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A couple of weeks ago, I saw a copy of a new Clinton Sparks mixtape, Welcome To Bad Boy. After taking a glance at the track listing, I initially wasn't impressed with the lineup, filled with members from Bad Boy's JV Squad: Aasim, Ness and Cheri Dennis (who?). Then I saw this mixtape had two tracks featuring Biggie rapping alongside Ghostface and Raekwon, so I had to cop it.
As most of you probably know, after Biggie dropped his first album, Ghostface and Raekwon started throwing lyrical darts at him. They stuck with subliminal shots for the most part, though it was pretty clear that Raekwon and Ghost were talking about Big on the track Shark Niggas (on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, aka the Purple Tape), calling Big out for copying Nas' Illmatic album cover, biting the slang that Nas used on his tracks and drinking champagne in all of his videos. Apparently, Ghost and Rae were upset that Biggie had won most of the awards at that year's Source Awards -- once upon a time the Source Awards were relevant enough to actually start up arguments -- while Nas had not won anything. Its not clear why they were riding so hard for Nas, as Nas did not seem to be all that upset about it.
Big never really said anything about the beef publically. You can make the case that the Ready to Die cover was inspired by Illmatic, but it would be hard to prove that Big was biting Nas' slang. They were both from NY, so you'd expect them to use a lot of the same words, na'mean dunny?
Now that Biggie has passed and can't do anything about it, I guess Diddy thought it was ok for Ghost and Rae to appear on a track with him. Its probably a good thing that Puffy is settling all these old beefs, as it looks like 50 Cent is about to drop a new mixtape next week, filled with a bunch of tracks aimed at Bad Boy.
This track, 3 Bricks, was originally meant for the Biggie Duets album. For whatever reason, it didn't make the cut, so its now relegated to Promotional Mixtape status. I remember when the bootleg Purple Tape first came out, it looked like it was going to blow up as much as the Pac/Biggie beef eventually did. Its weird hearing Ghost now shout out, "The Legacy of B.I.G.!"
3 Bricks
Welcome To Bad Boy is actually a decent mixtape. Clinton Sparks is one of the top mixtape djs these days, as he actually puts some effort into the production end of things and his voiceovers aren't too annoying. You can pick the mixtape up here.
6/23/2006 10:15:29 AM posted by Fresh