#DeepCuts: So So Def's Best Under-the-Radar Tracks

While reassessing the So So Def catalog for our recent list of the 30 Best So So Def Songs, it quickly became apparent that the label is even more under-appreciated than we'd anticipated. Not only was it tough to decide between the roster's high-profile singles, but also their obscure remixes, album tracks, and 12-inch records that barely made it off the cutting room floor. In light of the label's recent union, consider this a chance to look not just at the breadth of the So So Def catalog, but its depth, as well. Here are 20 #DeepCuts that have aged well, and for what it's worth, should have received more attention.

Written by David Drake (@somanyshrimp)

Album: Funkdafied
Producer: Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal

This swaggering tribute to smoking marijuana from Da Brat's debut album has a deliberate groove and prominent bassline melody to keep things moving. So many weed songs get lost in atmosphere, but "Fire It Up" still holds onto momentum.

Album: Off the Hook
Producer: Organized Noize

The last track on Xscape's second LP is one of a handful not produced by Jermaine Dupri, and the only one from Dungeon Family masterminds Organized Noize. The album was released right in the wake of Organized Noize's massive TLC hit "Waterfalls," and while the song didn't really have crossover smash potential, it was money well invested. A funky beat with a hooky three-note guitar figure, the song showed the strength of the Atlanta production team.

Album: 12" Release
Producer: Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal

The beat has a mysterious cosmopolitan air relative to the original flip of the Isley's. But this one is really special for including a bonus verse from Biggie that didn't appear on the original.

Album: Six
Producer: Jermaine Dupri

The legendary '80s rap group signed to So So Def and dropped an album in '96. Between Whodini comebacks and Atlanta bass compilations, it was obvious Jermaine Dupri was ballin' and investing pretty heavily in a wide range of music.

Unfortunately, Whodini's attempt to restart their careers didn't quite come to creative fruition; not all artists could adequately adjust to the new climate. But one song in particular stood out. Getting an R. Kelly feature in the mid-90s was a can't-miss proposition. Even if "Be My Lady" bears a more-than-passing resemblance to Kells' eternal "Your Body Calling," it's a formula that deserved more than one iteration.

Album: A Jagged Era
Producer: Jermaine Dupri

Over a hooky interpolation of "Bumpy's Lament," (the same part used for Lil Kim's "Drugs" the previous year) Jagged Edge transform the song into a slow motion slow jam of devotion.

Album: Life in 1472
Producer: Kanye West

In reality, any album track from Dupri' Life in 1472 could make this list. It's one of the most consistent records in the So So Def catalog, and a perfect snapshot of the late-1990s sound, with beats by D-Dot Angelettie, DJ Quik and DJ Premier, and standout features from Slick Rick, DMX, Too $hort and Ma$e, among others. It was a true post-Life After Death record, an example of how aesthetically wide-ranging the national scope of hip-hop really was.

But "Turn It Out," the record's first full track, is a special case; produced by a then-unknown producer with a heavy Bad Boy Records influence known as Kanye West, the record features a great Jiggy-era Nas verse and was the perfect place setter for Dupri's best outing as a solo artist.

Album: 12" Release
Producer: Jermaine Dupri

First off, there's really no reason to hate on "Gettin' Jiggy With It" in 2013. Nas ghostwriting for Will Smith over Sister Sledge's disco classic "He's the Greatest Dancer" deserves to play in a loop at the Smithsonian. The remix doesn't really sound anything like the original beyond the word "jiggy," but it does include a verse from jiggy-era Cam'ron and the late legend Big Pun.

It's a safe bet that this song would have a much higher profile if it wasn't a remix of a much-derided pop-rap act, but Will Smith acquits himself pretty well here, too: "Tommy Mottola AND Spielberg tearin' me checks while you talkin' a lotta talk and ain't seen gold yet, much less a baguette."

Album: Traces of My Lipstick
Producer: Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal

Xscape had some great album tracks, and this was one of them. Dupri produced this uptempo R&B cut with help from Manuel Seal, his frequent co-conspirator. The song has slinky bass-and-guitar interplay and a low-key chorus that suggest attempts to play cool about the vocalist's deeper desires.

Album: The Movement
Producer: Rick Colone

"Across the Border" finds the hip-hop supergroup rescuing women from foreign lands over a vaguely exotic and vaguely Caribbean beat courtesy Rick Colone. Well, all except Huddy, who takes the money and slides out of town, leaving his potential bride in her home country. Loon was a nicer guy.

Album: J.E. Heartbreak
Producer: Teddy Bishop

The final track on J.E. Heartbreak is a bouncing R&B track with a sound typical of R&B after the impact of Timbaland in the 1990s. There are some intricate melodic lines dancing along the song's skittering groove, while Jagged Edge promises to make your dreams come true.

