DIAMOND + BUSTA: CREDIT IS DUE

Diamond D: I Went For Mine
From Stunts, Blunts and Hip-Hop (Chemistry, 1992)

?: “Drunk Girl“
From ? (?, 1977)

I first heard this new Busta song on the XXL website and it’s just now leaked onto the internet. The first thing I thought when hearing it is, “damn, Busta jacked the beat from Diamond D” (technically, DJ Scratch produced it). After all, it’s a very distinctive track and I don’t think another rapper has flipped it since Diamond D cut “I Went For Mine” (co-produced by Jazzy Jay) back in 1992. That latter cut was always a favorite of mine from the album even though it only appeared on CD and cassette version but not, alas, the vinyl (it’s since been bootlegged on 12″).

With Busta’s new song, Swizz Beats actually opens the song but he was so incredibly annoying to listen to as a hypeman that I simply edited him out. What’s funny is that half the song is really just Busta shouting out every single rapper/producer of note from NYC. I don’t mind the roll call but what I thought was a bit weird was that Diamond basically gets a perfunctory shout-out in the “producers” section but Busta seems to have forgotten that he’s rhyming over a track that Diamond made famous. Provided, “I Went For Mine” was a sleeper hit but I’m surprised nonetheless. Scratch should have schooled him!

In any case, I don’t believe the original sample to “I Went For Mine” was officially cleared back in the day even though 1) it’s already been bootlegged on a few comps and 2) according to Diamond himself, he’s more or less insulated from any copyright problems over that album at this point. Regardless, I’m not going to list the artist and title here (please respect that – if you throw it up in the comments, I’m deleting it). Sufficed to say: the O.G. track is niiiiiice. Why can’t more disco songs sound like this?