Unreleased Jewels- Speech

Unreleased Jewels is a great little project for us Speech fans. For those not aware, this is a fairly recent online release on the Vagabond Records site of some unreleased (obviously) songs from Speech over the years. I love that this kind of stuff is being made available to us instead of rotting and collecting dust.

Personally, I always enjoy hearing songs that were good songs, but might not have fit in with a particular album. And I think an artist can sometimes have the worst view of a song because they're too close to it- for instance, Chuck D has told a story that he was going to leave "Don't Believe the Hype" on the cutting room floor until DMC basically forced him to put it out. (Note: I love Public Enemy, so I apologize for the constant interjections here with PE facts and trivia!)

So with that in mind, let's take a look at Unreleased Jewels and see what Speech left on the cutting room floor with these 12 songs. According to the song information on itunes, most of these songs were recorded for the Grown Folks Table album:

1. Let It Go [3:21] - This song really starts the collection off right. Really good song about moving past some issues to push a relationship forward.

2. This Christmas Eve & Eve's Surprise (reprise) [7:15] - Now when I re-burn this album, I'm going to move this one to the last song. It's not necessarily bad, but I'm not really a fan of listening to Christmas music until Christmas. This isn't really Jingle Bells, Ho-ho-ho type stuff, but nonetheless I would move it back. Also, the quality on this song is noticeably less than the other songs, at least for the first half. It also sounds like Travie McCoy from Gym Class Heroes is featured on the first half, but I could be way wrong. All of that said, this isn't a bad song. The Reprise slows the song down with an acoustic vibe.

3. Amazing [3:45] - This is a nice, mellow song.

4. Loss for Words [1:35] - This is more of a demo than a full song, but it seems to me that Speech was working on a pretty good one.

5. Please Don't Let Go [4:24] - Now here is an AD song. This actually popped up on the Since the Last Time mixtape, but here it is without any DJ chatter over it. I really like this song and think it would've worked very well on Since the Last Time. Nice upbeat song in the classic AD fashion. Speech also makes clear his opinions on sharing music on the internet in the first verse- he's all for it. The chorus states that "we produce those songs that hit your spirit and mental, so please don't let go." I agree!

6. The Root of all kinds of Evil (The N***** Word debate) [5:41] - This song seems to be Speech's take on the proposed title of Nas's latest album, among others uses of that infamous word. I'm a Nas fan, but I'm still not sure if he was going for shock value with that title or trying to make a statement. Either way, Speech probably dealt more effectively with the debate over the word way back on "People Everyday" then Nas was able to pull off on that album, although overall I did like it. Anyway, this is a really good song, and Speech makes some great points without being preachy.

7. Worth It [3:00] - Another great Speech song. It's becoming clear that there are some really nice songs on here, or "gems" if you prefer :)

8. The Kingdom of Illness [3:49] - This is yet another great Speech song- this one is more of a hip-hop track then some of the others. The first verse is about growing up among racism, and if it's all true then it's pretty depressing.

9. Gather You Up (Matthew 23:37 - message to the lost tribe ) [3:46] - Obvious from the title, this is a heavily religious song and is really good.

10. Follow Me [2:40] - This is another hip-hop song with a strong religious theme. And, yes, it is another good one! It does cut off a little abruptly.

11. Where U From [2:42] - This is a hip-hop song about OutKast. Kind of has more of a mainstream feel then most Speech songs, but it works very well. With better mastering, would probably hit pretty hard in a good system.

12. My Protest (U Thought I Was A Hippie?) [3:53] - Closes the album with Speech basically defending him against the allegation that he's "soft."

In a nutshell, this package is very worthy of being called "Gems." If you enjoyed Grown Folks Table, then this really works well as a second disc to that package. Highly recommended. According to the Vagabond store, this will only be available for a limited time, so pick it up today!

To finish up, I would be all for seeing this released in a hard copy format as I still believe you get the best sound on a disc, but I'm just happy the songs are available in any format. We'll take a look at the second online release that came out around the same time, The Life Music Remixes, down the road.