Download: A Salute To Big Jaz Productions

The career of The Jaz aka Big Jaz aka Jaz-O is tricky to summarize. On one hand, he had to deal with being eclipsed by his young protege, which is always going to be a blow to the ego. On the other hand, Jay-Z did seem to attempt to repay the favor by offering to put him on at Roc-A-Fella, even though Jaz turned down the deal and decided to air-out his former student and effectively get himself black-balled from the industry as a result. If you notice, his discography of production work stops at exactly the time that he fell out with Mr. Carter. And if this detailed account of his handling of Council’s Tommy Boy deal (found in the comments section), he was also doing some bad business.

Nevertheless, as a rapper we saw Jaz evolve from the Brag Rap era through to the Conscious Rap era before eventually adopting the Street Hustler style. As a producer, he made more of a lasting impression, proving to be equally adept at delivering laid-back, moody joints as he was hyped-up sonic aggression. Special mention goes out to besting AZ at his own game on the 80’s R&B flip for ‘Waitin” and delivering Brooklyn’s answer to the Money Boss Player‘s ‘Killed in The Crap Game’ on the incredible ‘Council Era.’

Download: A Salute To Big Jaz Productions [re-upped]

Track listing:

01 ‘Bannanas’ – Council
02 ‘H20 Proof’ – Ras Kass feat. Saafir
03 ‘Rap Game/Crack Game’ – Jay-Z
04 ‘I Got The Power’ – Puff Daddy feat. The LOX
05 ‘Live Life 2 Tha Fullest’ – Memphis Bleek
06 ‘It’s a Must’ – Rakim feat. Rahzel
07 ‘Council’ Era’ – Council
08 ‘Gotta Get Ova’ – Teflon
09 ‘Lifestyles Of A Ghetto Child’ – M.O.P.
10 ‘4 Give My Sins’ – Group Home
11 ‘Diaries’ – Jaz-O & The Immobilarie
12 ‘In My Lifetime’ [Remix] – Jay-Z
13 ‘Daily Basis’ – Ranjahz
14 ‘Waitin” – Big Jaz
15 ‘World Famous’ – M.O.P.
16 ‘The Originators’ – The Jaz feat. Jay-Z