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— by Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by Rahman Dukes
Artist: DJ Quik
Representing: CPT
CD: The Trauma Mixtape
411: DJ Quik is readying his new LP, Trauma, and put this mixtape out as a warmup. Along with the new tracks, Quik mixed in some of his greatest hits, like "Tonight" and "Pitch in on a Party."
"I'm 14 years in the game," Quik said. "There's some kids that weren't even born when my first album came out. I wanted to draw a timeline between my old stuff and my new stuff and bridge it to where there's a level of continuity."
Quik describes some of the songs that appear on the mixtape ...
Joints To Check For
- "Fandango" featuring B-Real. "It was like watching Michael Jordan play," he said about working with the leader of Cypress Hill. "Having a ticket to a Chicago Bulls game, when Jordan was playing with the Bulls. Watching him in his zone when he had 40-45 points. Dude is a perfectionist."
Quik said his new record has nothing to do with the famous Internet movie Web site. "Fandango was around before the Internet. Fandango is a Spanish-American dance. It's a lively tempo dance. It's almost like the tango. That's what it says in the Merriam-Webster [dictionary]. The second entry is [defined as] 'tomfoolery.' That's what it says in the dictionary, that's what I go by. I remember Queen saying it too on 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' When I was little I never understood what they meant by 'do the fandango.' "
- "Does the Good Life Exist" with Shawn Anthony. "I was just venting," Quik said of the song. "I was talking about some people that pissed me off a little bit. The funny thing about that record is that people liked it, but they thought I was taking a shot at Aaliyah at the beginning by saying 'I feel like that plane in the Bahamas.'
"But before I did the record I went to the Bahamas to be a part of that salt water and relax. Jet ski," he added. "I came back to New York and recorded that record. We had an issue with the plane. The baggage-claim dude was flirting with my girl and she checked him. I wasn't taking a shot at Aaliyah, but I didn't want to change the line because I lived it. It was just wordplay. I was shouting out Mausberg [on another line in the song] too because I miss him. Him being dead is a great injustice to hip-hop because I feel he was next."
- "Doughe." The Compton, California, legend said that this record is dedicated to Mixmaster Spade and Quik's niece, who both died this year.
"I grew up with my niece, she was 28 years old," he said. "And to see a kid in a coffin — especially to see a kid you saw when they was first born and to see them at the end of their life — it f---ed me up. It affected my breathing. F--- my psyche, it affected the way I breathe. It was like somebody took an organ away from me without my permission. She was a gorgeous kid. She was the anchor of the family, a peacemaker. So I did [the beat for the song] all in a major key. I didn't want to darken the mood. Death sucks, but I played it in all major key because it always makes you happy even though it's a death march, in a sense."
Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week
- Jail Break Recordz Presents Purple City
- Dirty Money Presents the Come Up Vol. 6
- Scoob Doo, Jadakiss and Styles P.'s Who's the Boss
- Wiz Hoffa's Lost Jewels
- Catch 22's Holier Than Thou
- DJ Smallz and Master P's Southern Smoke 20
'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar
- Lil' Kim - "Brooklyn"
- Young Jeezy featuring Fat Joe - "Go Crazy" unofficial remix
- Jamie Foxx featuring Kanye West - "One Too Many Drinks"
- Red Cafe - "Bling Blaow"
- DMX - "I Run Sh--"
- Twista featuring Trey Songz - "Girl Tonight"
- AZ featuring Ghostface and Raekwon - "New York"
Celebrity Favs
At Kanye West's album-listening session for Late Registration Wednesday night in New York, Kanye said he wants his new album to be listened to in the same way he listened to some classic LPs.
"I want this album to be an album you can clean up [your house] to," he said. "Just put it on and press all the way through. There are certain albums [you can do that with], like D'Angelo's album, Lauryn Hill's album, one of them old Lenny Kravitz joints ... um ..."
"Blueprint, n---a, stop frontin'!" Jay-Z, who was present, yelled, getting a laugh from Kanye.
"Blueprint!" West quickly said.
The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground
Have you noticed that the latest Rocawear ads heavily feature Jay-Z and no longer include Dame Dash and company? Well, there's a reason behind it: Dash is moving away from his once-beloved company.
"It's time to move on, I think," Dash said last week. "I designed the line until next summer, so they'll be all right for a year. But I'm trying to go in another direction. I'm a businessman; I have no emotional attachments to any of my businesses. I'm a hustla, I flip things. We'll do the State Property [line], we'll do the Team Roc. Pro Keds is killing them. We have the Dame Dash collection with the suits."
Dash said his music group is still in effect and that on Tuesday, he'll be heading to New Jersey to welcome Beanie Sigel home from prison.
If you have it, then you have it. Young Jeezy said that he and Jay-Z did a remix of his record "Go Crazy" and it's on his LP Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101. Jeezy said that not only did Jay rhyme on the track, but he gave him a full 32 bars.
"That's my n---a," Jeezy explained. "He's a genuine dude. He ain't show me nothing but support. I think he respected me because I ain't lean on him like no crutch. We're both players cut from the same cloth. We see eye to eye on some sh--. Why not be cool? Why not kick it? It ain't none of that rapper sh-- with us. It's real street hustler sh--."
Jeezy said that in a couple of weeks he and Jay plan to tell fans exactly how they can hear the record.
"If you got the album, you got the song," Jeezy explained. "We're going to unlock it in a couple of weeks. I just wanted to keep it under wraps; after the whole bootlegging thing, I didn't want to take no chances. I'm holding it as a special surprise. We just ain't unlocked it yet. It's crazy. It's no mixtape song or nothing, he really put it down."
Another collaboration Jeezy is excited about is with the Diplomats' Juelz Santana. The two are finishing up a mixtape called Best of Both Hoods, and the material is coming out so well that they have decided to make an album together.
"We're working on both," he said. "The mixtape is closer to being done than the album."
For a feature on Young Jeezy, check out "The Great Mediator."
For more on the role of mixtapes in the music industry, check out the feature "Mixtapes: The Other Music Industry."
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Photo: MTV News
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