I bootlegged my own shit. Sometimes that’s how you gotta do it, what can I say. White Label is a short collection of Stan Ipcus loosies (some new songs and some older ones) that I’ve been wanting to throw on streaming services. So I decided to put them all together as if they were an actual white label vinyl release from back in the day, when tracks that never made their way onto albums would get pressed up and circulated to DJs and neighborhood record stores. The title is a double entendre too, for those of you keeping score at home.

Here’s a quick track-by-track breakdown of White Label:

1. “Grizzly” – This is my latest release, a self-produced track featuring a sample/loop I’ve been sitting on for years that I finally turned into a song. This is me spitting at my optimal level, and I’m in love with the beat and how the vocal samples came together. Actually, I used the Memphis Bleek “I’m back on my grizzly” vocal sample for a crazy freestyle track my boy K-Wet did years ago over Cam’ron and Alchemist’s “Wet Wipes” beat, and I repurposed it for this. Bonus points if you can identify who’s saying my name on the hook.

2. “Cream” – Another brand new one, featuring a flip of the classic of all classic rock jams. My boy threw this on randomly during a late night hang and I was like, “Yo, has anyone ever spit on this?!” I went home, looped it up, wrote some double-time flavor to it, and boom—”Cream” was born.

3. “Pay U No Mind” – This song was recorded in 2004 at Sony Studios during my InYerFace Records days. It was produced by Joe Naughty aka Naughty Shorts, who also produced Kool G Rap’s “It’s A Shame” and Capone-N-Noreaga’s “Stick You.” Fun fact—this was the first Stan Ipcus song that was ever played on New York radio. Shout to DJ Eclipse!

4. “Halftime Show Freestyle” – Speaking of DJ Eclipse, this freestyle is from when I was invited up to The Halftime Show as a guest in 2008 after the success of “My Ferris Buellers.” Eclipse wasn’t there that night, but shout to Mars and DJ Skizz who threw on a couple beats for me to rap to, this being the second one. As someone who always just wanted to be embraced by the underground rap scene in New York, this was a proud moment for me. And since I never released this rhyme on anything else, I figured it was a nice live recording to pull out of the Ipcus archives and include on a bootleg-inspired release.

5. “Around The Way” ft. Hard White – This was a joint that my man Hard White from White Plains invited me to hop on. It’s produced by Pree, who actually is his barber. I think we did it back in the mid-10s, and originally we dropped it on NahRight back when I was writing over there. Then I threw it on the BIG IP DON’T PLAY project, but it never made it to streaming services. Again, another perfect candidate for White Label. We still gotta do a video for this!

6. “Bout My Business” – I produced this one a few years back myself and included it on the BIG IP DON’T PLAY project also. I was in love with this loop forever, and the first verse on here is the same one I spit live on Sway In The Morning with Matisyahu, which was one of the greatest hip-hop highlights of my life. It’s a rapper’s take on my daily life as a working dad, and I’d like to think I achieved the tricky feat of doing it in a way that didn’t come off corny.

Okay, that’s it! Gonna let this one exist in the world and open it up for discovery. Stream White Label HERE.