3293 lines
146 KiB
Plaintext
3293 lines
146 KiB
Plaintext
--- --- --- ---- ---- CCCCC OOOOO RRRR EEEE
|
|
| H | / A \ | R | |D \ C O O R R E
|
|
|---| |---| |--/ | | C O O RRRR EEEE
|
|
| | | | | \ | / C O O R R E
|
|
--- --- --- --- -- -- ---- CCCCC. OOOOO. R R. EEEE.
|
|
|
|
Vol. 2, Issue 6 November, 1994
|
|
|
|
The electronic magazine of hip-hop music and culture
|
|
|
|
Brought to you as a service of the Committee of Rap Excellence
|
|
|
|
Section 1 -- ONE
|
|
|
|
***A***
|
|
|
|
Table of Contents
|
|
|
|
Sect. Contents Author
|
|
----- -------- ------
|
|
001 The introduction
|
|
|
|
A Da 411 - table of contents
|
|
B Da 411 - HardC.O.R.E.
|
|
C Yo! We Want Your Demos
|
|
|
|
002 What's Up in Hip-Hop
|
|
|
|
A New Jack Hip Hop Awards Info isbell@ai.mit.edu
|
|
B The CD Debate, Part 3 d1dol@dtek.chalmers.se
|
|
C Commercially Yours smcneal@bigcat.missouri.edu
|
|
D Jeru the Hypocrite juonstevenja@bvc.edu
|
|
E Digging Up The Roots dwarner@cybernetics.net
|
|
F The Justice System dagomar@aol.com
|
|
G Roots-N-Rap: The Last Poets rapotter@colby.edu
|
|
H Yaggfu Front leaves Mercury dwarner@cybernetics.net
|
|
I The Atlanta Scene martay@america.net
|
|
J Flash's Video Review juonstevenja@bvc.edu
|
|
K Lyric of the Month O.C.
|
|
L Feature Review: isbell@ai.mit.edu
|
|
The Coup, "Genocide and Juice"
|
|
|
|
003 The Official HardC.O.R.E. Album Review Section
|
|
|
|
A Bomb Hip-Hop Comp. mhadi@cldc.howard.edu
|
|
B BoogieMonsters klm3298@cs.rit.edu
|
|
C Common Sense ollie@uclink.berkeley.edu
|
|
D Craig Mack klm3298@cs.rit.edu
|
|
E Digable Planets dwarner@cybernetics.net
|
|
F Finsta & Bundy klm3298@cs.rit.edu
|
|
G K.M.D. ollie@uclink.berkeley.edu
|
|
H Mexakinz martay@america.net
|
|
I Notorious B.I.G. juonstevenja@bvc.edu
|
|
J O.C. ollie@uclink.berkeley.edu
|
|
K Off the Dome Comp. rmacmich@oregano.mwc.edu
|
|
L Paris rapotter@colby.edu
|
|
M Phat Trax Comp. rapotter@colby.edu
|
|
N PMD klm3298@cs.rit.edu
|
|
O Poppa Doo dwarner@cybernetics.net
|
|
P Saafir dwarner@cybernetics.net
|
|
Q Simple E dwarner@cybernetics.net
|
|
R Sir Mix-a-Lot juonstevenja@bvc.edu
|
|
S Skadanks dwarner@cybernetics.net
|
|
T Sudden Death juonstevenja@bvc.edu
|
|
|
|
|
|
***B***
|
|
|
|
The C.O.R.E. creed
|
|
|
|
We at C.O.R.E. support underground hip-hop (none of that crossover
|
|
bullshucks). That means we also support the 1st Amendment and the right to
|
|
uncensored music.
|
|
|
|
The C.O.R.E. anthems
|
|
|
|
How About Some HardC.O.R.E. M.O.P.
|
|
We In There (remix) Boogie Down Productions
|
|
Feel the Vibe, Feel the Beat Boogie Down Productions
|
|
I Used To Love H.E.R. Common Sense
|
|
Crossover EPMD
|
|
True to the Game Ice Cube
|
|
Straighten It Out Pete Rock and CL Smooth
|
|
In the Trunk Too $hort
|
|
Remember Where You Came From Whodini
|
|
|
|
To subscribe to the HardC.O.R.E. listserver, send a message to
|
|
majordomo@cybernetics.net with the following lines of text in the body
|
|
of your message:
|
|
|
|
subscribe hardcore-list
|
|
end
|
|
|
|
You will receive new issues of HardC.O.R.E. as they become available.
|
|
Back issues of HardC.O.R.E. are available via anonymous FTP at
|
|
ftp.etext.org://pub/Zines/HardCORE and via Gopher at
|
|
gopher.etext.org://pub/Zines/HardCORE.
|
|
|
|
Asalaam alaikum from Flash
|
|
|
|
|
|
***C***
|
|
|
|
A'ight, let's say you got a demo that you've been trying to shop
|
|
around. A few people like it, but nobody with some clout is buying. Or
|
|
let's say you know someone who's got some skills, but you don't know what
|
|
you can do to help 'em get on. Suppose even further, that you've got an
|
|
internet account (chances are you do, else you wouldn't be reading this),
|
|
and want to give you and your friends' efforts a little pub.
|
|
Have we got a deal for you.
|
|
HardC.O.R.E.'s review section isn't just for the major labels.
|
|
We don't even GET anything from major labels. In fact, some of us would
|
|
much rather review what the independent folks are making, since they
|
|
aren't affected by the A&R and high level decisions of major labels.
|
|
So we want to hear what you guys are making. A few groups are
|
|
getting their demos reviewed here among the likes of Gangstarr, Heavy D.
|
|
and the Boys, Terminator X and Arrested Development. Who knows? You
|
|
might even hear bigger and better things from The Mo'Fessionals, DOA,
|
|
Raw Produce, and Union of Authority before you know it. With all the
|
|
people subscribing to HardCORE (not to mention the number of people
|
|
reading HardCORE via FTP and Gopher), you never know who might want to
|
|
hear your music.
|
|
Give us a shout. You can e-mail me at dwarner@cybernetics.net
|
|
or Flash at juonstevenja@bvc.edu, and we'll let you know where you can
|
|
send your tape. Keep in mind that we're pretty honest with our reviews
|
|
(if we think your shit is wack, we'll say so to your face), but if you
|
|
think you got what it takes, you'll see a review from us before you know
|
|
it. All you have to lose is a tape, right?
|
|
|
|
L8A...
|
|
|
|
David J.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Section 2 -- TWO
|
|
|
|
***A***
|
|
Charles Isbell
|
|
--------------
|
|
|
|
Yep, yep! Once again, it's that time of the year!
|
|
|
|
For those of you who haven't been around:
|
|
|
|
A while back, everyone on alt.rap and the funky-music mailing list was
|
|
bitchin' about how lame the Grammy's were in general, and especially
|
|
how weak they were when it came to rap and hip-hop.
|
|
|
|
Thus was born the New Jack Hip Hop Awards.
|
|
|
|
In *this* awards thang, *you* get to decide the best stuff over the
|
|
last year. You get to nominate. You get to vote. You can't blame
|
|
the Grammy's or the American Music Awards. If your favorite didn't
|
|
get nominated or voted a winner and you didn't take your chance to
|
|
nominate or vote, well, that's your fault, isn't it?
|
|
|
|
Here's the scoop:
|
|
|
|
|
|
November:
|
|
|
|
The categories from last year are posted and if anyone has any bright
|
|
ideas or suggestions for new categories (or reasons to get rid of or
|
|
replace old ones), e-mail them to me. Anyone who wants to help count
|
|
should volunteer their services (please!).
|
|
|
|
December:
|
|
|
|
With the categories decided, I post a nomination form. This'll happen
|
|
the first time around the week of the 14th (the first Wednesday before
|
|
the 14th if it falls on any day but a Tuesday and the 15th if it does
|
|
fall on a Wednesday). In any and all categories, you may nominate up
|
|
to three people. Nomination forms must be e-mailed to *me* and you
|
|
must follow directions exactly. I'll post the form every week and,
|
|
yes, I know that people go away for holidays. That's why the
|
|
nomination period is so long.
|
|
|
|
January:
|
|
|
|
With the finalists determined, I post the voting form. Pick your
|
|
winners and send them to me.
|
|
|
|
February:
|
|
|
|
I post the results.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Now during any of this, postings to wherever this message appears is
|
|
fine, if you care to argue your case or whatever.
|
|
|
|
Anyway, I'll be posting official rules (to alt.rap) and all that very
|
|
soon (over and over again)... so start thinking about it.
|
|
|
|
Below, I'm including the proposed categories for this year. They are
|
|
the same as last year except that they include three new awards (I'll
|
|
let you discover what those are). So, if has any bright ideas or
|
|
suggestions for new categories (or reasons to get rid of or replace
|
|
old ones), e-mail them to me.
|
|
|
|
Also, anyone who wants to help count should volunteer! Please!
|
|
|
|
"Who gives a fuck about a goddamned Grammy?"
|
|
|
|
-----
|
|
====----> Progressive/Jazz Rap
|
|
Groups like De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest (and in fact the whole
|
|
Native Tongue Family), as well as Souls of Mischief, Digable Planets
|
|
and the like fall into this class.
|
|
|
|
Phattest Progressive/Jazz Rap Group
|
|
Phattest Progressive/Jazz Male Rapper
|
|
Phattest Progressive/Jazz Female Rapper
|
|
Phattest Progressive/Jazz Rap Single
|
|
Phattest Progressive/Jazz Rap Album
|
|
|
|
====----> Political Hip-Hop
|
|
I think this is pretty obvious. Rap with an explicit social and/or
|
|
political message.
|
|
|
|
Phattest Political Group
|
|
Phattest Political Male Rapper
|
|
Phattest Political Female Rapper
|
|
Phattest Political Rap Single
|
|
Phattest Political Rap Album
|
|
|
|
====----> Gangsta Hip-Hop
|
|
Well, this is everyone from Ice Cube to Geto Boys to Ice T to Snoop
|
|
and back. Use your judgment.
|
|
|
|
Phattest Gangsta Group
|
|
Phattest Gangsta Male Rapper
|
|
Phattest Gangsta Female Rapper
|
|
Phattest Gangsta Rap Single
|
|
Phattest Gangsta Rap Album
|
|
|
|
====----> Braggadocio
|
|
Rappin' for your ego rappers go here. Say hi to everyone from Souls
|
|
of Mischief to Chubb Rock to Das EFX.
|
|
|
|
Phattest Braggadocio Group
|
|
Phattest Braggadocio Male Rapper
|
|
Phattest Braggadocio Female Rapper
|
|
Phattest Braggadocio Rap Single
|
|
Phattest Braggadocio Rap Album
|
|
|
|
====----> Nasty rap
|
|
Nasty to be nasty. Overlaps a bit with some gangsta rappers.
|
|
|
|
Phattest Nasty Group
|
|
Phattest Nasty Male Rapper
|
|
Phattest Nasty Female Rapper
|
|
Phattest Nasty Rap Single
|
|
Phattest Nasty Rap Album
|
|
|
|
====----> Crossover Rap
|
|
This is not to be confused with hip-pop like Vanilla Ice Cream Cone.
|
|
This is the rap that really "crosses" to other genres, be they R&B,
|
|
reggae, hard rock or even pop while actually remaining both good *and* true
|
|
to hip hop. As time goes on, some of these may spin off into their
|
|
own subawards (see Progressive/Jazz).
|
|
|
|
Phattest Crossover Group
|
|
Phattest Crossover Male Rapper
|
|
Phattest Crossover Female Rapper
|
|
Phattest Crossover Rap Single
|
|
Phattest Crossover Rap Album
|
|
|
|
====----> The Dope Thangs
|
|
|
|
Funniest Rap
|
|
Include the artist and the single.
|
|
|
|
Phattest Lyric
|
|
Slammin' music is not required. Both individual rappers and groups
|
|
may apply. Include the artist and the single.
|
|
|
|
Most Slammin' Beat
|
|
Dope lyrics are not required. Both individual rappers and groups
|
|
may apply. Include the artist and the single.
|
|
|
|
Phattest DJ
|
|
It's not a lost art yet. Include the album or EP.
|
|
|
|
Phattest Producer(s)
|
|
Include the album or EP.
|
|
|
|
====----> More Dope Thangs
|
|
|
|
Leaders of the New School
|
|
Award for the most innovative rapper/group this year. Doesn't have
|
|
to be someone new, might be an old dog learning and teaching some
|
|
new tricks. In any case, should take hip hop in a new direction.
|
|
The folks starting the new subgenres. Include album or EP.
|
|
|
|
Best fusion of Hip-Hop with non-Hip-Hop
|
|
Being the experimenters that they are, Hip-Hop artists are often
|
|
trying to merge their styles with stuff from other genres, be it
|
|
heavy metal, jazz or country. Who did the best thing this year?
|
|
Include single, album or EP.
|
|
|
|
Phattest Non-USA Artist
|
|
Often, we in the USA never get exposure to the phat macks outside
|
|
the border. Those of you lucky to have done so should open our
|
|
eyes by noting the artist and his or her single, album or EP.
|
|
|
|
Phattest Reggae Hip Hop artist
|
|
'Nuff respect to all dancehall massive and crew. Question: who
|
|
ruled the dancehall this year? Include single, album or EP.
|
|
|
|
Provider of Phattest Samples
|
|
Everyone from James Brown to The Gap Band to Chick Corea have been
|
|
so kind as to provide hip hop with dope samples. Who's provided the
|
|
best stuff *this year*? All we require is a name, but we'll give
|
|
you extra props if you can name actual singles.
|
|
|
|
Most Innovative Use of a Sample
|
|
Award for the artist who used a sample (be it music, voice or
|
|
whatever) in the most innovative or unexpected way to great
|
|
effect. May be as simple as managing to sample the Partridge
|
|
Family and making it funky or holding album-long conversations
|
|
with Bert & Ernie. Note the artist, the single/album/EP and a
|
|
reason for the award.
|
|
|
|
====----> Dope Videos and Other Visual Stuff
|
|
|
|
Phattest Short Form Video
|
|
Award for the Phattest video. Include artist and single.
|
|
|
|
Phattest Long Form Video
|
|
Award for the Phattest long form video release. Include artist and
|
|
name of videotape.
|
|
|
|
Phattest Hip Hop Video Show
|
|
Best show, syndicated or otherwise, about Hip Hop. Include the
|
|
VeeJay(s) as well as the name of the show.
|
|
|
|
Best live performance/tour/live album
|
|
Include name of tour or performance or live album/EP.
|
|
|
|
====----> Whackness and former whackness
|
|
|
|
Biggest Sellout
|
|
For the suckas that go pop. Should have been at least vaguely
|
|
hip-hop in the first place. Include album, EP, single or whatever.
|
|
|
|
Whackest Rapper
|
|
The weakest, but visible, whackster of the year. Include album, EP,
|
|
single or whatever.
|
|
|
|
Biggest Disappointment
|
|
This is different than the biggest sellout. Sometimes old
|
|
favorites just plain fall off without even getting the money for
|
|
selling out. Who fell flat this year? Include album, EP or
|
|
single.
|
|
|
|
Most Overrated Rapper
|
|
Yet another bit of semantic subtlety. Now there are whack rappers
|
|
in hip-pop and we know who they are. But sometimes we get rappers
|
|
who produce a strong split in The Underground. Who do *you* think
|
|
gets all these mad props but shouldn't? Well? Include album, EP
|
|
or single.
|
|
|
|
Best Comeback
|
|
On the good side, sometimes folks we had written off as dead, come
|
|
back like hard. Note that here. Include single or album or EP.
|
|
|
|
Hardest and Ugliest Dis'
|
|
Award for *the* hardest most diggum-smack dis of the year--the one
|
|
that made you screw up your face and go "damn!" Include the
|
|
artist and the single.
|
|
|
|
====----> What you've been waiting for
|
|
|
|
Most Unfairly Slept On Album
|
|
Ever year some artist comes off proper but is ignored by the
|
|
community. Here we may remedy that.
|
|
|
|
Phattest New Hip Hopster
|
|
The best New Jack to arrive on the scene this year. Include the
|
|
album or EP.
|
|
|
|
Hall of Fame
|
|
Award for that person or persons who managed to make hip hop history
|
|
and have stood the test of time. Put on your history caps for this
|
|
one. We're talking about those back in the day who helped make our
|
|
current dopeness possible.
|
|
Note: Public Enemy, Run-DMC and KRS-One/Boogie Down Productions,
|
|
our 1991-1993 winners, are *ineligible* this year.
|
|
|
|
Album Hall of Fame
|
|
Award for that album that has managed to make hip hop history
|
|
and has stood the test of time. This is for *the* best and most
|
|
influential hip hop albums *ever*. So, act like you know.
|
|
|
|
Phattest Rap Single
|
|
The Phattest single to drop this year. Period.
|
|
|
|
Phattest Rap Album
|
|
The Phattest album to drop this year. Period.
|
|
|
|
====----> And that's it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
***B***
|
|
Fredrik Lundholm
|
|
----------------
|
|
|
|
THE SAGA CONTINUES...
|
|
|
|
. IN DEFENSE OF COMPACT DISCS
|
|
. A rebuttal of David J's column, "The CD Counter-Revolution."
|
|
.
|
|
.
|
|
. Ease of song selection:
|
|
.
|
|
. 1. CD
|
|
. 2. vinyl
|
|
. 3. cassette
|
|
.
|
|
. With compact discs, you can start at any song on the disc you
|
|
.want. Most radio stations have professional CD machines that will
|
|
.auto-cue your songs, and allow you to do editing tricks. With vinyl,
|
|
.you have much the same benefits, minus only a slightly lesser musical
|
|
-------------
|
|
.quality. Tapes just outright SUCK. Who wants to rewind and
|
|
-------
|
|
|
|
Are you crazy??
|
|
Am I crazy??
|
|
|
|
Vinyl has superior sound quality!!
|
|
Must be your turntables and pre-amps..
|
|
|
|
. Ease of song manipulation:
|
|
.
|
|
. 1. vinyl
|
|
. 2. CD
|
|
. 3. cassette
|
|
.
|
|
. Obviously, you can't do scratching with a CD or a cassette.
|
|
.CD's do allow you to pinpoint specific parts of a song easily though,
|
|
|
|
How do you find that mellow part, three minutes in the song using CD?
|
|
With a turntable you just put the needle there in an instant, on a CD
|
|
you have to FF like a looser, even on "DJ" CD-players.
|
|
|
|
. Cost of production:
|
|
.
|
|
. 1. CD
|
|
. 2. cassette
|
|
. 3. vinyl
|
|
.
|
|
. Here is where the hip-hop nation benefits most from CDs.
|
|
.Harry Allen said it best on his new P.E. track, traveling down the
|
|
.interactive highway. :> Compact discs are cheap to produce, and the
|
|
.equipment to produce music is moving away from corporate control and
|
|
.into the hands of the masses. This can only benefit us. Music
|
|
.distribution and production becomes decentralized, and the hip-hop
|
|
.nation bumrushes the system. Cassettes are cheap but shitty, and
|
|
.vinyl is expensive.
|
|
|
|
Well to produce a CD-UMATIC master tape with time coding and
|
|
the actual CD-master is very expensive. Could never be done 'at home'..
|
|
A vinyl-master is much cheaper.
|
|
|
|
Vinyl is only expensive because they are just not made in the same numbers
|
|
as CD's, of course making a nice record sleeve becomes expensive if you
|
|
only print 1,000 copies.
|
|
|
|
Make 1,000,000 and it's a different case!
|
|
|
|
. Obviously we need to continue to support vinyl as a vital part
|
|
.of hip-hop music, but that doesn't mean we have to beat up on the CD.
|
|
.As a DJ they are fabulous for me. I can mix back and forth between
|
|
.CDs and records with the greatest of ease. Perhaps we should learn to
|
|
.work with both technologies instead of trying to put them at war.
|
|
|
|
Well, CD's need not to be defended.
|
|
|
|
My $0.02...
