dodgy Bootlegs Number 11-Trigger Tha Gambler, Smoothe DA Hustler and D.V. Alias Khrist The Hitman for Hire

Back in 1995 Smooth Da Hustler burst onto the scene with a track called Broken language with featured his brother Trigger the gambler. The track was a simple idea, have smooth and trigger going back and forth boasting about what they were over a steady beat that seemed to be building to a crescendo. The track was very popluar at the time although to be honest I found it a little boring and the novelty quickly wore off. What was good about the track was the great chemistry between Smooth and Trigger. Smooth went onto drop a fairly strong album although not groundbreaking. The album featured his brother and a sort of East Coast version of Nate Dogg, D.V. Alias Krist who specialized in singing some rather cheesy but likable hooks. The album dropped on Profile and shortly after Trigger got picked up by Def Jam who were obviously hoping to capitalize on the hype surrounding his brother.

However Tigger's Def Jam solo album, Life's a 50/50 gamble never made it to the record stores despite the positive response to his track on the Nutty Professor soundtrack, My Crew can't go for that. This track again featured Krist doing a nice Hall and Oates impression with Trigger dropping his usual rhymes. It was a fun track and it got a lot of airplay on MTV at the time. Soon after My Crew Can't go for that a track called Hitman for Hire started popping up on mixtapes. This featured Trigger and Smooth trading verses with Krist supplying the hook.

I bought a copy of this track for £6.50 from Uptown records in London's SoHo. It was a shop I would only go to after exhausting all the offer shops in the area as it was more of a dance and R&B shop than a Hip Hop shop. The was no instrumental on the 12" or a radio version. There was no info on the label so I am unsure who produced this track although I'd hazard a guess that it was DR Period as he handled most of Smooth's production. There are also similarities between the production style on Smooth's album and this track. Its a dope track with the two brothers doing their usual trick and Krist dropping a cheesy hook. I haven't seen this track anywhere else so this may be the only pressing that was made.Check the link below for the rip and also a bonus track too.

The Hitman For Hire