Christmas came early this year for hip-hop aficionados. Paterson, New Jersey-based producer Justin Smith, better known as Just Blaze, took over Q-Tip's Beats 1 show, "Abstract Radio," this week and shared tons of previously unreleased tracks from Kanye West, Jay Z, Usher, Rick Ross and more.
The two-hour mix features timeless classics from Eminem, Fabolous and The Game among others. However, the biggest gift of all wasn't Smith's expert mixing or his ability to put together an especially on-point playlist--the mix's magic was in the deeper cuts the legendary producer unleashed from the vaults.
Among the new material Just Blaze dropped is an edit of Jay Z's "Early This Morning," Kanye's "Touch the Sky" featuring Robert Glasper and an alternate version of Rick Ross' "Lord Knows." Also featured in the mix were alternate versions of Dipset's "I Really Mean It" with Juelz Santana and Jim Jones as well as Freeway's "Flipside."
Other highlights from the producer's Beats 1 radio takeover included a Rico Love verse as part of a new rendition of Usher's "Throwback" and an edit of Joe Budden's "Pump It Up" featuring Busta Rhymes, NME reports.
Considering the high volume of hip-hop albums and tracks that feature Just Blaze's production work, one can only begin to imagine the previously unheard gems he has likely kept up his sleeve all these years. Whether you've realized it or not, he's had a hand in hundreds of songs that have dropped since the late 90s including works from Big Pun, Judakiss, Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg, Janet Jackson, Talib Kweli, T.I., Ghostface Killah and countless others.
So it's no surprise that after looking through some of his old servers, Smith uncovered tons of unreleased tracks he worked on with Jaz-Z, Pharrell and Missy Elliott among others. As Hot New Hip-Hop reports, the producer took to social media late one night this past week and shared a number of these cuts, only to delete most of them a few hours later.
Fortunately, anyone who missed Just Blaze's unreleased music posting spree can hear most of what they missed on his "Abstract Radio" throwdown. The whole two hour set is streaming on Soundcloud. Listen below.
