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Mixtape Monday: Mase Cuts Hit The Street, Fabolous Returns, Just Blaze Remixes Jay-Z

Pastor Betha's latest appears on Ahead of the Competition.
By Shaheem Reid
June 25, 2004 / 8:26 PM

Artists: DJ Envy, Big Mike and Tapemasters Inc.

Mixtape: Ahead of the Competition

Representing: New York and Connecticut

The 411: Mike and Envy are already at the top of the mixtape heap, and Tapemasters Inc. are rapidly coming up. Together as a three-headed monster they're unstoppable. Ahead of the Competition has two new Mase tracks, two new Usher records, and a Ghostface track where he samples the theme from "Scooby Doo" and raps with Bone Crusher.

Joints To Check For:

  • "Big Shot" by Joe Budden. Obviously with Joe Budden popping up on the Summer Jam screen during the G-Unit's set at the Hot 97 concert, fans knew more wordplay would ensue between Mr. Jump Off and 50 Cent's crew. Joe raps over Billy Joel's "Big Shot" to throw some big shots of his own at his rivals, saying 50 wears tank tops with bra straps and that steroids have been affecting his brain. He also makes fun of Game appearing on the game show "Change of Heart" a few years back. The wittiest punch line is a reference to the G-Unit's now infamous Summer Jam set: "You stepped onstage, [and] all you heard were chairs" instead of cheers.
  • "Game Freestyle" by Game. Spitting 200 bars for just over nine minutes, Game accuses Joe Budden of snitching to police and says he can't sell records. "No matter what you say, the sh-- be wack." Game also disses The Source and Queens rapper Domination and references Eminem and Memphis Bleek.
  • "So Right" and "All My People" by Mase. "I just do what the doers do," Mase raps on "All My People." What he's doing on that record is partying and spending money and thanking all those who supported him. We won't reveal which Madonna song he samples, but we will give away that a girl on "So Right" sings Jermaine Stewart's famously cheesy lyric from 80s: "We don't have to take our clothes off to have a good time."
  • "Confessions" remix by Usher featuring Jermaine Dupri, Shyne, Twista and Kanye West. Usher is relegated to just singing on the chorus as Dupri lets the rappers take the lead. Shyne spits his first new rhymes since going to jail for four years, rapping, "Sitting in my cell, head about to burst/ ... I never said that I was perfect/ Nobody walking on this earth is."

    • Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week

    • Lyricist Lounge's "Dirty States of America" DVD and soundtrack
    • So So Def Baped Out Mixtape Vol 01
    • DJ Whoo Kid's G-Unit Live at Summer Jam
    • The Outlawz and DJ Warrior's Outlaw Warriorz

  • DJ Rondevu's God Brothers

  • DJ Kool Kid's Rap's New Generation and Denim Underground Vol. 7

    • 'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar

    • Lloyd Banks - "I'm So Fly"
    • Ms. Behavin - "Bottle Action"
    • Three 6 Mafia - "Squeeze It"
    • 8Ball & MJG featuring T.I. and Twista - "Look at the Grillz"
    • Nas - "You Know My Style"
    • Never Again - "Black Tee"
    • Franchise - "White Tee"

    Celebrity Favs

    You can catch the Terror Squad's first lady, Remy Martin, doing the rockaway with her BX brethren in the video for "Lean Back," which just so happens to be the biggest record in her hometown of New York right now. Remy is feeling a certain Diplomat's new mixtape for the music and the artwork. "I like Juelz Santana's Back Like Cooked Crack," she said. "The crackhead peeking through the window on the cover, that sh-- had me crying."

    The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground

    It seems like forever since Fabolous put out a new record, and then out of the blue last week he dropped "Breathe." According to his camp, the Just Blaze-produced record is just a street white-label song. His first official single should be coming soon. Fab's album is coming out in a few months and still titled Real Talk. The set features guest appearances from Styles P., Cam'ron, T.I., Sean Paul and the Brooklyn native's partner in crime Lil' Mo. ...

    Although remixing songs off of Jay-Z's The Black Album has been done to death, the latest batch really has people talking. That's because it was done by a producer who actually made records with Hov for the original Black Album, Just Blaze. His remixes were the catalyst behind the second installment of the S. Carter Collection mixtape. "I had a little bit of an advantage over the other producers who were doing [remixes] because I had the masters," Blaze admitted. "I can do something like take 'Allure' -- everybody else had to deal with Pharrell singing through the whole song in a certain key, everyone else had to work around Pharrell's frame -- whereas me, I can strip it down, just take Jay's raw vocals, and in some cases, take other versions of the song, other takes that nobody's ever heard before. The verses on my 'PSA' remix are completely different. I just wanted to do remixes that felt like entirely new songs. If you heard it for the first time, you'd never think it was a remix."

    For other artists featured in Mixtape Mondays, check out Mixtape Mondays Headlines.

    For more on the role of mixtapes in the music industry, check out the feature [article id="1474726"]"Mixtapes: The Other Music Industry."[/article]

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