Tokyo Cigar The Firefly Mixtape
A collection of joints i have done over the years. I complied all these songs as a retrospective leading up to my compilation album. Various tracks, remixes etc combined like the Voltron Lions for your listening pleasure.
Fun facts about the mixtape:
1. This joint makes me MISS the homie Troublefield crazy cause hearing how talented he was is still mind blowing. He hit me like a mix of Jadakiss and 50 cent but on some Bronx shit. Rest in power.
2. ASN killed his joint with so much raw emotion that i had to throw the fresh prince intro to balance it out.
3. The homie Michael Morstein is gonna FLIP when he sees I put Revolutionary scarface style out on here. I played the album for him a while ago and he went nuts and he always used to bring up that song like “Yo you need to drop that joint”
4. The Felt remix album was arguable the MOST BLASTED i have ever been while making a project. 3 days to make it and i was mega roasted for all them days. Funny thing is fam that was at Rhymesayers told me that people were hitting them up trying to buy physical copies of the Felt 3.0 remix album i did with the Nancy Sinatra samples and they had to tell em “we didn’t put that joint out. You have to contact Tokyo Cigar directly to get”
5. The homie Tone Blunt gets more refined yet more raw as time goes by. That nigga embodies Brooklyn on some overlord shit. The money Green Boyz joint was so rowdy i was scared the song would get mad parties shot up cause of how buckwild it was when he rhymed on it.
6. I was HELLA SCARED to remix Enjoy The Silence. That song is one of my security blankets when life gets crazy. Easily one of the best songs ever made. Maybe even THE best song ever recorded in my humble opinion. The only way i could remix it was by using other Depeche Mode songs. I used about 3 different Depeche songs to remix it.
7. When Kebo called and told me he played the song for Slug and he dug it I was like WOW. When he hit me that Slug got it posted on the Atmosphere Twitter I spazzed out for days.
8. The WU2 ( Wu tang clan vs U2 ) remix project was dedicated to my boarding school days in Ireland cause U2 repped Ireland crazy and while living there was where i heard 36 chambers for the first time.
9. When Tina came through rocking a Wolverine shirt and doing cartwheels in the backyard i was like “this is a LIVE chick” haha
10. A friend of mine knew Tribe of Judah for like 12 years before Hell Razah introduced me to them.
11. Dangerzone is one of the most LOVED and yet HATED remixes i ever did. Straight up. I had to put the Archer clips cause when they were playing the ad it would have that song and it just got stuck in my head so the idea popped up and i flipped it real quick.
12. Rasheed Chappell showed me love EARLY. People would hit me up and i would ask where they heard about me and they would always say “Rasheed Chappell was talking about you”
13. Rast RFC was supposed to rhyme on the Psycho beat for my compilation but he loved the song so much that when we spoke he asked me if he could keep it and then do another song for the compilation. Me being a HEAVY fan of his i was like “HELL YEAH. The song he ended up doing for the compilation is CRAZY EPIC OH MY GOD HE KILLED IT. Wait till yall hear it.
Side note: the version of Psycho on this mixtape is the demo mix. Go to Rast soundcloud page for the official final mix.
14. Getting on a J-Love mixtape and hearing him shout me out will forever be one of my favorite memories ever. Up there with playing beats for Wanya Morris and him wilding out and also the time I went to Chung King to record. The fact I got on a J-Love tape with The Regiment made it extra dope. Side note: The song i sampled for that was by The RZA on the Afro Samurai soundtrack.
Big L vs Kenny Loggins “Danger Zone”
Hooked up a remix real quick.
Tokyo Cigar “The Other side of ILL” Illmatic tribute mixtape
For the 20th anniversary of Illmatic i decided to highlight Nas as well as the producers that made the album the masterpiece that it was. I gathered up different beats from Primo, Pete Rock, Large Professor, Q-Tip and L.E.S. and went bezerk real quick. I do so much production that i forgot how much fun it is to just catch wreck over a classic beat you grew up on. I sequenced their beats to match the tracklist on Illmatic and i also got Tone Blunt to fill in the Brooklyn guest spot role.
I also used lines from Illmatic to title the freestyle.
The second part of the tape is me remixing Illmatic era Nas. It was dope to zone out to the vocals and really appreciate how incredible he is as a lyricist.