|
|
|
|
|
|
***C***
|
|
Stephanie R. McNeal
|
|
-------------------
|
|
|
|
COCA-COLA AND HIP-HOP -- COMMERCIALLY YOURS
|
|
|
|
Though pop culturists and journalists alike have battled
|
|
verbally over whether or not the components of the hip-hop genre can
|
|
be defined as a "culture", there appears to be an overwhelming
|
|
emphasis on this artistic sensibility in today's advertising. And the
|
|
folks at Coca-Cola seem to have jumped on this bandwagon even more
|
|
than sneaker or denim clothing manufacturers have.
|
|
Remember back in the day when Coke liked to teach the world to
|
|
sing? Or when Sprite was the soda that gave you that refreshing twist
|
|
of "lymon"? Well, I guess that urban teenagers proved to be a much
|
|
better target audience than baby-boomers, at least in the last 2
|
|
years. Sure, the older crowd and babies still get that warm, fuzzy
|
|
feeling from the Coca-Cola polar bears, but we are now being inundated
|
|
with hip-hop beats, ethnic fabric prints, and street slang in the
|
|
latest attempt to rekindle our obsession with the Coke soda pop
|
|
dynasty.
|
|
But there are no gangstas in this utopian rap-flavored world.
|
|
We've had the pop crossover personalities of Kris Kross, Heavy D, and
|
|
A Tribe Called Quest liking the Sprite in us and telling us to obey
|
|
our thirst. We've had rapidly flashing swatches of kente in the
|
|
backdrop of that familiar red & white logo. We've been given a "phat
|
|
and all that" plastic 20-oz. twist on the old familiar "real thing"
|
|
green glass 16-oz. bottle. And Coke is riding the jeep-beats all the
|
|
way to the bank.
|
|
Those of us who truly love hip-hop in its rawest incarnations
|
|
should question its use in the marketing of products to our
|
|
generation. Rap wasn't started or developed to be trendy. Hip-hop
|
|
was created to be an outlet from the creative stagnancy of popular
|
|
music, to challenge norms and to encompass a different aesthetic. Do
|
|
we really want companies like Coca-Cola making the appeal of hip-hop
|
|
comparable to the "pop" it sells?
|
|
|
|
|
|
***D***
|
|
Steven J Juon
|
|
-------------
|
|
|
|
JERU THE HYPOCRITE
|
|
|
|
According to a recent issue of RapPages (Arrested Development
|
|
on the cover), Jeru the Damaja beat down a reporter for an unfavorable
|
|
review and threatened another. Considering this is a man we view as a
|
|
"prophet", I am deeply disturbed... more so than I ever was by KRS-
|
|
One's understandable if misinformed beatdown of Prince Be. Further,
|
|
this message I received from Chad Scoville (scovic@rpi.edu) only
|
|
seemed to confirm my worst fears. Here's a sample...
|
|
|
|
--------------
|
|
|
|
I saw Jeru at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute [a few] weeks
|
|
ago. Before going, I was pumped to finally sample in the flesh one of
|
|
the dopest lyricists to hit this year. I was deeply disappointed...
|
|
Not only was Jeru wack, meaning he COULDN'T keep the crowd up,
|
|
but something else happened in response to one of his comments to the
|
|
crowd. Nearing the end of his set, a fight broke out right in front
|
|
of center stage. Now, the intro to "Come Clean" has just begun, and
|
|
every one was getting into it. In response to everyone flippin and
|
|
breakin, Jeru tries to get the crowd to chill, by saying "Instead of
|
|
killin a brother, kill a devil." Quickly after realizing what he
|
|
said, Jeru remarked "Naw, I mean flip a devil."
|
|
|
|
--------------
|
|
|
|
As Chad himself said, I don't really know what to think.
|
|
Obviously Jeru had a reason for retracting that statement after saying
|
|
it. I have no problem if he was going to preach a hardcore devil-
|
|
stance in his lyrics and actions, but it seems that's how he FEELS
|
|
even if that's not what he SAYS. These hypocritical actions and
|
|
statements are really starting to weigh heavy on the brother, and I
|
|
think it's time Jeru took a little of his advice -- he needs to come
|
|
clean.
|
|
|
|
|
|
***E***
|
|
David J.
|
|
--------
|
|
|
|
DIGGING UP THE ROOTS
|
|
|
|
With a single blowing up stateside, an EP getting good pub in
|
|
Europe, and an authentic hip hop sound that most live bands still
|
|
haven't been able to duplicate, The Roots have made much noise with
|
|
their "organically grown hip hop" sound. Some of it has to do with
|
|
the slick production of B.R.O.TheR.? (pronounced "Brother Question"),
|
|
but even more credit goes to the funky lyrical flavors of Mr. Black
|
|
Thought and Malik B., two MC's bound and determined to put the city of
|
|
Philadelphia on the map for real.
|
|
I got the chance to chat with the Roots one night at WXDU 88.7
|
|
FM, Duke University's student radio station, where DJ Mike Nice and
|
|
the Madman invited them in for a chat and a freestyle session. I
|
|
managed to sneak in a few questions of my own on the side when the
|
|
rest of the interview dropped off...
|
|
|
|
MadMan (DJ): Introduce yourselves to the people out there who don't
|
|
know you guys.
|
|
|
|
Black Thought: Well, The Roots are a hip hop band, you know what I'm
|
|
sayin'? A live hip hop band, and we represent from the
|
|
city of Philadelphia. We're comprised of two vocalists,
|
|
myself, Mr. Black Thought, my man Malik B. right here,
|
|
and on drums, bass and keys, we got local percussionists
|
|
working with the group and my man right here, the
|
|
Godfather of Noise. Our album is coming out the 25th
|
|
of (October), and it's called "Do You Want More?"
|
|
We've got the phat single out now.
|
|
|
|
Malik B.: Yeah, "Distortion to Static" is the single, and it's about
|
|
how we laugh at all the wack MC's.
|
|
|
|
Mike Nice (DJ): Yeah, so who are your mentors? Who do you follow
|
|
behind in this? I know your style is a little
|
|
different from everybody else, so...
|
|
|
|
BT: I mean, basically Me and Malik, like, lyrically we try to stay
|
|
from, y'know what I'm sayin', followin' behind anybody else's traits
|
|
or somebody else's style, know what I mean? We are highly influenced
|
|
by all the other lyricists that came through the industry and some
|
|
that aren't even around anymore, y'know what I'm sayin'? Everybody
|
|
influences you, either in a good way or in a bad way. So we take all
|
|
of that into what everybody else is doin', but as far as comprising a
|
|
style, we kind of block it out.
|
|
|
|
MN: These brothers are definitely representin' Philadelphia here...
|
|
|
|
David J.: Check it out, though, you guys mentioned a lot about London
|
|
on that promo EP of yours. What's the connection there?
|
|
|
|
BT: The EP that my man in the background is speakin' about is an EP
|
|
which is called "From The Ground Up," which is in U.K. record stores
|
|
now on a division of Polygram called Talkin' Loud Records. That's a
|
|
record that we were doing on that label at the same time that we were
|
|
doing this record here in the States on Geffen. It was specifically
|
|
for the U.K., so that's why we mentioned London, plus we lived in
|
|
London for a short period, like from the end of the spring to almost
|
|
this entire summer.
|
|
|
|
Madman: So what's the scene like over there, y'all being American
|
|
artists and all that?
|
|
|
|
BT: They're real appreciative of music over there, y'know what I'm
|
|
sayin'? They're real appreciative because the music's from the
|
|
U.S. and it's foreign to them, so they just accept whatever the
|
|
States put out as the format.
|
|
|
|
DJ: So is the stuff that's on the EP going to be on "Do You Want More?"
|
|
as well?
|
|
|
|
BT: No, it's different material. There's a couple tunes -- like
|
|
"Distortion" is on the EP, and "Dat Scat" is on the EP, and those
|
|
tunes are on the album as well, but the album is like 17 tunes,
|
|
and most of them are new tracks.
|
|
|
|
Madman: We're about to jump into this single here, this is the B-Side
|
|
called "The Lesson." Thanks for comin' out, guys.
|
|
|
|
MN: Yeah, see you at the Pub. Get my drink on, yo...
|
|
|
|
|
|
***F***
|
|
Kymm Britton and Dee Philipp Binggeli
|
|
-------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
SOUNDCHECKING WITH JUSTICE SYSTEM
|
|
|
|
The infusion of live instruments into the sample-heavy world
|
|
of hip hop continues to enliven the evolving art form of rap. Real
|
|
guitars, real drums, real voices singing out over a relentless beat --
|
|
this is the future of hip hop, and no other band embodies this bold
|
|
ideal better than Justice System, six (sometimes seven) musicians
|
|
working together to create a unified rap flavor, invigorating a genre
|
|
that all too often sounds mechanical and soulless.
|
|
Quite a goal for six young men who grew up together in tiny
|
|
Greenburgh, New York, forming Justice System some five years ago while
|
|
still in high school. But one listen to the band's initial effort,
|
|
Rooftop Soundcheck, proves that Justice System has created one of the
|
|
liveliest and most exciting debut albums in recent memory, sounding
|
|
like a clarion call to the rap community--wake up and dig the new
|
|
flavor.
|
|
Justice System's history begins at Woodland High School in
|
|
Greenburgh, New York, where in 1990 rappers John "Jahbaz" Dawson and
|
|
Tom "Folex" Foley hooked up with longtime friends Chris "Wizard C.
|
|
Roc" Nordland and the brothers Alex ("Coz Boogie") and Eric ("Eric
|
|
G.") Gopoian to form a band that, as Folex puts it, "would rely on
|
|
real people making music and having something to say, and not hiding
|
|
it behind DATs and samples." A year later, multi-instrumentalist Alex
|
|
"Mo'Better Al" Auld came on board to add some spice to the mix and
|
|
help with demos.
|
|
The legendary Zulu Nation, a major influence, heard Justice
|
|
System's tape and invited the fledgling band to open some of their
|
|
shows, where the sextet was introduced to another hero: Afrika
|
|
Bambaataa. By this time, Justice System was building a steady
|
|
following in Manhattan's downtown club scene, playing sold-out shows
|
|
at S.O.B.'s, The Grand and the New Music Cafe. MCA Records caught the
|
|
buzz and promptly signed the band on to an exclusive contract.
|
|
Thus Rooftop Soundcheck, was born with its moving tribute to
|
|
their heroes, called "Dedication to Bambaataa."
|
|
Says Jahbaz, "We were listening to people like Curtis
|
|
Mayfield, Isaac Hayes, Coltrane, Stevie Wonder and Bambaata, and we
|
|
were affected by the spirituality in that music. But when we looked
|
|
around and saw how many musicians these artists had influenced, and
|
|
weren't getting their due, we wanted to correct the situation. Because
|
|
it's artists like Bambaataa that set the foundation for all that was
|
|
to follow."
|
|
Key tracks from Rooftop Soundcheck, which was produced by
|
|
Justice System with help from Eddie Martinez (guitarist for Chic,
|
|
Patti LaBelle, Run D.M.C. and others), include "Soul Style," based on
|
|
the Langston Hughes poem "Negro Speaks of Rivers," one of the best
|
|
explorations of the creative process ever put on the record; "Summer
|
|
in the City," the debut 12" and first video (which was shot at night
|
|
on the streets of New York City); and "Trouble on My Mind," a song
|
|
Folex calls "a breakdown of the last four years in the lifetime of
|
|
Justice System. It tells how to watch out for sharks in this business,
|
|
and how you have to keep your focus on the music and not get
|
|
distracted by people who want to use you."
|
|
But the element that sets Justice System apart from the rest
|
|
of the hip hop pack is their strength as musicians.
|
|
"It's all about takin' it to the stage," says Jahbaz. "You
|
|
have to be able to do it live, and this is a real band which doesn't
|
|
rely on pre-recorded technology to get its message across. So our
|
|
sound is more organic and alive, and when Folex and I are rappin' over
|
|
that soulful music behind us, the power is undeniable."
|
|
And the power of the sample-free music of Rooftop Soundcheck is
|
|
undeniable. One listen, and you'll stay for the show.
|
|
|
|
|
|
***G***
|
|
Russell A. Potter
|
|
-----------------
|
|
|
|
ROOTS-N-RAP:
|
|
The Last Poets
|
|
|
|
When asked about the first rappers, knowledgeable hip-hop
|
|
heads won't start talking about the Sugar Hill Gang. They know that
|
|
the Last Poets were rapping over a beat back when Big Bank Hank was
|
|
still in diapers. Yet, partly because of the vagaries of record
|
|
distribution in the CD era, and partly because of the fast-forward
|
|
amnesia fostered by the record industry, few people have actually
|
|
heard the Last Poets, save for a few sampled snippets here and there
|
|
("Time is running out"). Complicating matters, the Last Poets'
|
|
membership has varied greatly over the years, withrival groups at
|
|
several points claiming the title of the "original" Last Poets; recent
|
|
years have seen still more rifts between the surviving Poets.
|
|
Yet despite this confusion, most of the Last Poets' output is
|
|
readily available on CD -- if you're willing to take some time to
|
|
track it down. Like other neglected Black artists, their music is
|
|
actually better known in Europe, and even Japan, than it is in the
|
|
U.S., and if you're willing to pay the premium for imports, and have a
|
|
good used CD or vinyl shop in your neighborhood, it's possible to find
|
|
almost everything the Last Poets recorded. But first, a little
|
|
history...
|
|
The Poets first got together in Harlem in 1969, as legend has
|
|
it, at a celebration of Malcolm X's birthday in Mt. Morris park,
|
|
creating what Ty Williams calls "a workshop of the mind." This
|
|
original get-together led to further sessions at "East Wind," a loft
|
|
located on 125th St. between Madison and Fifth Avenues, and a record
|
|
contract with Alan Douglas (known as the producer of Hendrix's
|
|
_Electric Ladyland_ LP). It was a time of potent Black nationalism,
|
|
and the Black Arts were a major part of that scene; the Poets took
|
|
their inspiration from poets like Imamu Amiri Baraka, musicians like
|
|
Coltrane and Sun Ra, and political organizations like the Panthers and
|
|
the NOI.
|
|
They chose African-flavored jazz rhythms as their
|
|
backup, rather than R&B, consciously rejecting (at least at first)
|
|
mass-media "Black" culture. Theirs was a performance art, done on the
|
|
spot at late-night sessions, improvising individually and collectively,
|
|
trading words just as jazz musicians traded melodic ideas, repeating
|
|
them with variations, coming together with multiple voices for the
|
|
climax. Here's a small part of their seminal track, "Run, Nigger"
|
|
(a.k.a. "Time is Running Out"):
|
|
|
|
I understand that time is running out
|
|
I understand that time is running out
|
|
I understand that time is running out
|
|
I understand that time is running out
|
|
Running out as hastily as niggaz run from the Man
|
|
Time is running out on our natural habits...
|
|
Time is running out on lifeless serpents reigning
|
|
over a living kingdom
|
|
Time is running out of talks, marches tunes, chants,
|
|
and all kinds of prayers
|
|
Time ... is running out of time.
|
|
I heard someone say things are CHANGING
|
|
Chain ... chain chain CHANGING
|
|
from Brown to Black, time is running out on
|
|
bullshit changes!
|
|
Running out like a bush fire in a dry forest
|
|
Like a murderer from the scene of a crime
|
|
Like a little roach from DDT ...
|
|
|
|
Hanging out at East Wind in those days was Afrocentricity in
|
|
action. Yet for reasons lost in obscurity, not all of the Poets who
|
|
used to gather there made it into Douglas's recording sessions.
|
|
Felipe Luciano, Gylan Kain, and David Nelson -- all absent from the
|
|
Douglas Records lineup -- went on to perform as the "Original Last
|
|
Poets," and gained fame as the soundtrack artists for the film "Right
|
|
On!" (1971). Kain went on to a solo project, "Blue Guerrilla," a sort
|
|
of slice-of-life set piece which was the inspiration behind K.M.D.'s
|
|
unreleased second album "Black Bastards" (a title taken from Kain's
|
|
raps). Luciano's "Jazz" was something of a minor hit, and still
|
|
brings back memories for those who heard it at the time:
|
|
|
|
|
|
JAAAZZZZ, yeah, is a woman's tongue
|
|
Stuck dead in your mouth, ya dig it?
|
|
JAAAZZZZ, yeah, is a woman's tongue
|
|
Stuck all in your mouth
|
|
JAAAZZZZ, is a tongue, cool
|
|
Lickin' ya slowly, revolving around your side, your cheeks
|
|
Letting you know who's come to visit
|
|
Or teasing and tickling you your teeth
|
|
Buffing them 'till they shine-sparkle
|
|
Or HOT, WET, like the black streets in El Barrio
|
|
After a quick sun-shower ...
|
|
|
|
Yet these Poets, even though they were there at the start,
|
|
were eventually displaced by the Poets who recorded for Douglas,
|
|
including Alafia Pudim (a.k.a. Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin, a.k.a.
|
|
Lightnin' Rod), Sulieman El-Hadi, Abiodun Oyewole, and Omar Ben Hassan
|
|
(lately known as Umar Bin Hassan), along with percussionist Nilaja.
|
|
These were the poets (minus Oyewole, who departed after the first
|
|
album) who formed the core of *THE* Last Poets from the early 70's
|
|
into the mid-80's, offering up a potent series of political and
|
|
personal commentaries on everything from race relations to Ho Chi Minh
|
|
to the birth control pill.
|
|
Many of their early tracks are landmarks of poetic radicalism,
|
|
and have been claimed by rappers as seminal influences: "Niggas Are
|
|
Scared of Revolution" and "When the Revolution Comes" predate and
|
|
prefigure Gil Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised";
|
|
"White Man's Got a God Complex" struck a potent satirical chord in
|
|
1971 (and again in 1994, with a cover by Flavor Flav on PE's new Muse
|
|
Sick n Hour Mess Age album which features backup from Umar Bin
|
|
Hassan). Still, perhaps because of their unusual polyrhythms, the
|
|
Poets aren't sampled as often as they might be, though artists such as
|
|
different as Yo Yo, A Tribe Called Quest, and Paris have looped lines
|
|
from "Run, Nigger" on their recent albums. They also top many
|
|
rappers' prop lists (right up there after God and Moms). Their
|
|
influence is great, but it's more an influence on *attitude* than on
|
|
the music itself.
|
|
Yet while the Poets' early work may seem strangely unfunky to
|
|
a 1994 hip-hop head, they also made interesting moves towards funk and
|
|
hip-hop in the late 70's and early 80's. Pudim/Nuriddin, under the
|
|
name "Lightnin' Rod," cut a wild track with Hendrix (Doriella Du
|
|
Fontaine), and hooked up later on with Kool and the Gang and Eric Gale
|
|
in 1973 to cut "Hustlers' Convention," which Nelson George calls "a
|
|
moralistic blaxploitation film on record." Certainly listening to it
|
|
today, it sounds in places like a catalog of outdated hustler cliches,
|
|
but it also makes effective use of funk grooves, street noises, and
|
|
sound effects in a way that brings to mind the better skits and
|
|
interludes on hip-hop discs today.
|
|
According to David Toop, "Hustlers' Convention" had a powerful
|
|
street-level impact, and was used as a break record by some of the
|
|
first hip-hop DJ's. Here are a few lines from the opening track,
|
|
"Sport":
|
|
|
|
It was a full moon, in the middle of June
|
|
In the summer of '59
|
|
I was young and cool,
|
|
And shot a *bad* game of pool
|
|
And hustled all the chumps I could find ...
|
|
|
|
Nuriddin was the one Poet who clearly paid attention to what
|
|
was happening with rap; he put out a beat-box/synth track ("Long
|
|
Enough") on Brooklyn's Kee Wee label in 1984, as well as a hip-hop
|
|
remake of the Poets' "Mean Machine" with Grandmaster D.ST (the wizard
|
|
behind the wheels in "Rockit") on Celluloid. Nuriddin was, and remains
|
|
the funkiest of the Poets, as his new album with El-Hadi,
|
|
"Scaterrap/Home" proves (see below).
|
|
The careers of other Poets have been varied to say the
|
|
least; aside from Nilaja (who died of a brain tumor in 1980), they
|
|
have all carried on their artistry, though not always in public
|
|
performances or records. Abiodun Oyewole, semi-retired since 1984's
|
|
"Super Horror Show" on the Nia label, resurfaced to speak with Ice
|
|
Cube in a _New York Times_ Magazine_ interview earlier this year. He's
|
|
been teaching school and trying to instill pride in a new generation.
