"Paparazzi"...Peace!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5xJBKVGTGs

... of that Sopranos episode in season 1, when the paparazzi is (are ?) watching the whole crew at a funeral. Perfect song choice for that moment. Amazing song in general.

Xzibit is underrated as hell, IMO. He had a couple low moments in the middle of his career but for the most part I think all his albums are really really solid. Obviously the first 3 being the highest of the high.

But album-quality levels aside he's just dope as hell on the mic and has great voice and presence.

Thought Paparazzi was dope. And I liked What You See is What You Get but never thought to buy the album.

When I moved out to California I picked up the album and thought it was real dope. Got me through a lot of late night coding sessions at work.

I still pull it out every now and then. Most of it has aged pretty well to my ears.

Now Restless was a let down for me, especially since he had just become affiliated with Aftermath. I thought the Dre collabs would be out of this world, like on What's the Difference?, but in the end I think it weakened his style. He was still hardcore but to me some of his humor and edge were lost.

Really dug Multiply off of Man v Machine. But after that I lost track of his career.

But like you said, those first three albums were / are dope.

I think it’s one of the best examples of an MC riding that line of underground and mainstream.

X was still killing it and the beats bang.

if Get Your Walk On doesn’t get you hype the I don’t know what to tell you lol

>I think it’s one of the best examples of an MC riding that
>line of underground and mainstream.

^^^ never thought of it that way but that's def a super on point observation. He took the Dre/Em/Snoop co-sign and used it to his advantage but at no time on that album did I feel like he'd sold out his own voice and sound just for the exposure. He was still very much X on that album, just with some different production and it was dope as fuck. It's a credit to both X's ability to know what his lane was and stay in it while still sounding fresh, and Dre's allowing him to do his thing while still getting him some shine.


>X was still killing it and the beats bang.
>
>if Get Your Walk On doesn’t get you hype the I don’t know
>what to tell you lol

Hell yea. I vividly remember they released snippets of each track for this album (did it for a lot of albums around that time IIRC), like maybe 10-20 seconds each just prior to the album dropping. And when Get Your Walk On came on I almost jumped out pf my damn seat haha.

i remember hearing an earlier version of the song that I liked better. it was the same basic beat but there were some minor changes. that song is so dope though.

And now I wish I could remember the changes. Cause I felt the same way you did, that the changes weren't necessary and the original snippet sounded better.

Same thing happened w/Chronic 2001, "What's the Difference" had some changes in the beat during the hook and I remember being pissed about it. Haha.


>i remember hearing an earlier version of the song that I
>liked better. it was the same basic beat but there were some
>minor changes. that song is so dope though.

Restless, to me, wasn't as good as 40 Days and 40 Nights. But I liked the song with Dre, the song with KRS, and the Em song.

I just thought 40 Days was a better album.

... At the Speed of Life came out and he wasn't exactly on the national scene at that time so I never got put onto it. My first X exposure was the "What U See Is What u Get" video and I was on board from there.


>Thought Paparazzi was dope. And I liked What You See is What
>You Get but never thought to buy the album.
>
>When I moved out to California I picked up the album and
>thought it was real dope. Got me through a lot of late night
>coding sessions at work.
>
>I still pull it out every now and then. Most of it has aged
>pretty well to my ears.
>
>Now Restless was a let down for me, especially since he had
>just become affiliated with Aftermath. I thought the Dre
>collabs would be out of this world, like on What's the
>Difference?, but in the end I think it weakened his style. He
>was still hardcore but to me some of his humor and edge were
>lost.

I wasn't disappointed, I had kinda prepared myself for a change in his sound just cause of the new crew. But I was so onboard with everything Dre/Snoop/Em/etc. were doing at the time (plus the Chronic and west coast g-funk sound is what got me into hip-hop in the first place) that it didn't matter. And to me it felt like a perfect marriage despite the slight shift in his sound.


>Really dug Multiply off of Man v Machine. But after that I
>lost track of his career.
>
>But like you said, those first three albums were / are dope.

The lead singles didn't work, but that album has some heat. Give it a spin.

Full Circle wasn't bad either...

>The lead singles didn't work, but that album has some heat.
>Give it a spin.
>
>Full Circle wasn't bad either...

I feel like his beefs w/Snoop and Em and them stalled his career cause folks weren't co-signing him and getting him the necessary exposure anymore. But he still dropped some heat on both those albums and while they weren't on par with the first 3, they still had some really high highs. He never really fell off.

Even gave Napalm a spin sometime last year and really liked it.

>Thought Paparazzi was dope. And I liked What You See is What
>You Get but never thought to buy the album.

Those songs are on two separate albums. Or were you saying you thought Paparazzi was dope, but not dope enough to check out the album it was on, but What You See made you want to check out what album it was on because you liked it more?

>
>When I moved out to California I picked up the album

The album?

Again the two songs you mentioned above are on two separate albums. This whole thread is confusing me a bit.

Peace,

Spirit
http://wutangbook.com

I forgot about a lot of stuff from season 1. Tony actually seems like a decent guy at the end of the first season, his mom is so awful.

And actually what you said about how decent Tony seemed at the end of s1 is one of my main complaints about the way the series ended. Not talking about the final episode specifically (which I loved), but rather just the general feel and tone of the final season (both parts) overall. For the first 5 seasons, there was obviously a lot of disturbing subject matter, dark themes, and hatetable actions/characters, but there was also always a sort of secondary undertone of humor and joy. I laughed out loud at so many Sopranos moments in those first 5 seasons.

