Today's "Rap/ Hip Hop" Playlist

[KDAC]

Original Profile vinyl circa '89. One of the WORST rap acts and albums to ever be produced; makes his debut, It Takes Two, look like a masterpiece (and that ain't sayin' much)...

Agreed. It's one of few albums that damn near made my stomach hurt while listening. Sometimes it's better to quit while one is ahead. They rode in on a wave with the Lyn Collins-sampled It Takes Two (single and album) and proceeded to wash out with the tide going forward. Break of Dawn in '94? Nope.

 

[KDAC]

Public Enemy - Revolverlution


Source: HP dc7600 Small Form Factor PC
Player: Winamp 2.95 with 250+ band Equalizer v1.62 for Winamp by Nevi
DAC: AudioQuest DragonFly v1.2
Preamplifier: B&K Components, Ltd. PT5
Amplifier: B&K Components, Ltd. ST125.2
Speakers: KLH 9154

 

[AnzacSonata]

Agreed. It's one of few albums that damn near made my stomach hurt while listening. Sometimes it's better to quit while one is ahead. They rode in on a wave with the Lyn Collins-sampled "It Takes Two" and proceeded to wash out with the tide going forward. Break of Dawn in '94? Nope.

Couldn't agree more, KDAC -- I took this LP out of the collection last night just to give it a curiosity spin (had cleaned it some time ago and played it for nostalgia sake but didn't really recall any parts of it) and while listening to it, I was saying to myself, "It's almost painful to listen to him..." This guy just CAN'T rhyme for shit, and I don't know how he got a contract with a fairly large label like Profile; I mean, he's worse than ABC rappers like MC Shy-D and the like (and THAT'S bad). Every line is delivered off-beat and some of the sentences in the songs make no sense; I think his tracks are mainly for the beats and the way DJs could manipulate them for clubs and parties back then...

This was an AWFUL album, and I don't know what I was thinking buying it back then; I think I must have been smitten so much with his first release that I bought it "just because." Either that, or I saw a video or two for some tracks off the album like "Turn It Out"...

This is worse than Eric B and Rakim's Let The Rhythm Hit Em, Kool Moe Dee's Knowledge is King or Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince's ...And in This Corner, all of which are nightmares on their own (well, maybe not the Eric B and Rakim album)…

What's worse, the LP was engineered for SHIT -- sibilant, staticky vocals and a raw "screechy" sound to it. Don't know if the CD fared any better; don't really care, to be honest.

 

[KDAC]

... he's worse than ABC rappers like MC Shy-D and the like (and THAT'S bad). Every line is delivered off-beat and some of the sentences in the songs make no sense; I think his tracks are mainly for the beats and the way DJs could manipulate them for clubs and parties back then...

I think I almost pissed myself a little. You could not have chosen a better example of a horrible MC. Zero disrespect to future trap kings and the ATL at large, but prior to OutKast/The Dungeon Family and maybe some T.I. (check "Rubber Band Man"), rap from south of the Mason Dixon line simply didn't hold water for me. Back in my native West Michigan during the mid-to-late 80s some junior high/high school peers would put on some of his tracks and I would simply get up up and leave. Literally. Between the high/whiny pitched voice and the Luke/Two Live Crew-produced tracks of this Bronx-born but Atlanta-based "rapper," I couldn't phathom what the hell was happening. My train of though was "How does one go from Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa, Kid N' Play, Ice-T, N.W.A., hell even Sir Mix-a-Lot to this?" The fact that he nearly ****ed up one of my all-time Earth, Wind & Fire tracks ("Brazilian Rhyme (Beijo Interlude)") on "Got to Be Tough" was an immediate nail in the coffin. Back on topic in regard to Rob, he and Shy-D and other rappers of that ilk would have been historically better off in the wave of "old school" rappers who debuted between 1978 and 1984 where rhymes were not so intricate/complex and were simply meant to get the party poppin'. From L.L.'s debut in '85 to the first wave of lyrical masterpieces beginning with Eric B. and Rakim's debut in '86, "ABC rappers," as your so profoundly call them, ideally would have hung up the mic and simply not signed a recording contract. What would've brought fame and notoriety in the late 70s/early 80s funk/disco-based realm simply didn't cut it when guys and girls exponentially stepped up their cadence, complexity, rhyme structure, and delivery from the late 80s forward.