|
|
While reluctant at first to recognize Cube's work as a continuation of
|
|
his own, he came to respect him personally in the course of the
|
|
interview. Towards the end, he tells Cube:
|
|
|
|
"Rap has made itself a billion-dollar industry, and you and some other
|
|
brothers are sitting at the top of the charts because of the simple
|
|
reason that people have a need to express themselves and hear their
|
|
own voice. And you have been that mirror, relecting a lot of the pain
|
|
and joy they have felt. But the reality is, what we got to do is take
|
|
all of that pain and joy and give it some direction so we can have a
|
|
tomorrow. But not only for you -- for me, too, old as I am, I'm 40-
|
|
plus. I still got to grow. And I've got to respect that your rebel
|
|
spirit is the same rebel spirit I had."
|
|
|
|
"Reality" rappers take note -- Oyewole has recently re-united
|
|
with some of the other Poets to record a new album, "Holy Terror,"
|
|
released last year in Japan and just now available in the U.S. For
|
|
better or worse, the Poets, like many Black artists, have enjoyed more
|
|
honor abroad than at home; their albums are big sellers in Japan, and
|
|
Japanese and European labels have been home to most of their post-
|
|
Celluloid recordings.
|
|
Umar Bin Hassan, who left the group in the mid-70's to pursue his
|
|
ambitions as a playwright, also recently returned to the studio, working
|
|
with Bill Laswell on a number of projects on the latter's AXIOM label,
|
|
including a solo album, "Be Bop or Be Dead," which appeared last year. It
|
|
features re-makes of some classic Poets jams ("Niggers Are Scared of
|
|
Revolution," "This is Madness") as well as new cuts ("Bum Rush," "Personal
|
|
Things"), and funky backup from AXIOM regulars Bernie Worrell, Bootsy
|
|
Collins, Foday Musa Suso, and Aiyb Deng.
|
|
El-Hadi and Nuriddin, for their part, express some bitterness
|
|
about Laswell, Celluloid, and Axiom; after their props list on their
|
|
current CD, they send out, "No thanks to Celluloid Wreckoids N.Y. &
|
|
Bill Laswell of AXIOM Wreckoids and the past poets who copped out and
|
|
dropped out while we (THE LAST POETS) held out." Still, word is that
|
|
they are finally getting back together with Umar Bin Hassan and
|
|
Laswell and are recording some sides in London (where Jalal now lives)
|
|
for a new album. For now, the closest thing to hearing those
|
|
recordings is Nuriddin and El-Hadi's current release,
|
|
"Scatterap/Home."
|
|
This album returns to the old questions of Time and Space --
|
|
the CD art features their two faces surrounded by the track numbers
|
|
with Roman numerals like the face of a clock. The tracks, like this
|
|
clock, are split down the middle; the "Scatterrap" half is primarily
|
|
Jalal's, bring home funky flavor in a style reminiscent of late-70's
|
|
Bambaataa as he encourages his listeners to "See," 'Hear," "Taste,"
|
|
"Touch," "Smell," and "Reason." The "Home" half is dominated by El-
|
|
Hadi, who has a style closer to the older Poets releases; the best
|
|
track, "Minority of One," drops some potent conscious rhymes over long-
|
|
time Poets percussionist Abu Mustapha's congas. For too long, El-Hadi
|
|
raps, the white man has been
|
|
|
|
...Hiding my story, making a mystery
|
|
Showing himself and calling it history
|
|
But we know where they're coming from
|
|
Minority of one, under the shadow of the gun.
|
|
|
|
Although they were hard or impossible to find for many years,
|
|
most of the Last Poets' old LP's are now available on compact disc.
|
|
There's no way to describe what it is the Poets did or do without
|
|
listening to it, and these records are a vital part of hip-hop history
|
|
and Black history in general.
|
|
I've appended a discography of their most notable albums
|
|
available on CD, as well as a more detailed LP discography by Jalal
|
|
himself, transcribed by Culf from the European release of
|
|
"Scatterrap/Home" (the U.S. release omits this discography). If you
|
|
want to trace the roots of hip-hop, you owe it to yourself to check
|
|
these out.
|
|
|
|
=========
|
|
|
|
Last Poets -- Compact Disc Discography
|
|
|
|
The Last Poets (a) The Last Poets (1970) Celluloid Records CEL 6101
|
|
The Last Poets This Is Madness (1971) Celluloid Records CEL 6105
|
|
Original Last Poets * Right On! (1971) Collectibles COL-CD-6500
|
|
Gylan Kain Blue Guerilla Collectibles COL-CD-6501
|
|
The Last Poets Chastisement (1972) Celluloid
|
|
Lightnin' Rod Hustlers Convention (1973) Oceana/Celluloid 4107-2
|
|
The Last Poets At Last (1974) Celluloid
|
|
The Last Poets Delights of the Garden (1976) Celluloid CEL 6136
|
|
The Last Poets Jazzoetry (1976)+ Celluloid
|
|
The Last Poets Oh! My People (1984) Celluloid
|
|
Jalal & Grandmaster Mean Machine (12") Celluloid CELD 6205**
|
|
The Last Poets Freedom Express (1988) Celluloid
|
|
The Last Poets Retrofit (1992)++ Celluloid CELD 6208
|
|
The Last Poets One (1993) Celluloid
|
|
Umar Bin Hassan Be Bop or Be Dead (1993)AXIOM 314-518 048-2
|
|
The Last Poets Holy Terror (1993) P-Vine 2499 (Japan)
|
|
The Last Poets Scatterap/Home (1994) Bond Age BRCD 9471
|
|
|
|
*= Felipe Luciano, Gylan Kain, David Nelson
|
|
** The 12" is available on this Celluloid CD, "Roots of Rap Volume 1"
|
|
+Jalal's discography lists this as a 1971 release; I don't have a copy & so
|
|
can't confirm the date.
|
|
++ A remix album -- very funky, but probably part of the reason some of the
|
|
Poets are so angry at Celluloid; also contains a remix of "Doriella
|
|
DuFontaine."
|
|
|
|
Where I have a copy, or catalog info., I list the CD catalog number;
|
|
otherwise I can only say that the disc appears on other lists as having
|
|
been available on CD. I also have not yet received the import copy of
|
|
"Holy Terror" I ordered a few weeks ago, and so have no detailed
|
|
information as to who (aside from Oyewole) participated in that recording.
|
|
|
|
Anyone having more information on the Poets on CD or vinyl, please send
|
|
your info to rapotter@colby.edu; I hope to compile a more thorough
|
|
discography, to be posted at net sites such as JazzNet or the cs.uwp.edu
|
|
archive.
|
|
|
|
========
|
|
|
|
Last Poets Discography -- by Jalal
|
|
|
|
1. The Last Poets / Self titled / Recorded April 1969 at Impact Sound
|
|
Studios n.y.c.
|
|
Released in April of 1970 The Last Poets album sells over a million copies
|
|
by word of mouth and thus put "Rap" on the map.
|
|
Produced by Alan Douglas & The Last Poets & East Wind Associates.
|
|
|
|
Poets: Abiodun Oyewole, Alafia Pudim (a.k.a. Jalal Mansur Nuriddin), Omar
|
|
Bin Hassan
|
|
Percussion: Nilaja
|
|
Engineer: Danfort Driffith
|
|
|
|
2. "This Is Madness" The Last Poets.
|
|
Recorded 1971 at Media Sound Studios n.y.c.
|
|
Producers: Alan Douglas & Stefan Bright
|
|
Cover painting: Abdul Mati (based on a photograph by Bilal Farid)
|
|
Engineer: Tony Bongiovi
|
|
|
|
Poets: Alafia Pudim (a.k.a. Jalal Mansur Nuriddin) & Omar Bin Hassan
|
|
Percussion: Nilaja
|
|
|
|
3. "Chastisement" The Last Poets 1972-73.
|
|
Recorded at Media Sound Studios n.y.c.
|
|
Produced by The Last Poets & Stefan Bright
|
|
|
|
Poets: Jalal Mansur Nuriddin & Sulieman El-Hadi
|
|
Percussion: Nilaja, Omanyaki, B, Jalal
|
|
Vocals: Oluiyi/Ann
|
|
Saxophonist: Sam Harkness
|
|
Bass: Jox Hall
|
|
Engineer: Tony Bonjovi
|
|
Cover Art: Jim Wipox
|
|
Photographer: Edmund (Majur) Wartkixs
|
|
|
|
4. "At Last" The Last Poets 1974
|
|
Produced by The Last Poets.
|
|
|
|
Poets: Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin, Sulieman El-Hadi, Omar Bin Hassan
|
|
|
|
Musicians:
|
|
Tenor sax: Brother Juice
|
|
Alto sax: Claude Laurence
|
|
Piano: Casa Burak
|
|
Drums: Philip King
|
|
Bass: Duke Cleamons
|
|
|
|
Recorded in a fire house Studio, lower eastside, n.y.c.
|
|
|
|
5. "Delights Of The Garden" 1976
|
|
Recorded at Media Sound Studios n.y.c. & Sound Ideas Studio n.y.c.
|
|
Produced by Alan Douglas & The Last Poets
|
|
Mastering: Joe Gastuirt, Masterdisk Studios n.y.c.
|
|
Cover Art: Abrahim Ben Benu
|
|
Photographs: Peter Harron
|
|
Art Director: Frank Guana
|
|
Chief engineer: Cron St Germaine
|
|
|
|
Poets: Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin, Sulieman El-Hadi
|
|
|
|
Musicians:
|
|
Bass & Guitar: Mann
|
|
Bass: Alex Blake
|
|
Drums: Bernard Perdie
|
|
Conga: Aby Mustapha
|
|
Percussion: Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin, Sulieman El-Hadi, Abu Mustapha
|
|
|
|
6. "Oh My People" The Last Poets 1984
|
|
Produced by Bill Laswell
|
|
Recorded at Evergreen Studios and mixed at RPM by Rob Stevens
|
|
Asst Engineer: Hank Rowe
|
|
Cover Design: Thi Linh Le
|
|
Group photo: Stephen Critchlow
|
|
|
|
Poets: Sulieman El-Hadi, Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin
|
|
|
|
Musicians: Bernie Worrell
|
|
Synthesizer: Ayiele Dieng, Chatan Cowbell, Bill Laswell/DMX AMS
|
|
Musicians: Jamal, Abdus Sabor/Bass, Ayiel Dieng/Talking Drums/Congas,
|
|
Kenyatte Abdur/Rakman/Congas, Philip Wilson/Cymbals/Percussion
|
|
|
|
7. "Freedom Express" The Last Poets 1988
|
|
Produced by: The Last Poets
|
|
Recorded at Brent Black Music Co-Op
|
|
Willesdex, England
|
|
|
|
Poets: Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin, Sulienman El-Hadi
|
|
|
|
Musicians:
|
|
Abu Mustapha/Congas
|
|
Sulieman El-Hadi/Congas
|
|
Kenyatta Abdur-Rahman/Congas Wx7/Linwood 5000 + Drums
|
|
Jamal Abdus Sabor/Bass
|
|
Dave Lugay/Bass
|
|
Curtis Lugay Memphis/Lead guitar
|
|
|
|
Engineered by Sid Bucknor
|
|
Ray Brown
|
|
Arranged by Kenyatte Abdur-Rahman
|
|
Mixed by Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin
|
|
|
|
SINGLES
|
|
|
|
O'D/Black Thighs 1970 Poets: Jalal/Omar
|
|
Percussion: Nilaja
|
|
Organ: Buddy Miles
|
|
|
|
"Long Enough" Last Poets 1981 - Jalal & Sulieman
|
|
|
|
"Stella Marina" 1984 Working Week, Jalal
|
|
|
|
"Mean Machine" 1984 Jalal & D.S.T.
|
|
|
|
"Mean Machine" 1990-91 Jalal & Lugman
|
|
|
|
OTHERS ALBUMS
|
|
|
|
"Doriella du Fontaine" 1969
|
|
Recorded at Electric Lady Land n.y.c. 12 mix approx.
|
|
Lightnin'Rod (a.k.a.Jalal, leader of Last Poets) &
|
|
Jimi Hendrix Lightinin'Rod/Jalal
|
|
Vocals: Jimi Hendrix/lead (Guitar/Bass)
|
|
Buddy Miles/Drums
|
|
Released in 1984 as 12" Duck single on the Criminal Label Celluloid
|
|
N.Y. (sell-you-into-Avoid-Paying you royalties)
|
|
Produced by Alan Douglas
|
|
|
|
"Jazzoetry" Compilation 1971 Jalal & Omar
|
|
|
|
"Hustler's Convention" 1973
|
|
Lightnin'Rod a.k.a./Jalal leader of The Last Poets
|
|
Kool & The Gang
|
|
Gene Dinwoodie
|
|
King Curtis
|
|
Billy Preston
|
|
Eric Gale
|
|
Cornel Dupree
|
|
Tina Turner & Ikettes
|
|
Produced by Alan Douglas
|
|
Recorded and mastered at Media Sound
|
|
W. 57th St N.Y.C.
|
|
|
|
Discography written by Jalauddin Mansur Nuriddin
|
|
Transcribed by Culf <culf@city.ac.uk>
|
|
|
|
|
|
***H***
|
|
David J.
|
|
--------
|
|
YAGGFU FRONT LEAVES MERCURY RECORDS
|
|
|
|
Raleigh, North Carolina's Yaggfu Front, who first hit the hip
|
|
hop scene last year with the singles "Looking For A Contract" and
|
|
"Busted Loop," have left Mercury and are currently searching for a new
|
|
record deal, according to the group's DJ Assassin.
|
|
"We had to step from Mercury because we couldn't agree on
|
|
terms as far as pushing our products," Assassin said. "So now we're
|
|
just trying to find a label that's really trying to back us and really
|
|
trying to help us do what we want to do with our music."
|
|
Yaggfu Front's LP, "Action Packed Adventure," which received a
|
|
pH Level of 5 in HardCORE, didn't get enough attention from Mercury
|
|
and lagged in sales as a result, according to Assassin. The group is
|
|
currently shopping both the album and its latest demo to several
|
|
labels.
|
|
"Right now, we're talking to Geffen, Delicious (Vinyl)...we
|
|
got a whole slew," Assassin said, "but we don't want to say, really,
|
|
or commit to anything. We want to keep things open until we're ready
|
|
to do whatever."
|
|
The group is looking for a label that's willing to understand
|
|
and promote the group's style, which is at time comic and different
|
|
from nearly any other group on the scene. Assassin feels they're more
|
|
ready to deal with labels because of the experience they had with
|
|
Mercury. "It's a lot different from back then. We're a lot older,
|
|
and we have more experience with that than we had back then."
|
|
|
|
|
|
***I***
|
|
Martin Kelley
|
|
-------------
|
|
THE ATLANTA SCENE
|
|
|
|
Atlanta has been kinda mellow this summer compared to the
|
|
usual. Jack the Rapper was held in Orlando instead of here, and we've
|
|
only had a couple of shows come to town. A Tribe Called Quest came
|
|
through while touring with the Lollapalooza '94 caravan, and they did
|
|
another show just for the heads down at the Warehouse. I wish I could
|
|
say that it was a good show, but there were those out to prove they
|
|
were roughnecks and that tarnished the evening (a couple bucks, a
|
|
couple casualties, 'nuff said).
|
|
The Gravediggaz held a release party at the Masquerade that
|
|
was sponsored by WRAS 88.5 FM's Rhythm & Vibes and Tha Bomb shows
|
|
along with Polygram (props to Don and Dave). It wasn't exactly the
|
|
bomb party but it was free, so you can only complain so much.
|
|
As for record release news, Ichiban has given Kwame a new
|
|
opportunity with his new album "Incognito". Conquest records is
|
|
planning to release a new SnoMan LP and the debut album from Layel of
|
|
Nexx Phase (check Marley Marl's "In Control Vol. 2"). Congratulations
|
|
to boy wonder -- it's been a long time for this kid. Reign of Terror
|
|
is close to inking a deal with Straight to the Bottom records (based
|
|
in Miami). Kaper/RCA is trying again with kid rappers K.R.O.N.I.C. by
|
|
releasing a new EP and single "Summertime". Local independent label
|
|
Ogana records has released the single "Nigerian Rhyme Shoota" from
|
|
Doomsday, as they try to fuse hardcore rap and Nigerian styles.
|
|
In the rumor mill, I have been hearing that some members of a
|
|
local hip-hop group (you've heard of them too) have gotten themselves
|
|
into a bit of trouble. I'll let you know who if I can confirm the
|
|
story. On the lighter side, I met a white GZA (from Wu-Tang)
|
|
impersonator. It was a definite trip, I couldn't believe that I kept
|
|
a straight face as he explained how he was in the Wu-Tang (come to
|
|
think of it, I can't believe *he* kept a straight face).
|
|
Anyway, peace...
|
|
|
|
|
|
***J***
|
|
Steven J Juon
|
|
-------------
|
|
FLASH'S VIDEO REVIEW
|
|
|
|
|
|
Beastie Boys, "Sure Shot"
|
|
pH Level - 2
|
|
|
|
Sabotage this ain't. In fact despite being a great song it's
|
|
a lousy video. Their lips are not in sync with the lyrics more than
|
|
half of the time, and the flips between playgrounds/pools and pimps in
|
|
tuxedos does nothing for me. Play like Pharcyde and Pass It By.
|
|
|
|
Big Joe Krash (KRS-One), "Break the Chain"
|
|
pH Level - 4
|
|
|
|
Whatever words Krash's mouth are forming during the chorus,
|
|
they AREN'T the chorus cause they AREN'T in sync. His lips move on
|
|
and on and on and... it's painfully obvious. Nuff respect to Kyle
|
|
Baker for the phat drawing style and Lawrence Parker for the lyrics,
|
|
but this looks like a rush job.
|
|
|
|
Black Sheep, "Without a Doubt"
|
|
pH Level - 5
|
|
|
|
Interesting video that comes off playful without being silly.
|
|
It has some cool funhouse camera angles as they roll down the ave. and
|
|
doors that lead directly from the party to the street (interesting
|
|
allusion that). Also, the room where Dres lounges in a chair seems to
|
|
be flying through space. This jammie comes off totally 180 degrees
|
|
from the tightly plotted and shot "Similak Child" video, and it's a
|
|
nice change-up.
|
|
|
|
Brand Nubian, "Word Is Bond"
|
|
pH Level - 4
|
|
|
|
What's up with Lord Jamar's hair? Short at the beginning,
|
|
long dreads in the middle, short at the end! Are they tied up in a
|
|
bun at the back of his head? Anyway, it's a cool-out party song and
|
|
video, and as far as I'm concerned this one is in there.
|
|
|
|
Craig Mack, "Flava In Ya Ear"
|
|
pH Level - 6
|
|
|
|
Regardless of how you feel about his flow, the two Craig's
|
|
(Craig Henry directing) have hooked up a video which is NICE! Despite
|
|
numerous quick cuts between locations, Craig is always in sync. Very
|
|
cool lighting effects (nuff respect to the cinematographer) that
|
|
create beams of anti-matter and surreal urban worlds. Like the planet
|
|
behind him and the buildings around him, Craig Mack is larger than
|
|
life in this video. The camera angle they use when Craig shovels
|
|
graves would make my film professor proud and the Ryzarector jealous!
|
|
The one belongs in the archive of all time classic hip-hop videos, NO
|
|
CONTEST.
|
|
|
|
Da Bush Babees, "We Run Things"
|
|
pH Level - 4
|
|
|
|
Is this the Hamptons? Wherever they are, it looks like a
|
|
quiet suburban park to me, very removed from your typical rap video
|
|
ghetto backdrop. Good, lush green colors set the tone and accentuate
|
|
this well laid out video. Not much plot here, but who needs it?
|
|
|
|
Da Youngstas, "Hip Hop Ride"
|
|
pH Level - 3
|
|
|
|
Considering that I freeze my ass off this time of year when I
|
|
walk outdoors, this video seems a lil too late for summer. Yet there
|
|
they are, macking at the pool to a disproportional amount of thinly
|
|
clad sepia-toned honies. Just a quick check here -- who the HELL are
|
|
they pointing the camera at when they mention Monie Love? That's NOT
|
|
her but that's what they make it look like. Despite these flaws
|
|
(especially the overuse of skinz) it's a decent cool-out party video.
