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i've been heavily on my Rakim shit lately, listening extensively to everything from "Paid in Full" to the underrated "The Seventh Seal". Between '92:s "Don't Sweat..." and his official solo deut in '97, "The 18:th Letter" Ra took a well deserved 5 years break...... Or not!
I did a three volume series of compilations for Mr. Griffin about a year ago; one focusing on all the singles, B-sides and unreleased from "18 Letter", "The Master" and "Seventh Seal", respectively. However I realized I had to go back to that first volume and completely change it when it became evident that the reason so many tracks from that era has leaked and been bootlegged is because The R actually recorded an entire album in late 1995, possibly early '96. The first piece of the puzzle was the three songs that Dominic Owens of Hi-Class released three HQ 320 rips of songs he had recorded with Rakim in 1995 at Hi-Class Studios. Owens is of course the producer behind Biggie's timeless "Things Fall Apart" and it's possible that's why The R was after him.
the second piece came when reading this brilliant interview that Robert Ettelson concocted for his Unkut.com website. Here he said that he recorded three songs for Rakim in 1995; "Bring It On" (which also was in the Owens sessions, alabeit slightly different and with a completely different beat), "The Original Style" and a third track that they never got a chance to complete. Here Domingo said right in the open that Rakim for some reaosn shelved the entire album because of this.
that he was recording an album in betwween "Don't Sweat" and "18th Letter" explains a lot.. like the amount of unreleased Rakim solos from that era that has leaked in some form, tracks by people like Pete Rock ("Living For The City"), Buckwild ("Last Resort"), Nick Wiz ("Once Upon A Rhyme; "Show Me Love" - Rugged Version), Easy Mo Bee, Gary G-Wiz of Bomb Squad.
All in all 13 tracks, about 45 minutes and it truly sounds like the missing piece between the two albums preceding and following it. it's not as scommercially viable as "18:th Letter", there's all good tracks on here and hopeully it will one day be releassed in this vein. It's also an extremely important time document as it is the only time we fans have been able to see how Ra work behind the scenes, what a perfectionist is - many of these songs are available in multiple versions, and when he wasn't happy with it he scrapped it entirely!! play this from front-to-back and ENJOY and click here to read the full article.
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01. "Bring It On" [Dominic Owens] (1995)
02. "Shades Of Black" [Easy Mo Bee] (1995)
03. "The Original Style" [Domingo] (1995)
04. "Last Resort" [Buckwild" (1995)
05. "Living For the City" [Pete Rock] (1995)
06. "New York to Cali" [Dominic Owens] (1995]
07. "We All Got Plans" [Marley Marl] (1996)
08. "Show Me Love" (Rugged) [Nick Wiz] [1996]
09. "Heat It Up" [Gary "G-Wiz"] (1993)
10. "Remember Dat" [Salaam Remi] (1995)
11. "Once Upon A Rhyme" [Nick Wiz] (1995)
12. *"Bring It On" [Domingo Mix] (1995)
13. "I Get Visual" [Dominic Owens] (1995)
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