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Updated link 3/20 - AK Skills – The Big AK Skills, Far Rockaway

01. Check Tha Flava [Clean] (Produced by Lord Finesse)
02. Check Tha Flava (Produced by Lord Finesse)
03. Check Tha Flava [Instrumental] (Produced by Lord Finesse)
04. Check Tha Flava [A Capella]
05. Nights of Fear [Clean] (Produced by Buckwild)
06. Nights of Fear (Produced by Buckwild)
07. Nights of Fear [Instrumental]
08. Nights of Fear [A Capella]
09. One Life Ta Live (Produced by Eddie James)
10. One Life Ta Live [Clean] (Produced by Eddie James)
11. One Life Ta Live [Instrumental] (Produced by Eddie James)
12. One Live Ta Live [A Capella]
13. East Ta West (Produced by Eddie James)
14. East Ta West [Clean] (Produced by Eddie James)
15. East Ta West [Instrumental] (Produced by Eddie James)
16. East Ta West [A Capella]
17. One Thing or Another (Produced by Buckwild)
18. Jan '96 Boogie & The Barber Freestyle Over Mobb Deep's Extortion
19. May '96 Boogie & The Barber Freestyle Over Saukrates' Father Time
20. May '96 New York Live Freestyle Over Heltah Skeltah's Operation Lockdown
21. Dec '96 New York Live Freestyle Over Frankenstein's Pain is Gone
22. Dec '96 Stretch & Bobbito Freestyle Over Xzibit's Eyes May Shine [Remix]
23. Nov '97 Stretch & Bobbito Freestyle Over O.C.'s Dangerous
24. Wake 'n Bake Freestyle Part I
25. Wake 'n Bake Freestyle Part II
26. Nights of Fear [Logilo Remix]
27. Nights of Fear [JM Dee Remix]
28. East Ta West [DJ Damage & DJ Pone "8" Remix]
29. Check Tha Flava [DJ Freqnik & WDRE Holiday Remix]
30. Nights of Fear [Mista 93 Remix]
31. East Ta West [Ruck 'N Wiz Remix]
32. Check Tha Flava [Phoniks Remix]
33. East Ta West [JChan Rooftoops Remix]
34. One Life Ta Life [BlackBird Remix]
35. Nights of Fear [Hands Remix]
36. Spell It Out Freestyle
37. '96 Fat Beats Grand Opening Freestyle

Just put this together. First eight tracks are from that same ol' V0 VBR ftd scene rip, the next eight are 320 CBR converted from a 24bit FLAC rip, the one after that is also 320 CBR, then the freestyles are all 192 CBR from nes' Dirty Waters blog, and the next two are 160 CBR YouTube webrips of these, I guess relatively recent Facebook videos, added to YouTube months ago:





(I even investigated the Discogs posting for DJ Lazy K's Spring '98 mixtape that claims on the cover's tracklisting an AK Skills freestyle, but it seems to actually be A.L. (All Lyrics), or at least not AK Skills.)

Wow Big Sleep. That whats im talking about! Good Looking out!

Yo sleep can u up the flacs on those 9 tracks. I own the check the flava vls i can rip and send to you in flac if u want them!

Nah, not at the current moment without fucking my ratio on the private tracker I got that from at least. Probably should've specified that they weren't my rips. I don't personally care about FLAC, I'm happy with 320 (or V0). Quality upgrades are always appreciated though.

(Also, for anyone wondering I don't think there is a dirty version of One Thing or Another. The version on Stretch's Lessons II is also censored.)

Should throw all this AK Skills in its own thread imo

Thanks for this Bigsleep! It's a shame he never released an album (if I remember correctly he got locked up).

madstadik wrote:Yo sleep can u up the flacs on those 9 tracks. I own the check the flava vls i can rip and send to you in flac if u want them!

Madstadik, would you mind ripping the Check The Flava VLS? .WAV files would be ideal, as I would then import them into my audio editing program and manually edit out all of the clicks/pops, then upload the cleaned up audio into this thread. If WAV is a probem, then FLAC would be cool too

Ill rip it... ive got like 4 crates of records that have been sitting at my parents for like 7 years been meaning to grab them and bring them to my house. This gives me a reason now. Ill try to get them today!

niiiiiiiiiiiiiice

I've got two remixes, but both are from 2013.

