As I’m wont to do, I’vespent most of the morning perusing old rap lists on Passion of the Weiss. It’s a good way for the sorta-neophyte hip-hop head to educate himself on the history of the genre. Also, Jeff Weiss is probably the best hip-hop writer working today, and the lists give dude a chance to flex his technique. After all, what’s better for a writer than to critically freestyle over the finest source material?
His list of the 50 Greatest Producers of All Time is probably his best, since his penchant for digging up obscurities is ideally suited to the realm of the producer, where a hitmaker’s 15 minutes is more like 15 seconds. (What up, Polow da Don?) This lets him shed light on guys whose names don’t quite ring out like Just Blaze or the RZA, but who still produced some of the genre’s biggest bangers.
Case in point: Battlecat, a west coast veteran who Snoop apparently still has on speed dial, but who most certainly lacks Dre-level name recognition. Somebody named DJ Mike Biggs put together a tribute to the ‘cat (odd namesake, right?): A world-class display of that sweet-spot G-funk groove you love so much.
Put this on at work, and try not to lean back so hard you fall out of your chair.
Grab the mix here.
