I was digging through the (virtual) crates and came up on my man Stitch’s EP, Before We Go Any Further. This is a true gem from a producer I really respect and admire. This has never been released before and I asked Stitch if it would be cool to share it here on the blog. Not only was he down but he was MAD DOWN and excited for ya’ll to hear some of his earlier work.

Stitch says,

HOLY SHIT!!! Yes those are all mine. What a trip, I havent heard those tunes in YEARS!

I added a little bonus: “G-Way” featuring Philly MC’s, Indy 500 & Peedi Crakk (now known as Peedi Peedi). This particular track was produced by the Superchimps — That’s Stitch and Benny Brows. And that’ll in fact be the *next* EP I’ll be uploading next week.

But for now, dig into Stitch’s EP of raw beats. I love this album and I’m glad ya’ll can check it out too!

Download:
» Stitch – “Before We Go Any Further” [35.2M, LAME MP3-V2(VBR)]

See also:
• High-res cover art

Check it:

I love working with Maylay aka Rahsheed. He’s one of my favorite Philly MC’s of all time. So he and I started this track together and he came up with the verse: “Don’t talk shit / pull ya cash out”…As I was listening to it I was like, “Shit, know who else would rip this track? Reef.”

I had never worked with Reef, so I hollered at him and sent him a rough copy of what Rahsheed and I had done already. Reef was like, “Bet.” But even better: Reef was going to be in town in a week for a show, so I arranged some studio time with my engineer to cut the vocals.

First of all, if you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Reef yet, he’s mad funny. Right off the bat, he was cracking jokes. But then homie pulls out his Sidekick and I’m like, “Oh shit, is he reading his lyrics off his two-way??” Lol. Homeboy hits the booth and is kicking his shits right off the screen. I don’t know, maybe I’m slow with it, but that was the first time I saw that.

So word, Reef comes in, smacks his verse up and the song is sounding pretty damn dope at this point. But it needed cuts…I always wanted cuts on it cause I knew it was gonna be kindof raw. DJ Icewater is my go-to DJ, so it was a no-brainer.

I knew I wanted that “What-What-What?” on Maylay’s verse to invoke some some good, classic shit talking (“I been at it 20 years / your catalog is a fraction / your catalog is a fraction / your catalog is a fraction!”). Reminded me of popping junk in the arcade over a game of Street Fighter. Then for the cuts at the end I told Icewater, “All you, mang” and he kilt it…

So there ya go. “Pull Ya Cash Out”. Definitely a highlight of the new record for me personally. We recorded the song on November 7th, 2008, literally days after Barack Obama was elected President. Later that night, Reef performed at Slim’s here in San Francisco and rocked the Barack Obama t-shirt my jawn got him on stage (pics here).

Mr. Matt Kelley on the engineering tip, FYI. Hope ya’ll like it. Hit off the comments and let me know what you think! One!

Check out the video Rich posted on YouTube:

Also presented with awards were Bahamdia, Stacey Wilson, Taayib Smith of Two One Five Magazine, SetFree Richardson of Undercrwn and more.

Congrats to all. And big ups to the Philly Tourism Bureau for looking out for Philly artists that have been putting it down for years.

So here are the videos, complete with young bucks Ahmir Brother ? and Tariq Black Thought. Not to mention a long-haired Scott Storch and former Roots member, Kid Crumbs aka Kenyatta.

Pass The Popcorn:

Anti-Circle: