Released: 7 June, 1988 Label: Fresh Records/Sleeping Bag Records Priority/EMI Records Genre: Golden age hip hop Producer: EPMD
So I listened to this a while back now, but am only just getting to writing about it now. I have some catching up to do.. So this is awesome hip hop. There is SO much in here to like, and so much that I hear in hip hop, dance and breaks music from the subsequent 25 years had it’s genesis in music like this. In the late 2000’s the boys I lived with listened to acts like J-5 and Krafty Kuts and you can hear that in here. As a genre, Golden Age of Hip Hop is 100% right. Killer party hip hop with some killer samples.
Released: November 18, 1985 Label: Def Jam/Columbia/CBS Records Genre: Hip hop Producer: Rick Rubin, Jazzy Jay
It’s impressive that L.L. Cool J recorded this when he was just 16 and went on to become a fully-fledged hip hop superstar, sure, but from my perspective, this is pretty lame stuff. It’s basic and pretty childish. It’s fun and and funny, but come on. A bit like Will Smith’s rap efforts.
This week: Well I was listening this the week we headed in to America (we’re back now). The intention was to listen to the albums I was up to that week while we were away but we were too busy. I’ll pick this up now I’m back home.
Released: March 25, 1997 Label: Bad boy Genre: Hip hop Producer: Deric “D-Dot” Angelettie, Carlos “6 July” Broady, Buckwild, Clark Kent,Sean “Puffy” Combs, DJ Enuff, DJ Premier, Easy Mo Bee, Havoc,Stevie J, Jiv Poss, Daron Jones,Kay Gee, Ron “Amen-Ra” Lawrence, Nashiem Myrick,Notorious B.I.G., Paragon, RZA,Chucky Thompson
Aaaaaand from a 4-disc opus to a 2-disc posthumous hip-hop album, one from my teenage high-school days. This was no less more challenging than last week.. and that’s saying something. I like some of the songs on here, and I can see how this is a seminal album in a number of classics that form the centre of the mafioso rap genre, along with Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… a few weeks ago, given the era this was released in, and the collaborators and producers that B.I.G. has on here…
But jeez, my biggest issue on this album is The Notorious B.I.G himself. To me, ironically, his voice lacks any weight, or any menace, and so when he raps about guns and drugs and sex and violence and all the rest of it, I just don’t quite believe it.
BUT, this was just a week’s worth of listening, to 2-discs which are packed thick full of complex arrangements and lyrics. And surrounding this album is the whole mythology (and reality!) around this album at the time, around this genre at the time, around the East-Coast West-Coast rap wars, and hell, the B.I.G.’s own death by gunshot a week before this album being released. This wasn’t just wanna-be gangstas rapping about a life never lived.. this is history. This will take some time to pick a part and really appreciate.
In the meantime, Biggie’s collaborators on this album are terrific, and this is a time-warp for me back to high-school when gangsta rap was coasting right into the middle of the mainstream. I’ll come back to this one.
Top track: Is there anything better than the anthemic “Mo Money Mo Problems” featuring Mase and Puff Daddy (as he was known back then)?
This week: I’m week two into my new role and am glad I made the move, more on that later I’m sure. More America planning. And a mini-lockdown to save money for the US. Too exciting for words. This be how I roll right now.
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Released: August 1, 1995 Label: Loud/RCA/BMG Genre: Hip hop Producer: RZA (also exec.), Mitchell Diggs(exec.), Oli Grant (exec.)
I originally listened to this a few weeks ago and really struggled. Actually, I loathed this at the first run and maybe only listened to it once all the way through. I skipped on to the next album, and then paused and decided to have a break. 20 albums down is pretty good so far so I figure a week or two break is ok. And now I’m really glad I did.
