J.Cole "Birthday Blizzard '26" (EP Stream)

Birthday Blizzard ‘26 is a four-track surprise EP of freestyles released by J. Cole in celebration of his 41st birthday and in anticipation of his seventh and "final" album, The Fall-Off. The EP is hosted by Queens' own, DJ Clue. On the brief project, Cole raps over four classic Bad Boy instrumentals, particularly The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Who Shot Ya?,” Diddy’s “Victory,” and The LOX’s “Can I Live” and “Money, Power, Respect.” The EP was first teased by Jadakiss on his podcast, Joe and Jada, with Fat Joe, announcing that Cole would be tearing up some classic instrumentals from The Lox. Cole has utilized unique marketing approaches for his projects in past years, so I expect more of the same for The Fall Off. In past years, I've discussed DJ Clue's Birthday Blizzard '94 and Birthday Blizzard '96 mixtapes, so this is a nice nostalgic full-circle moment. Stay tuned for The Fall Off in February. 

DJ Clue "The Ruler's Back Part II" (Mixtape, 1999)

The Ruler's Back Part II was released in 1999 by Queens' own, DJ Clue?. As I said when I shared Part 1, DJ Clue was at the top of the mix tape game at the time, in my opinion. We've made it clear that he wasn't the most technical DJ, and his mixes were FAR from DJ-driven, they were impactful on the streets because of the exclusivity of the music. He had his go-to guy, Fabolous, drop an exclusive freestyle, then he took it back to Queens for tracks with Noreaga, Nas, Mobb Deep, Run DMC, 50 Cent, and Mic Geronimo, as well as other tracks from Puff Daddy, The LOX, Foxy Brown, Jay-Z, Memphis Bleek, Eve, Major Figgas, Raekwon, G-Dep, DMX, Black Rob, Half-A-Mil, Method Man & Redman and more. Maybe it's the nostalgia speaking, but this one got burn throughout Queens for obvious reasons, and I like revisiting that feeling by running it back. You can do the same below...

DJ Clue "The 4,5,6 Goin' For Broke" (Mixtape, 1996)

Right now, I'm revisiting DJ Clue’s 1996 mix-tape, The 4,5,6 Goin’ For Broke. DJ Clue set it off with a freestyle with Nas and Nature, then classics from Mobb Deep, Ghostface Killah, Lil’ Kim, Akinyele, KRS-One, Nas, Keith Murray, Capone-N-Noreaga, M.O.P., Raekwon and another freestyle from Jay-Z. On the B-Side, Clue smoothes it on the R&B tip with tracks from 112, Keith Sweat, D’Angelo, Monica, and Mona Lisa before jumping back into hip-hop with other cuts from Dr. Dre, Redman, McGruff, Big Noyd and more. I remember the first time I heard Mobb Deep's "Drop A Gem On Em," and thinking they came correct going at 2Pac. They pushed the song to radio and had plans to do a video, but then 2Pac died, and rightfully so, they switched the single to the title track from Hell On Earth. Nevertheless, smart as he was, DJ Clue front-loaded all of his mix-tapes with the rawest shit and set it off lovely! It was definitely a moment, so dig back into The 4,5,6 Goin' For Broke below... 

DJ Clue "Show Me The Money" (Mixtape, 1997)

Another one from Queens' DJ Clue from 1997, Show Me The Money. Featuring dope exclusive freestyles from The Lox, Mase, Nature, Jay-Z, and Sauce Money, plus the worldwide exclusive of "Hypnotize" from The Notorious B.I.G.; joints from Lil' Kim, Foxy Brown, Buckshot, Capone-N-Noreaga, Cormega, Rampage, Cru, Allure & Nas, Mary J. Blige, Large Professor, Genovesee, Redman, Darkside and more. Lots of joints on this one! I remember running "Pronto" from Cru super hard that whole summer. "Genovese Thesis" too. Rest In Peace, Notorious B.I.G. Listen to the mix below...

