In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Shabaam Sahdeeq was a rising star.  He had recent collaborations with a host of talented artists, including rappers Common, Mos Def, Eminem, Busta Rhymes, Red and Method, as well as producers Hi-Tek and Alchemist.  In 2002 Sahdeeq was set to release a solo album on the infamous Rawkus Records, but difficulty was ahead.  Rawkus signed a joint venture deal with MCA, which shortly thereafter folded.  Rawkus and Sahdeeq were without distribution.

It is perhaps the case that Sahdeeq may not have released his album that year anyway, despite the label difficulties – between 2002 and 2005 he served 3 years of a 6 year sentence.  That hasn’t stopped this incredibly talented rapper, however.  In 2007, Sahdeeq aka S-Dub reconnected with the Polyrythm Addicts, and most recently he has been working on a project called The Bullpen Sessionz, with a collective named The Closers.  The video on Sahdeeq’s myspace describes a project to drop a song a week for 9 weeks, and then release those tracks in mixtape format.  Look for a Bullpen Sessionz feature on next week’s Hip Hop Hits!

These tracks are off an old bootleg I picked up in 2001 from who knows where, called the ‘Double S Bootleg’.  Some of the tracks on the bootleg were perhaps tracks from his upcoming solo album.

[audio:Shabaam Shadeeq – Arabian Nights.mp3,Shabaam Shadeeq – WWIII.mp3,Shabaam Shadeeq – Takin. Over.mp3]