RAEKWON THE CHEF EXPLAINS THE NAS & BIGGIE PURPLE TAPE BEEF!!

Nas & Ghostface Killah’s Collabos Set The Stage For A Strong A3C (Audio)

Two of New York’s finest MCs, Nas and Ghostface Killah, have a great history of bringing out the best in each other when they’re on the same track. Both possess intricate storytelling ability, effortless wordplay, and immense street credibility. They’ve only rhymed together but a few occasions. However, the synergy is undeniable.

Their collaborations date back to the early album-making days in their respective, careers. The Queensbridge icon and Wu-Tang Clan legend will be performing as headliners at the 2017 A3C Festival in Atlanta next month. Ahead of the October 8-9 affair, Ambrosia For Heads explores the songs that these two pillars in Hip-Hop’s pantheon have come together to produce.

Mobb Deep featuring Nas, Raekwon & Ghostface Killah – “Eye For An Eye”

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Wu-Wednesday: B.O.B.B.Y & Nas-The Setup Mashup

Ghostface Killah Discusses Delivering Music With A Message

Ghostface Killah recently sat down to discuss his legendary career and explained that he’s always been interesting in delivering music with a message. The Wu-Tang Clan rapper took a look at how he’s influenced the world, and expressed his view of new hip hop which he says is predominantly filled with lyrics about living the high life.
Ghostface explained that Islam allowed him and the Wu-Tang Clan to deliver music with a message. “We all studied Islam. It just helped us more to get the awareness to the people; the message that we’re trying to drive. We came up with a message and also thugged out at the same time. We were just regular brothers that were on the block that were fly. We were building. Building is talking, trying to teach somebody. Give somebody some knowledge. And we’d do that all day while we were on the block smoking and drinking,” Ghostface told Bad-Perm.com.
Ghostface also took a look at his own influence on the world at large and cited a number of trends that were started as a result of his music. “At the end of the day, people know who it is and stuff like that. I got so many people that follow me — I did ‘Might Healthy,’ they came out with a store called Mighty Healthy. I did ‘Supreme,’ they came up with a store called Supreme. ‘Fishscales,’ they had a clothing line called Fishscales. People tend to just follow a lot of things. I set a lot of trends. My robes to the Wallabees. I don’t think people do it out of disrespect. They’re just fans,” said Ghostface.

According to Ghostface, the substance in hip hop has changed over the years and he says the focus has shifted from content to glamor. “A lot of ones [rappers] today just really talk about the club and their jeweler and cars. I really don’t know, because I don’t hear Slick Rick no more. Nas has slowed down for a minute, because he was one of my best. Even The Genius was one of my best. I don’t really, really hear too much like that,” said Ghostface.

Classics Revisited #2: The Purple Tape

This will bring back great memories for those old enough to remember, and for the younger fans, something to think about as they already heard about this.
The Purple Tape aka Only Built 4 Cuban Linx is a tasty morsal of golden age rap memorabilia, Why were the tapes Purple? how valuable and reare is it?
Apparently on 10,000 of these Tapes were ever made. I have seen a sealed one go on eBay for about $5k in 2010.

Personal research suggest that the first purple polyphonic product was The Pixies first demo, which was released in 1987. It was nicknamed The Purple Tape by Pixie fans because it was (surprise, surprise) purple. However, there is no real proof that this tape was actually tinted purple. Meaning that a more apporpriate title might have been “the clear tape with the purple case”.

Next came Lisa Loeb’s demo (what’s up with demos and the color purple?) in 1991. Which for all you LL fans (no Todd Smith aka LL Cool J), has been remastered and re-released sometime in 2008. There is also no concrete proof that this cassette were coloured purple be it previously or re-release.  Oh yeah, Lisa Loeb’s current release is called the Purple Tape CD (wack).

This all leads to the release of Only Built for Cuban Linx in 1995 (AKA the Only Real Purple Tape). Luckily record companies were still making tapes, and even luckilier (is that a word?) Raekwon requested that his tape be purple. Good call Rae…

So why did Rae call it the purple tape?
Lets first look at the title of the album, according to Wikipedia 'The album's title serves as "a warning of its musical potency to those not prepared for the uncut raw contained within." Although the original intended title was "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Niggaz", this idea was eventually dismissed in favor of a more market-friendly one. Ghostface Killah later specified "We already had the title. The chain we used to rock back in the days was Cuban links. So Rae came up with the theory, like a Cuban link is one of the roughest chains to break. Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Real niggas, strong niggas."