This took about a week to hook up and i gotta say it was mad fun to put this together because it brought the fan out of me. I was in the middle of finishing up the project when the homie Slew hit me up and we started to build about why Nas is so dope and he was dropping so many fly stories i decide to tape it and put it throughout the second act.
Salute to Nas, AZ, Olu Dara, Primo, Pete, Extra P, L.E.S. and Tip for what they did. That album raised a whole generation of MC’s to sit down and really think before they put pen to paper and by extension birthed other classics in that already exceptional era.
Tokyo Cigar & The Lost tapes presents “Prodigy VS The Prodigy” REMIX EP
I cant believe nobody had done this before. I had the idea bumping in my head for a while now but was too distracted to sit down and really do it. I found myself running round doing A MILLION things at once and was getting stressed the F out a bit. Seeing how music always = ZEN for me i said FUCK EVERYTHING and sat for 3 days putting this together. Prodigy was always one of my favorite MC’s ( i still consider his verse on “Apostles warning” one of the best displays of the art of rhyming EVER!!!!! ), with imagery, delivery and general aura through the ceiling. A unholy mix of gutter scumbag etiquette filtered through a mind more gifted poetically than many people realize. The Prodigy was introduced to me via MTV back in London. I was buggin out on the dance moves they had on the video for “Outta space” ( man dude looked like he was doing some fly kung-fu shit with his feet at the 1:29 mark. CLASSIC ) as well as the insane video they had for “Smack my bitch up”. This EP came out grimy like a brothel bathroom in the swamp. So far people have really spazzed out to it. The homie Cyclops said “Lime Bacardi” makes him want to rob someone ( best compliment EVER haha ). I stepped to the homie Claaa7 from THE LOST TAPES to present the EP with me and he was down. He told me when he was a kid he was a big fan of The Prodigy so everything worked out on some fly divine shit.
TOKYO CIGAR presents WU2 ( Wu tang Clan VS U2 )
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH High school. The wonder years. I was a kid in boarding school in Ireland. Running thru Dublin bugging out and soaking in all the Hip hop i could find. I was such a fiend that i remember being in Abbey Discs and buying the “I got ya opin” vinyl even though i didn’t have a record player and having the dude that worked there play the whole shit ( instrumentals included ) and record it to a tape for me. ( Shit i still got the tape i think ) I was ecstatic that they had the joint on import cause when i saw the video on Yo MTV Raps i NEEDED that song in my life. Abbey discs was also cool cause of the people i wold meet there. I’ll never forget the day this one Irish dude and i got into one of the most detailed conversations about hip hop production i ever had. I had never even thought about making music at that point, i was just a fan, but i remember the way homeboy was breaking down the Al Green drum break in “Mahogany” and telling with me that it was better on that than on the “Tried by 12” joint. I was like “WOW dude really knows his shit.” Hell, i didn’t even really know what a fucking drum break was back then. Sampling was Fuzzy to me. I just knew the music put me in a zone and i assumed people made it with keyboards or bands or some shit. One fateful day when i was in school the big homie Hassan called me over and handed me an “Enter the wu tang ( 36 chambers)” tape and life as i knew it would not be the same for the next few decades as the Staten Island crew BLEW particles off my brain. I heard about the clan for a while and i heard “Method man” and “Wu tang aint nutting to fuck with” so i was drooling to hear the album. The cover hit me the most the first time i got it. CARTEL did a fucking fantastic job with the artwork cause you couldn’t see their faces on some ill Ninja shit. I had never seen an album cover like that before and i was struck. It looked like a damn movie poster or something. When i got back to the dorm, grabbed my walkman and popped in the tape and heard “Shaolin shadowboxing and the wu tang sword style. If what you say is true the shaolin and the wu tang could be dangerous” it was OVER. The rhyming, the beats, and everything was just too next level. I remember i played it for a couple of the dudes there and heads kept on trying to borrow the tape. I must have dubbed that 36 chambers album for like 7 cats before i even gave the joint back to Hassan. ( Who by the way i was ducking cause i didn’t wanna give that tape back ha ha ). With the exception of “Iron man” i bought all the solo albums while i was still in boarding school too. Hell, i still get Flash backs to to riding the bus to Grafton street every time i hear “Knowledge God” or “Sub Crazy”. Heads in school were really feeling the Wu as well. I lost track of the amount of times i heard “Protect ya neck” or “Diary of a madman” blasting through somebody’s boombox. Back then most cats that were into hip hop were more into the west coast artists ( Ice-t, Cypress Hill and House of pain got a lot of airplay i remember ) but when the Wu hit it just had all kinds of people open. From those years Wu tang has always been the greatest rap group of all time to me. If you think i ain’t keeping it a 100. Ask anyone that i got into a heated “Wu tang is the best of all time” discussion with.
