''Cold Case Files: Vol. 1'' is a compilation album by American hardcore rap group

Onyx Onyx primarily refers to the parallel banded variety of chalcedony, a silicate mineral. Agate and onyx are both varieties of layered chalcedony that differ only in the form of the bands: agate has curved bands and onyx has parallel bands. The c ...

released on August 19, 2008, by Iceman Music Group. This compilation contains singles and lost studio recordings from the group's albums. The album was produced by

Jam Master Jay Jason William Mizell (January 21, 1965 – October 30, 2002), better known by his stage name Jam Master Jay, was an American musician and DJ. He was the DJ of the influential hip hop group Run-DMC. During the 1980s, Run-DMC became one of the bi ...

Fredro Starr Fred Lee Scruggs Jr. (born April 18, 1971), better known by his stage name Fredro Starr, is an American rapper and actor best known as a member of the hardcore rap group Onyx. Fredro Starr was discovered by the late hip hop star Jam Master Jay of ...

, Kronic Tones, Dominche, Self and Keith Horne. The album features guest appearances from

Method Man Clifford Smith, Jr. (born March 2, 1971), better known by his stage name Method Man, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is known as a member of the East Coast hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. He is also half of ...

, X1 , Panama P.I.,

Smoothe Da Hustler Damon Smith, (born February 8, 1975) known by his stage name Smoothe Da Hustler, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He released his debut LP ''Once Upon a Time in America'' on Profile Records in 1996. He ...

, Trigger Tha Gambler, D.V. Alias Khrist, All City, Still Livin', Gang Green, Whosane and Chocolate.

Background

After conquering Hollywood, Onyx return to the scene, emerging from their musical vaults with a new album, Cold Case Files, a 16-track collection of previously unreleased songs executive produced by the members of Onyx and Omar "Iceman" Sharif. The collection features underground singles, lost studio recordings from the group's first three albums, and appearances from Method Man, deceased Onyx affiliate X1, and Gang Green. According to the group, revisiting these sessions also served as a tribute to fallen soldiers Jam Master Jay, X1, Big DS, and all Onyx affiliates who have passed away in the last five years; some of which are still unsolved murders. Fredro's younger brother, Whosane, archived most of the unreleased tracks. Sonny Seeza, who served as album supervisor shares, "Whosane was usually in the studio with us and kept all our classic recordings that never made it onto albums in the Onyx music vault; so when the time came to select tracks for Cold Case Files, he had tracks that we didn't even know existed on everything from cassettes, DATs, CDs to 2-inch reels. According to Fredro Starr, Onyx has at least 60 tracks, and this is just the first volume of unheard material. DJ Infinite, one of Fredro's good friends, came up with the idea to make this album:

"...We wanted to put something out for the fans, especially the true Onyx fans. DJ Infinite, one of my good friends and associates came up with the idea of doing this album and putting out some of these tracks. So my brother Whosane had the cassettes and the DATs saved from back in the days and we just transferred all that into the digital age and now you got the Cold Case album."

Critical response

RomanCooper of HipHopDX gave the album three stars out of five, saying "...This album is easily worth copping – if you’re an Onyx fan. If you’re not familiar with their music, you’d be much better served scooping up either Bacdafucup or All We Got Iz Us. Cold Case Files doesn’t really manage to distinguish itself from common issues associated with compilation albums. That being said, even cuts that didn’t make Onyx‘s albums manage to bring you back to the gritty early 1990s. With a gem or two nestled among these tracks, fans of that sound may want to check this."

Track listing

Personnel

Credits for ''Cold Case Files: Vol. 1'' adapted from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

and CD booklet. * Onyx - performer, vocals *

- performer, vocals, executive producer *

Sticky Fingaz Kirk Jones (born November 3, 1973), better known by his stage name Sticky Fingaz, is an American hardcore rapper, record producer, and actor best known as a member of multi-platinum hardcore rap group Onyx. Sticky Fingaz was discovered by Jam ...

- performer, vocals, executive producer *

Sonny Seeza Tyrone Taylor (born November 13, 1970), better known by his stage name Sonny Seeza, or previously as Suavé and Sonsee, is an American hardcore rapper, record producer, DJ, actor, best known as a member of multi-platinum hardcore rap group Onyx. ...

- performer, vocals, executive producer * Omar "Iceman" Sharif — executive producer *

— guest artist * X1 — guest artist * Panama P.I. — guest artist *

Smoothe da Hustler Damon Smith, (born February 8, 1975) known by his stage name Smoothe Da Hustler, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He released his debut LP ''Once Upon a Time in America'' on Profile Records in 1996. He ...

— guest artist * Trigger Tha Gambler — guest artist * D.V. Alias Khrist — guest artist * All City — guest artist * Still Livin' — guest artist * Gang Green — guest artist * Whosane — guest artist * Chocolate — guest artist *

— producer * Kronic Tones — producer * Dominche — producer * Self — producer * Keith Horne — producer * DJ Infinite — associate producer * Salvatore "Dagrind" Mula — A&R * David Rivera — A&R * Dagrind Entertainment — A&R * Whosane — album supervisor * Inkpen — art direction, design

Cold Case Files: Vol. 2

''Cold Case Files Vol. 2'' is a compilation album by American hip hop group

released on August 10, 2012 by Major Independents. Physical copies became available on January 23, 2014. The album contained unreleased tracks from the group's first three albums,

Bacdafucup ''Bacdafucup'' is the debut album by American hip hop group Onyx, released on March 30, 1993 by JMJ Records, Rush Associated Labels and Chaos Recordings. The album was produced by Chyskillz, Jam Master Jay and Kool Tee. ''Bacdafucup'' peaked at ...

