Nas - Death Of Escobar (2001)

As fans of rapper Nas are probably aware, rumours have surrounded his enigmatic album 'Death Of Escobar' for many years, with no-one quite seeming to know exactly what it is... A concept album? The original title for 'Stillmatic'? A fan made-up fake title? There's been a lot of bogus tracklists and downloadable bootlegs floating around the internet for years now - none of them giving a proper representation of what the project really was, including opinions that it was just a working title that Nas and Columbia used when working on and building up hype for 'Stillmatic', or that Nas had intended to release two albums together, one as an introduction to the other. In 2014 information came to light implying that 'D.O.E.' was in fact a proper album that was completed and scrapped close to its original release date. It was actually reviewed in VIBE magazine in their February 2001 issue, where it was awarded a glowing 4* review. In this review the album is titled as 'D.O.E. Limited Edition - Volume 1 (Death Of Escobar)', and it speaks of it as a project made up from new tracks, bootlegs and remixes while completely lacking skits. Specific tracks mentioned there are 'The Foulness', 'The Rise & Fall', 'Tales From Da Hood', 'Your Mouth Got You In It', and 'Poppa Was A Playa'. This was followed by a news update sent out by Sony Music Street Team UK to those signed up to their mailing list back in early 2001, providing an early tracklist for the project (including producers and publishing credits) along with the following message: 

"THE FORTHCOMING NAS ALBUM IS ON HOLD AT THE MOMENT, HERE'S THE LATEST PLAN - Nas wants to release 'Death of Escobar' first with 'Stillmatic' to follow. 'Death of Escobar' is the bootleg/sessions project. The project will feature the tracklisting below plus three new tracks. This tracklisting could and probably will change. The three new tracks will explain Escobar's death." 

From this, we can conclude that 'Death Of Escobar' was likely a kind of introduction album, explaining the death of Nas's alter-ego, while 'Stillmatic' was intended to be a re-birth album, with contrasting styles respectively. The tracklist from the Sony update has been used for the basis of this reconstruction, although it was noticed that although 'Poppa Was A Playa" wasn't included in the Sony update, it was mentioned in the VIBE review, so that's on here as well. The three new tracks that were not yet completed when the announcement was made might never have been completed for all we know. On listening to the album it's evident that the majority of the tracks find Nas in an introspective mood, reflecting on his life and career over moody, midtempo beats, often favouring piano and/or string samples. This actually works well in the context of the record, as the depressive mood pieces like 'Rise & Fall', 'Drunk By Myself' and 'My Own Worst Enemy' are intercut with straight up boom bangers like the underrated 'The Foulness', 'Tales From Da Hood' and the 'Hard 2 Tell' remix. Thanks go to The Lost Tapes blog for all the info, and for putting this together.  

Track listing

01 My Way  
02 You Don't Know Me (Hardest Thing 2 Do) 
03 Your Mouth Got You In It 
04 Rise & Fall  
05 U Gotta Love It 
06 Make It Last Forever
07 Worst Enemy Is Me 
08 The Foulness (Interlude) (feat. Nature) 
09 Sinful Living 
10 Never Gonna Give It Up (feat. The Product G&B) 
11 Tales From Da Hood 
12 Drunk By Myself 
13 Hard 2 Tell 
14 Projects 2 Hot (feat. 50 Cent & Nature) 
15 Poppa Was A Playa 
16 Seeds Of Heaven 

Dr. Dre - Detox (2010)

