Ski Beatz - 24 Hour Karate School Outtakes

If you're familiar with nineties hip-hop, you're familiar with Ski Beatz under the current variation of his moniker or as DJ Ski, MC Will-Ski, simply Ski or maybe his birth name, David Willis. He produced tracks for Jay-Z like the classic Dead Presidents and Luchini AKA This Is It for Camp Lo among tons of others, but he's currently getting his name thrown around for his work with Curren$y on the Pilot Talk album, for which he was responsible for all but three tracks. Overall, things are going so well for Ski Beatz at the moment that he has just released his debut album, 24 Hour Karate School, on Dame Dash's DD172 label, but like a lot of hip-hop records these days it suffered some serious growing pains. The exact reason for the maladies isn't clear, although some of the issue seems to go towards the fabulous Mos Def who originally had a substantial role throughout the album. Mr. Def has been suffering his own label woes over the last few years, primarily related to a fall out with his now ex-label, Geffen, although he recently became part of Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music family so things seem to be back on track for him, except that something still derailed his work with Ski, forcing his removal from five tracks on the 24 Hour Karate School album. It didn't help Ski either that versions of six tracks from the twelve track album leaked early, another problem with modern hip-hop records that causes producers to go back and change what may have already worked rather well for the sake of keeping their product fresh. In the end, Mos Def's presence was removed entirely from the album, and while MCs like Jean Grae and Curren$y still hold their ground, excellent tracks like Taxi and Cream Of The Planet were reduced to mere instrumentals. So, for your listening enjoyment today, I'm posting seven tracks meant for the original 24 Hour Karate School album before things caused changes and edits to the assumed then finished product. Everything here did make the album in one form or another apart from the excellent and funky title cut and Aerials, a posse cut. It's really a shame when business politics can derail art like it did here.


Ski Beatz - 24 Hour Karate School Outtakes
UPDATE: Sorry guys, Universal had the files yanked and I know they'll do it again in a heartbeat, so no reups, but these tracks are around.

01 24 Hour Karate School (feat. Mos Def)
02 Nothing But Us (Alternate Version feat. Curren$y & Wiz Khalifa)
03 Prowler 2 (Alternate Version feat. Jean Grae, Jay Electronica, Joell Ortiz & Mos Def)
04 Scaling The Building (Alternate Version feat. Currren$y & Wiz Khalifa)
05 Aerials (feat. Stalley, Curren$y, Whosane, Terri Walker & Mos Def)
06 Cream Of The Planet (Alternate Version feat. Mos Def)
07 Taxi (Alternate Version feat. Mos Def & Whosane)