No, this isn’t about Crooked I the rapper from Slaughterhouse. This post features the original Crooked I… the infamous, time-honored logo of St. Ides malt liquor. For the uninformed, St. Ides is a brew so strong it was dubbed “Liquid Crack” in the hood. To further their rowdy reputation, St. Ides was a primary sponsor of the monumental Tyson/Holyfield fight in 1997, when Iron Mike bit off a chunk of Holyfield’s earlobe. Perhaps Tyson had a few swigs of complimentary liquid crack before the match.
But in a move of pure marketing genius, the makers of St. Ides recruited some of the best gangsta rappers in the game to endorse their fine, riot-inciting product. Ice Cube set it off with a TV commercial that included an original song praising the Crooked I; the first domino to fall in a series of dope clips featuring The Notorious B.I.G., Scarface, 2Pac, Kool G. Rap, MC Eiht, EPMD, Snoop Dogg, Warren G and many other rap superstars. Even righteous Five Percenters like Rakim Allah and Wu Tang Clan did songs for St. Ides. But after memorizing the complex Daily Mathematics, the Gods have a right to get shit-faced on occasion.
My homie Burns Luciano compiled all those classic St. Ides rap songs into one dope mixtape called Burns Luciano Presents Crooked I. The star-studded tracklist and download link is below the jump. And as an added tribute to the Ides, there’s also video footage of Mike Tyson biting off Evander Holyfield’s ear. Check out the giant “St. Ides Gold” logo plastered across the canvas. Another stellar moment in the boozed-up legacy of St Ides. Salute.
Download link: Burns Luciano Presents Crooked I
Tracklist:
01.St. Ides – King Tee
02.40oz Fit For A King – King Tee (Feat DJ Pooh)
03.Tha Bomb Malt Liquor – King Tee (Feat DJ Pooh)
04.Do Ya Like St. Ides – King Tee (Feat E-Swift)
05.Do You Wanna Go To The Liquor Store – King Tee
06.Let’s Have Some St. Ides – E-Swift (Feat King Tee]
07.Get Your Girl in The Mood Quicker – King Tee (Feat Ice Cube)
08.S.T.Crooked I.D.E.S. Ice Cube (Feat DJ Pooh and E-Swift)
09.Femalt Liquor – Yo Yo (Feat Ice Cube)
10.Put It In Your Egg Nog – Ice Cube (Feat DJ Pooh)
11.Jackin For Malt Liquor – Ice Cube
12.We Don’t Want No 8Ball – Ice Cube
13.Wish They’d Come Up With A 12 Pack – Ice Cube
14.Blind Fold Test – Ice Cube (Feat DJ Pooh)
15.Real Men Drink… – Eric B & Rakim
16.Get Some – Rakim
17.You Need A Six Pack – King Tee (Feat Yo-Yo)
18.East Meets West Malt Liquor – EPMD (Feat Ice Cube)
19.40oz Or A Can – Erick Sermon
20.Get A Grip, Take A Sip – Kool G Rap (Feat DJ Pooh & Sir Jinx)
21.5th Ward / South Central Malt – Geto Boys (Feat Ice Cube)
22.My Malt’s Playin Tricks On Me – Geto Boys
23.St. Ides In The LBC – Snoop Dogg
24.When We Sippin On Tha Brew – Warren G
25.Drank Anthem – Nate Dogg
26.The Brew Took Me Unda – MC Eiht
27.Drankin Toon – Scarface
28.Shaolin Brew – Wu Tang Clan
29.Dogg Food And Drank – Snoop Dogg
30.Crooked I For All Ages – Ice Cube
knew this was comin…
passion St Ides was my shit.
and the blue…but i 4got the name of that joint.
off wiki:
Scarface drops the line “guzzling up a 40 oz of cold St. Ides” in his single “Let me Roll”.
Black Thought of The Roots states “I’m crooked like the I on the toxic malt liquor” in the song “Section” on their album Illadelph Halflife.
Ice Cube mentions St. Ides in 1991′s “Steady Mobbin’” and 1992′s “When Will They Shoot?”.
Gift of Gab of rap group Blackalicious states in the song “40 oz for Breakfast” on their album Melodica that he spells “relief S-T-I-D-E-S”.
Tupac Shakur dissed the drink in his songs “Young Black Male” (1991) and “Crooked Nigga Too” (2004) saying, “I don’t drink St. Ides” while “Fuck that!” is shouted in the background.
Spice 1 sings “Should I get St. Ides or Old E?” in Money or Murder on his self-titled album (1991).
Eazy-E mentions St. Ides in his 1993 song “Any Last Werdz” featuring Kokane and Cold 187um: “People say it ain’t wise, to get faded off the St. Ides”.