 

[AnzacSonata]

I think I almost pissed myself a little. You could not have chosen a better example of a horrible MC. Zero disrespect to future trap kings and the ATL at large, but prior to OutKast/The Dungeon Family and maybe some T.I. (check "Rubber Band Man"), rap from south of the Mason Dixon line simply didn't hold water for me. Back in my native West Michigan during the mid-to-late 80s some junior high/high school peers would put on some of his tracks and I would simply get up up and leave. Literally. Between the high/whiny pitched voice and the Luke/Two Live Crew-produced tracks of this Bronx-born but Atlanta-based "rapper," I couldn't phathom what the hell was happening. My train of though was "How does one go from Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa, Kid N' Play, Ice-T, N.W.A., hell even Sir Mix-a-Lot to this?" The fact that he nearly ****ed up one of my all-time Earth, Wind & Fire tracks ("Brazilian Rhyme (Beijo Interlude)")) on "Got to Be Tough" was an immediate nail in the coffin. Back on topic in regard to Rob, he and Shy-D and other rappers of that ilk would have been historically better off in the wave of "old school" rappers who debuted between 1978 and 1984 where rhymes were not so much intricate/complex and were simply meant to get the party poppin. From L.L.'s debut in '85 to the first wave of lyrical masterpieces beginning with Eric B. and Rakim's debut in '86, "ABC rappers" as your so profoundly call them ideally would have hung up the mic and simply not singed a recording contract. What would've brought fame and notoriety in the late 70s/early 80s funk/disco-based realm simply didn't cut it when guys and girls exponentially stepped up their cadence, complexity, rhyme structure, and delivery from the late 80s forward.

You have ME pissin' now...

Holy dog shit was that funny....

Interesting that you brought up LL's debut -- I just spun my ORIGINAL Def Jam vinyl copy of Radio the other day...

I agree with you on EVERYTHING you said (sadly, I take my Shy-D Comin' Correct in 88 LP out from time to time just to hear the deep bass on the album; his rhymes are just laughable, but as you said this born-in-the-Bronx-but-make-everyone-think-he's-an-Atlanta-native wannabe just hung his rep on Luke's production skills at Luke Skywalker records). I think he actually went on to go to jail for awhile (what rapper didn't?) and attempted a comeback; his live shows actually aren't that bad if you can find some on YouTube.

I always say that I must have been the ONLY human being on Earth to have bought the aforementioned Comin' Correct in 88 album -- or any Shy-D album for that matter...

 

[AnzacSonata]

 

[KDAC]

I bought this on cassette back in '89 and have damn near demagnetized the cassette from repeat plays. Edward Archer came with comedic, visual storytelling, sick ass similies and metaphors, and well-crafted tracks courtesy of Howie Tee that simply fit the New School of the 80s. No, "I'm not a Puerto Rican but I speak it so that you know..." I'm playing this before the day is out.

 

[KDAC]

A Tribe Called Quest - Beats, Rhymes, and Life


Source: HP dc7600 Small Form Factor PC
Player: Winamp 2.95 with 250+ band Equalizer v1.62 for Winamp by Nevi
DAC: AudioQuest DragonFly v1.2
Preamplifier: B&K Components, Ltd. PT5
Amplifier: B&K Components, Ltd. ST125.2
Speakers: KLH 9154

 

[AnzacSonata]

I bought this on cassette back in '89 and have damn near demagnetized the cassette from repeat plays. Edward Archer came with comedic, visual storytelling, sick ass similies and metaphors, and well-crafted tracks courtesy of Howie Tee that simply fit the New School of the 80s. No, "I'm not a Puerto Rican but I speak it so that you know..." I'm playing this before the day is out.

To be honest, I never really liked him; is he definitely the "new school of the old school"? Yeah. But I just can't take any clown that says "I got it made..." when he's posing in front of a graffiti-riddled underpass in Flatbush, Brooklyn (where my father had a furniture business and which I was near almost every weekend, so I know the area he raps about very well) seriously.

Some of the other tracks on here are downright embarrassing in a Rob Base-esque way; "Hoedown" is ridiculous, as is some of "Club Scene" and "The Bush." He can't even come off on the right beats at the right times on some of these. Some cuts are highly underrated, though -- "I'm the Magnificent," "Ak-Shun," "Think About It" (that Eric B and Rakim sample is KILLER)...

 

[KDAC]

To be honest, I never really liked him; is he definitely the "new school of the old school"? Yeah. But I just can't take any clown that says "I got it made..." when he's posing in front of a graffiti-riddled underpass in Flatbush, Brooklyn (where my father had a furniture business and which I was near almost every weekend, so I know the area he raps about very well) seriously.