East Ta West (Ruck N Wiz Remix)
Nights of Fear (Mista 93 Remix)

Let me know if you want them.

dirt_dog wrote:I've got two remixes, but both are from 2013.

East Ta West (Ruck N Wiz Remix)
Nights of Fear (Mista 93 Remix)

Let me know if you want them.

Yeah that'd be great if you could upload them dirtdog.
I also came across this remix, but unfortunately I can't find a DL link online...will just have to settle for a YouTube rip for now

djfilthyrich wrote:It's a shame he never released an album (if I remember correctly he got locked up).

Indeed he did, he refers to that in the new videos.

dirt_dog wrote:I've got two remixes, but both are from 2013.

East Ta West (Ruck N Wiz Remix)
Nights of Fear (Mista 93 Remix)

Let me know if you want them.

Thanks dirt, thought about including remixes but as you alluded to, they're all years after the fact by lesser known / no-name producers, done unofficially. Archive.org has those two and a couple others (Check Da Flava [Phoniks Remix], East Ta West [JChan Rooftops Remix], and One Life Ta Live [BlackBird Remix]) up for download here. And I know I saw at least a few others in addition to the Hands Remix on YouTube.

One Life Ta Live was my shit back in the days. Ak was an underground champ in the mid 90's. Love all his shit. I have all this but it's nice to have one playlist.

Might as well...

26. Nights of Fear [Logilo Remix]
27. Nights of Fear [JM Dee Remix]
28. Check Tha Flava [DJ Freqnik & WDRE Holiday Remix]
29. Nights of Fear [Mista 93 Remix]
30. East Ta West [Ruck N' Wiz Remix]
31. Check Tha Flava [Phoniks Remix]
32. East Ta West [JChan Rooftops Remix]
33. One Life Ta Live [BlackBird Remix]
34. Nights of Fear [Hands Remix]

All 320 CBR except for the JM Dee remix at 192 CBR and the Ruck N' Wiz remix at V0 VBR. The Logilo remix, the earliest one, from '97, is from Side A of a 320 CBR tape rip of his third mixtape, which I separated in Audacity. The JM Dee remix, from '98, is a YouTube webrip.

Discogs also shows a “8 Remix” of East Ta West on a DJ Damage & DJ Pone mixtape from '98, another remix for that track from Rainbow Tech in '07, a Nights of Fear “Eagle SWC” remix on a DJ V-Air tape from '02, and a “Hands Edit” of One Life Ta Live in '06.

Other remixes exist on YouTube for Check Tha Flava by Duke Rauol, Miedlev, salaam海老, and Tars One, for East Ta West by: DJ AUG, Don Rasputin, Sread One, Benzen, Chilloutist, for Nights of Fear by: Don Rasputin, Frankensteeno, One-Shot, and Slyck Prod, and for One Life Ta Live by: Tru Comers, Don Rasputin, Jay Smooth (a.k.a. Jay Smuzz, not that Jay Smooth), O.T.H.E.R., and Sabwon.

Who knows what people have added to Bandcamp or Soundcloud...

TheBigSleep wrote:Nah, not at the current moment without fucking my ratio on the private tracker I got that from at least.

My ratio is good but still I ain't downloadin no 24bit/671 MB rip... with my shitty u/l speed, it would take me forever to upload that. But don't worry madstadik, I PM'ed the user who uploaded that and asked him to transcode it to "normal" (16bit) flac rip and he said he will after he gets home the next week. ;)

BTW dope azz comp (as usual), Big Sleep!

Good looking out. I will rip that Nights of Fear VLS friday or saturday

Whats w all the clean rips though on those tracks that exist as explicit???

Im ripping that nights of fear VLS right now. Will upload when its done! Sorry for the delay

Any chance for a reupload, please?

Both parts (the original and the addendum with the remixes, now including the once-missing DJ Damage & DJ Pone 8 Remix of East Ta West from '98), plus two "new" 192 CBR YouTube MP3 rips of these tracks as a bonus:





AK Skills – The Big AK Skills, Far Rockaway