The period from mid 1999 to 2002 was the most successful of Dr. Dre's career, as after struggling to establish his new Aftermath Entertainment label, he struck gold with Eminem's debut, 'The Slim Shady LP', and then his own second album '2001'. As the latter moved more than 7 million copies, it dominated urban radio throughout 2000 with singles like 'Still D.R.E.', 'Forget About Dre', 'The Next Episode', 'Xxxplosive' and 'Fuck You', while Aftermath issued Eminem’s diamond-certified classic 'The Marshall Mathers LP' and Xzibit's platinum 'Restless', and became one of the hottest rap labels in the industry. As Dre was already considered one of the greatest producers of the past 25 years, a third solo record would have cemented his reputation in the rap hierarchy, and so he embarked on creating 'Detox', which he often called his 'final album'. During the next 10 years or so, he reportedly worked on tracks with more than two dozen rappers, producers and vocalists, from Aftermath stars like Eminem, 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes and Kendrick Lamar, to T.I., Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Skylar Grey and Mary J. Blige. For nearly a decade, he publicly vacillated on whether or not 'Detox' would ever be released, and then just as he seemed primed to deliver the album the world was waiting for, he apparently decided not to put it out after all, leaving us with only Internet leaks and rumors of what might have been. The album was originally intended to be a concept album about the life of a hitman, possibly inspired by his impressive cameo in the 2001 film 'Training Day', but by the end of the year that idea had been ditched, and in November Ice Cube told MTV News that Dre had postponed 'Detox' to work on Cube's Aftermath debut, although that project never appeared, and Cube eventually left the label. By 2004 his time was being completely taken up with running Aftermath, as it was one of the hottest labels around, thanks to a roster that included 50 Cent, Eminem, Busta Rhymes and others. In 2006 Scratch magazine published a 'Detox' cover story, re-igniting the rumours of an imminent release, but 2007 came and went with no record, and Dre gave an extensive interview to the LA Times, where he admitted he was "really hoping to have it out this year, but i's going to have to be pushed back a while because of some other things I’ve got to work on". In 2008 Snoop Dogg claimed that the long-gestating album was finished, but that seemed premature when Dre announced in November that he was going back into the studio in a couple of months. 

In 2009 leaks from the seemingly never-ending sessions began to appear online, with tracks like 'I Am Hip-Hop (Detox)', 'Topless' and 'Shit Popped Off' surfacing, and in 2010 things finally seemed to be happening, with a collaboration with Jay Z, 'Under Pressure', being announced as the album's first single. However, when an unfinished version of 'Under Pressure' leaked, Dre posted a message saying that it was an incomplete song and that he was still working on it, and an official version has yet to appear. The end of the year finally brought the first official 'Detox' music, with 'Kush', featuring Snoop Dogg and Akon, earning mixed reviews, and peaking at Number 34 on the pop charts, while 'I Need A Doctor' proved to be the bigger hit, thanks to soaring pop production by Alex Da Kid. One theory about the album is that 'Detox' is a catch-all name for everything Dr. Dre has worked on for the past 15 years, with material from it being released when he felt the time was right. The album therefore became more mythic in the hip-hop community, and it served, whether Dre intended to or not, as a useful publicity tease even as the hype proved impossible to live up to. Between 2009 and 2011, the best of the hundreds of song snippets he worked on were leaked, and there are numerous CDs of supposed 'Detox' tracks doing the rounds, including a 10 volume CD set of 'The Detox Chroniclez', but still a definitive track listing proves elusive. By checking out the various fan-made albums, and seeing which tracks they agree should be included, I've complied my own version, mostly based on the one by Longtou Edits, but including some different versions and some of my own edits. Given an unlimited budget and no deadline, you could spend the rest of your life locked in a perfectionist's prison, constantly terrified that the music you'll make next will be better than the music you've made so far, but with each passing day you only become further away from the finish line. Until Dre realises this and releases the album, all we can do is collect what's leaked so far and tell him that it sounds perfectly fine to us.   

Track listing

01 Intro 
02 Die Hard (feat. Eminem) 
03 Coming Back (feat. T.I.)
04 Mr. Prescription (feat. Nikki Grier & Slim The Mobster) 
05 This Is Detox (I Am Hip-Hop) (feat. T.I.) 
06 Topless (feat. Eminem & Nas)  
07 Kush (feat. Snoop Dogg & Akon)  
08 Say Dr. Dre (feat. Crooked I) 
09 Popped Off (feat. T.I.) 
10 Under Pressure (feat. Jay-Z) 
11 The Doctor  
12 OG's Theme (feat. Ludacris)  
13 Westcoast Party (feat. Young Knox & O.G. Rhymez)  
14 Underdog (feat. Nate Dogg) 
15 I Need A Doctor (feat. Eminem & Skylar Grey)  
16 Hey Young World (feat. The Game & Snoop Dogg)
17 Turn Me On  
18 Good Things (Interlude) 
19 Chillin' (feat. Swizz Beatz) 
20 The Next Episode 2006 (feat. Snoop Dogg & Nate Dogg)  
21 Topless (Reprise) (feat. T.I & Nas) 
22 Kush (Remix) (feat. Snoop Dogg, The Game & Slim The Mobster) 
23 Doggisodes (Outro)