Some of the other tracks on here are downright embarrassing in a Rob Base-esque way; "Hoedown" is ridiculous, as is some of "Club Scene" and "The Bush." He can't even come off on the right beats at the right times on some of these. Some cuts are highly underrated, though -- "I'm the Magnificent," "Ak-Shun," "Think About It" (that Eric B and Rakim sample is KILLER)...

Yep. Both "Club Scene" and "The Bush" feel somewhat disjointed relative to the overall flow of the album. If anything, "hip-house" was a short-lived genre at the time and I'll give him/Howie credit for taking a stab at it via "Club Scene." I don't have the same experiential and familial connection to central Brooklyn as you do so I'll agree to disagree in regard to "I Got It Made." I actually like the scenes near the now-defunct Erasmus Hall High School, Grand Army Plaza, Bergen Beach/Mill Basin and other assorted spots in the borough. It's not the video of all music videos but proves decent for a 17-year-old at the beginning of his career.

 

[AnzacSonata]

Yep. Both "Club Scene" and "The Bush" feel somewhat disjointed relative to the overall flow of the album. If anything, "hip-house" was a short-lived genre at the time and I'll give him/Howie credit for taking a stab at it via "Club Scene." I don't have the same experiential and familial connection to central Brooklyn as you do so I'll agree to disagree in regard to "I Got It Made." I actually like the scenes near the now-defunct Erasmus Hall High School, Grand Army Plaza, Bergen Beach/Mill Basin and other assorted spots in the borough. It's not the video of all music videos but proves decent for a 17-year-old at the beginning of his career.

Oh, those are classic spots in the borough, no doubt. My father's furniture store was on Flatbush Avenue and St. Marks, so I know the immediate area well. My point about "I Got it Made" was that I never understood a kid walking around bragging about how much he owns, what he can do and what type of juice he has with the backdrop of these elements (graffiti-covered walls, trash-laden streets, et al) looming in the distance...I mean, you got it made, right? Got everything from cotton to suede? Then why are you walking around the poorest part of Brooklyn with Nikes and a windbreaker on? Where's that "treaty with Tahiti"? Why are you still in the hood?

 

[Worried Man]

Missy Misdemeanor Elliott ~ Supa Dupa Fly

On vinyl. 2xLP, recent issue.

Sorry no pix at this time. I will have to take some good shots, though. Not only is the sound quality great but the package is excellent -- black-and-tan Atlantic label, high resolution cover images. The LPs are standard weight, which is fine by me, because I've never been convince of any advantage in the 180-plus gram weights.

 

[poppachubby]

I have been spinning a lot of Ruste Juxx.

https://soundcloud.com/hom-hom/sets/omen44-ruste-juxx-black-son

 

[Worried Man]

I have been spinning a lot of Ruste Juxx.

https://soundcloud.com/hom-hom/sets/omen44-ruste-juxx-black-son

View attachment 1207280

Don't know this but the cover is cool.

 

[AnzacSonata]

More "Hip-House" than "Hip-Hop," but...

 

[Worried Man]

 

[Worried Man]

Still not quite sure what to make of old ASAP. Sometimes I dig this, sometimes it slides right by me. I can't give it away, though; it's a keeper at least for the pretty, clear gold vinyl.

 

[AnzacSonata]

 

[Worried Man]

Not only one of my favorite hip hop albums but also one of my favorite albums.

 

[AnzacSonata]

View attachment 1208044


Not only one of my favorite hip hop albums but also one of my favorite albums.

Yeah, bought this new on vinyl when it first came out; these guys were from around my haunts, Long Island, NY, and I was smitten, like every other suburban kid at the time, with the video to "Me, Myself and I." Playing this album, now years later, I don't really see what all the hoopla was about save for their fresh attempt at a new vision for the genre (no more gold chains, the whole this-is-the-hippie-answer-to-rap angle, etc.); most of the filler for this LP was just plain crap in retrospect, and the album itself was way too long to be crammed onto one piece of vinyl. The sound quality is pretty horrid with ridiculously low overall mastering levels. My copy, also, unfortunately, has some damage throughout which makes certain tracks skip all over the place.

There were some underrated gems on here, though -- "L.I.F.E.," "Ghetto Thang," et al.

I never really cared for Tommy Boy's vinyl output -- and I have a LOT of stuff on vinyl from this label from being a DJ years ago (rap from acts like Naughty by Nature, Digital Underground and De La plus freestyle from acts like TKA); to my ear, they never pressed their vinyl right.