DJ Clue "Spring Pt. 2 The Payback" (Mixtape, 1996)

There's a decent amount of confusion about this tape on the net, discrepancies about the tape's title and the actual tracklist. Unfortunately, I don't have all the original tapes to compare artwork and tracklists, so I'll leave that argument to someone else. Ultimately, this '96 banger right here features a blend of hip-hop and RNB from the likes of LL Cool J, Nas, RZA, Heather B, Jay-Z, McGruff, Erick Sermon, Mobb Deep, Raekwon, Smoothe Da Hustler, Busta Rhymes, Foxy Brown, Artifacts, 112, Skin Deep, SWV, Toni Braxton, A Tribe Called Quest, Gina Thompson, Pete Rock, Darkside, Blahzay Blahzay and the Fugees, amongst others. This is another tape I probably had a bootleg cassette rip of and ran all summer in '96. Once again, I took it with me off to Hofstra for my freshman year of college. That Side B was in heavy rotation as it had a lot of crossover records that seemed to play well for the ladies, too. Tony Touch had a similar tape at the time, I honestly can't remember which was better but they both had joints! Listen to this throwback mixtape below...

DJ Clue "The Ruler's Back, Part 1" (Mixtape, 1999)

DJ Clue was on top of the world in the mixtape game at the time, this is 1999's The Ruler's Back, Part One. Clue dropped the tape through Tape Kingz and it features tracks from The Notorious B.I.G., Puff Daddy, Lil' Kim, Ja Rule, Lil' Cease, Mobb Deep, Half-A-Mil, Cam'ron, 50 Cent, The Lox, Nature, Noreaga, Ali Vegas, Eminem and more. This tape had 50's How To Rob on it and it went bonkers at the time. It was also basically a marketing tool for Puff and Bad Boy Records, you'll hear half the tape is Bad Boy artists. Lowkey, I still remember thinking people slept on that Lil' Cease album at the time, although I haven't really revisited it in forever. Listen to The Ruler's Back below...

The Firm "The Firm Album" (Cassette Sampler, 1997)

"The Firm was like this hip-hop supergroup. All three of them - Nas, AZ, and Foxy Brown - had reached a level of success by this time, so getting the three of them together was a real challenge. AZ was an hour late, Nas was an hour late, and Foxy was even later, like hours and hours, so I decided to work with AZ and Nas first and got some individual shots. I remember Nas was wearing this big "QB" (Queensbridge) medallion. I shot this at Sony Studios soundstage. I was always really inspired by the Blue Note albums, so I used filters for the lights and also added a filter on the lens, and that gives it the red tone. When you apply red filters to black-and-white photos in particular, it does something really magical to skin tones." - Jamil GS (Contact High). Just about anything that could be said of The Firm's 1997 group album has already been said, surely, but just wanted to revisit the album on its anniversary and aside from the photoshoot above, also share the original album sampler (via cassette) that was hosted by DJ Clue and released to promote the LP. It's dope that Cormega is back in the fold of things and is featured on the King's Disease LP. Of course, respect to Nature, who had one of the best mix tape runs at that time. He bodied everything he touched on those early Clue mix tapes. Anyhow, released on 10/21/97.... listen to the sampler below.

Firm Biz ad from The Source's cover issue with Nas, Foxy & AZ...

DJ Clue "Holiday Holdup" (Mixtape, 1996)

DJ Clue released his Holiday Holdup mixtape in 1996. The tape kicks off with an exclusive freestyle from Nature of The Firm, and goes into tracks with Nas, The Firm, Puff Daddy, Ghostface Killah, Lost Boyz, Tragedy Khadafi, Redman, Mobb Deep & Raekwon, Keith Murray, Lil' Kim, Foxy Brown, Allure, Faith Evans, Total, A Tribe Called Quest, New Edition, Jay-Z, Big Noyd, Jaz, The LOX, McGruff, and more. Lots of smooth tracks on this one, sit back and dig into DJ Clue's Holiday Holdup '96 below...

DJ Clue "The Professional" (Bio/Press Kit, 1998)

"It's all about knowing that a song is hot before other people," says Clue. Do you remember when DJs broke records? Yup, that was a thing - pardon my sarcasm to the younger cats reading. I've said this before, but NO ... I was never DJ Clue's biggest fan; but acknowledged that he always knew where his strengths were, and that was at getting the exclusives and breaking records in the mixtape era of rap. Smart in business, too, for sure - he started his tape series at #24, making heads think they were already behind on discovering his tapes, lol ... then, navigating and capturing market share with every new tape he released, flipping that into a radio show, label deal, etc etc all without a visit from the Feds. Revisiting "The Professional," which was released on Roc-A-Fella Records in 1998, tracks from DMX + Ruff Ryders, Nas, Nature, Big Pun + Cam'Ron + Noreaga + Canibus, Jay-Z, Memphis Bleek, and more carried what were always front-loaded mixes. In the mix-tape days, you wanted to be in the top 5-8 tracks because we'd just run them back, over and over as the hottest of what was new at the time. The favorite track for most is normally "Fantastic 4," but I was a Queens cat, I went straight to "Queens Finest" with Nas (and that Nature track was flames, too) ... "Get brains with the f#ckin Hilfiger, nah..." In business, being first is a huge advantage.