|
|
|
|
Digable Planets, "9th Wonder"
|
|
pH Level - 5
|
|
|
|
Somebody tell me how the HELL they made this video pop scratch
|
|
and flick like an 8th grade science film, cause I love it! Hard to
|
|
believe that the DP's could walk around New York (and Myrtle Ave.)
|
|
without being noticed, but I guess they are "Cool Like Dat". The old
|
|
man is cool, too. His sun glasses reflecting the world around him and
|
|
hiding the inner depths of time and space his soul must hold. A
|
|
definite pHat video.
|
|
|
|
Fu-Schnickens, "Breakdown"
|
|
pH Level - 6
|
|
|
|
Now THIS is how it should be done. A good video should build
|
|
on a theme created by the song and translate it into three-dimensional
|
|
reality. So in this joint, they catch wreck like the wrecking balls
|
|
they swing around on. You can almost feel the walls at this abandoned
|
|
construction (or deconstruction) site shaking down as the funk track
|
|
blasts. Not to mention ANY video that can stay in sync with Chip-Fu
|
|
gets props.
|
|
|
|
Ill Al Skratch, "I'll Take Her"
|
|
pH Level - 5
|
|
|
|
While Brian McKnight croons in the studio, Al Skratch cruises
|
|
and Big Ill pounds the pavement. Classic moment is when Ill catches
|
|
the eye of a girl -- while exchanging pounds with her boyfriend! As
|
|
Ill walks away her gaze trails longingly after, the boyfriend starts
|
|
riffing, and she tells him to SHOVE IT. Better treat them ladies
|
|
right fellaz, cause Ill Al Skratch is on the creep in your
|
|
neighborhood.
|
|
|
|
O.C., "Time's Up"
|
|
pH Level - 6
|
|
|
|
"Do not adjust your TV set," because it's about to be ON.
|
|
Until now, there has been nothing quite like Jeru's intense video for
|
|
"Come Clean." Well, here it is. Heads nod in the cipher, and O.C.
|
|
steps out of the shadows into the spotlight (VERY APPROPRIATE). Great
|
|
shots of the DJ spinning wax, and good sparing use of the occasional
|
|
prop (sucker MC, floating dollar bills, etc). And how can you NOT
|
|
love the cameo clip of Slick Rick? This video is PURE BUTTER.
|
|
|
|
Pete Rock and CL Smooth, "I Got a Love"
|
|
pH Level - 6
|
|
|
|
Journey with the Chocolate Boy Wonder and the Mecca Don from
|
|
Babylon back to the lush tropical green of Jamaica, one of the
|
|
birthplaces of hip-hop. Cool contrast between black and white clips
|
|
and color clips in this video. Because of the letterbox format (the
|
|
cropping at the top and bottom of the screen), it would seem to have
|
|
been shot originally in a wide-screen movie format. If it looks this
|
|
good on my shitty old TV, I'd like to see how it looks on the big
|
|
screen, for real.
|
|
|
|
Rappin 4-Tay, "Playaz Club"
|
|
pH Level - 4
|
|
|
|
Yes the video has some fine women, but they are also well
|
|
attired and seem to be part of the environment, not just inflatable
|
|
props. In fact, to me this song and video seems to be the epitome of
|
|
being a playa -- fly suits and fine girls who aren't skeezers. Nuff
|
|
respect for these players.
|
|
|
|
Sir Mix-a-Lot, "Ride"
|
|
pH Level - 2
|
|
|
|
Mix, I love you like a homie but those furs you wear have GOT
|
|
to go. And why did you make a video for THIS wack song? This HYPER-
|
|
sexed futuristic-fashioned (and FASHION) video does NUTTIN for me.
|
|
Nuff said.
|
|
|
|
Wu-Tang Clan, "Can It All Be So Simple"
|
|
pH Level - 5
|
|
|
|
A quiet, introspective video that presents pictures and lets
|
|
you draw your own conclusions. Some clips look like the lap of
|
|
luxury, and some look like back in the day, but is there any
|
|
difference? Or can it be that it WAS all so simple then...
|
|
|
|
|
|
***K***
|
|
O.C.
|
|
----
|
|
|
|
"Time's Up"
|
|
(transcribed by Flash)
|
|
|
|
Verse One:
|
|
|
|
You lack the minerals and vitamins
|
|
Irons and the niacins
|
|
Fuck who that I offend
|
|
rappers sit back I'm about to begin
|
|
bout foul-talking squawk
|
|
Never even walked the walk
|
|
More/less destined to get tested
|
|
never been arrested
|
|
My album will manifest many things that I saw did or heard about
|
|
or told first-hand, never word of mouth
|
|
What's in the future for the fusion in the changer
|
|
rappers are in danger, who will use wits to be a remainder
|
|
When the missile is aimed, to blow you out of the frame
|
|
Some will keep their limbs in, some will be maimed
|
|
The same suckers with the gab about killer instincts
|
|
but turned bitch and knowin damn well they lack
|
|
In this division, the connoisseur
|
|
Crackin your head with a four by four
|
|
Realize sucka, I be the comer like Noah
|
|
always sendin you down, perpetratin facadin what you consider an image
|
|
To me, this is just a scrimmage
|
|
I feel I'm stone
|
|
Not cause about throwin my cap cocked
|
|
The more emotion I put in to it, the harder I rock
|
|
Those who pose lyrical, but really ain't true I feel
|
|
*Their time's limited, hard rocks too* (Slick Rick)
|
|
|
|
Verse Two:
|
|
|
|
Speakin in tongues
|
|
About what you did but you never done
|
|
And admit it you bit it cause the next man came platinum
|
|
Behind it, I find it ironic
|
|
So I researched and analyzed
|
|
Most write about stuff they fantasize
|
|
I'm fed up with the bull
|
|
on this focus of weeded clips and glocks gettin cocked
|
|
And wax not being flipped
|
|
It's the same ol', same ol', just strainin from the anal
|
|
the contact, is not complex to vex
|
|
So why you pushin it?
|
|
Why you lyin for I know where you live
|
|
I know your folks, you was a sucka as a kid
|
|
Your persona's drama, that you acquired in high school in acting class
|
|
Your whole aura is Plexiglas
|
|
What's her face told me you shot this kid last week in the park
|
|
that's a lie, you was in church with your moms
|
|
See I know, yo, slow your roll, give a good to go
|
|
Guys be lackin in this thing called rappin just for dough
|
|
Of course we gotta pay rent, so money connects
|
|
But uh, I'd rather be broke and have a whole lot of respect
|
|
It's the principle of it, I get a rush when I bust
|
|
some dope lines on roll, that maybe somebody will quote
|
|
That's what I consider real, in this field of music
|
|
Instead of putting brain cells to work they abuse it
|
|
Non-conceptual, non-exceptional
|
|
Everybody's either crime related or sexual!
|
|
I'm here to make a difference
|
|
Besides all the riffin the tracks are not stickin
|
|
Rappers, stop flippin
|
|
For those who pose lyrical but really ain't true I feel
|
|
*Their time's limited, hard rocks too*
|
|
|
|
|
|
***L***
|
|
Charles Isbell
|
|
--------------
|
|
|
|
Damn.
|
|
|
|
This time: _Genocide and Juice_ by The Coup
|
|
Next time: _Blowout Comb_ by Digable Planets
|
|
_Zingalamaduni_ by Arrested Development
|
|
_Black Business_ by Poor Righteous Teachers
|
|
Last time: _Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age_ by Public Enemy
|
|
_Illmatic_ by Nas
|
|
_Hard To Earn_ by Gang Starr
|
|
_Be Bop or Be Dead_ by Umar Bin Hassan
|
|
Catch Ups: _Tricks of The Shade_ by The Goats
|
|
_Enta Da Wu Tang (36 Chambers)_ by Wu Tang Clan
|
|
_Cypress Hill_ by Cypress Hill
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Distinctiveness: Oh, that's for sure.
|
|
Dopeness Rating: Oh my god (is it real?). Phat+.
|
|
Rap Part: I admit it. I'm jockin'. Phat+
|
|
Sounds: I'm still jockin'. Phat+
|
|
Predictions: If there is any justice in the world they'll go
|
|
triple platinum.
|
|
Rotation Weight: Oh, just on and on.
|
|
Message: Um. Why, yes, as a matter of fact.
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Tracks: 14 at 52:38
|
|
Label: Wild Pitch
|
|
Producers: Boots for the Mau Mau Collective
|
|
Profanity: Here a motherf*cker. There a motherf*cker. Every
|
|
which where a motherf*cker.
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
The Fall Hip Hop season has begun with The Coup.
|
|
|
|
The Coup is: Boots, E-Roc and Pam The Funktress. The complete
|
|
complement of musicians is Moose Patterson on keyboards; Charles
|
|
Stella and Caz on guitar; Elijah Baker and Keith MacArthur on bass
|
|
guitar; Jeff Chambers on Stand-Up Bass; Raymond Riley on drums; The
|
|
Sweet Meat Section on horns (John Middleton on trumpet, Mike Rinta on
|
|
trombone and Carl Green on tenor sax); Renatta Archie on violin and
|
|
viola; Alisha Calhoun and Lynn Sally on violin; with backing vocals by
|
|
The Two Sisters, Tanya, Deon Jones, Anthony Tibbs, Jazz Lee Alston,
|
|
Suga-T, E-Roc and Lalisa Johnson.
|
|
|
|
The Coup is: stoopid mad phat.
|
|
|
|
The Coup is: the group that had the best politically-minded album for
|
|
last year with _Kill My Landlord_.
|
|
|
|
The Coup is: even better this time around in 1994 with _Genocide and
|
|
Juice_.
|
|
|
|
The Coup is: my new favorite group.
|
|
|
|
The Coup. I hear you asking "Who the f*ck are they?" Brother/sister,
|
|
where have you *been*? The Coup is the group that released _Kill My
|
|
Landlord_ last year. This was, without any doubt whatsoever in my
|
|
mind, the best CD of last year and, for that matter, the best
|
|
politically-minded album to drop in many, many years. Led by Boots
|
|
and his incredible ear for a sharp lyric, they just tore sh*t up.
|
|
|
|
And now they're back, busy proving the sophomore jinx to be little
|
|
more than a silly superstition. And in some ways, they're even
|
|
better than they were before. This time around they manage to pay a
|
|
little bit more attention to the muzak behind their lyrical steak
|
|
without compromising on that end at all. The result is an even
|
|
stronger, more coherent vision... and a damn funky album all around.
|
|
|
|
The Fall season is off to a good start. Let's get started.
|
|
|
|
We open with "Intro (G-Nut Talks Sh*t From The Gut)," the obligatory
|
|
introduction. Whatever. Not quite a minute later and we're into "Fat
|
|
Cats, Bigga Fish." This is Boots at his best. Nice lyrics, serious
|
|
flow and a truly FONKY beat. An even more impressive opening shot
|
|
that "Dig It" was on _Kill My Landlord_.
|
|
|
|
"And promenade out to take up a collection
|
|
I got game like I read the directions"
|
|
|
|
This time we follow the adventures of Boots-as-pickpocket as his
|
|
normal day takes an odd turn.
|
|
|
|
"The streetlight reflects off the piss on the ground
|
|
which reflects off the hamburger sign that turns round
|
|
which reflects off the chrome of the BMW
|
|
which reflects off the fact that I'm broke
|
|
Now what the f*ck is new?"
|
|
|
|
"Didn't want to f*ck up the come up
|
|
so I smiled, winked my eye, said
|
|
'Hey how's it hangin' guy?'
|
|
Bumped into his shoulder
|
|
but he passed with no reaction
|
|
Damn, this motherf*cker had hella Andrew Jacksons"
|
|
|
|
"Story just begun, but you already know
|
|
And no need to get down...
|
|
Sh*t I'm already low"
|
|
|
|
After a funny adventure at Burger King, Boots meets his cousin and
|
|
takes the opportunity to sneak into a ritzy party in order to make
|
|
some quick bucks. Much to his surprise, he learns the true meaning of
|
|
being a hustler... on a much grander scale then he'd ever imagined.
|
|
|
|
"Fresh, dressed like a million bucks
|
|
I be the flyest motherf*cker in an afro and a tux
|
|
My arm is at a right angle up, silver tray in my hand
|
|
'May I interest you in some caviar, ma'am?'
|
|
My eyes shoot 'round the room there and here
|
|
noticin' the diamonds in the chandelier
|
|
Background Barry Manilow, "Copa Cabana"
|
|
and a strong-ass scent of stogie's from Havana"
|
|
|
|
"Mr Coke said to Mr Mayor:
|
|
'You know we have a process like Ice-T's hair.
|
|
We put up the funds for your election campaign
|
|
and oh, um, waiter can you bring the champagne?
|
|
Our real estate firm says opportunities arousing
|
|
to make some condos out of low-income housing
|
|
Immediately we need some media heat
|
|
to say that gangs run the street
|
|
and then we bring in the police fleet
|
|
harass and beat everybody till they look inebriated
|
|
when we buy the land motherf*ckers will appreciate it
|
|
Don't worry about the Urban League or Jesse Jackson
|
|
My man that owns Marlboro donated a fat sum.'"
|
|
|
|
This flows quite naturally into the next track, "Pimps," starring
|
|
David Rockefeller and John-Paul Getty showing off their ability to
|
|
make their voices "like authentic rappers" over some funky strings (in
|
|
this case, like Boots and E-Roc). Donald Trump even stops by to annoy
|
|
everyone by doing his reggae imitation.
|
|
|
|
"Well, if you're blind as Helen Keller
|
|
you can see I'm David Rockefeller
|
|
So much cash, up in my bathroom there's a Ready Teller"
|
|
|
|
"Don't let me get my flex on
|
|
Do some gangsta sh*t
|
|
Make the army go to war for Exxon
|
|
Long as the money flow, I'll be makin' dough
|
|
Welcome to my little pimp school
|
|
How you gonna beat me at this game?
|
|
I made the rules"
|
|
|
|
"'Why don't you rap for us?'
|
|
'No, no, no, no'
|
|
'Come on boy I did mine'
|
|
'It's so... tribal'
|
|
'Well, very well'
|
|
'Oh, goodie'
|
|
'But hold my martini...
|
|
I have to do those hand gestures.'"
|
|
|
|
Hee, hee.
|
|
|
|
"Lay you out like linoleum floors
|
|
I'm gettin' rich off petroleum wars
|
|
controllin' you whores
|
|
makin' you eat top rhymin'
|
|
while I eat shrimp
|
|
y'all motherf*ckers is simps
|
|
I'm just a pimp"
|
|
|
|
After The Trumpster drives everyone away, the track fades into "Takin'
|
|
These," the current release from _Genocide and Juice_.
|
|
|
|
"See, it's a family thing
|
|
So don't even trip
|
|
My cousin JD got the nine
|
|
and my momma got the extra clip"
|
|
|
|
This one comes off a bit too relaxed after the last two tracks, but
|
|
gets a few extra props for subverting Disney favorite _1001
|
|
Dalmations_ with its right-on-time chorus (think hard and you'll know
|
|
what I'm talking about).
|
|
|
|
"And if you don't like it
|
|
take two to the chin
|
|
and show me to the kitchen
|
|
'cause my kids is gettin' thin
|
|
See I don't have to talk sh*t
|
|
about packin' a gat, in fact,
|
|
you could get bucked
|
|
by any other motherf*cker where I live at
|
|
Hear that?
|
|
Money here is crystal clear punk
|
|
F*ck that fiscal year junk
|
|
Meet the pistol grip pump
|
|
Pistol grip, uh, meet Mr Rockefeller
|
|
We finta take him out
|
|
do him like Ol' Yeller"
|
|
|
|
I like it. And E-Roc does a more-than-nice job on this track.
|
|
|
|
"Now I know you got nailed
|
|
And if my glock fails
|
|
take a sip of this molotov cocktail"
|
|
|
|
We continue the relaxed-but-busy musical theme "Hip 2 The Skeme."
|
|
|
|
"How many days can I stretch this box of grits?"
|
|
|
|
"I know the US economy
|
|
And I could run it
|
|
I'm 'bout to make these four dollars
|
|
into four hundred
|
|
Ain't nuttin' happenin' but the serious gank
|
|
While they got billions in the bank
|
|
we just got money on the dank
|
|
And when we got fresh rims
|
|
we on top
|
|
On top of what when the kitchen table's on hock"
|
|
|
|
Again, E-Roc shows that he's here for more than his choice of
|
|
hairstyle. He's much more of a reasonable presence this time around
|
|
than he was on _Kill My Landlord_... definitely a difficult job, what
|
|
with Boots just running over the mic like a Mac truck.
|
|
|
|
"See I'm a motherf*cker that's done some dirt
|
|
for my meal ticket
|
|
but I learned quick
|
|
you gots to deal with it
|
|
Well I did for twenty two f*ckin' years
|
|
You damn straight my homiez relate
|
|
when we all shed tears
|
|
And it's clear to my ears
|
|
I had to learn that knowledge
|
|
'Cause after twelfth grade I had to say
|
|
f*ck college"
|
|
|
|
"If everybody in the hood had a PhD
|
|
You'd say, 'That doctor flipped that burger hella good for me'
|
|
200,000 brothers marchin' one mind one place to go
|
|
Ain't no revolution... they just walkin' to the liquor store
|
|
Here take a swig'a, so it's quicker bro, the nigger-o
|
|
just wants to get thru the rigmarole, I've been here before"
|
|
|
|
Anyway, the band takes us out and on into "Gunsmoke." The muzak takes
|
|
a sudden bouncier and funkier turn.
|
|
|
|
"I be havin' homicide runnin' thru my mind
|
|
Don't know what's up with me
|
|
Sh*t f*ck with me all the time
|
|
Eatin' at my spine
|
|
A motherf*cker in my prime
|
|
How you gonna get yours
|
|
when you too busy gettin' mine?"
|
|
|
|
It works.
|
|
|
|
"Skeletons deep down in the ocean
|
|
'Cause them slave ships had that three-stop motion
|
|
Face down floatin' on the Mississippi River
|
|
Burnin' crosses and motherf*ckers sayin'
|
|
'Die Nigga! Die Nigga!'"
|
|
|
|
In fact, it works pretty well.
|
|
|
|
"I said f*ck the whole judge and the jury
|
|
My mind got delirious, my eyes got blurry
|
|
had my uncle strapped to the chair
|
|
hands ox-tied
|
|
Breathin' in gas
|
|
Breathin' out carbon monoxide
|
|
Whole system stank like a load of bowel
|
|
'Cause ain't no billionaires on the murder trial
|
|
Make the ghettos concentration camps every mile
|
|
So march your ass to the gas chamber single file"
|
|
|
|
And so we end the first half of _Genocide and Juice_ with the
|
|
forty-second "This One's A Girl," a Pam The Funktress scritch-scratch
|
|
fest. Not a bad one at all. Add a few more series like the first
|
|
nine seconds and you'd have a very nice bit of DJ fodder.
|
|
|
|
This leaves us with "The Name Game" wherein the Coup explains a bit
|
|
about the industry and their place in it.
|
|
|
|
"Every where we go
|
|
you know especially in the 'O'
|
|
We hear 'Coup! Coup!'
|
|
We know we got love for show
|
|
But even more when they see us
|
|
on B E and T and M T and V
|
|
but me and E can't pay the P G and E
|
|
Power come from the barrel of a bucka
|
|
I use the mic so that we ain't met the same motherf*cker
|
|
'Cause your sh*t can go gold
|
|
and the only cash you got is the silver kind that don't fold"
|
|
|
|
"F*ck the videos with the Benz's and the cellular phones
|
|
Spendin' hundreds like quarters
|
|
The Benz is their partner's
|
|
The money's on loan
|
|
and, um, the cellular number you've reached is out of order"
|
|
|
|
Nice, nice, nice. I kinda like it.
|
|
|
|
"I'm scrappin' fronts off like plaque
|
|
No slack
|
|
I come realistic like Radio Shack"
|
|
|
|
"360 Degrees" follows. It uses the same laid-back groove as the intro
|
|
track and features the voice of Jazz Lee Alston. She sort of does a
|
|
sing-songy bit here, talkin' poetry.
|
|
|
|
"Just say no to drugs
|
|
But say yes to what?"
