Z-TRIP-“The Iller Sessions”
Posted on September 27th, 2008 by ekko“The Iller Sessions” arrived in a plain brown envelope, with no press information. The websites printed on the album aren’t helpful either. What the hell is this? I know Z-Trip; he’s a fantastic remixer/blend DJ who did a great version of the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” several years ago. But here, he’s assembled some of the greatest under-the-bubble names of the 1990s, providing brand new cuts by the likes of Digital Underground, Jurassic 5, The Black Sheep, DMC (of Run DMC), Rasco, Supernatural . . . The list goes on.
Some key tracks are the album opener, “At the Party,” a shout-out party jam by Macklemore, an artist with a steady flow who, I confess, I’ve never of before.
Rasco spits fire, as usual, on the gangsta-gettin-money cut, “Let’s Get It.” “I get big bags, You get one gram/Your shit is off beat/I came to sweep cats right off they own street.” It’s not like
you’ve never heard Rasco drop lyrics like these before, but he does it so well. A surprise for me was “Reminisce,” by Tru Fam. I’ve never been a big fan of back-in-the-day songs, but Tru manages to make this one count in a modern way: “Losing your life for a street corner is not funny/The neighborhood I thought was mine, they came and snatched from me/Point the finger at yourself and how you act homie/They stole the love but I demand they give it back to me.”
Not every track is great. Digital Underground haven’t been very good in a very long time. But there’s more wheat than chaff here, and clocking in a 72 minutes, you can afford a few clunkers.
Another Friendly Game of Baseball (Remix) – Large Pro
And an old Z-Trip remix:
Motown Breakdown Part I-Z-Trip
BONUS REVIEW: THE SHAKY HANDS
Before I close this post, I thought I’d name-drop a pretty cool new release by The Shaky Hands titled “Lunglight.” It comes out on November 10, and it’s got some interesting stuff on it. I can’t say it seems fully formed to me, but there’s enough indie rocking going on to satisfy, that’s for sure.
Comment By: MJ Harris
October 7th, 2008 at 3:13 am
Sorry to hear you weren’t feelin’ the project… here’s some more information for you. It turns out this compilation illegally uses tracks from certain artists. Here at Jake Records, we gave no clearance to anyone to use the Blue Skyy single which appears on the new Digital Underground album “..Cuz A d.u. Party Don’t Stop!” and while you may not like what d.u. has done lately, I can tell you the label wouldn’t have approved of its use in this weird mix of music. The sessions are not ill, when they’re stolen.
Comment By: David
October 9th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
In response to the MJ Harris comment, he is wrong. Shock G of Digital Underground gave Iller Clothing the rights to use the song "Blue Skyy" on the Iller Sessions compilation. This was before Shock G did a deal with Jake Records for the full DU album. I just spoke with Jake Records ceo Scott Thomas and everything is cool. Maybe you shouldn't fly off the handle and research & talk to everyone first so you can have all the facts before you post on a public forum. The Iller Sessions album is a good album and the new Digital Underground album is a good album. I suggest people support both albums and both record labels.
Dave Paul
Bomb Hip-Hop Records
Comment By: ekko
October 10th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
For the record: I did like some of the record, just not the entire thing. And what I did like, I liked a lot.
I hope you two can figure this out. There’s enough problems in the music industry without us all fighting each other.
Comment By: colin
October 16th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
yo just to get it straight – iller is a hip hop company out of seattle USA and Glasgow UK .. they produce clothing, music and sponsor a team of Djs and Producers including Rob Swift, Z-Trip, Cali Agents ..
find out more at
http://www.iller.cc/team.html
iller sessions is a hot album – those bean one remixes really work in a club!
Comment By: Anonymous
October 16th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Yo Check out dis Obama mix by Z-Trip