Shout out to Buck Tarbrush, we in the building like Sing Sing! Even bigger shout out to Martorialist commenter Fred since he suggested I do a list of Rap songs about doing time. Not sure whether this top 25 of my favourite prison Rap songs is what Fred had in mind, but much like Norman Stanley Fletcher, I'm not a stickler for other people's rules. As ever, free Max B until it's backwards.
Kool G. Rap & DJ Polo - Riker's Island (1986)
Public Enemy - Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos (1988)
Ice-T - The Tower (1991)
Convicts ft. Lil J - Penitentiary Blues (1991)
Da Lench Mob - Lost In Tha System (1992)
Intelligent Hoodlum - Death Row (1993)
Slick Rick ft. Warren G - Behind Bars (Dum Ditty Dum remix) (1994)
2Pac - Out On Bail (original) (1994)
Snoop Dogg - Murder Was The Case (remix) (1994)
Nate Dogg - One More Day (1994)
5th Ward Boyz - Concrete Hell (1995)
Rappin 4-Tay - 25-2-Life (1996)
Noreaga ft. Kool G. Rap & Musolini - 40 Island (1998)
Mac Dre - I've Been Down (1999)
Beanie Sigel - What Ya Life Like (2000)
MF Grimm - Voices Pt. 0 (2002)
Capone-N-Noreaga - Phone Time (2002)
Akon ft. Styles P - Locked Up (2004)
Project Pat - I Ain't Going Back To Jail (2006)
Max B - Never Wanna Go Back (2009)
Lil' Boosie - Free At Last (2010)
Black Rob - Up North - This Is What It Is (2011)
Mysonne - In Jail (2011)
Casanova - Jail Call (2019)
32 comments:
The 5th Ward Boyz song is unexpected as I always considered it prime Bork territory. Also would’ve expected DB’s “Rockin’ in my blues” to make the list.
Some news songs there though, so as always, good looking out.
No X-Raided?
Nothing off the Oz soundtrack?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niQTWfZOwwY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JABggSiKuuI
Yet another great Mac Dre song I had no idea existed
Yohan, Mysonne's In Jail is the better Jail House Rap beatjack.
Anonymous, considered X-Raided's Deuce-5 To Life but it ain't as good as any of these.
Jmil, So far this year I've yet to find an old Mac Dre song I've slept on ☹
Props on droppin' Pump Up The Volume and Porridge: The Movie in the same post.
The G.O.A.T Porridge malapropism alongside Warren and McClaren's Jason & The Astronauts/Jason & The Juggernauts exchange.
Fair, figured it was because those songs shared the same source beatjack. Also agree Mysonne's song's the superior version.
Also Mysonne's one and only legit jam.
what no professor Griff jail sale? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQQX7GBjcB4&ab_channel=UPROXXVideo
It ain't fair that Griff got to release 3 albums between 1990 to 1992 yet Flav's Bomb Squad produced solo album from 1990 got shelved (permanently?)
where is Prison Got Me Worse?
Not sure what I had in mind myself haha, but that's a pretty solid list. There's a couple songs I didn't know in there actually, and then some I totally overlooked like the Tragedy Khadafi or Lench Mob ones, even though both albums have gotten heavy rotation at the house.
If I had to do a runner's up, then I'd chose this song, that guy was pretty huge in France at the time (late 90's), and this is one of his better songs:
https://youtu.be/g7YfK-FTORI
Ray, I don't recall a song on that album which is #actually about jail.
Fred, one of my honourable mentions would be Out On A Furlough by WC & The Maad Circle.
On a more recent tip, there's Kevin Gates' Prison, but I find his patois on the hook intolerable lol.
Nice list. One of many mixtape ideas ive had that i'll never get around to doing.
I know its only 1 verse but Ghostface on Verbal Intercourse deserves a mention.
Also: Mobb Deep - Up North Trip, and - if you're going for a deep cut- Locked In Spofford.
FFS Up Morth Trip is glaring omission.
As far great songs with one verse about prison go, Doomsday is one of the G.O.A.Ts. AZ's Fan Mail too.
Maybe I’m pushing it cause of the Ja Rule feature but Bing Monsters by Tragedy Khadafi is another good one. I’d guess it was recorded in the VVV era cause Ja didn’t sing and sounds more like DMX lite.
Quality list, I think Out on a Furlough should have made the cut. Best song on a 10/10 album.
Tbh I only cut it because I already had a buncha early 90s songs in there. Plus I wanted to include Locked Up since it's the G.O.A.T prison R&B song with a Rap cameo.
Cracking list!
Probably not a popular opinion, but Binary Star - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has always stuck with me as one of the top prison tracks. They are one of, if not the only, UGHH backpack rap groups that still stands up for me...
These don't really fit the bill, as they're more about drive-by's and going to trial, but Penitentiary and Ain't No Sunshine by Kid Frost gives me a chance to just talk about how much I friggin' love Kid Frost. We can honorable mention Sunshine since it was on the American Me soundtrack too.
Going wild in the penile - Tim Dog 😂
Couple more honourable mentions:
Akinyele - 30 Days
Lifers Group - Real Deal
Raekwon - Penitentiary
Mr Hyde - Death Sentence
Ice-T - The Tower
The Tower is on there.
Yo-Yo "Letter to the pen"
Not heard that before. Good shit.
JT Money - Kite 2 Da Boys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRFfjLdswXA
I assume excluding nas' "one love" is an intentional choice
I always liked Trouble's "Patnaz Got Stretches"
Pac also had '16 on death row' which I remember liking
Beanie sigel - what ya life like
What Ya Life Like is on there! Part 2 is a definite honourable mention tho.
Yeah, One Love is disqualified because it's not from a prisoner's perspective.
RIP Young Dolph
I only knew a handful of his singles, but, yeah, very sad news. R.I.P.
Revisited OB4CL2 this week, "Have Mercy" featuring Beanie is another pretty decent prison rap song though imo not fucking with anything mentioned before.
Also R.I.P. Dolph, always tragic to see young men lose their lives over nothing. As a rapper I struggle to think of any solo song of his that's actually good. I guess "Talking To My Scale" this year was pretty decent.
This topic got me digging out my old copies of those "No more prisons" and "Unbound Project vol. 1" albums. "They'll be packed with slammer jams" I thought. I was wrong.
Post a Comment