Awol One & Gel Roc "Life Before Death"

Expanding the Backpack, 9/27/10

Alright, so I'm not a big fan of mixtapes or retrospective compilations of tracks collected from various albums, but I'm going to make a little exception here because of how much I love this West Coast underground stuff. "Life Before Death" is a compilation created by Awol One & Gel Roc, both highly respected stylistic MCs in their own rights, and contains tracks that both artists have appeared on over the years. This means that we get mostly West Coast underground posse cuts, featuring the likes of Ellay Khule, Abstract Rude, Of Mexican Descent, EX2, the Shapeshifters, Myka 9, Jizzm, L*Roneous, Zagu Brown, Tommy V, etc... not bad! It's got a few exclusive unreleased joints from Awol & Gel to tide over the hardcore West Coast underground heads who already own the majority of these songs as well. Plus how can you resist that album cover?! You can download the compilation for free over at Gel Roc's Bandcamp page, or stream it in full using the player below.

Tracklisting with guest spots and credits:

1. Humanimals (produced by Avatar)
2. Feat the Poet (produced by Toca (Ceschi, Tommy V, Max Heath))
3. Darkness (feat. Sunspot Jonz & Jizzm. Produced by Factor. Taken from Awol One & Factor’s “Owl Hours” album)
4. Reasons to be Cheerful (feat. Orion South & Phoenix Orion. Produced by DJ Hive)
5. ’91 Octane (feat. Myka 9. Produced by Factor. Taken from Myka Nyne’s album “1969”)
6. Planet Blood (feat. Mascaria & Jizzm. Produced by Mascaria. Taken from the Chemikillz album “Eggs of Blood)
7. Fall Apart (Produced by Mascaria)
8. Headstrong (Remix) (feat. Ellay Khule, Jizzm, 2Mex, Aamir, Xczircles. Produced by Xczircles.)
9. Staring at Death (feat. Ecid. Produced by Ecid. Taken from the Awol One & Ecid album “Are…”)
10. Confusion (feat. Abstract Rude, 2Mex, Xololanxinxo & Circus. Produced by Daddy Kev. Taken from the Awol One & Daddy Kev album “Souldoubt”)
11. Cease to Amaze (feat. Regret, Existereo, Syn, Zagu Brown, 2Mex, Tommy V & L*Roneous. Produced by Mascaria. Taken from the Gel Roc album “Laws & Flaws”)
12. Gull Powa (feat. 2Mex, Bleek & Circus. Produced by Circus & Bam Bam. Taken from “4 Eyed Mortals”)
13. Life Iz… (feat. EX2. Produced by Sirk. Taken from EX2’s “Undersounds of the 562”)
14. Kem Eye Killers (feat. Akuma, Liferexall, Lord Zen, 2Mex, Barfly, Existereo & Mascaria. Produced by Mascaria. Taken from the Chemikillz album “The Chemikillz”)
15. Green Monster (feat. Mascaria. Produced by Mascaria)