DJ Clue "Blizzard '94" (Mixtape, 1994)

I posted DJ Clue's Blizzard '96 a couple years ago, today I'm diggin' back to his Blizzard '94 tape. It makes me smile to remember these moments in NYC, and that Clue was smart enough to build nostalgia into his titles was genius. This Clue tape includes joints from Pudgee The Phat Bastard, Grand Puba, Ice Cube, Nas, Mic Geronimo, A Tribe Called Quest, The Notorious B.I.G., Gang Starr, Grand Daddy I.U., Shyheim, Akinyele, Tha Alkaholiks, Snoop Doggy Dogg, N-Tyce, Das EFX, Black Moon, Wu-Tang Clan, Erick Sermon, KRS-One, and more! Dig into another mix from DJ Clue below...

DJ Clue "Summatyme Shootout, Pt.2" (Mixtape, 1995)

I posted DJ Clue's Summatyme Shootout Pt.1 a couple months back, so here's the second installment in this classic mix tape series, Summatyme Shootout Pt.2,  in 1995. The tape features tracks from Kool G Rap & Nas, Raekwon, Junior M.A.F.I.A., Ghostface Killah, Method Man & Redman, Onyx, Groove Theory, Lost Boyz, AZ, Money Boss Players, A Tribe Called Quest, Cash Money Click, Das EFX, Mobb Deep, Large Professor, Little Shawn, and more. These were big tapes at the time, dig into it below...

DJ Clue "Summatyme Shootout, Pt.1" (Mixtape, 1995)

Another Clue tape for ya... this is Summatyme Shootout (Pt.1). It was released in 1995, and features tracks from The Firm, Jay-Z, Lil' Kim, Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, Keith Murray, Ghostface Killah, KRS-One, Capone-N-Noreaga, Common, A+, Heltah Skeltah, Lost Boyz, The LOX, as well as R&B cuts from Shai, Horace Brown, 112, Gina Thompson and a freestyle to kick the tape off from Nas. Dig in below...

Nature "Queens Classics 2" (Album Stream)

I haven't stopped rockin' Volume 1 of Nature's "Queens Classics," now he's back with a second throwback release! More Queens hood classics with tracks featuring Half A Mil (R.I.P.), Styles P, Nas, Pete Rock, Noreaga, Fat Joe, FT, Capone-N-Noreaga, DJ Clue, Littles, 50 Cent & lots more. Hit the tags to dig up the first Queens Classic, and dig into this release below to get that old feeling back!

DJ Clue "Cluemanatti" (Mixtape, 1997)

I ran this tape a lot back in 1997; DJ Clue's "Cluemanatti!" It features bangers from AZ, Wu-Tang Clan, DMX & The LOX, Mobb Deep, Mic Geronimo, Lost Boyz, Sauce Money, Canibus, Capone-N-Noreaga, Tragedy Khadafi, Genovessee, EPMD, Fat Joe, The Notorious B.I.G., Redman, McGruff & lots, with plenty of exclusive freestyle mixed throughout. Maybe some of it is wrapped in memories I have from that time (Freshman year in college), but I still really enjoy listening to this mix tape, so dig into it below. Updated with a fresh, new audio link - thanks to DJStepOne's mixcloud page.

DJ Clue "You Can't Impeach The President" (Mixtape, 1999)

DJ Clue released "You Can't Impeach The President" as a mix tape back in 1999 via Tape Kingz. The mix features tracks from Fabolous, Nas & Puff (exclusive), The LOX, Beanie Siegel, Mephis Bleek, Ja Rule w/ DMX & Jay-Z, Mobb Deep, Nas, Eminem, Eve, Da Brat, Canibus, Cam'ron, Drag-On, Gang Starr, Prodigy, Made Men, Charli Baltimore, Ludacris and more. The presidency of Donald Trump began at noon EST today (January 20, 2017), when Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States, succeeding Barack Obama. Hopefully the title of this mix tape turns out to be wrong in retrospect. Much thanks to a few people who had already uploaded it, but I've updated the audio with DJ Step One's link because his rips are usually flawless! Listen to it below...