The final season was almost 100% darkness and misery, with very little of the first 5 seasons' trademark goofiness and humor. I missed that.

I still loved the last season, to be sure ... and thought everything was exceptionally well put together throughout both parts of s6. But upon revisiting the series beginning to end a couple of times, I noticed just how far the series shifted to straight up darkness in that final season.

Obviously I understand that the storylines explored in s6 (the war with NY/Tony being a marked man, etc.) don't really lend themselves to a lot of humor, I just didn't expect that they would ditch the fun entirely.

Hit the record button FAST!

Agree with everything homie Brew said.

40 Dayz is one of my favorite albums ever.

>Hit the record button FAST!
>
>Agree with everything homie Brew said.
>
>40 Dayz is one of my favorite albums ever.

And the "near" may not even be necessary. That shit bangs from start to finish. I remember being out on the lake with my family and just listening to that album non-stop for weeks at a time the summer between 8th grade and my freshman year.

I mean, I never liked Pussy Pop but other than that...perfection.

The beats are ridiculous.

3 Card Molly
What U See
Handle Ur Bizness
Focus
Deeper
LA Times
Recycled Assassins

Joints are amazing!

>I mean, I never liked Pussy Pop but other than
>that...perfection.

... that said, I def remember thinking it was kinda ... out of place when I first listened haha. So I feel you there.


>The beats are ridiculous.
>
>3 Card Molly
>What U See
>Handle Ur Bizness
>Focus
>Deeper
>LA Times
>Recycled Assassins
>
>Joints are amazing!

Riiiiiiiiight all of that shit ! Even the "Inside Job" track does it for me.

I had "Focus" on my high school hoops team's pregame warmup tape for a long time. Shit got me going.

3 Card Molly & LA Times were prolly my two favorites.

Man I'm about to listen to this whole joint tomorrow haha. Been a while.

The Method Man feature.

Obviously the song title didn’t help but imagining X and Meth on the same joint had me hype!

Then we got this radio friendly bullshit with no Meth verse.

I was looking for an Extortion/Eyes May Shine remix type of joint.

And yes...Inside Job is dope!

>The Method Man feature.
>
>Obviously the song title didn’t help but imagining X and
>Meth on the same joint had me hype!
>
>Then we got this radio friendly bullshit with no Meth verse.

Like the label had juuuust enough money for a feature, not enough for a verse. Then nevermind then ! Fuck. I never understood that.


>I was looking for an Extortion/Eyes May Shine remix type of
>joint.

Hell yea. Eyes May Shine is a top 5-10 X song for me.


>And yes...Inside Job is dope!

20 year anniversary retrospective I wrote about "40 Dayz..." last year.

https://www.albumism.com/features/xzibit-40-dayz-and-40-nightz-turns-20-anniversary-retrospective

It was a good read.

I didn't realize Golden State Project was even signed to Aftermath much less had recorded material. Another case of a business decision Dre made that's a head-scratcher. Unless the material was just plain wack, I can't think it wouldn't have at least gone Gold. But it seemed with Aftermath at that time it's either Diamond or bust.

Peace,

Spirit (Alan)
http://wutangbook.com

I was just commenting on how much I love 40 Dayz

I figured if you were talking about Paparazzi and a discussion of an Xzibit album came up, you would talk about At The Speed of Life, but you were talking about 40 Days instead. Kinda like someone going from talking about “Rock with You” to saying how much they liked Thriller as an album. Since you didn’t mention At the Speed Of Life as a body of work, does that mean you didn’t like that album? Or maybe it wasn’t that memorable for you as a record?

Peace,

Spirit (Alan)
http://wutangbook.com

I replied 3rd after Brew and co-signed what he said and then added on to his discussion about Xzibits first three albums.

I guess I should’ve replied directly to him as opposed to after him but I didn't anticipate having to waste time explaining something like this to you.

I did like ATSOL but I never thought it was the classic that I was expecting at the time it dropped.

I always like 40 Dayz much more as a whole.

I always preferred Life to 40 Days, but opinions are subjective.

Peace,

Spirit (Alan)
http://wutangbook.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvaofIZ0HBE

Handle Your Time
https://youtu.be/VEvpbm2w2R8

25 To Life
https://youtu.be/BzGXCMa4GVs

This is kind of a microcosm of just how perfect the Dre/Xzibit marriage was. Dre did a great job maintaining his own signature sound of the early 00s while still crafting the song to sound quintessentially Xzibit. Great fucking song.

I have 40 Dayz slightly ahead of At the Speed. Still mad the project with Ras and Saafir never became a reality. Loved Plastic surgery!

His first two albums (especially 40 days) were huge for me.

Any workout mix I've ever made has had a healthy helping of Xzibit on there (Los Angeles Times above all). The bars, the voice, the flow you can't listen to a verse and not want to do at least 10 push-ups.

It's a shame that his later albums weren't nearly as consistent but even his lesser stuff still has at least a few fire tracks on it.

I still fuck w/ his old Wake Up Show/Basement Freestyles on Youtube from time to time too

Wake Up Show Freestyle
https://youtu.be/EvIr5XVVVIo?t=165

Yeah dude has SO much energy

Peace,

Spirit (Alan)
http://wutangbook.com

Pure fire if anybody could mix those two performances

Also, Adding Xzibit to a workout mix is a brilliant idea

Peace,

Spirit (Alan)
http://wutangbook.com

but that's the first time I've ever REALLY watched the video.

Damn this and What You See Is What you Get should have gotten way more acclaim for their videos

He shined albeit in a supporting role in "Sun Dogs" on Netflix. Interesting movie.