DJ Premier "So Wassup?" ("Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers" Episode)

DJ Premier's popular web-series, So Wassup?, continues with his latest tribute to the floppy disc... this time breaking down the making of his popular track, "Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers" from 1995. Gonna take you back to Brooklyn... Spike Lee's film, Clockers - As Premo tells it, Spike reached out for a Part 2 with Jeru, Chubb Rock and O.C. of D.I.T.C. After seeing the film, DJ Premier crafted the beat for the soundtrack. He thought about sadness and what goes on in the neighborhood. The disc says, "Crooklyn Dodgers II" before it was called "Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers" to separate it from the original with Buckshot, Special Ed and Masta Ace. From the piano, strings and bell, Premo felt he captured the emotion and essence + the bounce to his drums. The video was shot in Fort Greene, Brooklyn and as they say, the rest is history. Check out Premier's full video episode below...

Crooklyn Dodgers "Crooklyn" (Review, 1994)

When you hear: "Straight from Crooklyn, better known as Brooklyn / Never takin' shorts, 'cause Brooklyn's the borough," you know it's gonna be epic! Ya know how else you know? "Masta Ace and Buckshot on a Q-Tip track? That's reason enough to get up on this single. Add that to the long-awaited return of "the magnificent" Special Ed, and you know the shit must be monumental. And "Crooklyn" won't let you down. The Abstract's beat is all bassline hypnosis and layers of loops. As the groove creates the aura, all 3 lyricists take their task to heart as they reflect on that "70s thing from the days when kids didn't act so craze / in Crooklyn." As the first single off the soundtrack of Spike Lee's new movie, the song has nothing to do with the film and the film has nothing to do with crooks (it's about family life in Brooklyn), but whatever's clever." - The Source, cont'd below...

"Panic / As another manic depressant / Adolescent / Stares at death 

Now what's left / When there ain't no God and a whole lotta pride?
It might be a homicide / So let the drama / Slide 

We don't want no problems, B / Get your name in the obituary columns, see 

Cuz life is too short / And it gets shorter / I wish I had a quarter 

for all my people they slaughter / Last year alone / In the dead zone 

Walk straight, but don't walk late 

Cuz I'm comin' with a hate only made / From what it made me 

Cuz nobody ever played me / Now it's only gettin' worse 

Buckshot and Ace in the land of the waste
Kickin' you in your face!"