Memphis Bleek

What the Not Jay and Ye Members of Roc-A-Fella Records Have Been Up To

By Chaz Kangas Wed., Dec. 19 2012 at 3:30 AM
Categories: Memphis Bleek

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Memphis Bleek
Tonight Gramercy Theater is hosting a Roc-A-Fella Records reunion concert. (Although, ummm, considering the notable absences, it seems maybe unauthorized.) It's been just over eight years since Jay-Z and Dame Dash split, ending one of the most influential and dominant labels in rap. While the long-retired Amil and incarcerated Beanie Sigel (currently serving two years for tax evasion) and other cogs in the Roc Machine (ahem, Kanye/Jay-Z) won't be a part of tonight's event, we decided to take a look back at what Memphis Bleek, Freeway and Young Gunz have been up to since the end of the Roc-A-Fella era.

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Download a Two-Part Tribute To Underappreciated Jay-Z Sidekick Memphis Bleek

By Zach Baron Fri., Jan. 7 2011 at 12:45 PM
Categories: Featured, Jay-Z, Listen, Memphis Bleek

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Bleek, doing what he does best. Photo via MySpace
He's probably the best rap hypeman ever to do it, short of maybe Flavor Flav. He's clearly a loyal and self-deprecating friend. He puts more talented people's interests above his own, always. And yet, no one cares. Jay-Z and Memphis Bleek met in a Marcy courtyard back in the early '90s, and since then--minus an early episode excruciatingly detailed in Jay's recent Decoded, in which he had to punish his friend for getting lazy--the two have been nearly inseparable. Who else would do the policeman parts on "99 Problems"? But Bleek has made plenty of his own music throughout the years too, often with a dreamteam of collaborators (Just Blaze, Jay, Freeway, Beanie Sigel, among many other other Roc-a-Fella greats). It is sad that in 2011, nobody remembers. Well, nobody except SOTC pal Sean Fennessey. He just curated a double-disc tribute to the man:

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