Over the course of the past year, Bless 1 (who, at this point, you should all be familiar with - if not, take a minute to catch up) had been working on a new mixtape featuring his own songs combined with instrumentals and verses from his favorite producers and rappers. It was an interesting concept; Bless has been one of my favorite "rapper slash producers" since the day I first heard him freestyling over an old Dilla beat, so I was curious to see whose songs he'd pick for the tape. From the handful of tracks that he passed along to me, it certainly had the potential to be a great tape. He eventually lost interest in the project, however, instead deciding to focus entirely on creating original music.
I can certainly respect that decision - it's a lot harder to reach your potential as an artist when you're relying on someone else's music - and from the little that he's told me about his future endeavors, it sounds like he's on the path to some groundbreaking work. Yet it's a little disappointing to think that this may be the last time (at least for the near future) that we hear him rapping over a Dilla beat. Dude can rip a Jay Dee instrumental like few others, but the good news is that he's left us with a take on Dilla's The World that is tremendous. Here it is, along with two other tracks that were originally intended for the mixtape:
The original version of this song was cut from Street's Disciple after Nas was unable to clear the Isley Brother's sample.
Bless is now hard at work on a follow up to his debut album Starving Artist. He's also in the process of putting out a collaborative album with Chris Randall that will be more along the lines of the two electronica singles that he shared with us a couple of weeks ago (you can listen to them here).
33Jones is looking for djs to submit their mixes. We will host and feature the mix on our site. If you are interested, please
e-mail us by clicking here.
