16 years ago, The Cool Kids - Chuck Inglish and Sir Michael Rocks - released the seminole Rap mixtape of the Blog Era. It was called "Gone Fishin." It was a true inflection point in the Rap game, and it cemented The Cool Kids at the top of the underground Rap genre.
Gone Fishin' was produced with Dj Don Cannon and contained smashes like "Pennies" (Updated Rosters Remix), "Hammer Bros," "The Light Company," "Premium Blends," and "Jump Rope." The features lineup had names like Ludacris, Bun B, GLC, Tennille, Jahda. You really had to be there to understand how crazy the internet went for this. To this day, The songs rack up thousands of views, and people beg them to put the mixtape on streaming services.
There was just one issue.
It was never created with the intention of an official release.
So, the beats on "Gone Fishin" contained samples.
The featured artists most likely never worked out official publishing splits, given the songs were not meant to be officially "published."
All of that is to let you know what a momentus day today is, as The Cool Kids and Don Cannon have released "Pennies" (Updated Rosters Remix - feat. Ludacris & Bun B) to music streaming services worldwide. This is one of the hardest beats of all-time. OGs may remember it as the menu music for the game NBA 2K 2009 (there were a series of commercials for the game that had Kevin Garnett in them).
It was a real moment.
Artists still shout this album out to this day. I just saw an interview with Earl Sweatshirt where, he said he taught himself to rap by looping the instrumental section at the end of "Hammer Bros." The last time I saw Schoolboy Q at the studio, he said they grew up listening to this mixtape. Ask anyone you're a fan of now, and they were playing this then.
For the purists, here is the music video for the original version of "Pennies."
Watch. Learn. Obsess.
According to this tweet from group member Chuck Inglish, the entire "Gone Fishin" album is coming to streaming. And, phyical CDs and Vinyl will be available.
They're about to make a fortune.
This needs to be on every Basketball team's starting lineup intros and lay-up line warm-up playlist.
It gets no better.
_Todd @ Hype Intro