|
|
|
|
I gives it dap.
|
|
|
|
That brings us to "Hard Concrete." This is E-Roc's time to shine and
|
|
I must say that he does manage to be just a little bit more than plain
|
|
ol' slammin'.
|
|
|
|
"Tragedy is an everyday thing
|
|
Put on the video game
|
|
Sip some Tang if I can stand the pain
|
|
You need the knowledge from the street
|
|
Now watch me learn it
|
|
I went to get a job but
|
|
too young for a work permit
|
|
Don't come my way
|
|
I might just have to gaffle ya
|
|
They say we're growin' up fast
|
|
But we just dying faster"
|
|
|
|
Nice muzak.
|
|
|
|
Anyway, this brings us to "Santa Rita Weekend." This track guest
|
|
stars Spice 1 and E-40.
|
|
|
|
"Just sittin' up on the top bunk
|
|
watchin' the cell block row"
|
|
|
|
Nice muzak on this one, if a bit straightforward. For some reason,
|
|
this song manages to be somewhat depressing somehow (yeah, I know, but
|
|
trust me on this one). Must be the soundz.
|
|
|
|
"Some time you do your sh*t
|
|
and ain't no second tries
|
|
Look around,
|
|
there's hella motherf*ckers I recognize"
|
|
|
|
A bit less depressing is "Repo Man." I smell a popular track here.
|
|
|
|
"Oh, I be scrappin'
|
|
scratchin' for bones
|
|
I got the cellular phone
|
|
I just picked up on loan
|
|
Keepin' up with them Jones'
|
|
put my ass in debt"
|
|
|
|
Besides, how can you not like the chorus? I mean, really.
|
|
|
|
"I gives a f*ck how much bench press
|
|
If you ain't pushin' up that 25% interest"
|
|
|
|
Really.
|
|
|
|
"He gives a f*ck if youse a momma
|
|
with three toddlers and an infant
|
|
He'll take the TV and the carpet
|
|
and the living room that's stain-resistant"
|
|
|
|
And except for the forty-second "Outro," all we have left is
|
|
"Interrogation" with Osagyefo and Point Blank Range. This is not at
|
|
all a bad way to go out.
|
|
|
|
"I ain't seen sh*t
|
|
I ain't heard nathan
|
|
I don't know what happened
|
|
I don't speak pig latin
|
|
I'm a motherf*ckin' true
|
|
and it's us against you
|
|
So f*ck Starsky, Hutch
|
|
and Inspector Cleauseau"
|
|
|
|
"You want peace motherf*cker?
|
|
Raise up out the hood"
|
|
|
|
Not bad at all.
|
|
|
|
|
|
So... where were we?
|
|
|
|
Oh, yes, the bottom line.
|
|
|
|
The bottom line? Easy. Run, don't walk. Run, don't jog. Run, don't
|
|
pimp-step. Run to your local Hip Hop distributor and pick this up.
|
|
|
|
Basically, this is why I started writing reviews in the first place: I
|
|
wanted to be able to share dope finds like The Coup with the rest of
|
|
the Hip Hop Nation. And whoot... here it is.
|
|
|
|
So.
|
|
|
|
Let us recap.
|
|
|
|
The Coup is: stoopid mad phat.
|
|
|
|
The Coup is: a group that has completely mastered the mystery of the
|
|
True Lyric(tm) and tamed the Wild Beat(tm).
|
|
|
|
The Coup is: all that and a little bit more.
|
|
|
|
The Coup is: the group who just released the next album you should
|
|
buy... and if you slept like Snow White on apples and didn't buy _Kill
|
|
My Landlord_ last year, buy it too.
|
|
|
|
*That's* the bottom line. Your duckets will not be wasted.
|
|
|
|
But that's just one Black man's opinion--what's yours?
|
|
|
|
(C) Copyright 1994, Charles L Isbell, Jr.
|
|
|
|
All my Hip Hop reviews are available on the World Wide Web. Use the
|
|
URL: http://www.ai.mit.edu/~isbell/isbell.html and follow the
|
|
pointers....
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Section 3 -- THREE
|
|
|
|
**************THE OFFICIAL HARDC.O.R.E. REVIEW SECTION***************
|
|
|
|
HardC.O.R.E. pH scale
|
|
|
|
6/pHat - EE-YOW! A hip-hop Classic!
|
|
5/pHunky - Definitely worth the price of admission.
|
|
4/pHine - Solid. Few weaknesses here.
|
|
3/pHair - Some potential, but not fully realized
|
|
2/pHlat - Falls well short of a quality product
|
|
1/pHukkit - Get that Vanilla Lice shit OUTTA HERE!
|
|
|
|
*********************************************************************
|
|
|
|
|
|
***A***
|
|
David A Goldberg
|
|
----------------
|
|
|
|
"The Bomb Hip Hop Compilation"
|
|
(1994 Bomb Entertainment / PGA Records)
|
|
|
|
A Brief Introduction to the Bay Area Underground...
|
|
San Francisco's KUSF Radio (90.3 FM) comes in between walls of
|
|
static and signal overlaps from neighboring radio stations. Your
|
|
Walkman reception depends on which way you happen to be looking,
|
|
whether you are moving and on how much local interference there is
|
|
around you. But it's always a treat to hear hip hop straining through
|
|
the spectrum, especially when the lyrics you hear aren't of the
|
|
playa/pimp variety pioneered by Too Short and carried on by the likes
|
|
of Coug Nut, Get Low Playaz, JT Tha Bigga Figga, E40 and their
|
|
immediate set of proteges, labelmates and rivals. Topping off my
|
|
Sunday afternoon hip hop joy, these lyrics weren't from Hiero-related
|
|
artists, the DU family, Paris' post-Dre creations or any of the half-
|
|
baked "MCs" still fleeing the wreckage of Hammer's BustIt Records.
|
|
Coming through the crackles and whines was distinctly Bay Area-
|
|
styled hip hop that represented artists featured on the Bomb Hip Hop
|
|
Compilation. The KUSF studio was full of interviews, freestyles,
|
|
faulty mics and sometimes barely-audible backing tracks that sounded
|
|
just lovely in the middle of the hiss -- *underground*, you know? It
|
|
reminded me of old WBLS and KISS FM tapes sent to me by friends in New
|
|
York back in the 80s. The Bay's underground hip hop shares with New
|
|
York a passion for the dusty breaks, jazz-infected or deep-crate loops
|
|
and battles for rhyme supremacy. At the same time, since BA MCs
|
|
aren't coming from the same environment and are outside the
|
|
gravitational field of New York's highly-competitive trend engine...
|
|
|
|
|
|
...my complaint is the Bay is hella fresh
|
|
and a mess a people be brainwashed by the publicity of New York City
|
|
we gotta make our own beginnin' - fuck winnin'
|
|
the hearts of those who got the jump-start on us
|
|
but I got trust in my Bay Area folks...
|
|
|
|
- Bored Stiff, "Therapy"
|
|
|
|
The same could be said of BA "playas" but their whole vibe is
|
|
grounded in 'hood-claiming hustling, a mellowed-out gangsta vibe that
|
|
owes more to the cultural similarities and differences between the Bay
|
|
Area and Los Angeles than it does to New York. The Bay Area's hip hop
|
|
underground, though connected to NYC in spirit and ingredients, is
|
|
different from its other aboriginal manifestations including the
|
|
colonial projects of Jive and Tommy Boy Records. The best and truest
|
|
of the Bay Area underground reflects a deep awareness of its situation
|
|
and makes no fantasies about it. This situation is often
|
|
fundlessness, leading to a lack of recording resources and
|
|
possibilities for gigs. I feel that a BA "playa" would go back to
|
|
hustling if rhyming ceased to pay off while an underground artist
|
|
would keep pushing, working two or three part-times and hacking the
|
|
four track late at night.
|
|
This leads to a key difference between the underground and the
|
|
rest. The brightest artists in the underground recognize that their
|
|
struggles to eat, make rent, deal with crooked record labels and
|
|
*still* make good product set them apart from their (sometimes) drug-
|
|
financed and major label-backed peers. As a result, their passion for
|
|
the rhyme and the rhythm comes through in refreshing ways, yielding
|
|
lyrics and grooves that can be far more complicated, subtle and
|
|
insightful than much of what the rest of the art has to offer... and
|
|
sometimes NOT...
|
|
|
|
- Jigmastas, "Execution"
|
|
|
|
"...blindfold me in the field, standin 50 feet back / bows and arrows
|
|
stick my marrows / plus the guns and the gats / and the bats and the
|
|
sticks cuz the rhyme is mad thick / if it really ain't all that then
|
|
why the fuck you on my dick, nigga?..."
|
|
|
|
This cut is by a New York expatriate and serves as a teaser
|
|
for what turned out to be a disappointing first side. It's battle
|
|
lyrics from the Treach school of structure over a solid kick-kick-
|
|
snare beat, nice organ loop and good DJ work, but covers familiar
|
|
ground and delivers no new levels of energy.
|
|
|
|
- Charizma and Peanut Butter Wolf, "Just Like a Test"
|
|
|
|
"...so wrap the rhymes up punk and cue the tape / if rappin' was pool
|
|
I'd hit the eight ball in off the break / yo, I collect dough for what I
|
|
kick though / I'm not in a fraternity so don't sleep at a show..."
|
|
|
|
A nice b-boom BAP loop with four-note vibes that gets tired
|
|
real quick over fragmented lyrics that compare skills to shoes, warns
|
|
gold-diggers away and make vague threats. I tend to fast-forward when
|
|
my batteries are fresh.
|
|
|
|
- Mental Prizm, "Strawberry Moon"
|
|
|
|
"...so with the beauty of my cultures within me / I have much respect
|
|
for the lady right beside me ... / ...through the thick and thin, to the
|
|
very end / disrespect my squaw and I'm scalpin' fools by hundreds..."
|
|
|
|
Progressive lyrics about respecting women on the streets and
|
|
in the bedroom but the beat is way too hard and loud to go with the
|
|
subject matter. If you're gonna seduce with rose petals and Coltrane
|
|
then leave the 80s battle break beats in the crate.
|
|
|
|
- Eyedl Mode, "End of the Innocence"
|
|
|
|
"...diluted concentration egotistical persuasion / grips the unseen
|
|
thoughts and I'm mistaken is it / what is this in the air? / solidified
|
|
consciousness always present but unaware..."
|
|
|
|
The off-beat stagger of the rhythms, pauses of silence, mix
|
|
shifts and left/right channel overdubs are interesting, but dude's
|
|
muttered baritone lyrics don't fall into the mix quite right. He
|
|
obviously has a lot of ideas and with his fragmented poetry comes off
|
|
better than PM Dawn but not as tight as Q-Tip or Plugs 1 & 2 when it
|
|
comes to being abstract.
|
|
|
|
- Dereliks, "No G'Nus"
|
|
|
|
"...a game of dominos? / Keep your drama hoes / you know the nose knows
|
|
/ it only takes two scoops but that's the grape nuts you chose / so
|
|
don't criticize my friends or my built or what's in my silk boxies / cuz
|
|
I'm drinkin' milk now..."
|
|
|
|
A light-hearted song with good energy. Unfortunately I can't
|
|
imagine hearing this outside the context of a compilation.
|
|
|
|
- The Nugs, "Pump"
|
|
|
|
"Now pump your fist or you might get dissed / don't get me mad or get me
|
|
pissed..."
|
|
|
|
I try to avoid outright disses but this is wack with
|
|
simplistic rhymes that will annoy you. On the upside, the production
|
|
is nicely textured with screams, noises and drones. A radio DJ could
|
|
use the second half for live freestyles, shout-outs and roll calls but
|
|
the Nugs fill it up with shout-outs to every city they can think of.
|
|
|
|
- Black Alicious, "Lyric Fathom"
|
|
|
|
"...come get a little array of the skill supreme / wanna defeat me, my
|
|
nigga you should kill the dream / the noise the boys the gals everybody
|
|
/ when I drop fat styles it ain't your simple blase bla ladi da / di
|
|
average Joe Simpleton with a average flow / hafta go / afta yo / jugular
|
|
/ then shit get uglier..."
|
|
|
|
Side two makes this compilation worth the price of admission.
|
|
Kicking it off is a crew up from LA with *mad skills*. Skef is the
|
|
kind of kid who could read this sentence and put rhymes where there
|
|
were none. Once you deconstruct this track it becomes the greatest
|
|
run-on sentence in history. No more jocking, this is PHAT.
|
|
|
|
- Homeliss Derelix, "Fuck You"
|
|
|
|
"...fuck black-ass students who could get better grades an' / fuck the
|
|
stupid ass who made the California raisins / seems like they're black
|
|
and as a matter of fact, fuck anybody else who made some shit like
|
|
that..."
|
|
|
|
This track was written, according to the rhymer, for those
|
|
moods where you want to tell everything to fuck off. Dope jazz swing
|
|
and a simple style that fits the fuck this-fuck that list he runs
|
|
down. The treats come when you listen to how he structures what
|
|
should be fucked.
|
|
|
|
- Mystick Journeymen, "Swing"
|
|
|
|
"...I'm squashin' your mental games / as I slay your wicked tongue as
|
|
you hemorrhage in the flames / you're Tampax on wax and your period's
|
|
almost over / so I know you wanna trudge through the weeds with this
|
|
greed, yo..."
|
|
|
|
A deep hypnotic track from this deeply-local duo. My opinon's
|
|
biased cuz I've seen them live, accapella and with music backing them,
|
|
rhyming for battles or first-person critiques of child abuse. Their
|
|
rhymes run over drums, horns and flute like water over rocks.
|
|
|
|
- Madchild featuring DJ Q-Bert, "Pregnant"
|
|
|
|
"...well here's a little story I got to tell / about two bad b-boys with
|
|
big hopes and dreams / we drive across the country just to step on the
|
|
scene / I signed the dotted line but I guess I'm a dunce / cuz I been
|
|
livin' in my car for about six months..."
|
|
|
|
This is good work with Q-Bert breakin' down "gimme a chance,
|
|
man I know I could rock it..." The bassline throbs under nice whining
|
|
horns and sweet pianos. Lyrics are solid but a bit overshadowed by
|
|
the heavyness of the beat, breaking down the realities of getting a
|
|
deal and living dedicated to hip hop with precision not heard since
|
|
Tribe's "The Business."
|
|
|
|
- Bored Stiff, "Therapy"
|
|
|
|
"You ain't a MC if you ain't sayin' anything of any significance to
|
|
anyone / everyone / needs to rethink what they think's the beat / maybe
|
|
if you listen to the lyrics you would think it's weak / it's easy being
|
|
hard / what's even harder is being yourself / no one else could be more
|
|
original..."
|
|
|
|
Six skilled MCs who's lyrics range from deep introspection to
|
|
razor-sharp criticism. Production is excellent, samples unique, DJ work
|
|
like the perfect amount of spice in a good meal. They get fat rewinds
|
|
and I'm fiending for their basement and demo tapes. Easily the high
|
|
point of the compilation.
|
|
|
|
- Total Devastation, "Part Time Assassin"
|
|
|
|
"...so pop the clip and put the silencer on the gun / we're on the very
|
|
next plane to Washington / get off the plane and the feds are jockin' me,
|
|
yo / I'm on a mission, there's nothin' stoppin' me so..."
|
|
|
|
This is gangsta bravado and studio fearlessness taking out
|
|
various drug kingpins. Over a huge beat, they detail a hit on a
|
|
street dealer and a shootout with the CIA but fail to tell us how he
|
|
got through white house security to cap the president. Nice audio
|
|
collage of gun/death hip hop references in the breaks.
|
|
|
|
- The Product Pushers, "The Rap Race"
|
|
|
|
An instrumental with sample collages critiquing the state of
|
|
the art, slamming twisted promoters and fucked up record charts. A
|
|
nice little beat that fills out the tape nicely.
|
|
|
|
*CONCLUSION AND HIP HOP CRITIC'S BEATDOWN AVOIDANCE STATEMENT*
|
|
|
|
The thing about a compilation of unsigned artists is that it
|
|
is not a full representation of what they might be capable of if given
|
|
the studio time, performance opportunities and critique. My opinions
|
|
of the work on the Bomb Hip Hop Compilation are restricted to these
|
|
tracks only and in most cases should not be taken as eternal damnation
|
|
or praise cuz what goes up can come down and a full belly can make
|
|
one's skills fall off real fast.
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 4/pHine
|
|
|
|
|
|
***B***
|
|
Kevin Murphy
|
|
------------
|
|
|
|
BOOGIE MONSTERS, "Riders Of The Storm: The Underwater Album"
|
|
(Pendulum/EMI)
|
|
|
|
In a world of gangstas, pimps, hoes, and hardrocks, it is
|
|
always refreshing to hear a group not trying to do anything but have
|
|
fun and put out good hip-hop. Up step the Boogie Monsters to the mic.
|
|
The only thing I don't like about this album is that the one
|
|
kids voice is processed/altered in some way, and I have never liked
|
|
this. Didn't like it when Pete Nice did it, and I didn't like it when
|
|
Tupac did it(but then again, I don't like Tupac, but that's another
|
|
story). With that out of the way, let's go on to the good things
|
|
about the album.
|
|
First off, the production by D! is solid throughout the entire
|
|
album (the artists only produce "Mark Of The Beast"). Lyrically,
|
|
these kids have more fun on the mic than most rappers out right now,
|
|
something missing from hip-hop. Their flow is tight and always on
|
|
beat. One other very commendable point to be made is that there is no
|
|
cursing on this album (well, maybe one "shit", but I can't remember
|
|
where, which means its close enough). It is the kind of album you
|
|
could rock with your moms in the car (unless your moms is like mine
|
|
and just refuses to listen to any of that "rap nonsense"). The pace
|
|
is mostly laid back, but not too laid back. Their subject matter
|
|
ranges from chilling with the honies, to rocking parties, to hanging
|
|
out on the block, to how the Devil is trying to take over the world
|
|
(there is a heavy religious influence throughout this album, done very
|
|
cleverly).
|
|
If you're looking for 40s, blunts, glocks, and hoes, this is
|
|
NOT the album for you. If you're looking for good hip-hop, this album
|
|
*is* for you. Stand out cuts on the album include "Jugganauts",
|
|
"Boogie", "Muzic Appreciation", "Honeydips in Gotham", "Strange",
|
|
"Bronx Bombas", well, you get the idea. Every hip-hop fan out there
|
|
needs to thank the Boogie Monsters for putting some of the fun back
|
|
into hip-hop.