The East Coast hip hop duo Mobb Deep are “chasing St. Ides down with some Seagram’s gin” in their 1995 song “Cradle to the Grave”.
The rap group Luniz were known admirers of the drink, as stated in their 1995 song “I Got 5 on It” (“Go get the S-t. I-d-e-s”).
Former funk metal band L.A.P.D. has a song titled St. Ides
“St. Ides Heaven” is the title of a song by indie rock musician Elliott Smith on his 1995 self-titled album.
In 1993′s “Bless Da 40 Oz.”, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony—then known as B.O.N.E. Enterprise—rap about buying a 40oz of St. Ides “for a dollar ninety even”.
The pop punk band Fenix TX mentions St. Ides Special Brew in their 1999 song “Apple Pie Cowboy Toothpaste”: “She gets her stomach pumped and runs to buy another case/Of the Michelob ’cause the Lone Star just won’t do/And the beer tastes awfully used, St. Ides and even Special Brew”.
Afroman mentions the drink in his song “Tall Cans” from his 2001 album The Good Times: “My Homie popped a 40 of some St. Ides/Now that knucklehead staggerin’ from side to side”.
Long Beach rapper Crooked I’s name was inspired by the crooked “I” on the St. Ides’ bottle label.[citation needed]
R&B singer-songwriter Kelis mentions St. Ides in the song “Flash Back”, from her 2001 album Wanderland, as she sings, “And that’s when you walked by/Holding your St. Ides”.
Dat Nigga Daz / Daz DillengerI mentions it but apparently prefers Old English in his song Don’t Try to Play Me Homie he says “crack a forty of that Eight fuck St. Ides I love the taste”
In their 2001 song “Sippin’ 40z”, the electropop group Gravy Train!!!! states, “If you make your momma cry, I’ll give you some of my St. Ides”.
Richmond Fontaine’s 2007 album Thirteen Cities has a song called “St. Ides, Parked Cars, And Other People’s Homes”.
In Brotha Lynch Hung’s song “Deep Down” , Mr. Doctor says, “Yeah, I got my St. Ides, I’m turnin it up, to get drunk”.
MF DOOM—while performing with rap group KMD under his earlier pseudonym “Zev Love X”—mentions St. Ides in the 1993 song “Sweet Premium Wine”. He sings (to the tune of the children’s song “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”), “I knew a old lady who swallowed St. Ides / I don’t know why she swallowed St. Ides”.
you are either a well informed consumer or a st ides historian very good research skills…..
i’m impressed by the writer, the musical contributor and wit-e with this comment
how could he leave off BIG’s rhyme?
and the joint with Pac & Snoop:
ha! that’s whassup, wit-e! you a thorough mu’fucka, man! i dig that.
this is GREAT, i ain’t even catch all these references before. kelis must still be bent off that ides, askin nas for more fuckin cash after gettin 55K or whateva per month. but how pac gonna dis st. ides twice & that nigga did a commercial for them? LMAO! gotta love it.
oh shit… word! i ain’t even notice burns left off that biggie joint. and the pac/snoop joint too. i’ve been false advertising, tellin ppl they’re on there. damn! i gotta call burns up & let ‘em know.
special brew was my shit too… it was like a cheaper version of cisco, which was cheap enuff as it was. special brew was sweet but it was strong as a muthafucka. i got a shitload of stories about wylin’ out off that brew.
thanks for strengthening this post, mayne.
OK, Wit. I spoke to Burns & he said the Biggie joint had bad sound quality. So did the Snoop/Pac joint… At least you posted it here.
That’s why he ain’t put em on.
ST Ides and Mad Dog…
WOOOOO!
aw, damn! dis nigga brought up the mad dog LOL
even more so than st. ides special brew, mad dog was the poor man’s cisco fa’sho.
i done drank plenty o’ the daaaaaawg. shit came in a flask. red, blue, purple…
i bought that shit with food stamps once, tell me that ain’t ghetto LOL
what the fuck was i thinkin? :-\
This is tight, and I remember these, I really liked the King Tee Eswift mix. You know was funny is that Hip Hop has evolved to the point where it can appreciate what should be considered a SLIGHT on the Black Community…and that is MALT LIQUOUR…
we can view it now, as elders and understand that YES it was exploitation of a type, but in the beginning it was THE ONLY SPONSOR we had.
Hip Hop is a culture, but it also a business, so we do have to give love to St. Ides…they were the only ones letting us make commercials in the beginning.
I agree 100%, Daisuke. Now rappers are endorsing products much worse than malt liquor, like tight jeans & purses for men.
uh… okay LOL