Foxy Brown 'BK Made Me' (Unreleased, 2001)

Back in '01, before Foxy Brown's album, 'Broken Silence,' DJ Clue blasted off 'BK Made Me.' The track sounded like Foxy near a breaking point and sharing her most inner thoughts. It was assumed to be on 'Broken Silence' when it dropped, but instead, there was a track called 'The Letter,' equally deep and personal, featuring vocals from Ronald Isley. It's possible they didn't think the album needed both or it was a sample issue, but 'BK Made Me' was left a mixtape-only cut on Clue's 'Stadium Series Pt.3.' Being that I heard it first and it wasn't included on the album, it always made me want a copy. The label wouldn't give it up, but I did track down a studio version a while after. Today, the production is somewhat dated, but my thoughts on the content (especially the first verse) remain as strong today as back then. 'Got dreams of ending this bitch, my life is miserable / Make me wanna end this shit, find my ass in critical...' Yeah, for an album called 'Broken Silence,' this track would have found a good home. “…Wish I was tall I could carry this load / In this cold f#ckin world I want to f#ckin explode / Guess it’s time for me to depart / I know it sounds strange but I / Served my purpose and I made my mark cuz…” Listen below for a tagless version of the track.

DJ Clue "The Great Ones" (Mixtape, 2000)

The Great Ones ended up being a 3-part series of mix tapes from DJ Clue, but this here is the 1st part, which was released in 2000 on cassette and CD. The mix includes freestyles from Jay-Z (2), Fabolous, Capone-N-Noreaga, and Canibus, as well as tracks from Beanie Sigel, Drag-On, Nature, Big Pun, Nas, Ghostface Killah, The LOX, Mya & Jadakiss, and more. Bootleggers had the CD everywhere! Even now, the talking over the music is just too much, but those were the times, lol.

DJ Clue "Scarecrow's Birthday" (Mixtape, 1994)

Takin' it to 1994, this original DJ Clue mix tape is special, because it kicks off with The Notorious B.I.G. threatening DJ Clue on Hot 97. The story has been told a few times - at least behind the scenes - where Biggie was looking for Clue over him leaking some joints from "Ready To Die." Whether a .22 was involved or not, we'll just say "allegedly" and R.I.P. Biggie. The mix features joints from Wu-Tang Clan, Black Moon, Nas, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Flatlinerz, Ill Al Skratch, Bas Blasta, Common, Heavy D, Da Youngsta's, Gravediggaz, A Tribe Called Quest, Jeru The Damaja, and more. I mean, it's the golden era - 1994 - you could throw a dart and land on some classic shit! Dig into it...

DJ Clue "Springtyme Stickup" (Mixtape, 1996)

I've always enjoyed this particular mix tape from DJ Clue; one of a few from his deep catalog of mixes. Not always my favorite on the technical side, but song selection and remembering back to hearing tracks for the very first time, yeah, it's all taken into account when I listen back on these joints two decades later. Clue's "Springtyme Stickup" was released in '96, and features tracks from Jay-Z, Junior M.A.F.I.A., M.O.P., Heltah Skeltah, Lost Boyz, Onyx, Redman & Erick Sermon, KRS-One & Mad Lion, Smoothe Da Hustler, Big Noyd, Mic Geronimo, Akinyele, Royal Flush, and some smooth R&B cuts from SWV, Case & Foxy Brown, Horace Brown, etc. A nice representation of the diverse sounds gettin' burn in back in 1996, but of course, there was a level of underground not covered, you had to hit Fat Beats for that, lol. Listen to the mix tape below. Props again to the homie DJStepOne.

DJ Clue "Halloween Hold Up Pt.II" (Mixtape, 1995)

DJ Clue's Halloween Hold Up Pt.II is a mix tape from 1995. It features a solid list of tracks from artists such as Mobb Deep, LL Cool J, Smif-N-Wessun, Smoothe Da Hustler, Fat Joe, AZ, Total, KRS-One, Tha Dogg Pound, Das EFX, D'Angelo, GZA, Fugees, Erick Sermon, Akinyele, Ol' Dirty Bastard (R.I.P.), Mic Geronimo, Lord Finesse, and more. Props to J.Nickelz, listen to the DJ Clue tape below...