Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Great N.O.R.E. Post



The very first time I heard CNN's first joint LA,LA was on a Craig G + S&S tape. It was 1996, in my boy Daniel's forest green Eddie Bauer edition Ford Explorer with the beige trim. We were both bugging on how we could love a song so much that was hating on our city... Regardless, they had Mobb Deep and Tragedy co-signing and Nore's flow was instantly one of the illest.
NORE continues to be one of my favorites, regardless of his reggaeton albums, which he makes up for with mixtapes like Hang Hang Sangria or Cocaine On Steroids.
It seems with the current radio hit Rotate we are seeing a return to form. Hopefully the new album will not contain any reggaeton or MSTRKRFT beats. I mean, I appreaciate experimentation but it's clear what he's really good at.
When I first started working for Stretch in 99 I got to meet N.O.R.E. a couple times and dude was hilarious, though clearly out of his mind. He did a freestyle for Stretch's radio show at that time and it was mind blowing. He rapped over Nas Is Like and rhymed "Piss On A Ho" with "Piss On A Ho." (STRETCH!!!! Do you have this around?? Please post it if you do.)
But I digress...

Here are some of my favorite rare and unreleased N.O.R.E. tracks from deep in my crates:

Half Baked [Penalty - 1999]
(A teaser promo for Melvin Flynt Tha Hustler which until today I thought was produced by Swizz... I guess it's produced by Kyze. Still amazing. "Do The Drunkman")
Bitchass Niggas [White Label - 1998]
Blood Money II ft Nas & Nature [Tommy Boy - 1997] (This was a mixtape banger but was kinda farted out on the Sountrack to the movie Ride.)
Married To Marijuana [White Label - 1999]
Magic & Bird ft Nature [White Label - 1998]

Bonus Thugness (not rare and not from vinyl, but oh so ill)
Body In The Trunk ft Nas
Da Hustla
Iced Down Medallions (Royal Flush ft Noreaga) (NORE only does the hook on this one but it's craze... An amazing EZ Elpee beat and Flush murders it.)
LA, LA (25 2 Life(Tragedy, Capone'N'Noreaga & Mobb Deep))

I highly suggest you put all of this in a playlist and listen to it for 48 hours.


NORE Links
NORE Myspace
57thAve (NORE's Blog)
NORE on Twitter
Capone N Noreaga Myspace

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

illegal life and invincable ALLDAY

p.s.

http://www.rosenbergradio.com/2008/12/29/juan-epstein-nore-gold/

Anonymous said...

YEAH MAN

goooood lookin out - I been looking for an mp3 of this version of LA LA forever since I lost my vinyl. This was like my favorite record back in high school, played this shit at every house party, smoked miles of blunts to this shit. Thanks so much cuz, you're doing a goddamn PUBLIC SERVICE here.

DJ Benny B said...

shorty said chardonnay

NICE ONE

Dark Alley said...

THUG PARADISE!! THEY CALL ME ANIMAL THUG WHEN I'M LOCKED IN CAGES...

Cropsy said...

nice post mike

Anonymous said...

Thanks some rare Nore (and also your nice comment on my blog). But what about his scene in "Paid in Full". He didn't even had to act, just be himself.

Anonymous said...

anybody holding the tragedy diss he did? i think its halfway thug 2 or something? he dissed the shit out of tragedy on that. "you don't wanna be a muslum no more. you used to be black and proud now you wanna be hardcore...uhhhhh"

daaaaaaazyms