revisit your Lev Berlak comp tomorrow I think.

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  2. Kelvin Mack10zie4 September 2017 at 21:45

    Slaptember.

    My job here is done if I've got you listening to Dru Down.

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  3. d4 September 2017 at 22:30

    Damn I never knew this I always thought the 93 one was mislabelled, nice one man gonna check for it.

    Dru should be talked bout way more he has a style at least as unique as a Spice 1 or 4 Tay. Up til like last yr Id mostly listened to the first 2 albums n cant get over how consistent he is. Them Lee Majors albums have slaps, he was v suited to the hyphy era.

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  4. Kelvin Mack10zie5 September 2017 at 16:22

    I reckon Dru must have been an influence on Suga Free, even though he technically released music before Dru.

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  5. d5 September 2017 at 18:06

    Yeh I can def see it. Its cool his ep exists cos hyou can see the change in the interim between that n Street Gospel where he coulda heard Dru, E-40 n whoever else + in his GGN spot he claimed his influences are all west coast. I love hearing these lads talk their influences you get to see the family tree outside the usual canon, like 40 always shouts out Spoonie Gee, UTFO, Rodney O, Magic Mike Calvin T etc


    btw you seen that screencap from the Dre/Jimmy doc where Suga Frees @ the G Thang shoot w a beezy on each arm?

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  6. d5 September 2017 at 18:07

    his zoot suits something special

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  7. Kelvin Mack10zie6 September 2017 at 09:07

    I didn't. Damn.

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  8. turd butt7 September 2017 at 00:45

    I've been meaning to do a speedcore gabber remix of weak moves since like 2002

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  9. Andrew Barber11 September 2017 at 16:20

    drew barber approved

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