The First time i ever heard U2 was when i was living in VA. I remember being in the whip with my family and the radio being on and “With or without you” being played a lot. Something about that song just always stuck out as being beautiful but sorrowful. Ironically when i was living in Ireland i was not into U2 cause i was such a “strictly hip hop” kid. I remember hearing the “Joshua Tree”, “Zooropa” and “Achtung baby” bumping but i would tune it out cause i felt “That’s that other shit” Damn shame cause i still remember the way everyone in school was going crazy cause of this one show U2 was gonna play, in retrospect i wish i went cause as much as i love their music now it would mean so much to have the memory of seeing them live. As i grew up i fell in love with U2’s music. They have mad emotional power and a dope cinematic feel to their music that started to resonate more as time went by and i began to understand great music is great music regardless of genre. But i cant front even back then i was digging the joint that had the Edge rhyming on it. The video was crazy too. When i hear U2’s music now it give me a feeling i cant even describe. That shit just hits me like “Thank God i’m alive to hear this”. As i got more of their albums i also respected the fact that they always reinvented themselves. I can understand why some who swore by “WAR” may think “POP” was too out there musically but hey……………..THE MUSIC WAS ALWAYS CRAZY. Bottom line. I love the fact they always did what they felt like doing cause no matter what the fuck they did they always had joints that would send a chill down my spine when i hear it start. U2 gets into the same zone of some deeeeeeeeeeeeep soul music. Think of the feeling you get when Marvin goes “ohhhhhhhhhh makes me wanna holler the way they do my life” in “Inner city blues”, that soul music that is so raw and strong it actually burns. U2 takes that and spreads it over mad various styles of rock. Crazy!!!!!!
Putting this project together was fun. I originally planned on doing something like my “Black faith mixtape” with Depeche Mode but one random day the name WU2 popped in my head and i couldn’t get it out. I went and grabbed the vocals and when i put em together it was Zen like the way it all fit. Even down to the titles of the songs and the way U2’s music matched the feel of the Wu’s rhymes when blended together. It took about 5 days for the production ( i did the beats for “Love in Daytona” “Holla First” “God’s Zoo” and “Run to the Exit” on the same day matter fact ) and 2 days of mixing in the vocals. When it was all said and done and i listened to it i caught a very ILL feeling.
I hope yall enjoy it
Tokyo Cigar & Jay-Z “AMERICAN GANGSTER The Graphic Novel” Free remix album and Comic book
Wow. Jay AGAIN. This is the third time i remixed a whole jay album ( this better be the charm ) I called the remix “The graphic novel” and Nanigan was like “How do you remix a graphic novel?” i was like “uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh……i’mmmmmmmmm…doing a COMIC BOOK too…….yeahhhhhh” So i then started on the comic book ( fun as hell to do by the way ) I made the beats a while back for another project that fell through and when i started putting the vocals to the beats they LOCKED IN crazy. It was almost weird how well everything fit.
So anyway. Linkage is right here for the music:
aaaaaaaaaand the comic book:
Mediafire link: http://www.mediafire.com/?duxud49c95u617g ( RAR file )
http://www.mediafire.com/?d6ia3x2ean01017 ( ZIP file )
Sendspace link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/tnr55f
COMIC BOOK PREVIEW
Enjoy. Oh yo if you enjoy it enought hit me with a donation. I’m stacking up money to start touring and pressing up physical cd’s and shirts aint exactly free. So any help to the cause would be appreciated. Thank you.
Felt ( Slug & Murs ) x Tokyo Cigar: Felt 3.0 ( A tribute to Nancy Sinatra )
Yeah this one came up outta nowhere. The homie Nick hit me off with the vocals from Felt 3 and i sat on them for a minute while i worked on the ‘CoExist” and “codename: DEVASTATOR” albums. This joint came together quick as hell. Before i realized what was going on it was pretty much done. I gotta admit i love this shit. Nancy Sinatra had a lot of incredible music. Using her samples gave this project a crazy feel. Some of this stuff comes off a perfect soundtrack for the winter but there are also joints here that would set the summer off too. The reaction to this has been CRAZY. Thats whats really good.
