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When Jay-Z made the acapellas to his American Gangster album available, it predictably led to a wave of remixes put together by everyone from established legends like K-Def to a horde of "bedroom" producers looking to make a name for themselves. I did my best to catalog as many of the various takes on American Gangster as I could before remix fatigue set in, but there were a few worthy efforts that I never had a chance to cover. One of them, in fact, turned out to be among the few that I still listen to: Crooklyn Gangster by producer Small Professor (no relation to Extra P).
Recently, Small Pro hit me up with a link to his latest project, a full remixing of Philly rapper Has-Lo's EP Fuck Has Day. The EP originally came out last year, with Has-Lo handling both the lyrical and production duties by himself. I must admit I have not heard the EP in its original form (a quick search on google suggests that I was apparently one of the few not to get a promo copy), though the one bit of criticism I managed to dig up concerned the beats. I can't speak on his capabilities as a producer, but Has-Lo unquestionably has skills on the mic. Whatever the original version may be lacking in the beat department is remedied by Small Pro's remixes, which continue to showcase his considerable talents behind the boards.
Since a large portion of the people reading this site are unsigned rappers, I thought one track in particular would go over well. It's Has-Lo's shoutout to all of the emcees out there hustling for a record deal:
Has-Lo - Unsigned Emcees (Small Professor remix)
The second track I'm putting up serves as a nice display of Has-Lo's storytelling abilities. It's reminiscent of DMX's Damien:
Has-Lo - Hands (Small Professor remix)
The rest of the tracks on the EP are quite good, and Small Pro has made the remixed version available for free so there's no excuse not to grab a copy:
D/L Has-Lo's Fuck Has Day (remixed but still fucked) EP (zShare link)
For more remixes and original beats from Small Professor, including his take on American Gangster, stop by his MySpace page. While you're at it, swing by Has-Lo's MySpace page and show some love there, too.
5/20/2007 07:10:01 PM posted by Fresh