Sunday 18 April 2021

If we sacrifice Purple Aki to a volcano can we get Black Rob back?

Black Rob - Up North (This is What it Is)
(From Game Tested, Streets Approved album; 2011)



This month is starting to feel like a new Final Destination movie where the Grim Reaper is on the hunt for everyone who appeared on 24 Hours To Live. F*ck White Cop, R.I.P Black Rob. Readers from the dayz of wayback will remember that I was a big B.R fan and why wouldn't I be? Rob was one of Harlem's vividest authors with an eye for detail and an ear for good old fashioned songwriting. Alongside Biggie, he was the only Bad Boy Records rapper to parlay Puffy's factory farm system into a couple of good albums; Rob also had an enviable stash of officially unreleased music dating back to 1991 when he recorded his first demo with Dan The Automator - still one of the unlikeliest rapper/producer pairings ever or wot? In and out of prison up until he hit the age of 40, a tiny crumb of solace can be taken from B.R spending his last decade on Earth as a free man who could transform a 2011 graduation party into The Tunnel circa 2000.


PS: the upload of my Black Rob deep cuts compilation is still live. I'd throw it up on Audiomack as a playlist but songs from the Bad Boy catalogue tend to get nuked by the DMCA within hours.

10 comments:

L.A said...

That graduation looks like a good time. R.I.P.

Ben said...

The thing about this that really sucks is with DMX passing just a week before this will get completely overlooked which sucks cause Black Rob actually has a much stronger catalog of music than X ever did. DMX got off to a strong start but never was able to maintain the level of consistency he had from his early run but Rob dropped Three solid albums and has probably an albums worth of deep cuts.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Permanent Scars has gotta be one of the G.O.A.T officially unreleased songs. The fact that we later got an equally amazing Beanie Sigel song over the same beat is a blessing.

Yohan said...

This one hurt a bit. His verses on Bad Boy records were often the ones I was looking out for. Whoa is pretty much the perfect rap record and one of my personal favourites. I think you can genuinely fill 2 CD's worth of his greatest songs, unreleased material and show stealing guest verses and both would be 4.5/5 or 5/5 CD's.

Probably not one of NY's top tier rappers, but to me personally, probably one tier below. Truly one of NY's most unheralded rappers. R.I.P.

xanax fantasia said...

really impressed at your dedication all the times you reuploaded that black rob compilation -- you're doing the lord's work

is there a definitive black rob album to check out for the uninitiated?

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

That's definitely my most re-upped compilation.

His 2 Bad Boy albums + the Return Of Black Rob mixtape with Kay Slay are the essentials. Some jams on his album on Duck Down from 2011 too.

xanax fantasia said...

hey thanks i will check those out -- return of the black rob mixtape was sadly a little harder to find but i found some mp3s in the darker corners of the net. not looking forward to when the less popular mixtapes have completely disappeared

AJ said...

@sisilafami posted the return of black rob up on twitter

https://www56.zippyshare.com/v/muVEyImg/file.html

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Boom!

Smell Rell said...

R.I.P.