After reading through the responses to the ‘Death of the b-side’ article, it was clear to me that the streets were fiending for a ZR&T collection of b-sides. There turned out to be so many great songs to choose from that I’ve had to split it up by the decade to fit everything on. Expect the ‘Eighties Edition’ later in the week. Some of these tracks did later appear on compilations later on, but the condition here is that none of them were released on retail albums around the time that they were recorded and a limit of only one selection from each artist. While that explains why ‘DWYCK’ isn’t on here, all of Hard 2 Obtain‘s catalog was automatically disqualified on the grounds of their shameless Grand Puba stanning.
Download: A Salute To Non-Album B-Sides [Nineties Edition, Vol. 1]
Track listing:
01 ‘Brothers From Brentwood L.I.’ – EPMD
02 ‘The ? Remainz’ – Gang Starr
03 ‘You Cant Front (Shit Is Real)’ – Diamond D feat. Lord Finesse
and Sadat X
04 ‘Still In The Ghetto’ – Black Sheep
05 ‘If The Papes Come’ – A Tribe Called Quest feat. Afrika Baby Bam
06 ‘Plumskinzz’ [Original Version] – KMD1
07 ‘The Undisputed Champs’ – Del Tha Funkee Homosapien feat. Q-Tip & Pep Love
08 ‘Go Where I Send Thee’ – Master Ace feat. Master Ice and Unique
09 ‘Feel The Vibe, Feel The Beat’ – Boogie Down Productions
10 ‘Hard Like A Criminal’ – Das Efx
11 ‘Yes You May’ [Funk Flow Mix] – Lord Finesse feat. Big L
12 ‘Anytime, Anyplace’ – Stetsasonic
13 ‘Downtown Swinga’ – M.O.P.
14 ‘Firewater’ – Fat Joe feat. Big Pun and Raekwon
15 ‘Me, Not The Paper’ – Jeru The Damaja
16 ‘Reality (Killing Every)’ – Black Moon
17 ‘Mind Your Business’ – Grand Puba
18 ‘Relieve Yourself’ – Tha Alkaholiks
19 ‘Lovely How I Let My Mind Float’ – De La Soul feat. Biz Markie
20 ‘Live & Direct From The House Of Hits’ – Intelligent Hoodlum feat.
Craig G
21 ‘Riddles That Rap, Riddles That Rhyme’ – Zhigge
22 ‘No Bones In Ice Cream’ – Nice & Smooth2
Great list!
Instead of “The ? Remainz”, I would’ve picked Gang Starr’s “Credit Is Due”. Plus, Biggie’s “I Shot Ya” would be a nice bonus.
@max power: ‘Credit Is Due’ is good but ‘The ? Remains’ is great. ‘I Shot Ya’ is excluded since it was tacked onto the second pressing of the album.
All I can say is “those that know, know”.
Respect to Robbie.
Perfect for road trips….emotional hearing some of these….Ain’t heard a few of these SINCE 94,95
This is awesome, very nice list. I agree ? Remains is too dope to exclude. Kurious had that Mansion & Yacht joint, I might have tossed that one in. Also Tribe & Busta One, Two Shit may have been better than Papes. Lastly my all time favorite b-side was overlooked, Busta & Greg Nice You Won’t Tell…that joint is criminally underrated!
‘Mansion and a Yacht’ is a good one, forgot about that. Disagree about ‘One, Two Shit’ over ‘Papes’ though. I’ve never heard ‘You Won’t Tell’ until now though.
I still have the tape single that Live and Direct… was on.
Pete Rock & CL Smooth “It’s Not A Game”
Dr.Dre “Puffin on Blunts…” feat. Rage, Daz & Kurupt
Erick Sermon “Rock Da House”
Keith Murray “Pay Per View” feat LBM, Passion and Kel Vicious
Artifacts “Who I Am”
Pharcyde “Pork”
Cypress Hill “Scooby Doo”
Does Method Man’s The Riddler (Hideout Mix) count?
No bones in ice cream may have been better than Funky for you for me.
This is list is definitely on point. Extra props for Del’s “Undisputed Champs” and the Lik’s “Relieve Yourself.”
Get it together , beastie boys and q tip
Lets get a hidden track list, like the second , hidden groove on vinyl like dela soul used.
Hows about a list of dj doc engraving the end of 12 inch singles, look at your records well kid!
Ice Cube was killin’ it with:
“24 With A L”
“My Skin Is My Sin”
“U Ain’t Gonna Take My Life”
Noreaga – “Halfway Thugs Pt. 2”
@Mo B. Sides
Pork for the win!!!
Great list, Robbie!!
Wow.. I need an MP3 player to specifically store all of your compilations. This is a great look!
No Bones in Ice Cream isn’t on my copy of Nice and Smooth’s third album cassette, is it only on the vinyl or CD?
And kapikap Get it Together is on I’ll Communication
Was Masta Ace’s Maintain a B Side or a white label? I feel like my cousin had that joint on wax but can’t remember how.
Masta Ace ‘The B Side’. Forgot about that!
Great list. I would add Heavy D’s “You Can’t See What I Can See”, which was the B side to “Don’t Curse” but it wasn’t on any album, even if it had its own video. One of my favorite solo tunes from the Hev, especially ‘cos it had no bullshit R&B on it.
Oh man, I finally got around to downloading this and the joint I really needed “Still in the Ghetto” is cut off after 2 minutes! I’ve been looking for a decent quality version of that for years. Any chance of a fix or a hook-up please?
@Doc Schrute: Fixed.
@Sean G: ‘The B-Side’ was on the album.
@LEX: As far as I can tell ‘Maintain’ was bootleg only.
Thank you!
That relieve yourself remix is the worst alkaholiks release Ive ever heard lol
That Jeru remix is ridiculious!
24 w/ an L is good but nobody has mentioned Cube’s best B-side: 2 in the tha morning
Make sure you put Above the Law-Untouchable the Dr Dre What you can prove remix on your 80s edition. It’s one of the best cassette singles I ever got.
murder mc’s by black moon ? and its “who shot ya?” lol
Word up Robbie great comps, a couple of joints on here that I completely forgot about it.