All We Got Iz Us All We Got Iz Us is the second album by American hip hop group Onyx, released on October 24, 1995 by JMJ Records and Rush Associated Labels. The album was produced by Onyx. The album features guest appearances from rap group All City and rappe ...

and Shut 'Em Down. The album was produced by Keith Horne,

, 8-Off Assassin, 3rd Eye (a.k.a.

Jesse West Jesse West, 3rd Eye (born December 4, 1967 in the South Bronx, New York) is a producer/rapper. Jesse grew up in the Bronx River Projects, where the Master/Teacher DJ Afrika Bambaataa founded the Universal Zulu Nation. History Born Jesse Willi ...

) and

. The album features guest appearances from Naughty By Nature,

Biggie Smalls Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), better known by his stage names the Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper. Rooted in East Coast hip hop and particularly gangsta ...

, 3rd Eye (a.k.a. Jesse West), Gang Green (X1, Sife, Still Livin'), All City (Greg Valentine), Jared "Choclatt" Crawford и Tracy "Sunshiine" Woodall.

Background

One of the main findings of this collection was the never released before track "Flip Dat Shit". In January 1993, at the recording studio

The Hit Factory The Hit Factory is a recording studio in New York City owned and operated by Troy Germano. History On March 6, 1975, Edward Germano, a singer, record producer, and one of the principal owners of the Record Plant Studios New York, purchased the ...

NYC New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, rappers Naughty By Nature,

Chyskillz Chylow Parker (July 19, 1969 – February 13, 2018), known by the stage name Chyskillz, was an American record producer, beatmaker, DJ, hardcore rapper, and a member of multi-platinum hardcore rap group Onyx. Chyskillz was discovered by the ...

Puff Daddy Puff may refer to: Science and technology * Puff, a small quantity of gas or smoke in the air ** Puff, a light gust of wind ** Exhalation ** Inhalation * Puff model, volcanic ash tracking model developed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks ...

and producer/rapper

(also known as 3rd Eye) joined together to record a track "Flip That Shit" special for the soundtrack to the new movie "

Who's the Man? ''Who's the Man?'' is a 1993 thriller buddy comedy film directed by Ted Demme in his feature film directing debut. The film stars ''Yo! MTV Raps'' hosts Doctor Dré and Ed Lover as its two main protagonists and features cameo appearances from som ...

". Many years later, fans were still able to hear the track "Flip That Shit" thanks to DJ JS1, who passed this digitized tape to

, who added this track to the collection of unreleased songs of Onyx's "Cold Case Files Vol. 2" The track "To All Ya'll Crews, Whatever", which was not included on the album "

", was leaked on Onyx's website in CD quality on March 22, 2016. Earlier, this track was released on ''Cold Case Files Vol. 2'' in poorly digitized cassette quality.

Critical reception

BOOM BAP REVIEWS gave this release a good response saying "The important thing is that Onyx actually took the bold step and we're here now with yet another Onyx collection that appealed. So, is it any good? The very nature of this project should be a godsend to Onyx fans. Plus, for the assholes out there, they're simply telling you to buy it for free. And besides, 6 crap songs out of 16 is still a bargain, right? Right?!".

Track listing

Notes: * Information about samples was taken from

WhoSampled WhoSampled is a website and app database of information about sampled music or sample-based music, cover songs and remixes. History Nadav Poraz founded the site in London, England in 2008, as a way to track musical samples and cover songs. ...

Personnel

Credits for ''Cold Case Files: Vol. 2'' adapted from CD booklet.Cold Case Files: Vol. 2 Credits for Cold Case Files: Vol. 2
/ref> * Onyx - performer, vocals, producer * Fredro Starr - performer, vocals * Sticky Fingaz - performer, vocals, executive producer * Sonny Seeza - performer, vocals * Naughty By Nature — guest artist *

— guest artist * 3rd Eye (a.k.a. Jesse West) — guest artist * Gang Green — guest artist * X1 — guest artist * Sife — guest artist * Still Livin' — guest artist * All City — guest artist * Greg Valentine — guest artist * Jared "Choclatt" Crawford — guest artist * Tracy "Sunshiine" Woodall — guest artist * Keith Horne — producer *

— producer * 8-Off Assassin — producer * 3rd Eye (a.k.a.

) — producer * Paul Scavone — associate producer, album supervisor

References

External links

Cold Case Files: Vol. 1 at Discogs

Cold Case Files: Vol. 1 at RapGenius

Cold Case Files: Vol. 2 at Discogs

Cold Case Files: Vol. 2 at RapGenius
{{Authority control Onyx (group) albums 2008 compilation albums 2012 compilation albums Albums produced by Jam Master Jay