AZ - A.W.O.L. Hydra Beats Blends By Vaporized

Props must go out to both The T.R.O.Y. blog and the frequent T.R.O.Y. poster/producer Vaporized who came up with this completely ill remix tape for AZ's A.W.O.L album....

Melding together select instrumentals from many of the "Hydra Beats" series releases with the acapella's of the heralded Brooklynite AZ's 2005 album "A.W.O.L.", we have a freak creation of the surprisingly translatable kind in "Hydra Beats Blends". With Laid back, boom bap constructs powering the show, the album takes on a whole new character and becomes almost instantly enhanced upon listening.....

Where producers like The Heatmakerz, J-Hen and Vinny Idol flubbed, the historically slept-on skills of classically trained beatmsmiths like Nick Wiz (Rakim, The Cella Dwellas, Shabaam Sahdeeq), The Beatnuts (Chi Ali, Common, Fat Joe) and A Kid Called Roots (Screwball, Canibus, Sadat X) among others, prevail mightily. I mean, these are beats that were released on vinyl in the mid and late 90's, totally owning the new guys' joints....

Now don't mis-read me, some of the original works on A.W.O.L. were perfect. The Disco D produced "City Of Gods" and the Premo banger "The Come Up" are good examples, but I would be lying if I didn't bring up the fact that when this album was released one of the main gripes about it that I heard was that the production wasn't poppin' off correctly and the replay value was low....AZ has always had a somewhat soft ear for beats, really you can trace that all the way back to "Pieces Of A Man", and so I wasn't surprised....All of his album post-2001 are very inconsistent in that area, but he often can overshadow a beat that isn't right for his subject matter with his powerful flow....With me it wasn't that his beats were bad, I just think he picks them in a haste too often..

At any rate, this type of dopeness is unmistakable, and this remix project rivals 9th Wonder's "Godson" Remix and that "Black Album" remix that had those Pete Rock beats from "Petestrumentals"....do yaself a favor and grab this, it's definitely flava....

-BIG D O









01. AZ - A.W.O.L. (E-Boogie blend)
02. AZ - Can't Stop (Nick Wiz blend)
03. AZ ft. Raekwon & Ghostface Killah - New York (Unsociables blend)
04. AZ - Never Change (Beatnuts blend)
05. AZ ft. Half A Mil & Begetz - Street Life (Unsociables blend)
06. AZ - Still Alive (Beatnuts blend)
07. AZ - The Come Up (Kid Called Roots blend)
08. AZ - Chillin' (Kid Called Roots blend)
09. AZ - Envious (Nick Wiz blend)
10. AZ - City Of Gods (E-Boogie blend)

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