mixtape maestro (2.0)

There’s nothing truer than the line “We’ll Always Love Big Poppa”, but is there a real need for yet another tribute project to celebrate the late, great rap icon? More often than not, hip hop heads are left scratching their…well, heads wondering if Biggie would’ve even wanted to share a track with the many rap figures that have aligned themselves to these things in the past. It doesn’t help that since the man didn’t have this endless well of material, we’re forced to hear the same verses chopped up over and over and plopped (a lot of the times, awkwardly) over hot-for-the-moment beats.

That being said, DJ Drama and production team Cookin’ Soul’s new mixtape, The Notorious BIG Tribute, ends up a satisfying listen, thanks to it’s exciting guest star roster (including Styles P, CL Smooth, Smif N Wessun’s Tek, Grafh, Chaundon) and the clever way original sample sources are re-tweaked, giving a brand new polish to the classic Biggie records we’ve held so dear. Here’s a couple of the collection’s highlights, fronted by two of today’s hottest “fem-cees”, below:

Amanda Diva’s seamless rap-sung swagger adds a refined glaze to her take on Junior MAFIA’s “Get Money”, flipping the Sylvia Striplin-sampling 1995 hit into a educating message to all the ladies out there who’ve had their once-promising lives hit the toilet at the hands of a beau.

“I’ve seen it happen time and time again/ Women with a plan side-tracked by a man/ Personal life gets trifling/ And just like that, them goals fall flat,” Diva shakes her head in annoyance, later peppering in a lil’ Lil’ Kim shout-out with the matter-of-fact assertion that her feminist stance should in no way be equated to any homosexual reveal (“This flow ain’t sayin’ I’m a lesbo”).

DL: “Get Money (Amanda Diva)” (alt)

A few tracks later, the always excellent Jean Grae reminds the (sadly still) few that know why she’s “sicker than yo average” with the way she effortlessly cruises through a “Hypnotize” re-vamp, twisting familiar Biggie lines to support her own sharpened braggadocio as the Cookin’ Soul crew finally allow the less-championed, silkier portions of Herb Alpert’s “Rise” a shot in the spotlight.

DL: “Hypnotize (Jean Grae)” (alt)

Cop the rest of the mixtape here

Uncategorized '90's, amanda diva, cookin' soul, dj drama, female rap, jean grae, mixtape, notorious big

Still highly-missed rap icon Notorious BIG is paid tribute to yet again on “Letter To B.I.G.”, a recently unearthed cut from Jadakiss (featuring the golden-hued vocals of one-time Mrs. Biggie Smalls, Faith Evans) that sees the LOX member updating his late labelmate to the going-ons since his passing over a decade ago.

An intriguing tune steeped in such intimacy that you feel slightly rude for listening in, Jada’s signature de-animated flow stirs up all kinds of blue feelings inside as he peppers the “letter” with details of the sadly fragmented current status of Junior M.A.F.I.A (“I ain’t heard from Cease in a minute…”) and moving reveals of how BIG’s offspring have turned out (“Teyana so pretty/ CJ turned into Lil’ Biggie/ Just a little lighter, but so witty”), all upon a sleepy R&B backdrop

Probably the most striking portion of his extended verse, though, is when he begins talking of how uninspired the hip hop scene has become since Biggie’s passing: “Game has got cheaper/ And rappers is more commercially successful now, but the heart’s a lot weaker”. Sentiment more than a few of us could agree on.

From the soundtrack to the highly anticipated 2009 biopic, Notorious.

DL: “Letter To B.I.G” (alt)

Uncategorized east coast rap, faith evans, jadakiss, notorious big