Archive · Re-Up Gang
We Got It 4 Cheap, Vol. 3
By Diony C.
•November 6, 2026
•6 min read
Hosted by DJ Drama and credited to the whole Re-Up Gang, Vol. 3 flips Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Raekwon beats into a free download. Now streaming in the archive.
By the time Vol. 3 arrived, Clipse had already proved the model.
Vol. 2 had shown that a free tape could carry a group while its label sat on an album. It was hosted by DJ Clinton Sparks, built on borrowed beats, and still ranks among the greatest mixtapes ever made. Then came Hell Hath No Fury, which finally came out in November 2006, and then a long stretch of waiting.
So in February 2008, the Re-Up Gang did it again, with one big change. This time the host was DJ Drama, and the cover put the whole Re-Up Gang front and center, not just the two brothers.
Stream the full tape in the player above.
A Different Host, A Wider Cover
The first two tapes belonged to DJ Clinton Sparks. Vol. 3 belonged to DJ Drama, whose Gangsta Grillz tapes had become one of the best-known brands in the format. His name on the tape meant something. It tied Clipse to the most recognizable brand in the format.
It also shifted the billing. On Vol. 3, the Re-Up Gang is credited as the main artists on the front cover, so Ab-Liva and Sandman share the spotlight with Pusha T and Malice. Both get their own solo records, “Sand Solo” and “Liva Solo,” and the tape gives time to other voices from the circle, like La the Darkman and Willie the Kid on “Hand on My Glock.”
The tape was released through the Re-Up Records website, free to anyone who wanted it. The theme hadn’t changed. Like the first two volumes, it is a record of the drug trade, written by people who made it sound like a business.
The Beats They Borrowed
The Vol. 2 approach carried over: take the biggest instrumentals of the moment, and the classics, and rap over them better than the originals. On Vol. 3, the list reads like a map of 2007 and beyond:
- Jay-Z’s “Roc Boys (And the Winner Is)…”, flipped into a victory lap
- Kanye West’s “Good Morning,” from Graduation
- Raekwon’s “Rainy Dayz,” from Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, a nod to the record that taught a generation how to rap about the streets
- Shawty Lo’s “Dey Know,” turned into “Dey Know Yayo”
- Eve’s “Scenario 2000,” reworked as “Scenario 2008”
- B.G.’s “I Hustle,” under the Re-Up Gang intro
- Plus Jim Jones, Fabolous, Obie Trice, Jae Millz, 50 Cent, and a stack of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg classics
There are two exceptions to the borrowed-beat rule. “20K Money Making Brothers on the Corner” runs over original production by Dame Grease. And “Cheers,” with Pharrell, first appeared on DJ Drama’s own debut album, Gangsta Grillz: The Album, and closes the CD here.
How It Landed
Reviews were positive, though not at Vol. 2’s level. AllHipHop gave it 8.5 out of 10, Pitchfork a 7.6, and Prefix a 7.0. That gap with Vol. 2 (Pitchfork’s 8.8) is part of why the series’ second chapter is the one people reach for first. But Vol. 3 has its own reasons to be here.
It shows the format growing up. A group could now ask one of the format’s biggest names to host its tape, credit its whole crew on the cover, and still give it away free. That was the promise of We Got It 4 Cheap from the first volume.
Two versions of the tracklist are out there. The CD pressing, including the UK Be Music edition, lists 20 tracks. A back cover listing only 18 also circulates, without “Hand on My Glock” and “Cheers.” The page follows the 20-track CD.
The series also spawned a compilation. Re-Up Gang: The Saga Continues, released April 22, 2008, collected 13 of the best tracks from the tapes, remixed and remastered.
Why Play It Now
Hell Hath No Fury turned 20 in November 2026. In 2025 the group returned with Let God Sort Em Out, recorded with Pharrell at the Louis Vuitton headquarters in Paris. That album opens with a chorus from John Legend, and Legend returned the favor by making Muse with Pharrell producing the whole record, with Clipse on “Bodies on the Floor.”
That’s a long line from a free download in 2008 to a Pharrell-produced John Legend album, and the tapes sit at the start of it.
Press play, and hear how the Re-Up Gang sounded when they had a point to prove and nothing to lose.
Watch
Jay-Z’s “Roc Boys (And the Winner Is)…” is the beat Re-Up Gang flips into track 4. Here’s the original, from American Gangster.
Jay-Z, “Roc Boys (And the Winner Is)…,” from American Gangster (2007) — the instrumental Re-Up Gang raps over on track 4 of Vol. 3.
From the Catalog
The We Got It 4 Cheap series was the bridge between Lord Willin’ and Hell Hath No Fury, and between Hell Hath No Fury and Let God Sort Em Out. These are the Clipse titles in the shop, plus a few records Vol. 3 borrowed from.
From the Shop
LP
Clipse, Let God Sort Em Out
The 2025 reunion album, recorded with Pharrell at the Louis Vuitton headquarters in Paris.
Shop Let God Sort Em Out
2xLP · Purple Vinyl
Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
The source of “Rainy Dayz,” track 11 on Vol. 3.
Shop Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
2xLP
Jay-Z, Reasonable Doubt
”Roc Boys” is a decade past this one, but this is where the Roc started.
Shop Reasonable Doubt
LP
John Legend, Muse
Produced by Pharrell, with Clipse on “Bodies on the Floor” — the thread that runs from this tape to now.
Shop MuseTwo more cross-links worth following: DJ Drama Built the Blueprint tells the story behind Gangsta Grillz, and DJ Scream Presents Shawty Lo, I’m Da Man is the Atlanta tape Vol. 3 borrows “Dey Know” from.