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 4/pHine
|
|
|
|
|
|
***C***
|
|
Oliver Wang
|
|
-----------
|
|
|
|
COMMON SENSE, "Resurrection"
|
|
(Relativity)
|
|
|
|
What do Masta Ace, Gangstarr and Common Sense have in common?
|
|
Mediocre debut albums, slamming sophomore albums.
|
|
Don't get me wrong, I liked "Can I Borrow a Dollar?" Though
|
|
the rhyming was a bit annoying at times, the production was okay and
|
|
somewhat "ahead of its time" given that both Nikki Nicole (for Sweet
|
|
Sable) and Jermaine Dupri (for Da Brat) jacked beats used on that
|
|
album. And probably some other producers that I've since forgotten.
|
|
The big change in Common Sense came with the single "Soul By the
|
|
Pound" where Common dazzled critics with his lyrics on the remix. The
|
|
slept on B-side "Can I Bust?" was so fat that I still get requests for
|
|
that song today.
|
|
With Resurrection, producers No ID and Y-Not dunk the funk and
|
|
get razzed with the jazz. From the piano loop on the first song,
|
|
"Resurrection" to the live piano on the last track "Pop's Song", this
|
|
is some fat ass jazzy sh*t. I'd put it somewhere between Premier and
|
|
Digable Planets in terms of how the samples are used. But song for
|
|
song, this has some of the best produced music of the year -- probably
|
|
back to 1993.
|
|
I'd say this reminds a lot of what Dred Scott's "Breakin'
|
|
Combs" could have been like if he had a slammin' album instead of the
|
|
ok, but disjointed LP he put out.
|
|
The one element that comes through this album is the drum
|
|
loops. This may not seem like much, but there are some crisp, hard
|
|
and clean drum hitting on this album which goes a long way to making
|
|
literal "beats" that drive the song. The one thing I find missing
|
|
from the West coast/Dre sound are fat drum loops. But the same way
|
|
ATCQ used bass on the "Low End Theory", Y-Not and No ID incorporate
|
|
percussion. Call it the "High Hat, Snare Theory".
|
|
Lyrically, Common Sense has improved his skills quite a bit.
|
|
People have already noted the great metaphor that Common uses on "I
|
|
Used to Love H.E.R." but that's not the extent of his abilities. The
|
|
only complaint? Brother comes off beat too much without coming back
|
|
on. Take a lesson from Masta Ace or Saafir.
|
|
Outstanding Tracks:
|
|
"I Used to Love H.E.R." The first single is a fine choice.
|
|
The beat is jazzy smooth, but the real sh*t here is the lyrics. HER
|
|
refers to Hip Hop and Common is able to take this metaphor from old
|
|
school through the gangsta era in terms of how hip hop has grown and
|
|
both progressed and de-gressed. Great song.
|
|
"Book of Life." The intro seems mellow enough until the real
|
|
beat kicks in. Deep bass laced by drums heavily thrashed along by a
|
|
ride cymbal. Definitely a head bopper. Not sure what the lyrics are
|
|
about, though I suspect it's about hip hop and it's saving graces.
|
|
"In My Own World." The album features the dynamic duo of
|
|
producers No ID and Y Not with guest appearances, and No ID gets his
|
|
on this cut. The cut has a playful touch to it, mainly flavored by a
|
|
xylophone loop with a sample from Large Professor goin' "Yeah, yeah
|
|
now check the method." Phat. Plus No ID is cool. Peep this:
|
|
|
|
No time to get all excited
|
|
just write it from the inside,
|
|
let the pen slide,
|
|
and spread
|
|
the ink on the papyrus,
|
|
come, understand this..."
|
|
|
|
Boy's got a laid back voice, but a good flow...we need to hear
|
|
more from him.
|
|
"Chapter 13." As for Y-Not, he gets his on here. The track
|
|
should be familiar to Akineyle fans -- it's from one of those 10
|
|
second teasers that producers annoyingly throw onto albums. Well, in
|
|
the tradition of "93 Interlude" and "Runaway Slave" comes Chapter 13
|
|
referring to bankruptcy and avoiding it. The track is lighthearted,
|
|
mainly relying on vibes and some nice horns. Y-Not is the sh*t
|
|
too...VERY GOOD skills. For those who remember the B-side to "Soul by
|
|
the Pound" will remember Y-Not on "Can I Bust?"
|
|
|
|
So what's your name?
|
|
Y Not, I own a mansion and a yacht...
|
|
|
|
"Maintain." My favorite on an album with 'nuff fatness. This
|
|
is clearly a made-for-party jam, as the chorus reveals. But the drum
|
|
beat, while nothing you haven't heard before, works well with a dope
|
|
piano loop. You gotta hear it to know what I'm saying. Common Sense
|
|
keeps the party live...yup. My only question is what is this with the
|
|
Chinese being like a peon?
|
|
This is one of the best albums of the year thus far, and I
|
|
seriously doubt it'll be dropped from my list of top 5 albums unless
|
|
someone knows something about the rest of 94 that I don't. Phat
|
|
lyrics, phat music. Tight product all around. Pick it up, pick it
|
|
up, pick it up...
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 6/pHat
|
|
|
|
|
|
***D***
|
|
Kevin Murphy
|
|
------------
|
|
|
|
CRAIG MACK, "Project: Funk Da World"
|
|
(Bad Boy/Arista)
|
|
|
|
Before I even go into the review, I want to send a big FUCK
|
|
YOU to Bad Boy Entertainment for leaving 2 joints off of the Craig
|
|
Mack vinyl, and *8* off of the B.I.G. vinyl! That's really fucked up!
|
|
How can you not put the title track on the wax, at the least?!?! Now
|
|
that I have that off my chest, we can move on to the review.
|
|
After all the noise generated by "Flava In Ya Ear", this had
|
|
to be one of the most highly anticipated albums of the year (I even
|
|
had a kid who didn't know me from Adam come up to me in a parking lot
|
|
when I was playing a tape with "Flava..." on it last summer, and ask
|
|
me if that was the whole album!). I have to admit, when I first
|
|
listened to this album I was disappointed. I thought "Flava..." was
|
|
dope, and then I heard Pete Rock cut the hell out of "Get Down" on
|
|
Pirate Radio, but after hearing those joints and getting home and
|
|
cracking open the album, I was left thinking of what else I could use
|
|
that tape I put the album onto for; another example of hasty judgment.
|
|
After listening to the album a little more, I figure it's
|
|
a'ight. Although it sounds like he was scared of using different
|
|
samples, would someone tell me where this dungeon is that they put
|
|
Easy Mo Bee in, and didn't let him come out until he had beats? On
|
|
this album, but especially on B.I.G's album, Mo Bee pulled some shit
|
|
out his ass!
|
|
Lyrically, this is an interesting album. Craig Mack seems to
|
|
have took out trademarks on some terms. He uses a few different flows
|
|
on the album, and shows a lot of creativity. One thing I noticed
|
|
though is that the album is somewhat contradicting at times, but these
|
|
contradictions are VERY difficult to pick up if you don't pay very
|
|
close attention. The one thing I liked most about this album, and
|
|
Craig Mack in general, is the way that he talks on top of himself.
|
|
This was done throughout the album, and came off well.
|
|
All in all, a solid debut. Stand out cuts include "Get Down",
|
|
"Judgment Day", "Real Raw", "When God Comes", and "Making Moves With
|
|
Puff". With Third Eye waiting in the wings, will Bad Boy become the
|
|
Def Jam of the '90s? (Does anyone besides me remember when Def Jam
|
|
had VERY few artists, but ALL were DOPE?)
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 4/pHine
|
|
|
|
|
|
***E***
|
|
David J.
|
|
--------
|
|
|
|
DIGABLE PLANETS, "Blowout Comb"
|
|
(Pendulum/EMI)
|
|
|
|
What a difference a label makes.
|
|
Pendulum Records was originally distributed by Elektra, that
|
|
label infamous for taking the profits from its hip hop albums and
|
|
funneling it into other projects, delaying album releases until the end
|
|
of time, then dropping its artists unless they do their music to
|
|
specific guidelines. Their inability to handle any urban music format
|
|
is obvious -- they dropped KMD and Grand Puba, they did the world's
|
|
worst promotion job with Del The Funky Homosapien's phat 2nd LP, and
|
|
they didn't sign SWV when they had the chance. The way they've treated
|
|
hip hop, you'd think that they wouldn't bat an eyelash at losing
|
|
Pendulum Records to EMI.
|
|
They ought to. Not only did they miss out on the BoogieMonsters
|
|
and the new Lords of the Underground, they lost their number one rap
|
|
group, the grammy-winning Digable Planets.
|
|
Now, I know you're thinking, "Who gives a fuck about a goddam
|
|
grammy?" But not only was "Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and
|
|
Space)" a successful album, it was a *great* hip hop album. There were
|
|
so many layers to it that you had to play it over and over again just to
|
|
catch everything, and with those jazzy rhythms and smooth beats, it was
|
|
worth every listen.
|
|
Which brings us to 1994 and "Blowout Comb," an album that takes
|
|
the DPs in a slightly different direction. Oh, the jazziness is still
|
|
there, but this time, there's no feeling of crossover like there was
|
|
with "Rebirth of Slick." This is just pure, smoothed-out hip hop,
|
|
served up Brooklyn-style.
|
|
There's also a sort of 70s retro feel to this album, in part
|
|
because of the album art, in which Butter, Doodle and Mecca sport
|
|
these huge afros (don't worry, they didn't really grow 'em) and the
|
|
text speaks of revolution reminiscient of old Black Power literature
|
|
(topped off by the mention of imprisoned Panther Geronimo Pratt).
|
|
The music just takes that retro idea to the next level, with lots of
|
|
live percussion, phat horn/flute segues, and samples from *deep* in
|
|
the crates from everyone from Bobbi Humphrey ("Blowing Down," "The Art
|
|
of Easing") to Roy Ayers ("Borough Check") to Tavares ("Dial 7 (Axioms
|
|
of Creamy Spies)").
|
|
Beyond that, though, it's just plain phat. The DPs lyrical
|
|
flow is just too smooth, and mixed in with these tracks, it's all
|
|
good. Plus, there's a deeper message this time around -- very strong,
|
|
very pro-black, a little more political than you might expect. When
|
|
Sara Webb starts singing on the "Dial 7" track, you almost expect to
|
|
see the Planets walk in with a gangster lean dressed like the Drop
|
|
Squad, larger than life, the funkiest clan on the block.
|
|
It helps to have some appreciation for early Blacksploitation
|
|
flicks to get into some of the music, as it won't be what you might
|
|
expect from Digable Planets. But it doesn't jump out and grab you
|
|
like Shaft might. It leans into the groove smoothly, "16 times for
|
|
your mind with pleasure," as Mecca puts it in "The May 4th Movement
|
|
Starring Doodlebug." Guest appearances by Guru and Jeru The Damaja
|
|
add to the pleasure. This is a stone groove, baby.
|
|
What a shame that Elektra didn't think so. They would have
|
|
had this album out on their label in June, but they probably wanted
|
|
more of that crossover stuff. Losers...
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 6/pHat
|
|
|
|
|
|
***F***
|
|
Kevin Murphy
|
|
------------
|
|
|
|
FINSTA & BUNDY, "Sunnyside" b/w "Spirit Of The Boogie"
|
|
(Big Willie Records)
|
|
|
|
First there was Black Moon. Then there was Smif-N-Wessun
|
|
(although we have yet to see an album from them), or should I say
|
|
Steele & Tec. Now, we have Finsta & Bundy representing Bushwick.
|
|
The first thing one will notice about this duo is that they
|
|
are the first group out of this bunch NOT to be produced by Da
|
|
Beatminerz. The production from Finsta may sort of remind you of
|
|
Beatminerz production, but is different enough that it doesn't have a
|
|
wannabe sound to it (by the way, the production is on point).
|
|
Lyrically, Finsta & Bundy flow sort of like a 1994 Buckshot/Smif, but
|
|
are distinctive enough to get props on their own. The lyrics
|
|
themselves aren't great, but they are far from wack.
|
|
Bottom line is that if Finsta & Bundy continue to represent
|
|
the way they did on this single, they should definitely make some
|
|
noise in '95. Gotta send a G-Look out to the DJ at Disc-O-Mat on W.
|
|
4th for putting me on to this 12". And a note to Big Willie Records:
|
|
on the next 12", can we make sure the wax is labeled correctly?
|
|
Regardless, this single is dope. Go scoop it up.
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 5/pHunky
|
|
|
|
|
|
***G***
|
|
Oliver Wang
|
|
-----------
|
|
|
|
K.M.D., "Black Bastards"
|
|
|
|
(Editor's Note: This album was scheduled to be released by Elektra in
|
|
early '94. It is now only available directly from Zev Love X or
|
|
through bootleg outlets. We do hope that this album will be released
|
|
legitimately soon, if only to preserve the legacy of a group that
|
|
should have blown up. Thanks again, Elektra...)
|
|
|
|
First of all, yes I have the album on vinyl, but NO, don't ask
|
|
me to get acopy. I'm not sure about the details behind the release of
|
|
this bootleg album, but under the circumstances, I don't care. Now if
|
|
I can only get my hands on the pre-breakup Main Source's second album
|
|
on Wild Pitch.
|
|
Some quick things off the bat. The sound quality isn't the
|
|
greatest though it's not total sh*t. Also, the album is missing some
|
|
cuts. According to Matt Africa, who had a dub of the promo tape of
|
|
the album, there's at least two missing songs. Why they didn't get on
|
|
the bootleg? Don't know. But maybe if the album is ever released
|
|
commercially they'll put 'em back on.
|
|
For those who remember Mr. Hood, they'll remember a very
|
|
playful and well thought out project. Personally, I didn't like it
|
|
that much beat-wise so I never bothered keeping the album. With the
|
|
second album, they've definitely evolved in their sound. "What a
|
|
Nigga Know" was not a good representation of the album. The remix,
|
|
however, was more indicative because the album is more bassline-
|
|
oriented.
|
|
My Basic Opinion: phat album. Every beat is tight, the
|
|
rhyming is good, and the general package is tight. Rest in Peace to
|
|
Sub Roc.
|
|
For those who care to read on...
|
|
"Black Bastards and Bitches." The first track starts out with
|
|
an "I ain't black, I ain't white" chorus with the background being a
|
|
jazzy, slurry bassline. After about eight bars, the beat drops in and
|
|
so does Zev Love X. After eight bars of rhyme, a playful horn loop
|
|
drops in and changes up every eight bars after. I've liked Zev Love
|
|
X's voice since 3rd Bass' "Gasface." The only glitch is once his
|
|
rhyme ends, because the track disintegrates in a beat-less chaos which
|
|
kills the flow. Sub Roc follows. I admit, it's hard to listen
|
|
without remembering that he's dead...
|
|
"It Sounded Like A Rock." Both my favorite and least favorite
|
|
track on the album for this reason: It takes its fat bassline from
|
|
Pharoh Sanders' "Thembi." I heard this track a year ago and I knew
|
|
from the first bar that this would be the first record I ever sampled
|
|
as a producer...and KMD beats me to it! Injustice! Seriously though,
|
|
the bassline is ALL that and KMD skillfully include other aspects of
|
|
Sanders' song. As the title indicates, Sub Roc rocks this track.
|
|
"Plummskinz." I haven't been able to find this "Nitty Gritty"
|
|
B-side yet so it was nice to find it on the album, though I think it's
|
|
shorter than the 12" copy. A classic beat...
|
|
"Fuck With the Head." The bassline is ill as usual, strumming
|
|
back and forth while various horns and some subtle scratching flavor
|
|
the rest of the track. The first rapper is from Hard 2 Obtain.
|
|
There's also a guest rhyme by DL (from H20?) It's a fairly simple
|
|
track, reminds me of the Beatnuts' "Are You Ready?" -- just better.
|
|
"Suspended Animation." Bass-heavy once again with a murky
|
|
bassline that soon gets complimented by a simple but crisp drum loop.
|
|
It's a short track, only one verse by each rapper and a very long
|
|
outro.
|
|
"Get You Now." A rather live sounding bass line rolls deep
|
|
and thrashing drums drop in on cue. This is the "hardest" track on
|
|
the album as Zev Love X step up their rhyme out of laid-back mode and
|
|
roll with some rabid energy.
|
|
"What a Nigga Know?" If you haven't heard this cut yet, don't
|
|
bother reading this review.
|
|
"Contact Blintz." The jazziest track on an already jazzed-up
|
|
album, this track incorporates vibes and a piano loop plus random
|
|
horns. The bassline is noticeably subtler, especially compared to
|
|
other tracks on the album.
|
|
In terms of mood, this album shares space with Organized
|
|
Konfusion's "Stress" LP, but it does a better job music-wise, going
|
|
with simple, but effective bass lines and throwing in enough extra
|
|
flavor to make the tracks more than one dimensional. Rhyme-wise, both
|
|
Zev Love X and Sub Roc have tight flow and style, spitting rhymes rat-
|
|
a-tat-tat.
|
|
Better than "Mr. Hood"? Hard to say. "Black Bastards" is a
|
|
great album on its own merits, but in comparison? Depends on the
|
|
listener. As far as sophomore attempts ago, I still think Masta Ace,
|
|
Public Enemy, Common Sense (I ain't lying ya'll) and GangStarr have
|
|
the premium on them. But no doubt, this is a fine album and a rare
|
|
one at that.
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 5/pHunky
|
|
|
|
|
|
***H***
|
|
Martin Kelley
|
|
-------------
|
|
|
|
THE MEXAKINZ, "Zig Zag"
|
|
(Wild West/Mad Sounds)
|
|
|
|
Okay, so the title ain't that great. It is supposed to
|
|
describe their style -- you know back and forth a la Run-DMC or Das-
|
|
EFX. Not that they could be confused with either of these groups.
|
|
It seems the LBC is in tha house again. This time it's tha
|
|
Mexikinz trying to sport their skills. I guess they tried. "A Little
|
|
Somethin'" has a weak unoriginally styled chorus but there is some
|
|
nice Spanish language flow (which I was interested in from them in the
|
|
first place) "Welkum 2 Da Hood?" -- guess the lyrical content.
|
|
"Welcome to tha hood, do ya wanna be my neighbor?" (not unless they
|
|
got some fly hermanas) "Cok Bak Da Hamma!" has pretty good rhymin'
|
|
Especially in Spanish, same ol' chorus though, except for the
|
|
exclamation mark. In "Da Joint," the music is a familiar melody but
|
|
it's not sampled which is cool but this track lopes around with no
|
|
tightness whatsoever and needs trimming.
|
|
"Extaseason" is a sex song that must have prematurely
|
|
ejaculated before they went to the studio -- and they picked this as
|
|
their second single! No wonder nobody has ever heard of them. Before
|
|
you turn around, there's "Murdah." Now their Killers! Duck Down! Yeah,
|
|
right...
|
|
"Push up N Da wrong" is kinda cool safe sex message and a good
|
|
sample for the chorus, but it's lost on this album. I wish they had
|
|
taken more chances with their musical choices like on "Phonkie
|
|
Melodia," which initially grabbed my attention.
|
|
On the whole, I've got to dis this album. The only thing that
|
|
stood out on this record was the Spanish rhymes and the 1st single
|
|
"Phonkie Melodia".
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 2/pHlat
|
|
|
|
|
|
***I***
|
|
Steven J Juon
|
|
-------------
|
|
|
|
NOTORIOUS B.I.G. (aka Biggie Smallz), "Ready To Die"
|
|
(Bad Boy/Arista)
|
|
|
|
"You won't see me up in this motherfucker no more. I got big
|
|
plans nigga, big plans...."
|
|
And with that, we are introduced to the pHat new album by that
|
|
man they used to call Biggie Smallz on his own solo debut. As far as
|
|
most of his fans are concerned that still IS his name, but you know
|
|
how the legal bullshit goes.
|
|
This album easily qualifies as one of the few that manages to
|
|
live up to it's pre-release hype. If you didn't already know The
|
|
Notorious B.I.G. from such underground classics as "Party and
|
|
Bullshit" and Supercat's "Dolly My Baby" remix, you are in for a
|
|
TREAT.
|
|
First, B.I.G. has a voice that can only be described as a
|
|
thick chunky chocolate syrup that just FLOWS over every ice cream
|
|
track Easy Mo Bee could hook up (and his production is even MORE of a
|
|
surprise than anything else this album offers). Among others flexing
|
|
behind are Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and DJ Premier on "Unbelievable".
|
|
Ironically, Premier's track is one of the few disappointments. The
|
|
harmonic discord he mastered so well on "D. Original" doesn't work for
|
|
me here.
|
|
Everybody talks about the second coming of Rakim being Nas.
|
|
Well B.I.G. to me is the second coming of Kool G Rap, because his
|
|
lyrics and hardcore and sexual without sounding silly, played, or
|
|
tired. His voice conveys a powerful tale and his lyrics, while not
|
|
INCREDIBLE, smack you across the grill with their delivery.
|
|
OK so I'm raving about how great it is, but where's the
|
|
evidence? For starters, peep "Things Done Changed", which is a back-
|
|
in-the-day jam on a WHOLE OTHER LEVEL:
|
|
|
|
Loungin at the barbecues drinkin brews
|
|
with the neighborhood crews hangin on the avenues
|
|
now turn your pages, to nineteen ninety three
|
|
Niggaz is gettin smoked G, believe me
|
|
|
|
He doesn't talk so much about the days being phat as he does
|
|
how shit flipped and now is FUCKED up. "Motherfucker this ain't back
|
|
in the days, but you don't hear me though."
|
|
Step right to track 3 and get broken off with the quickness,
|
|
cause like Guru said on "Just to Get a Rep" -- "well he's stickin you,
|
|
but taking all of your money." "Gimme the loot," cause he's a Bad Boy
|
|
on the label of the same name:
|
|
|
|
Big up big up, it's a stick up stick up
|
|
and I'm shootin niggaz quick if you hiccup
|
|
Don't let me fill my clip up in your back and head piece,
|
|
the opposite of peace...
|
|
...and on and on, till the jewelry is gone, word is BOND.
|
|
|
|
I could talk about how dope "Machine Gun Funk" and "Ready to
|
|
Die" are, but I can't help myself. It's the M-E-T-H-O-D Man! Perhaps
|
|
the other most anticipated solo debut from the East this fall is
|
|
Meth's own, but he takes a minute out to drop a few rhymes on "The
|
|
What", which is no doubt my fave on the LP.
|
|
|
|
I'm not a gentle - man, I'm a Method, Man
|
|
baby accept it, utmost respect it
|
|
*assume the position* stop look and listen
|
|
I spit on your grave then I grab my Charles Dickens...
|
|
|
|
BIG, no slouch either, comes back with:
|
|
|
|
Welcome to my center. Honies feel it deep in their placenta
|
|
cold as the pole in the winter.
|
|
Far from the inventor, but I got this rap shit sewed...".
|
|
|
|
Indeed he does.
|
|
Y'all know the next track Juicy, so I don't really need to say
|
|
nothin. In fact, I hardly need to say anything else at all! Check
|
|
out the smooth mack groove of "Big Poppa", the ghetto love tale of "Me
|
|
and My Bitch", check "Unbelievable" if you sweat everything Premier
|
|
has ever done, hell just check out the whole damn thing! There really
|
|
isn't that much on here that's wack. True hip-hop fans of all ages
|
|
and coasts should love it.
