Nothing worse than seeing the names of rapper’s on the back of a hip-hop album and thinking to yourself, ‘Sweet! Looking forward to hearing this dude rap on this shit!’ Then you get home and it turns out that the ‘feature’ is just the MC in question performing the hook and doing a shout-out at the end of the song. Please note this list excludes the excellent hook work from Greg Nice, since that guy can turn a house party into a concert with his hooks.
Shout-out to Adam Mansbach for suggesting this topic.
Organized Konfusion feat. Q-Tip – ‘Let’s Organize’
KRS-One feat. Fat Joe – ‘De Automatic‘
Sean Price feat. Pharoahe Monch – ‘BBQ Sauce‘
Fat Joe feat. Raekwon – ‘Respect Mine‘
AZ feat. Nas – ‘Gimme Yours‘
De La Soul feat. Redman – ‘Oohh‘
KRS-One feat. Busta Rhymes – ‘Build Ya Skillz‘
Styles P feat. Pharaohe Monch – ‘My Life‘
One aka B-1 feat. Extra P – ‘Verbal Affairs‘
Brand Nubian feat. Busta Rhymes – ‘Let’s Dance‘
O.C. feat. Organized Konfusion – ‘War Games‘
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo feat. Big Daddy Kane & Biz Markie – ‘Erase Racism‘
Polyrhythm Addicts feat. Pharaohe Monch – ‘Reachin’‘
Neek The Exotic feat. Large Professor – ‘Exotic’s Raw‘
Big Punisher feat. Busta Rhymes – ‘Parental Discretion‘
Polyrhythm Addicts feat. Pharaohe Monch – ‘Take Me Home
Brand Nubian feat. Busta Rhymes – ‘Alladat‘
Mr. Complex featuring Pharoahe Monch – ‘Why Don’t ‘Cha‘
NORE feat. Large Professor – ‘Built Pyramids‘
*Updated*
Nas feat. Large Professor – ‘Loco-Motive‘
KRS-One feat. Nas – ‘The Real Hip-Hop‘
That locomotive song by nas with large pro on the hook yellin “thats nas!”
Pharoahes are always the most disappointing, not because the hooks arent good, but because he can body a feature verse like not many can
Diamond D. featuring Busta Rhymes: “This one.”
Also, Redman should get a half-pass on “Ooh.” He does sort of a bridge rhyme towards the end.
Funny I had the same reaction with Jay-Z and Juvenile on “Snoopy Track”
Too many albums claim to have “featuring….” only for that track to be an answer machine message skit. The only bait’n’switch track that springs to mind right now is this Braintax cut where Skinnyman simply introduces the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ReuUmeMKvY I’m fed up of The Rza recycling every last Russell Jones “check 1, 2” so he can put “Ft ODB” on the credits.
@P Wil the Locomotive track came to mind first when I saw this topic, I was soo let down that Extra P didn’t even do the hook.
I also had this feeling on CNN’s Blood Money when out of nowhere, Busta Rhymes comes in as the song fades out. Always has been a WTF? moment
KRS-ONE FT.NAS/THE REAL HIP-HOP..
Haha, that Locomotive hook was such a waste. He didn’t even produce it. Total head fake on that one.
Ha! I felt the same way when OC’s Jewelz album dropped. Thinking to myself: “OC and Organized on a Premier track? Yes!” Only to be disappointed. Still a very good song and album though.
@PWil
You beat me to the Loco Motive joint.
@EnigMue
That was Driver’s Seat.
@Robbie
Would you really have wanted to hear a Biz verse after G Rap and Kane on Erase Racism? Biz played his part…
Dilated Peoples – Worst comes to Worst Rmx feat. Guru
Shit song by itself, I know.
@robbie
Guru is not officially listed as a feature on Worst Comes To Worst.
Pharoahe Monch seems to be a repeat offender on this one
@GNG: Good point, I’ve scrapped that one.
king sun – Only Trying To Kill Yourself ft Cypress hill & everlast. he just samples their shit and gave feature credit
You can add:
Nas feat. Busta Rhymes – “Suicide Bounce”
Raekwon feat. METHOD MAN, Ghostface Killah, & Cappadonna – “Ice Cream”
Capone N Noreaga feat. MOBB DEEP, & Tragedy Khadafi – “L.A., L.A.”
Nas feat. Lauryn Hill – “If I Ruled The World (Imagine That)”
A Tribe Called Quest feat. Busta Rhymes – “Oh My God”
Yo-Yo feat. Ice Cube “You Can’t Play with My Yo-Yo”
A couple really egregious ones that always irked me:
Slick Rick’s supposed appearance on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2
Saafir on Ras Kass’s “H20”
Busta Rhymes and Krs One on Young Zee’s “Milk”
And some more than come to mind…
Biz Markie and Grand Daddy IU on Roxanne Shante’s “Dance To This”
Big Daddy Kane on RIF’s “Ain’t No Smoke”
Big Daddy Kane on Positive K’s “Night Shift” Grand Daddy IU on Positive K’s “Minnie the Moocher”
The new Macklemore debacle.
Puff Daddy ft. Busta Rhymes & B.I.G. – “Victory” [Busta needed a verse].
