CLE-BIZA

Even though I'm from Pittsburgh, I got love for Cleveland. Specifically, I got love for bona fide rap champs like Ray Cash, Al Fatz, Bone Thugs and more.

My boys The Kickdrums are behind a lot of the music coming out of the rap scene (including the ridonkulous mixtape Clangin and Swangin by Ray Cash) as well as some joints by 50 Cent if memory serves. They're branching out on some next shit- and when they slid me their new pop song Love is a Drug, I worked it into a new mixtape Skinny and I are finishing up. The way I blended it up on the tape sounded so good to me that I had to get Tilla's source tracks so I could just flip the whole damn thing.

The result is a remix/blend type joint that flips chunks of Eric Prydz's Euro rave anthem Pjanoo.



DJ Apt One - Drug Pjanoo (Kickdrums X Prydz)
Divshare | YSI | 320 kbps

Ray Cash - Cash Rules

Ray Cash - Cash Rules | Divshare | YSI | 135 kbps (VBR)

As much as I hate to admit it, I kinda like Cleveland, if only because it's a pillar of a Pittsburgh-grown existance. Every city has a city they look down on, and ours is Cleveland. Without it, we'd have a really hard time artificially generating appropriate levels of civic self-esteem. Skinny and I went to a Browns bar to watch a Steelers-Browns game last season and it was like being in a room full of Steelers fans from an alternate, failure-driven universe. Cleveland kind of feels the same way about us. We're two sides of the same coin, except you know, our side is shinier.

Which brings us to Ray Cash. Ray Cash is easily one of my favorite rappers out there in the game right now, and yes, he's from Cleveland. But the first time I heard Ray and the first time I heard Fat Al it was on WAMO driving back to see my folks from Philly. Something about Cleveland, it just produces real rap that's equal parts gully and thoughtful.

Cash Rules is a track off the Clangin and Swangin Mixtape, which dropped in '06. The tape is just sick all the way through and producers the Kickdrums have some really great flips of classic material, including Cash Rules. You can grab the tape here. Get it? "C.R.E.A.M." and his name is Ray Cash? Cash rules? Ray Cash? Gotta wonder how long dude had wanted to do that... but:

I AIN'T A RAPPER I JUST OFFER YOU GOOD COVERSATION

Beat that.