I've been reading about MC Search over at Press Rewind if I Haven't Blown Your Mind and I got inspired to do a little introspective. Today I wanted to focus on a little known producer/emcee you've probably heard before but didn't know anything about him. I'm talking about Jesse West also known as 3rd Eye. He's one of those guys that often gets overlooked when people reminisce about the golden era of hip-hop. He started out in '89 with his solo LP "No Prisoners" on Motown which you'd think would have done well due to the fact he had 3 singles off it "I Saw You", "No Prisoners", and "Renegade". Alas it didn't and from there he moved onto work with The Genius and then to the Bad Boy Camp. What blows my mind is he did one of the dopest hip-hop beats of ALL TIME and I was sleeping on the man.
Anyways back to The Genius. West did the notorious track "Come Do Me" which...wasn't really the GZA's style. Genius went into it a little bit over at Oh Word. After that debacle he popped up on a dope dope Heavy D and the Boyz LP called "Blue Funk". Pete Rock naturally did a couple joints on the album as well as Primo.
Heavy D and the Boyz - Blue Funk
Tracklist: A1 Truthful (4:41) Producer - Tony Dofat Vocals - Terri Robinson A2 Who's The Man? (4:04) Producer - Tony Dofat A3 Talk Is Cheap (4:04) Producer - Skeff Anselm A4 Girl (4:57) Producer - Steely & Clevie A5 It's A New Day (5:20) Producer - Pete Rock A6 Who's In The House (4:10) Producer - Tony Dofat Rap [Featuring] - Phat Doug B1 Love Sexy (4:28) Backing Vocals - Tabitha Brace Producer - Pete Rock B2 Slow Down (4:12) Producer - Jesse West Vocals - Tabitha Brace , Terri Robinson B3 Silky (3:42) Producer - Jesse West B4 Here Comes The Heavster (4:53) Producer - DJ Premier B5 Blue Funk (4:33) Backing Vocals - Monica Payne , Terri Robinson Producer - Pete Rock B6 Yes Y'all (4:01) Producer - DJ Premier B7 A Bunch Of Niggas (4:59) Producer - Jesse West Rap [Featuring] - 3rd Eye (2) , Biggie Smalls , Busta Rhymes , Guru , Rob O download
After that he got mixed in with Puffy and worked on a Mary J. track called Reminisce. The joint has that early R&B cheese vibe, but he flipped it with the T.R.O.Y. horns and CL drops a dope verse on it to compensate for any wackness. Look for ithere. From there he remixed Super Cat on a cut called "Dolly My Baby". He did 2 different beats which Puffy 'helped' on. Puffy on a remix is always suspect so I'll default toward giving Jesse the credit.
Super Cat - Dolly My Baby CDS (1993)
Tracklist: 1 Dolly My Baby (Reggae Mix) Featuring - Trevor Sparks Remix - Wycliffe Johnson 2 Dolly My Baby (Reggae Super Cat Mix) Remix - Wycliffe Johnson 3 Dolly My Baby (Reggae Dub Mix) Remix - Wycliffe Johnson 4 Dolly My Baby (Hip Hop Mix) Featuring - Mary J. Blige Remix - Jesse West , Sean "Puffy" Combs 5 Dolly My Baby (Bad Boy Extended Mix) Featuring - Mary J. Blige , Notorious B.I.G. , Sean "Puffy" Combs , Third Eye Remix - Jesse West , Sean "Puffy" Combs 6 Dolly My Baby (Super Cat Mix) Remix - Jesse West , Sean "Puffy" Combs 7 Dolly My Baby (Instrumental Mary Mix) Remix - Jesse West , Sean "Puffy" Combs download
From there he collabed with PMD, Nine, and Ill Biskits which I won't get into. I'm curious about the group 24/7 with him and Nine. Don't know a whole lot of info about that. If any body has any info drop hit me up! It seems like he really slowed down after this and didn't drop much material. He did the classic KRS joint and then one of my favourite Xzibit cuts ever "What You See is What You Get".
Jesse West - No Prisoners
Tracklist: 1 No Prisoners (4:02) 2 Renegade (3:47) 3 I'm A Warrior (5:26) 4 State Of Your Mind (4:34) 5 Prelude To Maddness (1:06) 6 This Is Maddness (5:14) 7 Do You Wanna Party (4:07) 8 I Saw You (4:33) 9 The Master (3:51) 10 For James (1:30) 11 Concrete Jungle (3:53) 12 Black Bomb (4:54) download
The Genius - Words From The Genius
Tracklist: 1 Pass The Bone (3:52) Producer - Genius, The , Prince Rakeem 2 Life Of A Drug Dealer (3:39) 3 The Genius Is Slammin' (4:23) 4 Those Were The Days (4:37) 5 What Are Silly Girls Made Of (4:32) 6 Living Foul (4:22) 7 Drama (3:59) 8 Words From The Genius (5:05) 9 Who's Your Rhymin' Hero (4:34) 10 Phony As You Wanna Be (5:04) 11 Stop The Nonsense (3:41) 12 Superfreak (4:38) 13 Stay Out Of Bars (3:55) 14 True Fresh M.C. (3:39) 15 Feel The Pain (3:39) download
