Video/Freeload: Kardinal Offishall f. Clipse, “Set It Off” + Re-Up Gang, “Money”
- story THE FADER
To get it out of the way: Re-Up Gang sound like they recorded “Money” by yelling through the stomach of a robot in a secret tunnel underneath Rick Rubin’s bearskin rug. And it works! “Money,” from the soon to be released Re-Up album, isn’t as good as “Set it Off,” from Kardinal Offishall’s upcoming album Not 4 Sale, which succeeds by taking Kardi’s highly dubious line I don’t take my chain off on the mic, it’s my security piece/it gives me security! and makes it sound kinda balling.
Download: Re-up Gang, “Money”
Freeload: Clipse, “Fast Life” Or “Fast Lane”??
- story THE FADER
Weirder things have happened, but Blender just put up what is supposedly a new single from a Re-Up Gang album that is part of Clipse’s new record deal. They called it “Fast Life” but the file says “Fast Lane”. Internet, get your tagging game up. Regardless, it’s actually kind of weird and disorienting to hear a new Clipse street single that isn’t some crazy door-slamming gun-cocking avant garde Neptunes shit, but we’ll take what we can get.
Download: Clipse, “Fast Life”
Freeload: Re-Up Gang, “9mm”
- story THE FADER
At this point it goes without saying that Re-Up Gang are going to impress us on a lyrical level. In fact, we’d be surprised if they didn’t, but this song from Green Lantern’s GTA4 album repurposes their verses from “Bring it Back” off of We Got it for Cheap 3, and puts them over a new beat that gives all four dudes less room to let their punchlines breathe without sacrificing any of the Oh Shit moments that we like them for. We’re not saying we didn’t love the Clipse/Neptunes pairing, but if all of their new stuff is on par with this we’ll be the opposite of very mad.
Freeload: Three New Sandman Songs
- story THE FADER
CANNOOONNNNN! It probably should be a requirement that we start every Sandman related post this way, but actually though, he stays away from doing that on these three songs from his upcoming mixtape Gianormous that we got from 2dopeboyz, which, as much as we want to hear him do it forever, is probably for the best. We’ve been riding for the other half of the Reup Gang for awhile now, because how could we not, really? We’re still trying to figure out what we think about the other rappers from Sandcannon’s crew that show up on here, but we do know that Sandman raps about rap and it’s not even annoying.
Download: Sandman f. Lil Spazz & Housewife, “Watcha Gonna Do”
Download: Sandman f. Tommy Kaine & Lil Spazz, “Back Block Bandits”
Download: Sandman, “Ride”
Freeload: Sandman, Philadelphia Ego Mixtape
- story THE FADER
CANNOOOOOOONNNNNNNN!!! Our only real beef with anything Re-up has put out ever is that we don’t get enough of Sandcannon yelling this right before his verses, now we have a mixtape—available for free from the sometimes goldmine that is the Re-Up Gang blog—full of Sandman catchphrases and jams and other great stuff.
Download: Sandman, Philadelphia Ego Mixtape
Audio: Erykah Badu f. Re-Up Gang, “Real Thang (Tumblin Dice Remix)”
- story THE FADER
This is how we like Badu: unleashed over some tomorrowland funk, a little skepticism in the catch in her throat. This is how we like Re-Up: tight, a little mean, but nice with allegories. “In Miami / Pushing the nose candy / I’m feelin like Michael the way I’m baggin the grammys.” YOWCH. Producer Rashad Ringo Smith (the legendary, we mean, KIND OF) did the honors, flipping a little horn (Busta Rhymes ref, non?) and letting her voice slip and slide all over the pound of synths. This and the fact that it’s still light out = SUMMER IS IN THE MAIL.
FADER TV: Interview With Re-Up Gang’s Ab-Liva & Sandman
- story THE FADER
You already know that Re-Up Gang’s Sandman and Ab-Liva (MAJOR FIGGAS DO IT BIG!) are two of Philly’s nicest MCs. You already know all about the industry yaddy yaddy ya, and that We Got It for Cheap parts 1, 2, and 3 have burned holes in your mind, and you can recite them in your sleep. But did you know they are also hilarious dudes? When they came through the FADER Sugar Shack for this video interview, they played Ping-Pong in our conference room and extolled the virtues of Nacho Libre (one of Sandman’s favorite movies). But we caught all the real gems on tape—from Sandman detailing his googling habits, to Liva detailing Sandman’s smoking habits.
Audio: Re-Up Gang, “You Ain’t A Killer”
- story THE FADER
We pretty much use the Re-Up Gang blog as our one stop shop for YouTube videos of The Clipse and Fam-Lay at the shooting range, but also they post jams like uh, entire mixtapes and also this freestyle of the whole Re-Up Gang going off over Big Pun’s “You Ain’t a Killer” from the Soul in the Hole soundtrack.
Freeload: Re-Up Gang, We Got It 4 Cheap, Vol. 3
- story THE FADER
The wait is over. We Got It 4 Cheap, Volume 3: The Spirit of Competition (We Just Think We Better) bka WGI4C3TSOCWJTWB is up for real on reupgangrecords.net. This version is the high-grade, fully mastered version with Drama drops and proper sequencing, so trash whatever you got already. If Drama is too much for you, you can register to download a Drama-free version there as well, but we kind of enjoy being yelled at.
Download: Re-Up Gang, We Got It 4 Cheap, Vol. 3
Audio: Re-Up Gang, We Got It 4 Cheap, Vol 3
- story THE FADER
We all knew this was coming this weekend and now it’s here. The FADER staff is gonna roundtable over it later, but for now we can stream it here or google it for the download.