The purple Tape in reference to the album was because the original cassette's plastic was entirely purple; Raekwon marked the tape distinctively as a reference to drug dealers' method of tagging their product, to distinguish it from that of others'. "I wanted to portray an image that if I was selling crack or dimes in the street, you would recognize these dimes from other niggas' dimes.
This was confirmed on an interview Rae did with AllHiphop.com

"AllHipHop.com: Where’d you get the idea to come out with [Only Built 4 Cuban Linx as] a purple tape? I thought it was a defect when I got mine.?

Raekwon: Only because being that we from the block, we was finagling in certain situations where the things that you was dealing with had to be separated from what everybody else was dealing with. I always ran with that as one of my traits in anything I do to separate myself from others. Back when we used to sling and do what we do, we would have certain color caps [to viles]. Certain color caps resembled certain people that were doing s**t different than everybody else. It’s like, “Yo, this is our color. Anybody step on this color, you got an issue at that time.” So I decided with my music, this is my world—this is my thing and I wanna put a color on it just so everybody will know. That’s how the purple tape even came in existence. I think I had wanted a red one at first and then I thought how somebody else had did it already. I made it like that specifically…."

Indeed.. The album from cover art, concept, packaging was all thought through, the music (production, features, lyrics, subject matter etc) was also thought through, this is what makes this album a classic and what makes the Wu-Tang Clan the best collective to ever emerge from Hip-Hop.
The album was loosely composed to play like a film with Raekwon as the "star," fellow Wu-Tang member Ghostface Killah as the "guest-star," and producer RZA as the "director.' It features appearances from every member of the Wu-Tang Clan, and served as an introduction to Cappadonna.  It also features an acclaimed guest appearance from rapper Nas, which marked the first collaboration with a non-affiliated artist on a Wu-Tang related album.

In 2012, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Cuban Linx number 480 on their updated version of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Need I say more?

Long Live The Purple Tape!!!
Long Life Wu-Tang!!!
Wu-Tang 4 Ever!!!

Check back every last week sunday of the month another Wu-Tang classic Revisted.

Put Together by Dark7 for Wu-International.com

RZA To Host Rocks The Bells 2012 Festival Which Includes Method Man & More

For 2012, Rock the Bells puts a spotlight on new talent in Hip Hop and honors respected veterans. This year's bill includes 2 Chainz, Wiz Khalifa, Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, Salt-N-Pepa, Murs & Fashawn and more. Exclusive interview with GU and Rock the Bells head, Chang Weisberg included.
For 2012, Rock the Bells continues its tradition of highlighting new talent in Hip Hop while honoring revered artists of the past. Last night, the official 2012 lineup was announced, as it usually is, by Supernatural who freestyled the bill. However, this time, Supernat was accompanied by DJ Quik’s impromptu beat boxing

The lineup includes an array of Hip Hop acts from various regions and eras. Nas, 2 Chainz, Atmosphere, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Naughty By Nature and Missy Elliot and Timabaland have been added to this year’s roster, joining the likes of Kid Cudi, Salt-N-Pepa, Wiz Khalifa and Murs and Fashawn.

For the first time in its nine years, Rock the Bells will be a two-day festival. Dates are set for August 19 and 20 in San Bernardino, California. The event will then go through Mountain View, California on August 25 and 26 before heading to Holmdel, New Jersey on the 1st and 2nd of September. 
Initial reports included Lupe Fiasco as a scheduled performer on the bill. However, since the announcement, Fiasco has said he will not be at Rock the Bells. Accordingto his Twitter account, Fiasco said that his inclusion on the bill was a “typo.” The full lineup is included at the end of this article.
At the announcement event, Chang Weisberg, head of Guerilla Union and Rock the Bells, spoke with HipHopDX about how this year’s festival will continue the tradition that has been integral to the franchise for nearly a decade. He explained how Rock the Bells has been able to create many connections between emcees, from notable reunions between Rage Against the Machine and A Tribe Called Quest to collaborations like Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa. He also shared much more about hologram rumors, unity within Hip Hop and discussed why he feels Rock the Bells has become similar to a church.

The lineup is listed below, along with Rock the Bells dates/locations.

