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Okay, here's something that any real producer, DJ, or remix artist will really appreciate. DJ Spinna the legendary Hip-Hop talent that has DJ'd all over the country and world, has done remixes for the likes of Mary J. Blige, Al Jerreau and Eminem and the sole controller of his Beyond Real record label released a mix album in 2002 that was truly memorable.
I met "Beyond Real Experience Volume 2" with huge anticipation back in 02', primarily because I had always been a huge fan of Spinna's production. I first got into Spinna via his group Polyrhythm Addicts, that and because of the fact that he was a frequent collaborator of many of my favorite Rawkus artist's (even dropped a record on Rawkus too) and I was a total Rawkus nerd in the 90's. I know many big Spinna fans will vilify me for this, but I wasn't a huge Jigmastas fan back in the day. Yes, I was sleepin' like Lincoln when it came to Spinna and MC Kriminul's stuff, but I digress....
"Vol.2" was a refreshing experience for me at the time because, well, a lot of stuff dropping at that time was really sucking hard man....It was 02', I was in high school and being the rebellious, "don't give a fuck" type, I was constantly roaming the hallways with headphones on, wearing out whatever tape or CD I fancied that week. Ahhh yes,...the nuances of a mis-spent youth. Anyway...I was a tape head, but my walkman was pretty sensitive about which tapes it would play and which tapes it wouldn't, so I also utilized a CD player. In my never ending haze of hall-wandering, knotting off in class and just plain apathy during my secondary education, one of the most important things to me was the music that I would take in while aimlessly conforming to whatever bullshit ideas that were flying around in American History 101at Sierra High.......Full of contempt and brash disobedience my Hip-Hop genre of choice quite often was the east coast underground scene/sound. It was grimey, there was a real message that I related to most of the time and back then you had to of had real skills to drop somethin', no questions asked.
At this point in time downloading was already starting to catch on and there was always a handful of dudes at my school asking people like me (Hip-Hop heads) what albums/mixtapes they wanted at a much more cost-effective price. I wasn't exactly rolling in dough, so I would patronize their somewhat dubious services. There was one cat that was real good about his business though. He would have a lil' bootleg catalog even, with pictures of all the covers of the shit he was sellin' and he usually had the CD's on him right then and there in the back pack. I routinely tried my best to cop from him because of his good business acumen, and while I was tempted to rob him at first due to his feeble physique and somewhat standoffish nature at times, I held off and in return was rewarded with the opprtunity to hear whatever I wanted at a price that a broke muthafucka like myself could deal with. Over time I actually grew to respect his hustle, even tried my hand at it for awhile when I got online, using the same techniques (i.e. the catalog and carrying the CD's on one's person). In any case, I eventually started doin special requests with this kid and he would deliver. My process behind that would be to go to my local record store and browse thru all the hip-hop CD's and see what interested me. I would write down the titles that did and hand off my list to ole' boy and in a day or two he would have my shit for me. One such list in 02' would contain the title of a new mix album that yanked at my curiousity in the record store on one of my "browsing" excursions. In hindsight if I had known how great it woulda been I woulda copped it out the store that day.
DJ Spinna's illustrious reputation preceeds him whenever he drops something new and for this release there was no exception. When I popped "Vol.2" in my CD player I was expecting to hear raw production, precise mixing and a sturdy lineup of capable emcees. I got exactly that. Spinna has always been tireless and frequently many of his releases are marathons--filled with tracks and long, "Vol.2" mirror's that trait with 18 joints. The production was crazy on this release...at times airy and organic, then boisterous and somewhat bouncy it really added a lot, but wasn't overpowering. Back then I would've assumed that Spinna handled all of the production for this, but in later years I've discovered Nick Fury, Ken Sport and The People Under The Stairs all actually produced a few cuts on here as well. While the production was great and the mixing was top notch, it truly was the emceeing that made this effort a classic among classic's in Spinna's catalog. Relative unknowns really got down on some Hip-Hop shit for this compilation. From Shadowman's standout solo spots to Skam's tongue-twisting delivery, the lesser known, up and comer's really stand tall amongst top notch talent like Sadat X, Guru, Mr. Complex and L Fudge. Another aspect of this tape that I thought was ill was the recurring appearances of all the emcee's....that really gave it that old school cypher/mixtape/basement feel--I love that shit and few DJ's are better at relaying it than Spinna. The thoughtful quotables about life, love and Hip-Hop itself ooze out of this project via it's artist's, which made it musically something that began as just ear fodder that I was only playing in between my mis-education during my much-loathed high school years, to being a timeless piece of art that I cherish and often use to explain to other, less fortunate heads what a real mix album/compilation truly is and should be.
Overall this is a real gem man...I can't tell you how good this really is, you have to go and bump it for yaself. Spinna really was in the zone during this time period and while he's sort of strayed from the Hip-Hop sound in recent 2K years, I think that he'll always be remembered for captivating real heads with releases like this.
-BIG D O
1 Rap Shit - (with Shadowman)
2 Spitting - (with Dynas)
3 Stand Up - (with Akil)
4 Mekanism - (with Skam)
5 O.K. - (with Ha The Jet Set)
6 So What - (with Jigmastas/Guru)
7 Dime Out - (with Dynas/Skam)
8 My Style - (with Shadowman)
9 My Momma - (with Mr. Complex & El Fudge)
10 Hey Love - (with Mr. Akil)
11 Stones - (with Jigmastas)
12 Breathe - (with Shadowman)
13 Plan X - (with Sadat X)
14 Proof - (with Dynas/Akil)
15 This Ain't a Game - (with Shadowman/BX Crew/Ha The Jet Black/Akil/Dynas/Skam)
16 Don't Get It Twisted - (PUTS remix, with Jigmastas/Sadat X)
17 So What - (Ken Sport remix, with Jigmastas/Guru)
18 Can I Kick It - (with Suiken)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/8vwvl7
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