The Greatest Story Never Told

Saigon's song "Preacher" came up on my iPod shuffle just now. So, I figured I might as well talk about the album. Not a review. Just a quick thought.

I am a Saigon fan. But, I'm not that impressed with the long-awaited album. I'm not sure if it was the build up - The years of anticipation, of release dates that came and went, the Entourage appearances that would have served as a solid springboard to commercial success if Atlantic Records was at all competent - or that the album just isn't that good.

It may be a mixture of all of these things. When your album has been in the works and then completed for years w/out ever coming out, you better make damn well sure that if it ever does see a release date, that it is the best possible work you could have put out. I don't think this record fits that bill. The album doesn't sound like it has a definite direction, just a lot of different song concepts and sides to Saigon's persona all at once that round out to be a vague description of each at the end of the day.

I kept this in my iPod for now. But, I'm not sure I will ever get back to it with all of the new music coming out this year. The album just didn't grab and hold my interest like I thought it would, and I've moved right on. Don't get me wrong, there is some good material offered up from both Saigon and Just Blaze on The Greatest Story Never Told. But, it just doesn't hold up to the greatness anticipated by audiences since the project was announced. Perhaps a better way to deliver it would be to have completely shelved (or say that you shelved) the album w/ this title and released something entirely new and different to the fans...even if it wasn't.

What did you think of the album?? Agree/disagree? Let me know.

Joe Budden On Jay-Z and "Pump It Up"

In this clip, Joe Budden explains the story behind him getting this beat from Just Blaze, the "Pump It Up Remix" that never was, Jay-Z's beat jack, and him feeling he had to take it back. This is very interesting (and not the first time I've heard about Jay being a dick to other MCs; i.e. his now-artist Jadakiss). I've never heard any kind of story behind this before now. I just remember when Jay dismantled the beat for the S. Carter collection mixtape (one of my favorite Jigga verses ever) and then Joey taking it back and bodying it again a short time later - and using NBA references the way Jay did too at one point. Shit was nuts!!! I thought it was all in fun. I guess, not really. So, check out this explanation by Budden, and see below that for the original "Pump It Up" song, and the two subsequent verses from Jay and Joey.



"Pump It Up" original video. Sorry, embedding was disabled on this one, so here's the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ1G0-ddAiA