DJ Jazzy Jeff - Hip Hop Forever III

Label: Rapster Records | Catalog Number: RR0065 LCD

review from Dustedmagazine.com : "Hip Hop Forever III is the newest mixtape from DJ Jazzy Jeff, the hip-hop producer and performer who, most famously, partnered with Will Smith for five albums between 1987 and 1993. Describing Jazzy Jeff’s career in greater detail is probably not worth the space required – if you were alive for any of the early ’90s, you couldn’t have escaped the chorus of “Summertime” or the sight of Jeff flying out the front door on an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air – but the following disclaimer is necessary for those readers who might be dismissive: Jazzy Jeff is, and always has been, an excellent DJ. Regardless of his association with and subordination to Will Smith, Jazzy Jeff was fundamental to the emergence of the DJ as a central player in contemporary popular music. To wit, the man invented the transformer scratch, a technique that DJ’s, whether commercial or avant-garde, still employ today. The least we can do is forgive him for the schlock of “Parents Just Don’t Understand.”

Hip Hop Forever III is a revue of Jazzy Jeff in his DJing capacity, illustrating little of his career as a producer but much of his abilities as an arranger and, ultimately, as a party-mover. Jazzy Jeff’s approach to DJing is, for lack of a better term, conservative. Eschewing the manic choices of younger DJs who rely on digital media and summon songs by scrolling down a playlist in iTunes, Jazzy Jeff lets his songs play for multiple verses, signaling the beginnings of his next selection with bouts of choice scratching, his hallmark. It is a style that is both functional and formal. Jazzy Jeff’s decision to play his songs for longer lengths is surely motivated as much by a need to find the subsequent record in his crate as it is by the conventions of old school hip-hop, a period that expected its DJs to provide a continuum of familiar but invigorating grooves, in contrast with the hodgepodge of discrete, genre-juxtaposing segments of today’s mashup artists.

The content of Hip Hop Forever III conforms to the overall traditional form Jazzy Jeff takes. The majority of the records are singles from over a decade ago, mostly from sources that are as predictable as they are oft-repeated. Although Hip Hop teeters on the brink of ordinariness, there are a few moments when Jazzy Jeff conjures something fresh from an old standard. His prologue to A Tribe Called Quest’s “Award Tour,” for example, is an excellent play on the ascending energy of the song’s opening bars. Using an old DJ trick, Jazzy Jeff replays the introduction half-a-dozen times, increasingly piquing his listeners’ ears as the song tenses and releases.

On the whole, Hip Hop Forever III feels a bit vestigial. Yet, at the apexes of his set, Jazzy Jeff manages to provide something sophisticated and fully satisfying, albeit with material that has, over the years, been mixed to death. These moments are refreshing and maybe even a bit relieving: It’s nice to know that even the most moribund of sounds can be revived in the hands of a craftsman like Jazzy Jeff."

Tracks :

CD1
1. Tear Shit Up - Biz Markie, Jazzy Jeff
2. Passing Me By - The Pharcyde
3. Whatever You Say - Little Brother
4. Ijustwannachill - Large Professor
5. Top Ten List - Masta Ace Incorporated
6. Visualize - Mr. Complex
7. Speed - Little Brother
8. Ebonics - Big L
9. Play Dis [Clean] - Saukrates
10. Players - Slum Village
11. Runnin' - The Pharcyde
12. Fuck the Police
13. Eric B. Is President - Eric B.,
14. Droppin' Science - Marley Marl
15. ? Remainz - Gang Starr
16. Mass Appeal - Gang Starr
17. Full Clip - Gang Starr
18. Boom - Royce da 5'9"
19. Award Tour - A Tribe Called Quest
20. Don't Nobody Care About Us - Phat Kat
21. Quiet Storm - Mobb Deep
22. Who Got the Props - Black Moon
23. Let's Get Dirty (I Can't Get in Da Club) - DJ Kool,
24. Choice Is Yours (Revisited) - Black Sheep
25. Looking at the Front Door - Main Source
26. Them That's Not - J-Live,

CD2 :

1. Boom - Royce da 5'9"
2. Them That's Not - J-Live,
3. Looking at the Front Door - Main Source
4. Passing Me By - The Pharcyde
5. Eric B. Is President - Eric B.,
6. Players - Slum Village
7. Choice Is Yours (Revisited) - Black Sheep
8. Top Ten List - Masta Ace Incorporated
9. ? Remainz - Gang Starr
10. Quiet Storm - Mobb Deep
11. Award Tour - A Tribe Called Quest
12. Extra Extra - Paula Perry
13. Play Dis [Clean] - Saukrates
14. Ebonics - Big L
15. Too Complex
16. Don't Nobody Care About Us - Phat Kat
17. Secrets of the Sand [Jay Dee Remix]
18. Ijustwannachill - Large Professor


Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/298363350/j_jeff_hh_4ever.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/298371749/j_jeff_hh_4ever.part2.rar