No nuts no glory

It's great to have Big Mike back, though whether Rick Ross is worthy of sharing a record with him is up for debate (also see : Cocaine by UGK ft. Rick Ross) but i digress.

Here at The Martorialist we're big fans of Willie D and consider his purple denim Witchfinder General outfit on the cover of We Can't Be Stopped one of the greatest ensembles ever but we truly love everything Big Mike, from his time in The Convicts with 3-2 to his classic solo work to, most importantly, the Big Mike incarnation of the Geto Boys circa the 'Til Death Do Us Part album and his solo track on there - No Nuts No Glory.

Geto Boys - No Nuts No Glory



And we're not the only ones as Geto Boys fanatic Beanie Sigel paid tribute to it on the first State Property album. Roc The Mic was the big single and all but this was the best track on there :

Beanie Sigel - No Glory



As classic as No Nuts No Glory is, it's really tempting to say that Beans slightly improved on the original here with No Glory, innit? At the very least he's rivaled it. It's all in the extra hazy horns and the "I'm so street like asphalt/I spit shit like my ass talk" line, chico.

Biz and the Jets.

Flexi-discs were probably the worst format ever. Sure, they were usually magazine freebies and invariably featured a song which was otherwise unreleased but they always either ended up creased and unplayable after about 10 minutes or lost to the wind after a few weeks when you forgot what LP sleeve or book you stored them inside.

The latter was the fate of my flexi-disc of Biz Markie's live cover of the Elton John hit Benny & The Jets, which came with the second issue of the Beastie Boys vanity rag Grand Royale magazine. I've never managed to find my copy to this day but thanks to the joys of Youtube i can now hear it again and even see the video of the actual performance itself. Take that, you fucking lost flexi-disc!