St. Ides 1994 Mixtape
The St. Ides Mixtape came out way back in 1994, a couple years after the malt liquor officially broke out and became popular amongst the alcoholics, pot heads, gang-bangers, hookers, homeless, and teenage high school kids from the suburbs that wanted to be from the hood.
I’m pretty sure Ice Cube was the first rapper to put it on the map with a 30-second commercial where he raps about- you got it- St. Ides Brew, how great it tastes and how you’ll get all the hoes if you’re seen with a 40oz. of Crooked I in your hands. Then came the next commercial, then Wu-Tang did one, then Snoop Dogg, and so on and so on. This was back in ’94 before all the rappers were mixed into everything like they are today.
There was a few cats in movies but that was about it. Ice Cube made St. Ides really start poppin’ when Boyz N tha Hood came out…that’s all he drank in the movie. And you know how that goes…people see Cube drinkin’ St. Ides and if they drink St. Ides they can be as gangster as Cube was, or Doughboy was, in the movie. Product placement kids, its all about product placement. I understand that now. And it’s genius.
Anyway, back to the mixtape. So after St. Ides was poppin’ in like 1994-1995 they started paying more rappers to promote the beer. Method Man & Redman, Nate Dogg & Warren G, MC Eight, Scarface, Wu-Tang, Snoop Dogg & Tupac…all heavy hitters guaranteed to rake in the dollars.
Then the mixtape dropped and not only was it just a mixtape but it was a mixtape that was given away, a promo item, and not everyone could get their hands on it. Plus it had every rapper who was murderin’ shit at that time. There were mad copies of mixtapes floating around because they weren’t available for purchase, you had to either know someone that had it or get a promo copy from one of the hood stores that carried St. Ides. Damn I wish it was 1994 again. Any of you younger cats born in the early 2000’s or whatever have no idea what y’all missed.
Anyway, here’s the St. Ides mixtape in YouTube and SoundCloud format. Enjoy.
(track list posted below)