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 6/pHat
|
|
|
|
|
|
***J***
|
|
Oliver Wang
|
|
-----------
|
|
O.C., "Word Life"
|
|
(Wild Pitch)
|
|
|
|
Cool Kim hooked me up with O.C.'s new joint the other day, and
|
|
after a couple of listens (and some serious disagreement with Matt
|
|
Africa), I've come to my conclusions about the album...
|
|
This album reminds me a lot of Akineyle's LP. Not that their
|
|
rhyme styles are even close, but I felt both albums had decent moments
|
|
but over-all, were lackluster. Some of ya'll are probably going to
|
|
disagree, but...
|
|
My read on what makes a good hip hop album is that it blends
|
|
good hip hop and rap. I'm using Nelson George's definitions of the
|
|
two where rap is the verbal ability of the MC whereas hip hop is the
|
|
overall flow. Hip Hop includes music, but isn't limited to it. So
|
|
good hip hop albums include a good blend of both rap and hip hop,
|
|
meaning that the rhyme is ON while the music and flow gets the
|
|
listener into it. It also means you can't really have one without the
|
|
other. A dope MC backed by wack production has good rap, just not
|
|
good hip hop. And smooth production that's laid over by weaker
|
|
rhyming also falls short.
|
|
In O.C.'s case, it's combo of both. O.C.'s rhyme style, while
|
|
far from wack, is not arresting. He's just...there. The production,
|
|
while jazzy and at times tight, doesn't have that "sonic impact" that
|
|
the Source was riffin' about. At it's best, most of it wasn't as good
|
|
as sh*t I've peeped on Common Sense's, the Beatnuts', or Extra
|
|
Prolific's albums.
|
|
That's not to say that the album is wack. The first three
|
|
songs are fat, especially "Word Life" who's track should be recognized
|
|
by "Project Blowed" fans. I'm all up in "O Zone" if for no other
|
|
reason than it's going to be my theme song for my radio show...plus,
|
|
it is a fat song.
|
|
But then "Born to Live" drops in the standard TROY/Back In the
|
|
Day cut that seems almost cliche on albums nowadays. No offense, but
|
|
both the original AND the remix didn't move me much. "Ga Head With
|
|
Self" had a butter cut but was on some bullsh*t homophobic/misogynic
|
|
tip. O.C. comes off more ignorant than fly even if he did come up
|
|
with some good metaphors. Maybe I'm missing out on something, but how
|
|
many skeezing/cheating hoes are out there? It'd fuckin' blow my mind
|
|
to hear a rhyme praising sisters more than just once in a blue moon.
|
|
"Story" easily made my Least Favorite list. The beat was
|
|
nowhere, and the "story" was weak. Plus, it reminded too much of
|
|
"School of Hard Knocks" style of story telling. The "Outro," though,
|
|
was butter as was "No Main Topic" where Organized's Prince Poe shares
|
|
the mic duties.
|
|
But overall, this album didn't have me hyped, especially
|
|
compared to recent albums I've heard. With a few exceptions, the
|
|
album didn't have moments of hip hop ecstasy where I got a hit off of
|
|
just listening to it. Maybe that's a lot to ask but when I hear the
|
|
vibes on the Beatnuts' "Get Funky" or check the bassline on Extra
|
|
Pro's "Go Back to School" on some other level. O.C. didn't take me
|
|
there.
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 4/pHine
|
|
|
|
|
|
***K***
|
|
Ryan A MacMichael
|
|
-----------------
|
|
|
|
"Off the Dome! Freestyle Compilation"
|
|
(Independent compilation)
|
|
|
|
Fools don't know about the giddy-gat...uh... gladiator,
|
|
Don't know about no... uh... I was gonna' say radiator...
|
|
- Saafir
|
|
|
|
Fingernail clippers...
|
|
Every time that I rock I tell ya I do not slippa',
|
|
Clip your nails every time that I do work,
|
|
I prefer my nails clipped so they don't hold dirt.
|
|
- Supernatural
|
|
|
|
True freestyles right there, kid. Saafir the Saucee Nomad has
|
|
the nastiest flow in North America. His staccato on-off beat style
|
|
comes through in not only his album material (like his current single,
|
|
the incredible "Light Sleeper") but in his freestyles, where he'll
|
|
make an "uh..." a natural bridge as he thinks of what comes next.
|
|
And Supernatural. He's from Venus, straight up. This boy
|
|
flips lyrics off the cuff like it was nothing. EastWest will be
|
|
releasing his premiere album, a one-take straight up freestyled album.
|
|
Should be some fierce shit. Skills are definitely flexed on the air
|
|
on the Sway & Tech show on this tape -- they throw topics at him about
|
|
everything from the "Morning Show" to pimps & hookers. And he comes
|
|
fluidly rough.
|
|
This compilation has about 80 minutes worth of freestyles and
|
|
on air rhymes. Not everyone comes off the dome (Wu-Tang, Shyheim, and
|
|
Vicious don't, and neither does Kool Keith), but those that do rip shit
|
|
fierce and make this tape one of the best collections available for the
|
|
true hip-hop fans. Representing on this tape from beginning to end are
|
|
Extra P, O.C., Casual, Alkaholiks, Artifacts, Saafir, Kurious Jorge,
|
|
Masta Ase, Lord Digga, Raekwon, Method Man, Inspector Deck, Ras Kass,
|
|
Vooduu!, Kool Keith, Bobbito, Godfather Don, Ganjah K, Supernatural,
|
|
Guru, Jeru (not really, though), Grand Ghetto Communicator, Vicious,
|
|
Shyheim, Rza, Gza, Nef-Hu, Akineyle, Showtime, G-Money (damn, someone
|
|
actually HAS that name?!), Del, Evol, and Organized Konfusion. Repeat
|
|
performances on the tape come from Saafir and Supernatural.
|
|
Even though the full 90 minutes isn't filled with freestyles,
|
|
dmad fills it with other cuts. Mine had "Round 2" by the Heavyweights
|
|
(you know, Freestyle Fellowship, Volume 10, and crew), "Remain
|
|
Anonymous" by Ras Kass (kid is all that), and "Listen Up" by Erule.
|
|
Whether he changes for each tape he sends, I'm not sure, though.
|
|
So, basically, no one should sleep on this shit, 'cause it
|
|
highlights the best kids out there at the art of freestyling. It's
|
|
something that all too many kids can't do, but the crews on this tape
|
|
make it clear that it ain't dead.
|
|
To order, send a check or money order for $10 and 2 stamps for
|
|
postage to:
|
|
|
|
David Maduli
|
|
2650 Durant St #D410
|
|
Berkeley, CA 94720
|
|
|
|
Nuff respect is given to the King Tech Wake-Up Show (106.1 San
|
|
Fran), the Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show (89TEC9 NYC), DJ Kiilu
|
|
of the Heavyweights (fat mix tapes) and some show in LA (don't know
|
|
the name--sorry).
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 5/pHunky
|
|
|
|
|
|
***L***
|
|
Russell A. Potter
|
|
-----------------
|
|
|
|
PARIS, "Guerilla Funk"
|
|
(Scarface Records)
|
|
|
|
I've always had much respect for Paris, both for his messages
|
|
and his music, since his first single on Tommy Boy back in '89.
|
|
Paris's raps were, after Public Enemy, the strongest pro-Black
|
|
Nationalist voice in hip-hop, and matched their content with a tense
|
|
lyrical flow unlike any other rapper.
|
|
After his break with Warner/Tommy Boy in 1992 over their
|
|
attempt to censor his cover art (depicting Paris crouching in the
|
|
bushes, ready to take out then-President Bush) and his "Bush Killa"
|
|
anthem, he broke new ground by successfully going independent, then
|
|
picking up distribution for his new label via Priority (a path
|
|
followed not long afterward by Ice T). Paris released his banned
|
|
album, _Sleeping With the Enemy_, and built up Scarface as a force in
|
|
hip-hop, with his own posse of artists including the Conscious
|
|
Daughters, C-Funk, 4Deep, and The Old School.
|
|
Always a strong force in the production of his own beats, with
|
|
trademark guitar loops and panther growls, Paris worked the boards for
|
|
several of his Scarface artists. Those who caught the Daughters'
|
|
debut album, "Ear to the Street," were treated to a different sound,
|
|
West Coast funk with a new, harder edge. Finally, in '94, Paris
|
|
brings his new "Guerrilla Funk" to his own raps, and the result is an
|
|
album that combines street beats and Panther politics in a way no
|
|
other artist can. Paris kicks knowledge right from the first track,
|
|
"It's Real":
|
|
|
|
On the scene, back again, with the muthafuckin' grip
|
|
'93 was the year P-Dog came rippin' shit
|
|
Bouncin' out the belly of the Beast
|
|
And still tha same nigga that was hollerin' fuck tha P
|
|
But check it out, it's the same ol' thang
|
|
'Cos the year is '94 and ain't a damn thang changed
|
|
Niggas still droppin' dead like flies
|
|
And I'm still lookin' for a way to make us rise
|
|
I emphasize that I still hate a devil
|
|
And I'mma muthafuck that, I'll take ya ass to tha next level
|
|
Straight guerrilla in the mist up to tha end
|
|
And I'm gonna put it in tha mix again ....
|
|
|
|
Paris's militant message is as potent as ever, and comes off
|
|
strong over his new funkdafied sound -- P-Dog meets P-Funk, you might
|
|
say. From this track, he slides right into "One Time Fo' Ya Mind,"
|
|
maybe the strongest cut on the album. Over a slow, haunting groove
|
|
(with an eerie Toni Childs vocal loop on the chorus), Paris sets the
|
|
record straight:
|
|
|
|
Ever since I broke the grip of shame back in '89
|
|
I see tricks trippin' all the time, like a did a crime
|
|
Got me on the news, cos they wanna hide the truth
|
|
But notice I'm a soldier, and I'm comin' at the youth
|
|
Black guerrilla standing for my folk, and I'm proud
|
|
This one goin' out to the brothers locked down,
|
|
Now as long as we keep playing by your rules
|
|
I'm leavin' shit stains on ya flag 'till I'm through
|
|
Time after time, I bring the motherfuckin facts
|
|
I'm comin' pro-black, understand where I'm at.
|
|
|
|
After this track, things pick up right again with the lead
|
|
single, "Guerrilla Funk." It's amazing how many times the "Knee Deep"
|
|
beat can be used without getting tired -- from "Kiss You Back" to "Dre
|
|
Day" -- and Paris fattens it up by supplying new guitar fills and
|
|
customized vocals. The end effect is like putting new rims on an old
|
|
ride, making a track so funky and so righteous that it ought to send a
|
|
message to all would-be OG's of the week -- come correct or don't
|
|
bother:
|
|
|
|
Beatin' down your block is the brutha with the bomb shit
|
|
Comin' with tha sound, makin' underground bomb hits
|
|
New in '94, it's time for some action, I'm axin'
|
|
Which one a y'all is down for the count? -- Now
|
|
Still in a war zone, in '94 it's on,
|
|
but I'm full grown fuckin' with the microphone,
|
|
P-Dog creepin' in tha drop with a thirty-ot
|
|
Still fuckin' with tha man, and it's kinda odd
|
|
That a nigga roll down, and let the trigga go
|
|
Still gotta pray for an L.A. replay
|
|
Black folks still brain-dead to tha truth
|
|
But I still got love, so I'm comin' through
|
|
With a trunk full o' funk that'll make ya
|
|
separate the real from the fake, each and every day ...
|
|
|
|
This cut, without a doubt, will be blaring out car speakers
|
|
all through the fall. Yet Paris, however much he tailors his sound to
|
|
the beat of the moment, has serious business to take care of. Paris
|
|
stays true to his Panther roots, though on this album he's clearer
|
|
about what he wants to tear down than what he wants to build up.
|
|
Paris leaves the positivity tip to the numerous books and lecturers he
|
|
lists in the CD booklet (complete with phone numbers for booking
|
|
speakers). It's a good move, though you kinda wish more of that
|
|
knowledge was in the lyrics and less was on the bookshelf.
|
|
When you get right down to it, even the books Paris recommends
|
|
are pretty limited -- Chancellor Williams and J.A. Rogers are dusty
|
|
old stand-bys, and Frances Cress Welsing (a raging homophobe known for
|
|
her efforts to de-program gay black men) has no business on anybody's
|
|
"revolutionary" reading list. Progressive Black scholars such as
|
|
Manning Marable, bell hooks, or Michael Eric Dyson are strangely
|
|
absent -- as are Malcolm X and Frantz Fanon -- though maybe I
|
|
shouldn't be so picky with a bibliography that only measures three by
|
|
five inches.
|
|
But whatever the source, it's the music that has to make it
|
|
come alive. "Outta My Life," recaptures the mellow feel of "Ebony"
|
|
and "Asaataa's Song," but the message is much more grim. In a moment
|
|
of self-reflection, Paris wonders "how many dope records do it take /
|
|
before the brother make sleeping giants awake?" It wouldn't take
|
|
many, if every album were as potent as this one, though this
|
|
particular cut doesn't have the flow of the first four. But that's
|
|
quickly forgotten when you hear "Whatcha See," a funky, phase-shifted
|
|
groove in which Paris shows that the P-Dog can morph into Doggy Dogg
|
|
without losing his political grip.
|
|
The lyrics run deep, though the Doggisms flow so thick and
|
|
heavy that you have the urge to laugh -- but not before you think. As
|
|
always, Paris still finds "brand new ways to my peoples' heart." Just
|
|
in case you can't contain that urge to laugh, though, you can cut
|
|
loose on the next track, "40 Ounces and a Fool," a signifying send-up
|
|
of Snoop's malt liquor endorsements:
|
|
|
|
Reachin' fo' the can is the man with no conscience
|
|
But I'm makin' money, so nigga you can watch this
|
|
Mac bubble, 'cos I'm trouble, when I pop the top
|
|
Even though I know, I'm sellin' out my soul, just to make a knot
|
|
So, Nigga buy it, and fuck what ya heard
|
|
Cos all of that old Black Power bullshit is for the birds
|
|
Yeah, I know its poison that I'm sellin 'em
|
|
But I'm the new house nigga wit da flowww ...
|
|
|
|
Finally, Paris goes out strong with the deep-down groove of
|
|
"Back in the Days." If the title sounds a little familiar, no doubt
|
|
it is -- and what does it say that so many rappers are looking back to
|
|
the time "before the glock was king" -- even those whose age is less
|
|
than half their gun caliber? Paris reaches back with the best,
|
|
striking up familiar themes from his own "The Days of Old." It's a
|
|
smooth cut, a sure pick for the album's second single, and Paris' most
|
|
polished track to date.
|
|
In fact, if there's anything I *do* miss in this album, it's
|
|
the rough, tense edge that used to make Paris stand a bit farther out
|
|
from the crowd. I'm down with the funk, and producers and DJ's can
|
|
dust off all the '70's vinyl they want, but listening to this album
|
|
makes me miss the sparseness and urgency of late-80's hip-hop.
|
|
Someday soon, I kinda feel, the thick funk grooves will fade back in
|
|
the mix a bit and let raw beats return to front and center -- maybe
|
|
Paris will be the one to do it on his *next* album. On the other
|
|
hand, if you like funk in your trunk and messages that will carry you
|
|
through the mess age, Paris has 'em both, and to spare.
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 5/pHunky
|
|
|
|
|
|
***M***
|
|
Russell A. Potter
|
|
-----------------
|
|
|
|
"Phat Trax" (5 CD Compilation)
|
|
(Rhino Records)
|
|
|
|
I have a lot of respect for Rhino Records. Once upon a time,
|
|
they were as stiff and heavy as an old '78, with most of their
|
|
releases concentrated in geriatric rock or mainline R&B compilations
|
|
like "Soul Hits of the 70's." To their credit, Rhino has tried to
|
|
keep up with the times, and as previous collections such as "Hip-Hop
|
|
From the Top" and "In Yo Face" amply prove, they can outdo just about
|
|
any label when it comes to tracking down old grooves, digitally
|
|
remastering them, and packaging them with informative liner notes.
|
|
And, unlike Priority, whose "Rapmasters" series promises "full-length"
|
|
and delivers cut versions, Rhino gets right on back to the studio
|
|
masters, and almost never fades out prematurely.
|
|
Now comes "Phat Trax," a five-CD compilation in which Rhino
|
|
tries to expand on its solid funk database with a collection that
|
|
brings together the phattest beats of the old school, especially those
|
|
beats that have been booming under the latest onslaught of gangsta
|
|
funk.
|
|
"Phat Trax" does what it promises, though for a variety of
|
|
reasons it's likely to irritate as many people as it pleases. The
|
|
tracks are phat both in the sense of beats and length; most of them
|
|
are taken from the extended 12" vinyl mixes (one reason why the CD's
|
|
average only ten songs each). For those funk-heads who are more than
|
|
knee deep in vinyl, there's little here they won't already have; this
|
|
collection aims directly at those whose system is built around a CD
|
|
player. For those listeners, this set is a gold mine, and will save
|
|
hours of searching around in used vinyl shops -- not to mention the
|
|
pristine, digital sounds (you can hear the music box key being wound
|
|
up in the intro to Sun's "Sun is Here" just as if it were an inch from
|
|
your ear). And, for those who crave bass, hearing these cuts re-EQ'ed
|
|
for the digital age is a treat in itself.
|
|
The tough part is the selection of tracks, which as always is
|
|
subject to the vagaries of the music industry's tangled web of
|
|
copyright and performance rights. Partly as a result, almost everyone
|
|
will find one of their favorites missing, or wonder why some cuts
|
|
ended up on this collection at all. At the same time, there's
|
|
something here for just about everyone, from the Meters' crisp, spare
|
|
beats ("Cissy Strut") to the hyper-arranged funk of the Brothers
|
|
Johnson ("Ain't We Funkin' Now"), and everything in between. For
|
|
anyone who grew up in the 70's, there's memory trips aplenty: an
|
|
early, Afro'd Natalie Cole, Fatback before its flash in the pan with
|
|
King Tim III, or the Heatwave of the Summer of '78 ("The Groove
|
|
Line").
|
|
Hip hop heads will recognize a lot of these tracks from
|
|
current samples and loops, proving once again that nostalgia has
|
|
*nothing* to do with how you raid the crates. That horn riff that
|
|
kicks off "Welcome to the Terrordome"? Try T.S. Monk's "Bon Bon Vie."
|
|
That crazy, whistling noise that sounds like a tea kettle about to
|
|
blow its top? It's in the JB's "The Grunt." If you thought Public
|
|
Enemy got the air raid sirens that launch *Nation of Millions* from a
|
|
sound effects record, you'll think again when the Gap Band drops a
|
|
bomb on you, and tracks like Lyn Collins's "Think" and Isaac Hayes's
|
|
"Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" will have you saying, "Damn! so
|
|
that's where that came from" about every fifteen seconds.
