Sacramento, CA has its fair share of classic gangster rap albums, but when it comes to CD releases, one of the most sought after is the album Young Dre-D Troubled Mind released in 1996 on Recognize Records.

Lately we’ve been seeing the market become flooded with these bootlegs claiming to be the original release, simply because the ringcodes match. I hate to break it to you, but if you bought one of these, the re-release has the exact same ringcode as the original. That means you should not make a decision as to which version you have strictly by the ringcode! So allow us to give you some sure fire tips to help you tell the difference between the original and the bootleg.

When it comes to properly identifying the original from the fake, normally you look for different bar codes, blurriness on the printing, or just other obvious flaws, but in this case it’s the exact opposite. Let me explain by first pointing out the difference between the rear traycard inserts. If you take a look at the original on the left, it is dithered, blurry, and hard to read the booking information found in the bottom right hand corner. Now take a look at the Young Dre D Troubled Mind re-release on the right. The image is sharpened, crisp, and you can easily read the booking information without squinting your eyes. If you also notice the font is more bold, and has darker shadowing which makes it easier to read and pop off the page.

Now let’s take a look at the differences between the cover art. Again the original is on the left side, and the bootleg is the right. This time the one that noticeably has less color and is not as sharp is the re-release, not the original! If you look closely at the original, the photos of Young Dre-D are sharpened, his braids are more pronounced, and you can see the whiskers in his beard more clearly, while in the re-release it all just blends in.

Below is the original cd on the left and the re-release on the right. The original obviously looks like it was pressed in the 90’s, but for those of you who can’t tell, the original does not have printing on the inner ring. Also the ring code should be totally visible when you look at the compact disc from the top. Young Dre-D’s nose was printed on the OG, but it’s very faint and almost impossible to see in certain light.

Next up, lets take a look at the bottom of the CD. It’s unfortunate, but whoever re-released this album was smart enough to use the same ringcode as the original, but thankfully they did not use the same font. On the left is the original cd, when you look at the ringcodes they’re clearly spaced out and centered in the ring. When you look at the re-release on the right, the letters are small with no spacing, and are top aligned to the ring, not centered.

If you still can’t figure out the difference between the original and the bootleg, then this final test should be the deciding factor. On the front cover there is a dead giveaway as to which one is the authentic original, and which one is the bootleg. Below I drew arrows pointing to Young Dre-D’s shoe, the original version on the left you can noticeably see some black under the white of his shoe, and its a complete shoe. I also drew arrows to the tire of the Mercedes to point out that you can see some rubber under the bottom portion of the rim. Now look at the same things on the re-release located on the right. Young Dre-D’s shoe is clearly cut off and almost nonexistent. Next, look at the rim of the Mercedes, there is no portion of the tire showing on beneath the rim, its totally cut off!

After pointing out all those obvious flaws you should now easily be able to tell which version you have!