After speaking to Dr. Butcher again the other week, he revealed that he’d located a copy of the song he produced for LL Cool J in 1993, which went on to be remixed by QDIII and included on his fifth album, and generously agreed to allow me to share it with the world.
Dr. Butcher: I produced a song called ‘The Soul Survivor’ for him on the 14 Shots To The Dome album, with C4. Me and C4 – the guy who did [Akinyele’s] ‘Put It In Your Mouth’ – were production partners. I was going to C4’s house one day to work on some music, and LL was shooting his first video from that album on Farmer’s Boulevard, and C4 lived on Farmers Boulevard at the time. I got off the bus and saw him and I was like, ‘Yo! What’s up!’ We was always real cool, whenever he had time he would always come see me, but he had been so busy we hadn’t seen each other in a while. So he’s asking, ‘Where you going?’ and I’m like ‘To my production partner’s house right down the street’. When we originally did the track, we sampled JDL from the Cold Crush Brothers saying, ‘The L baby, baby, the L baby, baby!’That was the first song I ever produced, I didn’t know how to use machines at the time. We had just got an Ensoniq and was learning what to do. It was rough around the edges. As soon as he heard the track he just sat down, got a pen and pad and wrote the song right on the spot. He was like, ‘Yo, we’re goin’ to the studio tomorrow, gimme your information.’ So I had to go get attorney’s and set-up publishing companies and we were in the studio the next day, recording. It happened that fast.
He’s coming off these multi-platinum albums and he was just a little nervous because everything else is all pristine and played with instruments, then you’ve got this other stuff that’s filtered and gutter-sounding, so he went in and let QDIII remix the song. I have to say I agree with LL for not using it! [laughs] He was like, ‘Because you’re my friend, I told Q I still want your name on it’, so we all ended-up splitting the production credits, but I was never that crazy about QD3’s version. Everybody that heard it loved that track, cos it had a street feel to it – they started leaking the song out and you would walk down Jamaica Avenue and frequently hear people riding by, playing our version of that song.
Here’s the retail, remixed version:
Great stuff from Unkut, as usual.
I love the original just as much as the remix !! The original needs to be updated and released on Uncle L’s new shit for those who slept on 14 Shots To The Dome.
Dope. 14 Shots is my shit. The last L albumi fuck with. Funkadelic Relic is classic
THX DR. BUTCHER.
I prefer the OG Version.
Butchers version gets the win easily….
nice beat by one of the most underrated producers.
yo robbie, ask dr. butcher if there’s more grimm reaper stuff produced by him that needs to be unearthed.
btw, is c4 the same guy as cj moore?
All the Grimm stuff was used on ‘Scars and Memories.’ C4 is not CJ Moore, but he’s worked with both of them.
Kayempee…. CJ Moore was lead rapper for a Tommy Boy based group called Black By Demand. We became production partners after I produced Kool G Rap ‘ s 4,5,6 album. He brought a lot to the table because he can produce, write and engineer all at a high level. I recommend you look for his solo record titled “No Question”. It’s one of the hottest underground records ever.
As for MF Grimm, I am not in possession of any unreleased material but we are preparing to work together in the very near future.
WOW, Thank you Dr. Butcher for this and all your amazing production. Been waiting on this for years.
Thank you Robbie for bringing this to the masses.
Props to Dr Butcher for coming through with the OG version. Thanks to Robbie for always asking the right questions that lead to these kind of discoveries.
thanks to dr. butcher and robbie for the quick answers.
i used to spin bbd’s “can’t get enough” a lot back in the days…wasn’t paul c involved in these recordings?
@dr. butcher: great news that you team up with grimm again!
No, CJ and Paul C both worked out of 1212 Recordings Studio’s in Jamaica. CJ, wrote and produced his own material. “No Question” was released during the late 90’s / early 2000’s and was regularly featured on Stretch and Bobbito’s radio show. I’ve been trying to get him to post it to YouTube but no such luck..lololol. We may be able to get him to move on it after he reading this post.
Butcher
I just hope that was really Dr. Butcher commenting. Hahhaha
Can u give us a download link to this song. thanks