|
|
Not all these discs are created equal, however. Volume One is
|
|
my personal favorite; not only does it clock in with nearly 80 minutes
|
|
of funk, it has the full 15-minute version of Funkadelic's "Knee
|
|
Deep," Tom Browne's seminal "Funkin' for Jamaica (N.Y.)," and Isaac
|
|
Hayes representing the old *old* school (every volume but volume five
|
|
has a track or two from the sixties to round things out). Volume
|
|
three, which brings together The Time ("777-9311," you realize, is a
|
|
much funkier number than 1-800-NEW-FUNK), Slave's "Watching You," Con
|
|
Funk Shun's "Chase Me," and the inescapable "Atomic Dog," is another
|
|
standout. Volume five is a fitting end to the series, showcasing late-
|
|
70's and early 80's funk from the Gap Band, GQ, Laid Back, the Dazz
|
|
Band, and Foxy.
|
|
Volumes 2 and 4 don't pack quite the same amount of funk to
|
|
the square inch (maybe even numbers are inherently less funky), and
|
|
also have some repeat tracks already available on other Rhino
|
|
compilations (one bad habit I wish Rhino would break -- why should I
|
|
buy a "new" compilation that has two tracks already re-released by the
|
|
same company?). But other than that, complaints are few; if you like
|
|
CD's and want the maximum amount of funk for your trunk, these
|
|
compilations have it.
|
|
|
|
pH Levels -
|
|
Vol. 1 5/pHunky
|
|
Vol. 2 4/pHine
|
|
Vol. 3 5/pHunky
|
|
Vol. 4 4/pHine
|
|
Vol. 5 5/pHunky
|
|
|
|
Track listing:
|
|
|
|
Vol. 1 (Rhino R2 71752)
|
|
|
|
Funkadelic -- (Not Just) Knee Deep
|
|
Brick -- Dazz
|
|
Mass Production -- Firecracker
|
|
Brass Construction -- Get Up to Get Down
|
|
Fatback -- Gotta Get My Hands on Some (Money)
|
|
Twenynine, featuring Lenny White -- Peanut Butter
|
|
Michael Henderson -- Wide Receiver
|
|
Bar-Kays -- Hit and Run
|
|
Isaac Hayes -- Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic
|
|
|
|
Vol. 2 (Rhino R2 71753)
|
|
|
|
Funkadelic -- One Nation Under a Groove
|
|
Fatback -- Backstrokin'
|
|
Tom Browne -- Thighs High (Grip Your Hips and Move)
|
|
Sun -- Sun is Here
|
|
Faze-O -- Riding High
|
|
One Way -- Pull Fancy Dancer Pull
|
|
T.S. Monk -- Bon Bon Vie
|
|
Brick -- Dusic
|
|
Lyn Collins, the Female Preacher -- Momma Feel Good
|
|
The Meters -- Cissy Strut
|
|
|
|
Vol. 3 (Rhino R2 71754)
|
|
|
|
One Way -- Cutie Pie
|
|
Slave -- Watching You
|
|
The System -- You are in my System
|
|
Yarbrough & Peoples -- Don't Stop the Music
|
|
Con Funk Shun -- Chase Me
|
|
Madame X -- Just That Type of Girl
|
|
The Time -- 777-9311
|
|
Jesse Johnson's Revue -- Free World
|
|
George Clinton -- Atomic Dog (Atomic Mix)
|
|
Otis Redding & Carla Thomas -- Tramp
|
|
|
|
Vol. 4 (Rhino R2 71755)
|
|
|
|
Cameo -- Shake Your Pants
|
|
Rufus & Chaka -- Do You Love What You Feel
|
|
Carl Carlton -- She's a Bad Mama Jama
|
|
Roy Ayers -- Don't Stop the Feeling
|
|
Junior -- Mama Used to Say
|
|
Teena Marie -- Square Biz
|
|
The Brothers Johnson -- Ain't We Funkin' Now
|
|
One Way -- The Groove
|
|
The JB's -- The Grunt
|
|
Lyn Collins, the Female Preacher -- Think (About It)
|
|
|
|
Vol. 5 (Rhino R2 71756)
|
|
|
|
The Gap Band -- You Dropped a Bomb on Me
|
|
Heatwave -- The Groove Line
|
|
Cheryl Lynn -- Got to Be Real
|
|
Emotions -- Best of my Love
|
|
Natalie Cole -- Be Thankful
|
|
GQ -- Disco Nights (Rock Freak)
|
|
People's Choice -- Do It Any Way You Wanna
|
|
Laid Back - White Horse
|
|
Dazz Band -- Joystick
|
|
Foxy -- Get Off
|
|
|
|
|
|
***N***
|
|
Kevin Murphy
|
|
------------
|
|
|
|
PMD, "Shade Business"
|
|
(RCA)
|
|
|
|
A year or so, we heard that Parrish Smith was not going to
|
|
make any solo joints. Why couldn't he stick to his guns?
|
|
This has got to be one of the worst albums I have ever heard.
|
|
If you only want to hear how well your system can handle bass, this is
|
|
the album for you. If you want to hear dope beats, or dope rhymes,
|
|
it's not. Lyrically and musically, this album relies too much on old
|
|
EPMD tracks. The other thing that makes this album weak is the
|
|
delivery and flow. There are SEVERAL places on the album where you
|
|
wonder if there is some beat somewhere that PMD is "flowing" to, only
|
|
it is not the one playing.
|
|
The other MAJOR problem with this album is that it is
|
|
EXTREMELY OBVIOUS that Erick Sermon is the target of the album, from
|
|
the line over the "E", to lots of the "lyrical" material. To compound
|
|
this even further, the use of outside emcees is very similar to what
|
|
Erick Sermon did on his album. One thing that someone should tell
|
|
Parrish Smith is that when you have guest emcees on your album, they
|
|
should not outshine you on every cut they appear, which is not saying
|
|
much when we refer to Zone 7 and Top Quality. 3rd Eye is the only
|
|
bright spot on an otherwise shineless album, along with the Das EFX
|
|
cameo on "Here They Cum".
|
|
I think this album should have been called "Going Out Of
|
|
Business". Some people just dont know when to say when.
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 2/pHlat
|
|
|
|
|
|
***O***
|
|
David J.
|
|
--------
|
|
|
|
POPPA DOO, "da saga continues"
|
|
(Duumark/BMG)
|
|
|
|
It must be the money. I can't think of any other reason why
|
|
some people even bother making albums like Poppa Doo's latest effort "da
|
|
saga continues." This saga never should have started -- it's so played
|
|
out with its drug-smuggling, get-rich-quick, shoot-anyone-in-your-path
|
|
bullshit that it's barely worth the effort to review.
|
|
As a matter of fact, this album demonstrates just what's wrong
|
|
with hip hop today. It seems like everyone in this whole goddamn
|
|
business is trying to come up on some old gangsta lean, and nobody is
|
|
taking responsibility for what they're saying. How many niggaz do you
|
|
have to kill on a record to be considered a good artist? How many
|
|
blunts do you have to smoke? How many babies do you have to father and
|
|
then leave saying "Fuck a bitch" behind you (like Poppa Doo says in "Mass
|
|
Murderin'" -- there's a theme worth celebrating, eh?) in some vain
|
|
attempt to prove your manhood?
|
|
And people wonder why hip hop gets such a bad rep among parents
|
|
and other so-called authority figures -- BECAUSE THIS IS THE SHIT WE
|
|
GIVE THEM!!! And this is the shit hip hop cannot afford to accept
|
|
anymore. I'm sick of all these wanna-be gangsta rappers who think
|
|
they're all that just because they have a record, or because they make
|
|
money from some label that will pay 'em and drop 'em after their Chronic
|
|
sound-alike doesn't sell as well as Dr. Dre's did. You can make a
|
|
record about being "Fucked in the Game" a million times over -- WHAT THE
|
|
FUCK ARE YOU DOING ABOUT IT????????
|
|
Records like this have to stop. This is not the way rap music
|
|
deserves to go out, because this album is not rap music -- it's garbage,
|
|
pure and simple. Hip hop isn't going anywhere until garbage like this
|
|
gets kicked to the curb. So to all you punks out there that think the
|
|
only way you're going to make it in rap is to rhyme about the same
|
|
trash that happens in the ghetto over and over again -- get over it.
|
|
There's a world out there that doesn't give a fuck about your block.
|
|
Learn to represent the human race for a change.
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 1/pHukkit
|
|
|
|
|
|
***P***
|
|
David J.
|
|
--------
|
|
|
|
SAAFIR, "Boxcar Sessions"
|
|
(Qwest/Reprise)
|
|
|
|
Saafir the Saucee Nomad first broke onto the scene in late 1993
|
|
with a cameo on Digital Underground's LP "The Body Hat Syndrome," but
|
|
didn't actually catch anyone's attention until he did a short track on
|
|
Casual's album "Fear Itself." It was then that he and Hobo Junction, a
|
|
crew that came quite literally from the streets of Oakland, finally got
|
|
some attention for their demo, which was an underground sensation in the
|
|
Bay Area for over a year.
|
|
It resulted in a contract with Qwest and the phat single "Light
|
|
Sleeper/Battle Drill," which highlighted Saafir's crazy newfangled flow
|
|
to the highest extremes. So this album is something heads have been
|
|
anticipating for a while.
|
|
The rep Saafir (which is not only the MC's name, but also the
|
|
name of the group, Saafir and Jay-Z) created for themselves, however,
|
|
doesn't come through in this album. Lyrically, Saafir is rarely off-
|
|
point, but musically, something is missing. A lot of the production
|
|
sounds muddy and indistinct, leaving the album without a solid phat
|
|
groove to complement the lyrics. Only a few tracks besides the cuts on
|
|
their first single come off ("Just Ridin'", "Playa Hayta"), and even
|
|
they don't reach out and grab you and say, "Yo, this is phat, right?"
|
|
In addition to being a Saafir album, "Boxcar Sessions" is also a
|
|
Hobo Junction preview reel, with more cameo appearances than a week of
|
|
Letterman episodes. Some of them are cool, like Benny B.'s message ("If
|
|
you follow a light down a dark path, the path could go anywhere,
|
|
eventually leading to a dark end. If you are the light, you are the
|
|
path."), but others such as Pee Wee's "How many times can you say
|
|
muthafucka?" soliloquy just don't do anything but sit there and take of
|
|
space on this album. Other cameos in which members of the Junction
|
|
rhyme don't help either, since all they do is highlight how much better
|
|
Saafir is on the mic.
|
|
If you dig hip hop only for the lyrics, this is your album.
|
|
Saafir is one of the most original lyricists to hit the scene since
|
|
Hiero first hit the scene a couple of years ago. However, if you're
|
|
looking for beats that come out and grab you and don't let go, you'd be
|
|
better off just getting Saafir's single and moving on. The Hobos still
|
|
need some extra work on their production before they can jump off on
|
|
something that slams like it should.
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 4/pHine
|
|
|
|
|
|
***Q***
|
|
David J.
|
|
--------
|
|
|
|
SIMPLE E, "Colouz Uv Sound"
|
|
(Fox)
|
|
|
|
It's about time.
|
|
For about four or five months after the buzz from her debut
|
|
single "Play My Funk" finally died down, Simple E (pronounced Simply E)
|
|
was AWOL from the hip hop scene, and everyone was wondering where she
|
|
went. Mad heads suspected that D'wayne Wiggins left her halfway through
|
|
the production to go on tour with them other two Tonies. No problem --
|
|
just call up Mister Lawnge, Ali Shaheed Muhammed and Terry T. to finish
|
|
up and voila! Before you can say "Bahamidia," Simple E picks up where
|
|
she left off with "Colouz Uv Sound."
|
|
Her unique musical delivery combined with some groovin' jazz
|
|
tracks makes for quite the bomb, which hits you immediately on the first
|
|
cut, the Terry T-produced "Kum Follow Me." The sample from The
|
|
Crusaders' "Covert Action" fits the bill nicely as E takes out all those
|
|
jealous of her success that aren't do anything for self. The vibe flows
|
|
through other tracks such as "de Abyss," a walk through a hip hop
|
|
nightmare in which everyone's gone out but her, "Paradigmz," in which E
|
|
tells it like it is: "I'd rather spit dope / rhyme what I wrote / rhyme
|
|
what I write / Poets don't fight / but Sucka ducks might," and "An
|
|
Innocent Rage," in which E quietly goes off on the state of the world.
|
|
Occasionally, this album slips into some different vibes that
|
|
don't quite work. "Rant & Rave," produced by Mr. Lawnge, doesn't take
|
|
away from E's skills, but it's missing the same head-nodding power of
|
|
some of her other tracks, and "East Coast/West Coast" (isn't this tired
|
|
yet?) is the same old same old battle with Spice 1 about which coast
|
|
runs things in hip hop. Other times, though, the lighter vibe works,
|
|
such as on "Realite," where E talks over an R&B-tinged cut about
|
|
problems in the world and makes a quick jab at Bahamidia, "Some woman
|
|
who looks like me / talks like me / one day she's gonna flip / you'll
|
|
see."
|
|
All in all, nothing really jumps out and screams dopeness like
|
|
"Play My Funk" did, but it's a solid debut effort, and one that deserves
|
|
a little attention for Simple E. Maybe this time around, she won't have
|
|
any problems with people who mispronounce her name.
|
|
|
|
pH level - 4/pHine
|
|
|
|
|
|
***R***
|
|
Steven J Juon
|
|
-------------
|
|
|
|
SIR MIX-A-LOT, "Chief Bootknocka"
|
|
(Nastymix)
|
|
|
|
Who's been sleeping with my funk? Probably Mix, the self-
|
|
proclaimed "Mack Daddy" of hip-hop. In years past there hasn't been
|
|
much reason to dispute his title, but this time out I think somebody
|
|
in Seattle was SLEEPIN' (and NOT with anything funky).
|
|
OK, I've been a Mix fan since his Posse was on Broadway and
|
|
his Beeper kept him busy, so I feel credible in saying this is not the
|
|
Mix we know and love. His beats used to be sharper and his rhyme
|
|
material, while sex-based, was not ENTIRELY sex-based. What happened
|
|
to the songs about the hypocrisy of America and his love for hip-hop?
|
|
Probably the two closest songs are "I Check My Bank" and
|
|
"Takin My Stash". "I Check My Bank" was originally on the Trespass
|
|
soundtrack, and for some reason they decided to play with the chorus
|
|
and change it up a little. Frankly it was one of Mix's pHattest songs
|
|
ever and they should have left well enough alone. The changes make it
|
|
worse. As for "Takin My Stash", it's a decent albeit somewhat
|
|
repetitive tale of being jacked by the IRS.
|
|
But lets get down to what's REALLY wrong with this album.
|
|
Case in point #1 is his first single, "Put Em On The Glass". This is
|
|
little more than "Baby Got Back, Part 2" and suffers from a total lack
|
|
of lyrical or musical creativity. Case in point #2 is his second
|
|
single, "Ride". Who's idea was this? It sounds like techno garbage,
|
|
and what's WORSE, it has a sample of Daisy Dukes. PLEASE!
|
|
Just so you don't think this is a total diss fest, I do think
|
|
it's a decent album, just not spectacular. To me, a few more songs
|
|
like "Sleepin Wit My Fonk" would have been a much better choice. Over
|
|
a plucky funk line (with some help from Bootsy Collins) Mix tells the
|
|
tale of how his girl got stolen and he's on the roll trying to get
|
|
even any way he can. Now THIS would have been a phat choice for
|
|
single and video. I honestly hope it is his next single.
|
|
In short, if you're a fan, then you probably want the album
|
|
(that's the only reason I bought it). If you like a few of his songs
|
|
but not his work as a whole this one isn't going to change your mind.
|
|
You need to back track to the Mack Daddy LP.
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 3/pHair
|
|
|
|
|
|
***S***
|
|
David J.
|
|
--------
|
|
|
|
SKADANKS, "Give Thanks"
|
|
(Elektra)
|
|
|
|
It's interesting how the battles of hip hop's old school keep
|
|
playing out today. When KRS-ONE introduced Skadanks on his Human
|
|
Education Against Lies project in 1991, frontman Rocker T was one of
|
|
the only white dancehall DJs on the scene. Not even a year later, MC
|
|
Shan introduces a new DJ named Snow who blows up on eMpTyV. Shan
|
|
still tries anything to get back at Mr. Parker for "The Bridge Is
|
|
Over...."
|
|
It took 3 years for Skadanks to get their act together and
|
|
finally drop an album, though some of that probably had to do with
|
|
the label that signed 'em. It was enough to make for a pretty solid
|
|
debut, which jumps right out and grabs you with "Pass The Herb," an
|
|
uptempo, danceable cut that knocks the "downpressor" for "the
|
|
criminalization of religious custom." This jam kicks hard.
|
|
From there the band moves on to some different flavors,
|
|
getting deeper into more classic reggae grooves with "Friends," "Let
|
|
Them Be Fed" and "911," a somewhat calmer reggae version of Flavor
|
|
Flav's famous rant a couple of years back. Skadanks makes the most of
|
|
their live instrumentation on tracks like "Rock And Come On," "2 Luv"
|
|
and "Stopper (Jah Jah Power)." Those tracks add some nice R&B flavors
|
|
that make for the best music on the album.
|
|
Rocker T's delivery isn't always perfectly on point, but he
|
|
hits more than he misses. He's at his best when he doesn't try to
|
|
sound too much like Mad Lion, and he still has enough skills as a
|
|
dancehall chatter to turn crowds out. Add some themes true to the
|
|
original Rastafarian spirit, and you've got a debut that should fit
|
|
quite nicely between Shabba and Mad Cobra.
|
|
If Skadanks weren't on Elektra, they'd probably blow up much
|
|
bigger, but that goes for just about anyone on Elektra these days.
|
|
Hopefully they won't wait another 3 years before their next album.
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 4/pHine
|
|
|
|
|
|
***T***
|
|
Steven J Juon
|
|
-------------
|
|
|
|
SUDDEN DEATH, "Brain Damage"
|
|
(demo)
|
|
|
|
This short 30 minute sampler is brought to you by that nut
|
|
Devo Spice, who has had more songs on Dr. Demento than Shaq has had
|
|
backboard shattering dunks. If you aren't familiar with his last
|
|
album, then ask Spice for a copy of this promo. Basically, he does
|
|
comedic parodies of popular pop music and hip-hop tunes. The beats
|
|
are generally not even CLOSE to the original and are occasionally on
|
|
the shitty side, but it's all in good fun and the humorous content
|
|
more than makes up for it.
|
|
Take for example "Smoker", a parody of alternative artist
|
|
Beck's "Loser". This one is a laugh a minute, even if you HAVEN'T
|
|
heard the original. As if you hadn't guessed, it's a song about
|
|
smoking -- yeah he's a smoker baby, and it'll probably kill him. Very
|
|
demented, but what else would you expect from Spice?
|
|
Even better though is "Do You Piss in the Shower?" This
|
|
original song has a better than average (for Spice) track and is a
|
|
hilarious tale about those annoying people who come up to you in the
|
|
mall and ask you stupid questions for a survey. When Spice issues the
|
|
beatdown at the end I'm laughing and celebrating at the same time.
|
|
What else can I say? Well, if you take your hip-hop so
|
|
seriously you can't stand a good natured poke, don't pick up the full
|
|
length "Brain Dead" LP or any of his other work. And if the only flow
|
|
you are hearing is hardcore and nubian, you might be turned off. To
|
|
me, though, it's cool, and a hell of a lot of fun to boot.
|
|
|
|
pH Level - 4/pHine
|
|
|
|
__________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
Well, we're not as punctual as we have been in the past, thanks to all
|
|
those bums who are still learning the meaning of DEADLINES -- no
|
|
names, y'all know who you are =^) -- but as always, we make sure we
|
|
come correct. We hope you enjoyed this issue as much as we enjoyed
|
|
putting it together.
|
|
|
|
Look at that calendar. Is 1994 almost over already? Where did the
|
|
year go? We'll be sure to let you know next issue, and we'll let you
|
|
know where the next year is headed. We'll also have nomination
|
|
ballots for the 4th Annual New Jack Hip Hop Awards -- unless we
|
|
decide to tie Charles Isbell to a chair and make him write a Goats'
|
|
LP review. =^) Until then, PEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!!!
|
|
|