r.i.p. to organized noize founder / dungeon family father rico wade, without whom the greatest rap crew of all time would not exist.

here is a previously unheard/unleaked original mix of outkast's "growin' old", which of course ended up on atliens split with big rube's "13th floor" intro. this one has no rube and a completely different beat, which feels even more stripped down and somber than the album version. it comes from a six track promo tape labeled outkast lp ii selections 06/11/96, also of the same provenance is a goodie mob ~selections from lp 2~ 1/28/98 tape featuring tracks that would later land on still standing. the alt "growin' old" is by far the most exciting thing on either of these but there are a bunch of minor alternate lyrical and mixing choices throughout both. most notably goodie's lead single "they don't dance no mo" appears in what i think is its most uncensored form, with a dirtier hook ("n****s don't dance" in place of "people don't dance") and a load more profanity/general shit talking from cee-lo. i also upped a slightly different take on outkast's "jazzy belle" that features andre punctuating his already disconcertingly homophobic "i want to hurl because most of the girls we was liking in high school, now they dyking" bar with a "DIRTY BITCH!"

this is all some supreme rap nerd shit naturally but it's cool to hear beta versions of classic songs, to imagine what bizarro world butterfly effects might've been, to think of the perfect albums that we've obsessed over for decades not as concrete objects but as long changed and changing works-in-progress to which listeners are only granted access through one frozen moment. (i also wonder about who was pulling the trigger on these lyrical changes - if it was the artists tweaking and self-censoring or if the #4080 label forces had swooped in at the last minute to soften things.)

these three tracks are on youtube and attached as flacs below. in the additional interest of saving of everything i've also dumped full rips of both tapes to the internet archive. see if you can highlights magazine spot the other differences, they are crazy minor.

bonus beat: here is a mega link for the old blog world angelic wars mp3 compilation of goodie b-sides, remixes, soundtrack cuts, etc. that i originally posted on cocaine blunts years and years ago. i had really hoped to migrate it to youtube as well but the lawyers keep telling me no and i done got a little too old to get all sweaty dancing round with them.

bonus bonus beat in case you missed it: sony unceremoniously slipped the holy grail studio full version of the soul food intro "free" onto the otherwise uneventful 25th anniversary streaming release of the album from a few years ago (real cb readers had already been rocking the dub of lo performing it on college radio for ages though.) now we just need the unreleased ugk remix of "dirty south" to finally see a release.