Album: Unrestricted
Producer: Kanye West

With his larger-than-life personality and auteur ambitions, it's difficult to remember that Kanye's original skill as a producer was his ability to precisely locate the underlying emotional resonance in a beat. "Chi Town" is a perfect example, as the production complements the strange schizophrenia of feeling a wistful fondness for your hometown despite the prevalence of poverty, violence and addiction: "The crackhead demons in my daddy/And all he seem to dream about is bad-ass habits."

Album: Instructions
Producer: Jermaine Dupri

This beat could make Kitty Pryde sound hardcore; with ominous horn stabs and sound effects that sound like axes swinging, Dupri's beat is one of the darkest he would ever release, and was effectively reused by Max B on his Quarantine tape. The original lineup was a wise one, too. Jada's effortless disdain contrasts perfectly with Freeway's visceral urgency.

Album: Comin' From Where I'm From
Producer: Anthony Hamilton

Anthony Hamilton's wheelhouse is the kind of retro-Southern soul that draws audiences into a nostalgic blanket. It's at its most effective when the songwriting is equally strong. On "Lucille," he shed many of the retro affectations that often define his work and relied purely on songwriting and the subtlety of his vocals to release one of the most powerful songs in his catalog.

Album: 12" Release
Producer: Mike Hartnett

As the South's hip-hop scene arose in the early 2000s, it was a peak time for unabashedly country rap music, and "Aim Ta Pleeze" is a forgotten gem. Jason Brooks a.k.a. Brooks Buford, is a member of Rehab, a Southern rock band with several major label albums and one modestly successful hit (2008's "Bartender Song," which reached No. 64 on the Billboard charts). He's also done some solo work, and one such project was a collaboration with the YoungBloodZ for So So Def back in 2003. The song is much better than it has any right to be, full of comical lyrics and a chorus worthy of campfire sing-a-longs.

Album: 12" Release
Producer: Nitti

Girl on girl violence has never been so...violent. After stomping out another jealous woman, Miss B. mentions that she's left "a Timberland logo branded in your forehead, glass sticking out the side and the color is red," before kicking into the chorus: "I don't fight, I don't argue/I just hit that bitch with a bottle." The beat, compared with the more aggressive crunk tracks of the era, is the same restrained style Nitti would work for many other artists to massive success a few years later ("It's Goin Down"), which actually makes Miss B.'s cold-blooded threats seem all the more vicious.

Album: xXx: State of the Union
Producer: TrackBoyz

J-Kwon is widely thought of as a one-hit wonder; he had multiple charting singles, but "Tipsy" was so massive that subsequent tracks couldn't measure up. But the TrackBoyz production team who masterminded his debut record were a skilled crew, and his record is full of heavily percussive tracks full of odd sound effects and timbres. One of the best didn't make the album. Instead, it was a movie soundtrack one-off single featuring Ebony Eyez and Petey Pablo, the woozy, aggressive stadium anthem "Get XXX'd."

Album: So So Gangsta
Producer: Scott Storch

The Dogg Pound's peak era lasted from the mid-'90s through the early 2000s, and although their consistency and relevance have dropped some since, they've had a handful of high quality under-the-radar tracks throughout the past decade. One of the best came from Daz Dillinger's sole So So Def LP, 2006's So So Gangsta. Scott Storch's casually jazzy production is a far cry from the typical banger he was churning out around 2006, to the song's great benefit.

Album: On Top of Our Game
Producer: Vaushaun Brooks

While much of Dem Franchize Boyz 2006 record On Top of Our Game was snap-rap-oriented, Three-6 Mafia collaboration "Don't Play With Me" used a two-note horn riff to soundtrack the group's tribute to self-preservation.

Album: Point of No Return (Unreleased)
Producer: Rich Harrison

Towards the end of the group's career, Jermaine Dupri signed 3LW and was working on releasing an album with the group entitled Point of No Return. Although single "Feelin' You" was a promising record and found the girls taking on a new, more mature image, the song never really gained traction. The record ultimately leaked, to little fanfare. But it does feature a terrific track with producer Rich Harrison (behind Beyonce's "Crazy In Love" and Amerie's "One Thing") which was recorded during his brief run as a producer du jour.

Album: Self Made
Producer: Drumma Boy

Rocko's Self Made was an underrated record. Aside from hit song "Umma Do Me," the LP was deep with masterful Drumma Boy beats and—particular to the Rocko wheelhouse—high concept, low art like "Busy." The meaning of the song is all in the title, which is about how Rocko is a busy person, primarily in dealing with the drug business.

He weds a memorable delivery to goofy jokes ("I like Snow White, he met me down in Disney Land/Fernandoooo down in Orlandoooo"). If you point out to him that Disney Land is in California (Disney World is in Orlando) he'd probably say he was too busy to figure out the difference: "So busy fuckin' 20s ain't got time for dimes."