ROCK THE BELLS 2012 FESTIVAL SERIES ARTISTS

2 Chainz
ASAP Rocky
Atmosphere
Big Daddy Kane
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
Deltron 303
Dipset
DJ Lance Rock and Friends
DJ Quik
E-40 and Too Short
Eligh, Grouch and Zion I
Fashawn
Hit Squad Reunion
Ice Cube
Immortal Technique
J Cole
Kendrick Lamar
Kid Cudi
Mac Miller
Missy Elliott and Timbaland
Murs
Nas
Naughty By Nature
Prodigy
Redman and Method Man
Salt-N-Pepa
Schoolboy Q
Slick Rick
Supernatural
RZA
Tyga
Watsky
Wiz Khalifa
Yelawolf
Dom Kennedy

Hosted by:
RZA + Supernatural

ROCK THE BELLS 2012 FESTIVAL SERIES DATES & VENUES:

08/19 – 08/20   San Bernardino, CA – NOS Events Center
08/25 – 08/26   Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre
09/01 – 09/02   Holmdel, NJ – PNC Arts Center

Raekwon teases collaborative album with Nas

Nas and Wu Tang Clan’s Raekwon still stand as two of New York’s greatest rappers, and unlike many of their peers, they’re still on form today.

But could a collaborative album between the two be in the works? The pair have teamed up in the past, and in a new interview with XXL, Raekwon teases the idea of a full joint album pretty hard.

“Whatever Nas wants, that’s my nigga,” the Chef explains. “As far as an album? We talked about that—Me and Nas sat down like real niggas like, ‘Yo, wassup! We need to do that!’ If everybody want that and me and him be able to sit in a room and business is correct and we both respecting what it is, I’m down. He know how I get down. My clips is loaded. It’ll be a rhyming album, I know that, but whatever. That’s a good friend of mine so, whatever.”

“He’s a revolutionary such as myself and I look up to him and he looks up to me. He tells me this like, ‘Yo son, you like one of my only true friends.’ So it feels good to cover that department with a brother. Like a lot of relationships I have with artists, it ain’t just music. It’s brotherhood, it’s that respect we carry when we see each other and it’s always like that.”

Now, we know this sort of chat gets thrown around willy-nilly in the world of hip-hop – it wasn’t long ago that Raekwon was speculating about an entire album in collaboration with 9th Wonder, after all – but with Nas on his most flame-throwing form in years (you’ve heard ‘The Don’, right?), maybe he’s in the mood to put in double the amount of time in the studio. His new solo album, Life is Good, is scheduled for a July release either way.

How many Wu Disciples want to see a Nas and Raekwon joint album? 

Nas Names RZA, Teddy Riley, Just Blaze & 9th Wonder Production Dream Team

Life is Good for Nas, but it can get better if God’s Son gets to collaborate with a handful of producers on his wish list.

In an interview with Peter Rosenberg of New York City’s Hot 97 dial at the SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas two weeks back, Nas shared a list of producers that he’d like to work with.

“I would love to do something with Diamond D, RZA, Teddy Riley, Just Blaze is crazy,” Nas declared.

And there were more.




“9th Wonder,” he continued. “9th Wonder’s a weird muthafucka, that’s why I want to work with him. Quincy Jones…just ’cause. I don’t care if it don’t even sound good.”

Of course, the Queensbridge God MC has already worked with celebrated producers likes of DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, Dr. Dre and Pharrell throughout his storied career.

There’s no telling if Nas and any of the aforementioned producers can get in the studio to craft records that could make it on his summer album, Life Is Good, but the LP already has begun taking shape. Two weeks ago, Nas unleashed the single “The Don,” produced by Salaam Remi, Da Internz and the late Heavy D. The track served as a follow-up to his “Nasty” single, which was released last June.

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RZA Says He's Given Beats To Busta Rhymes & Nas, Speaks On Method Man LP

The RZArector also updates on the upcoming Wu-Tang Clan album.




RZA recently checked in with GWHH'S GY312 in Chicago, Illinois, speaking on his various projects in 2012. During the interview, the Wu-Tang Clan swordsman said that he supplied beats to Nas and Busta Rhymes, each of whom came to his home to select from his 500-beat stash. He also remained vague about the upcoming Wu album, which he previously revealed would release in 2012.

"As far as the Wu brothers, whatever we do, we do it. Sometimes we premeditate it, sometimes it’s just done naturally. I’m more in a natural mode right now. I got 500 beats in my crib. So if anyone wanna come over and collect them, they can collect them. We had a lot of other brothers come over. Last year, I was home and people like Busta came over and got some beats, Nas came through… My door is open."

News recently broke that he and Method Man would reunite for what would be either their last collaborative album or Meth's final LP. RZA remained more elusive about the project, stating that it's more about the tour at the moment.

"Right now I’m on tour with the Wu-Tang, having fun. As far as musically, me and Method Man are talking about going to the studio. We never got a chance to do another album since my first album. Maybe we’ll do another album together. Other than that, just rocking these shows and shit, having a good time and shit."

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