Big Boi f/ Raekwon & Andre 3000 – “Royal Flush“

from Royal Flush 12″ (Jive, 2008)

Big Boi f/ Mary J. Blige – “Something’s Gotta Give“

from Something’s Gotta Give 12″ (Jive, 2008)

Big Boi f/ Backbone – “Dubbz“

Big Boi f/ Andre 3000 – “Lookin For Ya“

from Sir Lucious Left Foot Sessions (unreleased, 2009/2010)

Big Boi – “Theme Song (Ringtone)“

Big Boi f/ Gucci Mane, Project Pat & Bun B – “Shine Blockas (Remix)”

from Sir Lucious Left Foot Billboard Bonus Tracks (Def Jam, 2010)

It’s rare that a studio outtakes post is necessary on the day of an albums release but Big Boi’s Sir Lucious Leftfoot, which drops today, has been marinating for close to three years in the Jive vaults and a lot of excess has been trimmed from the final release. Apart from the two blacked out Andre tracks, “Dubbz” feels like the only essential omission here. Backbone has an outstanding rap voice and more artists should be taking advantage of it. That poorly executed Mary J. song appears for comprehension’s sake alone. I also posted the Billboard bonus tracks because I had no idea that Billboard sold mp3s until I heard about there being Billboard-exclusive bonus tracks. “Theme Song” was originally leaked to the web last year as “Ringtone.” Buy the album wherever you can.

The double purple vinyl seems to have been pushed back to July 20th.

Young Jeezy f/ Bun B – “Over Here“

(Unreleased?, 2004)

If I remember right, this track was making the rounds on the mixtapes around the time Jeezy was building his buzz and before Thug Motivation 101 dropped. It wasn’t used for the album (I guess there was only room for one Bun guest track, and “Trap or Die” won that battle) and is only available on a vinyl 12″ that was put out for it. This particular version isn’t from that single though (it sounds too clean) and I think it must have been a leak to some blog at the time. [Ed.: There was also a video for this... check after the jump.] (more…)

I put a list of the Top 25 Organized Noize productions together for Complex.com in preparation for the forthcoming VH1 Hip Hop Awards. It’s a singles driven selection, so it might seem like old hat to the initiated Dungeon fans but if arguing intangibles like whether or not “So Fresh, So Clean” is better than “Jazze Belle” is your thing then have at it. In the coming weeks we’re going to have similar lists for all the artists and labels featured at the VH1 show.

One of my main complaints about Wayne’s No Ceilings was the beat selection. It was strictly Wayne raps to the hits, like he watched MTV Jams for an hour and just wrote to each of those songs. A great mixtape isn’t just karaoke. DJs like Drama and Green Lantern have earned names for themselves because of their ability to find unexpected beats that fit the artists they are working with. I’m still digesting Jeezy’s Trap Or Die 2 but one of the early standouts is “Ill’in” which revisits this somewhat obscure Pharoahe Monch cut from the Soundbombing 2 comp. The sound is just so incredibly and naturally Jeezy. (It’s appropriate that the The Clipse show up too, themselves long standing masters of finding the right beat to jack.) Here Don Cannon doesn’t just throw on the instrumental, it sounds like he rebuilt the track by hand, even slipping in the opening piano from the original Lamont Dozier sample. Oh yes, down south digging is the theme for today. (You might also recognize the Lamont cut as the same source of Ghostface’s “Saturday Night” and G-Side’s “We Own Da Building.”)

The release of B.O.B.’s long awaited/delayed debut album The Adventures Of Bobby Ray has inspired me to resurrect this short lived series from my glory days at that other site. Basically here’s the premise for those that missed the pilot: nobody in the hip hop media calls a sell out a sell out anymore. Go pick up a back issue of a rap magazine from the mid 90s. When a major artist sold out there were long think pieces on the societal and business ramifications on the hip hop world. I am bringing that the fuck back because sell out rap sucks. (more…)