To summarize one of the greatest stories ever told

The world’s greatest rapper (at the time) announces a follow up to his already classic “Road to the Riches” LP to be produced by Eric B of Eric B & Rakim fame.   After an entire years worth of release date postponements “Wanted Dead or Alive” finally gets its commercial release featuring a musically advanced Eric B.  Up and coming producer and protege of Paul C, Large Professor, spills the beans in “The Source” on being the real person supplying the beats for G Rap’s second album and not getting any credit/money for it.  The kool genius of rap later moves family from New York to sunny Arizona, and the rumors start flying.  The most circulated of rumors detailed Eric B being pissed off about the accuracy of the production credits being publicized, muscling G Rap and fam out of house and home.  The real reason behind G Rap’s relocation remains a mystery today.

“I know there was a lot of rumors going around and all that shit, people talking that witness protection program shit, which it never was. Source magazine did an interview with me [at the time] out in Arizona, so it’s like how could I be in the witness protection program doing shit like that? As a matter of fact, me and Eric still talk to this day.”

Read the rest of G Rap’s interview here.

Here Dr. Butcher touches on the drama surrounding “Wanted Dead Or Alive”.

“I remember a thing in The Source where Large Professor was complaining about his credits and getting ripped off by Eric B. I imagine that caused a bit of bad blood.

I think that’s what he’s talking about – he didn’t get a lot of the credit that he wanted for that. ..On Wanted Dead or Alive, Eric B. was gonna executive produce, so Eric was like ‘I wanna sign you as my producer’. Eric was like ‘I’mma pay you!’ Large was just excited to be working with Rakim and Kool G Rap at the time, and we was goin’ to the studio every day…Large wasn’t getting no money. Eric would stop in every so often and just check-in on the session, but nobody was thinking about it…There was an interview and they asked Large about it, and it got out there in The Source.”

Read the rest of  Unkut’s Dr. Butcher interview here.

And here we see Eric B avoiding the issue and inflating his ego at the same time;

“When you worked on the second G Rap album [Wanted Dead Or Alive] there were some issues with Large Professor over production credits. What are your thoughts on that situation now?

You know what? When I was doin’ all this stuff it was pretty new – new to me, new to everybody else – and when people sit there and say, ‘Oh, you put together a legendary project’ – it really hasn’t sunk in. ..I say, ‘Hey, there was some stuff that I did, it had to be done’. Actually, I say I took one for the team.”

Read the rest of Unkut’s Eric B interview here.

From Wikipedia;

“Kool G Rap is described by Kool Moe Dee as ‘the progenitor and prototype for Biggie, Jay-Z, Treach, Nore, Fat Joe, Big Pun’. MTV describes Kool G Rap as a ‘hip-hop godfather’. Rolling Stone says, ‘G Rap excelled at the street narrative, a style that would come to define later Queens MCs like Nas (who was hugely influenced by G Rap on his early records) and Mobb Deep’. Allmusic calls him ‘one of the greatest rappers ever’, ‘a master’, and ‘a legend’. A number of rappers, such as Ice Cube, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, and Nas have put him in their lists of favorite rappers.

Other artists who have named Kool G Rap as a major influence include Eminem, Jay-Z, Tajai of Souls of Mischief, Vinnie Paz of Jedi Mind Tricks, Steele of Smif-n-Wessun, Rock of Heltah Skeltah, MC Serch, Termanology, Black Thought of The Roots, M.O.P., Scarface, R.A. The Rugged Man, Bun B of UGK, Rah Digga, RZA and Raekwon of Wu-Tang Clan, Lady Of Rage, O.C. of DITC, Memphis Bleek, Kurupt, Pharoahe Monch and Twista, among others.”

“Some people did gangster rap, but some people did more what I like to refer to as reality rap. Ice Cube and them they did gangster shit, said gangster shit in some of they rhymes, but if you look at them as a total, as a artist Ice Cube was real positive in the shit he was saying. He was like an activist. If you listen to Amerikkka’s Most Wanted, he’s like a pro black activist pretty much. And Scarface did a lot of street shit, but when he was with the Ghetto Boys they would also do shit like Under Siege talking about how Reagan was in cahoots with Noreaga and all that shit, so these dudes was dropping science, it wasn’t just “suck my dick bitch”, “I’ll blow your fucking head off”, They had that element because that was the environment that they came from, but at the same time dudes was kicking real shit too. Some mental awareness shit. You’ve got to look at an artist as a whole.”

Read the rest here.

Originally released as the B-Side for “Erase Racism”.

Buy it here.

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo “Wanted Dead Or Alive” Large Professor Remix @ 320

note – the cuddie Syze out in Hawaii brought this to my attention

“The proof is in the pudding, Eric Bʻs Stellar, solo effort…http://www.discogs.com/image/R-785312-1185570075.jpeg”

hahaha

extra note – Big shout out to Matt Franklin and Syze (again) out in Hawaii for also bringing this to my attention – someone actually took the time to rip and upload Eric B’s entire solo album as separate tracks on youtube!

hahahaha