When I returned to music in 2013 after a four year hiatus, I promised myself I’d reinvent and not perform, rehash or make Part 2s of my back catalog. I’d make stuff available digitally for those who missed it the first time around and move on. I got a few requests for some of my old instrumentals, so I went through what’s been sitting in my basement for over a decade. Whichever instrumental records I still had (most are long out of print or were destroyed), old DATs (which are a bitch to transfer), files (Celph Titled had to send me a few joints I didn’t have), etc…I salvaged what I could.

As for the selection, it’s one part specific requests, one part popularity, one part availability, one part “I thought this was dope, but nobody remembers it.” Yes, there are some omissions (notably some of the Music For Tu Madre and A Bottle of Whup Ass stuff). Anything recorded prior to 2004 was never in file form and many of those masters deteriorated over time or the instrumental wax was used for shows, so it’s beat to shit. (You’ll hear a skip or two and some crackle on a few of these.)

Besides the instrumentals for a lot of my solo records, I’ve included beats I made for Al-Shid, H.U.G., Tame One, Cage, RA The Rugged Man, The Juggaknots, Sadat X and others.

Putting this together was tedious, but for the completist, the lover of instrumentals and those who got rid of all their records, I figured it should at least be available. No represses, no distribution on iTunes, etc., no promotion, no pomp and circumstance. Just 70 tracks from my headband era. Enjoy.

http://www.govillaingo.com/