Back in 2000, underground Hip-Hop 12-inch singles were being released every week. Whether you were visiting Fat Beats in downtown NYC or ordering online from Sandbox Automatic, there was never a shortage of dope music.
J-Love was just starting to get his name out at the time, being a tour DJ for Ghostface and dropping mix tapes with unreleased gems from Wu-Tang Clan and others. J-Love also tried his hand at producing and made several remixes and eventually started dropping his own singles. One of his earliest efforts was under the Producer/DJ/MC group The Sqwad composed of J-Love, Ric Nice, and Shazam X.
Their first single included collaborations with Queens-native Cormega and D.I.T.C. member O.C. The Cormega track – “Fallen Soldiers” – later appeared on his debut album a year later. However, the O.C. track never saw the light of day. Check out this track with some dope verses from Omar Credle and early production skills by J-Love. Incase you’re wondering, J-Love is still producing A LOT of underground tracks (almost weekly).