GZA ft. Method Man – “Gold” [Instead of Meth talking needed a verse]
Jay-Z ft. Beanie Sigel & Memphis Bleek – “The R.O.C.” [Jay needed a verse]
Young Zee ‘Milk’ featuring both KRS and Busta Rhymes
Id put Nas barely singing on Gimme Yours in the Greg Nice category
What about that Bust a track Thank Ya featuring Q-Tip, Kanye and Lil Wayne
At the top of “Ice MF T” on “Home Invasion,” Ice-T proudly announces “got my niga Ice Cube in the house” yet he’s nowhere to be heard. Not a word, let alone a verse. If that aint bait’n’switch, I don’t know what is. What’s the point in telling the listener somebody is in the studio if they’re not going to appear on the track?
I would like to see a list of all the follow up albums where the artist or group were explicitly saying in all their interviews that the new album would be a return to form, something for their core audience, dat real shit, for the streets, or any other type of verbiage that suggests a focused hardcore Hip Hop album.
Then they pull the bait and switch and it ends up being the album where they try their hardest to make radio friendly corny bullshit with weak production and the most horrible hooks you ever heard.
Nas on the War Report technically, he was on the phone skit to Capone, since Calm Down wasn’t on there. I knew people who argued over his appearance on the CNN lp it caused confusion. Probably partly due to Trag and Nas having issues.
Common’s “Stolen moments” sriesfrom One day album.. black thought and q-tip..
Jay-z featuring Qtip and Biz “Girls girls girls”. biz. qtip
Styles P feat monche “My Life”
Nas feat Lauryn Hill ” If i Ruled the World” A nas lauryn rap collabo woulda been classic..
N Tyce Feat Meth “hush hush” we all bought it cuz meth was on teh hook lol
Immortal TEch feat. KRS Chuck D Mos Def “Bin Laden”
Here’s a real obscure one:
Kausion feat. B-Real of Cypress Hill “What That South Central Like”
They either sampled the hook or just looped him saying the same thing over and over.
Surely part of the brilliance of some of the tracks mentioned is the subtle guest appearance, thinking jayz – “girls, girls, girls” just casually dropped tip, biz and slick rick in. That wasn’t lazy, first time I heard that I thought that is brilliant.Same with immortal technique. I agree some of the large pro features are bizarre.
Shyheim feat Method Man – Shaolin Style
Black Moon feat Busta Rhymes- Onslaught- although I did not WANT Busta to rhyme on the joint…
Only one that ever bothered me was the B-One single. Everything else was still money to me
Patty Dukes – De La Soul feat Guru.
It was on the Bulloon Mind State album. Guru did the chorus but he didn’t drop a verse.
GZA – Crash your crew, even if he wasnt credited on it, you wanted to hear ODB jump in on that second verse after having delivered the hook. Still do when I hear it.
Show and AG “Got the Flava” feat. D.Flow, Party Arty, and Method Man: Dope Song and yeah Meth did rhyme but his verse was so short I could barely tell.
Pretty sure lench mob had one of these in “ain’t got no class” with b-real feature.
Didn’t mind that though. The only ones that got my goat were the b-one and the Prince po feature On that “hit me in the face” as they seemed like blatant Efforts at cashing in on the feature artist name. Pretty sure from memory that Prince po might have even just been a sample anyway?
Doom (not really) featuring Kurious on Supervillainz. Kurious says three words – he doesn’t even rap.
America Eats the Young by Marley Marl and Tragedy feat Chuck D in the role of hype man (yeah, boooyyy!)
Method man redman – dats that shit ft young zee
Krs one – blowe ft redman
Ruste juxx- your fucking with a gangster ft Sean p
Epmd – rap is still outta control ft busta rhymes
Ghostface ft. Masta Killah & Method Man – Killah Lipstick
Meth drops a very catchy chorus, but no verse. Masta Killah seems to forget the theme of the track and drops a boring verse after Ghost’s quality story telling.
Ice Cube featuring Das Efx – Check Yo Self
Slaughterhouse featuring Pharoahe Monch – Salute (HIM AGAIN)
Q-Tip – N.T. ft. Busta Rhymes
De La Soul – U Don’t Wanna BDS ft. Freddie Foxxx
these are 2 of my favorites.
when busta says “some of these rap niggas is bitch!”
that b pops of the vinyl so hard and so crisp it’s perfect for scratching.
and Freddie Foxxx just screams so of the most wonderfully incoherent thug shit on Maceo’s solo effort from that there De La album. I mean, if not rhyming at all on a song has ever been done better, it was probably by Ol’ Dirty.
There’s a fairly recent example on Timbo King’s Wardance where RZA is featured but just adlibs a few shoutouts. The track bangs so I wasn’t disappointed that he doesn’t rhyme on it though!
QNC featuring M.O.P. – Dynamic (M.O.P. presence actually consists exclusively on Billy Danz screaming “they wanna see ya” on the hook. Dope track though)
QNC featuring M.O.P. – Dynamic (M.O.P. presence actually consists exclusively on Billy Danz screaming “they wanna see ya” on the hook. Dope track though)
Sticky Fingaz featuring Eminem – What If I Was White? (Em playing hype man, unnecessary really)
Canibus featuring Mike Tyson – 2nd Round KnockOut (for some reason I expected Mike to drop a verse LOL)
I was about to make a modest contribution with “Most Wanted Man” by DJ Krush featuring Big Shug and Guru, but on opening the CD case to have a listen beforehand it reads “lyrics: Big Shug – chorus by: Big Shug and Guru”. Shit – now I’ve admitted I possess a Mo’ Wax record….
Slik Rick Feature on Yours from the new De La Soul Album Cabin in the Sky