Ganjah K - Unreleased Material

Ganjah K's name is one that rarely comes up when discussions are held of the mighty Project Blowed, an unfortunate oversight when K's musical pedigree is more than enough to hold him in the same lofty regard as the rest of the seminal Left Coast collective. Simply put, the man makes damn good rap music. Though legendary in the Los Angeles underground circles, his own legacy is overshadowed by his more prolific contemporaries including Freestyle Fellowship, Abstract Tribe Unique, and the Curbserver/Afterlife camp. This is more than likely due to the fact that K could never seem to get an officially-released full-length record. Let's face it, in an industry where putting out six mixtapes worth of material in as many months is often not enough to get you noticed, a lack of recorded material is a serious hindrance.

At least two Ganjah K albums were produced, despite constant murmurs of their non-existence amongst Blowed heads and tape traders. The first, Danksta Life, seems to be a cassette-only underground release and features Snoop Dogg on one of the choruses ("Ups & Downs")...in-studio, no samples! Consensus on a release date seems to fall between 1992 and 1994, although I would guess closer to late 1992 or early 1993 given the Snoop appearance. K's sophomore album and major label debut, Harvest For The World, was supposed to be released in 1995 on Pallas Records, and was shelved when the label folded. I'm not sure if the album was ever actually completed as only eight songs seem to exist in tangible form.

After Pallas folded, K languished in the underground, dropping guest appearances here and there and even appearing on the soundtrack to the Martin Lawrence flick "A Thin Line Between Love & Hate." After lacing Fat Jack the Elephant with a track for his 1999 double-disc opus Cater To The DJ, Ganjah K seemingly disappeared into a haze of his own chronic smoke. According to this website, he was supposed to drop an album entitled Puff Daddy in the summer of 2002, but nothing ever materialized. Really a shame, as I always felt that K was a superbly talented cat.

Now, on to the music itself.

Ganjah K was never as stylistically monstrous as his Curbserver compatriots, but as he proved on the intermittent "Heavyweights" cuts that he could easily hold his own in a cipher. Song concepts are often limited to the man's namesake; smoking and dealing bud are the prevailing themes, although K never limits himself strictly that. The beats, which I would assume are mostly self-produced, hit you like the breeze coming off of the Pacific Ocean. Boom-bap to the core but no rough-and-rugged Timb boot stomp here; you can feel both the East and West Coast influences equally. Definitely the type of rap you'll want to crack a brew and lounge to. In my mind, there are really no weak tracks on either of these albums so all I can say is give 'em a listen and form your own opinions.

Here are a couple of links to K's two albums. Be forewarned, as the sound quality on Harvest For The World is extremely muddled as a result of multi-generation dubbing. I won't lie, they literally sound like someone ran the DATs through a meat grinder. But if you can get beyond the awful EQ levels, you're in for some dope music. One demo track, "Scene Of The Green," is tacked onto Harvest as well.


Enjoy.

Danksta Life (1992?-1994?, self-released)

1. Poverty Is A Crime
2. Paper Chase
3. Ya Too Strong
4. Danksta Life
5. When Ya Homie Dies
6. Everybody Wants To Be A G
7. Bud Berries
8. Smoke Buds & Down Brew
9. Medicine Man
10. Dis Type Of Shit
11. Ups & Downs (featuring Snoop Dogg)
12. Love Got My Mind Trippin’

Mediafire

Harvest For The World (1995, Pallas Records)

1. It Don’t Stop
2. Pound Of Herb
3. Can You Feel The High?
4. You’re All I Need
5. Untitled
6. Bud Berries
7. Untitled
8. Untitled
9. Scene Of The Green (Demo)

Mediafire

Props to TROY forum members basta & bignormy for the original uploads.

-Echo Leader