Hiphopdx.com
“We love how Murs and Slug always pay tribute to a special lady with their collaborative, and terribly slept-on FELT albums. Deejay/producer Tokyo Cigar jumped in, and paid tribute to FELT with Nancy Sinatra with a new mix. These are amazing, spooky productions from the voice known by fans of RZA, Quentin Tarantino and simply dope ’60s music. This is more than just a blend tape, these are really elegant productions that anybody can appreciate”
Thelmagazine.com
“Felt, the duo of L.A. rapper Murs and Minneapolis MC Slug (one half of Atmosphere), has dedicated each of their excellent albums to a female celebrity—their first three records were named for Christina Ricci, Lisa Bonnet and Rosie Perez, respectively—though the title choice has no tangible bearing on the record’s sound. But over the holidays DJ Tokyo Cigar released the free mashup record Felt 3.0 (A tribute to Nancy Sinatra), which, you guessed it, consists of the album Felt 3: A Tribute to Rosie Perez remixed with samples from Nancy Sinatra songs, and somehow it’s kind of great.”
Remixthevideo.com
“I am a big fan of Slug (of Atmosphere) and pretty much everything he touches. It’s only natural then that I love Felt, the collaboration between Murs of Living Legends and Slug himself.
Tokyo Cigar recently took Felt 3: A Tribute to Rosie Perez and remixed it, adding numerous samples of Nancy Sinatra’s music. The result is a very intriguing and eerie remix album that oddly enough seems to perfectly suit Felt’s style. ”
Ghostface Killah “Apollo Kids” remix
Ghost did the damn thing AGAIN with the “Apollo Kids” album so i got so hype i decided to remix the original “Apollo Kids” track from the seminal “Supreme Clientele” album. Some straight gutter boom bap for that ass.
Raekwon Remixes
Somebody upped some CL2 Rae vocals so i had to spazz out real quick and lace em up.
THE MAGIC HANDS MIXTAPE
Aight, This is an unofficial sequel to the “7 year theory” since it’s essentially an overview of the stuff i been doing over the last bunch of years. Some of this stuff is mad ancient. It just gives heads a nice view of how the kid been getting down.
THE LADIES IN THE HOUSE
Honestly speaking this joint was inspired by a commercial i saw on USA networks for a dog show they had. They used a part of the song “Paparazzi” and i just zoned out to it every time they played it like “This sounds kinda dope” I looked into Lady Gaga a bit then decided i would like to remix some singers just for the hell of it. I found these vocals and then just zoned out.
Throwback album: TOKYO CIGAR presents “The Black Departure” Starring JAY-Z, JACK NICHOLSON AND LEONARDO DI CAPRIO
“The man Tokyo Cigar is back in the place with some new projects. First up on the plate is his very latest project, The Black Album remix project (is this to prepare us for the onslaught of Blueprint 3 projects?). I’m a recovering Black Album junkie, so lord knows I like a good Black Album remix project, and a few songs into it as I write this, it lives up to the promise. Yeah, it might be 6 years to late, but it’s kinda of so late that it’s on time, if that makes sense. I’ve always believed in being fashionably late anyways. Here is Tokyo Cigar dropping his two cents…..”
-Travis ( WYDU )
The idea behind this jumpoff is making a flick outta the Black album. I picked the movie “The Departed” to base it around cause THAT MOVIE WAS THE ILLEST JOINT EVER. Plus I figured the whole “Jay is departing from the rap game” thing kinda went hand in hand with the title conceptually. Apart from the music I did for the intro I stuck with samples for this project. Jay is one of those cats that can sound great over any type of sound but there’s just that unidentifiable something about him rhyming over samples that brings out something extra in his bars (Exhibit A: “The Blueprint” ).
I produced all the beats on the album within this past week, except for the beats for “Intro“, “Public service announcement”, “99 Problems”, “Lucifer” and “Dirt off your shoulder” which I made a while back and pulled out the oven for this joint. I made the cover in about a day and a half. I went with that funky movie type look cause to me this is not an album, it’s a movie. You can listen to it in bits and pieces but the whole point is to pop it in and experience the entire concept. So i went with visuals that i felt captured the essence of what both the movie AND the actual Black album were about.
Thanks for checking it out.
I hope you enjoy the feature presentation………………”THE BLACK DEPARTURE”
THE TOKYO CIGAR EDITION 