When the announcement was made that Def Jam was hiring No I.D. as the VP of A&R, it was a moment of personal satisfaction. For starters, like No I.D., I am from the Chicagoland area and it’s refreshing to see an often forgotten city in the three coast (East, West and Gulf) Hip Hop sphere have one of its most enduring and brightest stars get some much-deserved shine.
Aside from my apparent bias, No I.D. is a producer from an era -and ideology, for that matter- long gone in Hip Hop; but, he’s making commercially viable music and is arguably busier than ever in his career. He started at a time where a producer produced all or at least a vast majority of an artist’s album (see Common’s first three albums No I.D. produced for a reference). Similar to how DJ Muggs influenced Alchemist and bridged a gap between “old” and “new,” it was partly his mentoring, tutelage and talent that inspired No I.D.’s student, Kanye West, who took what No I.D. had been doing and introduced it to a global audience. Not letting his ego hamper the development of Kanye, Mr. West’s career took off! Don’t get it confused, though, No I.D. was not off the radar at this time as he teamed up with Jermaine Dupri and was co-producing records for Bow Wow and Jay-Z. After the American Gangster project, Kanye and No I.D. have joined forces once again and have gone on to make memorable records for Blueprint 3, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and Watch the Throne. This ability to mentor a future superstar is but one reason No I.D. is a good fit to oversee those who are cultivating talent at Def Jam. This man was doing it when it wasn’t, so to speak, part of his job description.
Read the rest of the article here. Two-gun salute to Chris Moss at Al Lindstrom & Lost Tapes. Down bottom you will find a link to a “Best Of” No I.D. compilation.
01. Resurrection ’95 f. Common
02. Everybody’s Talkin f. Al’ Tariq
03. Man’s World f. Beanie Sigel
04. Metal Lungies f. Ghostface Killah, Styles P & Sheek Louch
05. Smile f. G-Unit
06. Interlude #1
07. Soul By The Pound (Remix) f. Common
08. State to State f. No I.D., Common & Dug Infinite
09. Thinkin’ Cap f. All Natural
10. Not The One f. Madd Rapper
11. Ready Set Go (Remix) f. Killer Mike, T.I. & Big Boi
12. Primetime f. Jay-Z & KanYe West
13. Interlude #2 (Fate or Destiny)
14. The Heat f. Twista & Raekwon
15. Let Me Show You The Way f. Toni Braxton
16. Tears Of Joy f. Rick Ross & Cee-Lo
17. Success f. Jay-Z & NaS
18. Interlude #3 (I Used to Love H.E.R.
19. Ghetto Dreams f. Common & NaS
20. Outro (Yeah!)
DOWNLOAD: No I.D. – D.I. On Classics ’92 – ’11 (Mixtape)
DOPE! Lately No I.D. has been killing it on the boards lately.
Damn, no .zip format?
@JA
If you’re on a Mac, just download The Unarchiver. Opens all zip or rar formats.
“I Used To Love H.E.R.”, is arguably the greatest Hip-Hop record of all-time.
yo link is down….
I like No I.D. but in reality…he doesn’t produce classics! Only classics her ever produced are Resurrection & I used to love her. That’s just the truth
^ nah, success was hella dope. and tears of joy was to. just bcuz their recent doesnt make them less dope.
Fuck yeah I’ve been dying to get this version of Resurrection for YEARS now. Had the tape single in middle school but lost it. Love the “cmon yall get live get down..” intro. No ID one of the greats still making hiphop the way it should be.
GOLDMINE.. thanks JES
.zip ???
No .Zip?
You guys seriously don’t know how to open up a .rar file in this day and age? Google is your friend.
yessir. Chicago legend. NO I.D. Downloading this now.
ghetto dreams sounds like 90s
Thanks for the great feedback on this and to Justice for posting this and helping to spread this No I.D. piece to more individuals. It was a pleasure writing it and having Jacob’s (The Lost Tapes) help was extremely valuable. Peace and GOD BLESS
LEGENDARY STATUS. ONE OF THE BEST THAT EVER DID IT!