In the meantime I’ve been listening to Lana Del Rey’s follow-up to last year’s Born to Die, and it’s much the same as her last effort. Paradise is another ode to beautiful destruction and a life lived and loved dangerously, and Del Rey is really fucking great at that shtick. The song writing and vocals are impeccable and I love this kind of gangsta-ballad fusion. It’s interesting and sexy and smooth, and it is dangerous andcoquettish which is delicious. I do remember someone remarking that next time around there will need to be some evolution in Del Rey’s sound for this not to wear thin again, and I agree, but until then “Ride” and “American” hit me in the right places. Another great album.
And so after a 2 week break I gave Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… another go, and I’m stoked I did. I not only appreciated this album, but I’m also re-energised about the project as a whole. Hip hop and rap have never been up there with my favourite genres, and Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… won’t be something that I chuck for fun on a Friday night after work, but I did enjoy it. These songs are really well produced by Raekwon’s Wu-Tang alumnus RZA, the beats are thumping and the samples are killer and used to full effect.
When you really listen to this what impresses most are the lyrics (and the skill of the rap vocalists is really quite amazing too). These songs are all about thug life on the street, hustling, dealing drugs, turf wars. It’s sexist and homophobic and violent for sure, and that’s the point – this is where mafioso rap as a sub-genre started. Parents would hate it, and I can see why. But when you’ve got real-life gangbangers rapping about their lives and their struggles, it’s fascinating listening to something so raw (note: I find this impressive because this is so semi-biographical – there’s nothing impressive to me about pretenders rapping about these topics). In a sense, this is more honest than a lot of the music that I listen to. This is storytelling stripped back – real and raw and dangerous and violent, and skillfully done.
Top track: First listen round, I would have said move along. Now I struggle to pick out a favourite. “Spot Rusherz” reminds me a lot of Jurassic 5 who I used to listen to. “Rainy Dayz” is an affecting lament about the dark times thug life brings with a great female vocal and an anxious screeching sample which ups the ante brilliantly, and “Verbal Intercourse” featuring Nas and fellow Wu-Tang member Ghostface Killah is top-shelf.
This week: Well, this month really because it’s been a while since my last post. Work is still there, and I’m still plodding along. I’m happy enough, and have an interview for a new role later this week so there is something happening at least. I’ve calmed down a lot – maybe even checked out – work is work right now, and if you don’t care then you can’t get too stressed. Which is fine (for now).
Released: September 29, 1998 Label: La Face/Arista Genre: Hip hop, neo soul Producer: Babyface (exec.), Donny Mathis, Organized Noize, Outkast, Antonio m. Reid (exec.), David “Mr. DJ” Sheats
Album 500 down and this is a nice surprise. I had hoped that the first album for me to listen to would be something a little more like what I’d normally listen to, if only to ease me into this whole thing, and OutKast isn’t necessarily that. I do own their album released 2 after this one, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, but I’ve only ever really listened to their radio friendly singles “Hey Ya!”, “The Way You Move”, “Roses” and “GhettoMusick” (my favourite of these songs). Having listened to Aquemini quite a bit over the last week I’m keen to dig out some of their other stuff and give it a go, because this album was pretty terrific.
I’ve always liked the commercial rap, hip-hop and R&B that gets played on radio and in clubs, but never really sat and listened to lyrics of anything more serious than a party anthem (Shaggy anyone..?). The production and music on Aquemini is top-shelf with the gamut of instruments played in songs that range from gangsta rap in “Return of the Gangsta”(a seriously awesome track), to dancehall-fun-with-a-serious-name in “Rosa Parks” (seriously awesome again), to sweeping instruments in “Hold on Be Strong”. Throughout the album there is the constant reminder of the duo’s Southern roots through their lyrics and music with Southern guitars and harmonicas, and this gets mixed in some with the urbanest of urban references.
This was a great introduction to rap for me. It’s smart but has attitude – as a white middle-class guy from Australia, I’m about as far removed from the issues facing young black people in America’s south as you can get. Listening to this album, you get the struggles that these kids face – the influence of drugs and violence, domestic violence, there’s a pall of misery, but also a lot of hope, and a lot of joy in the music – sweeping at times. I always knew rap had something to say, but had never really listened. This is a great album with good music and smart lyrics, and in the end I’m really very thankful this was first.
Top track: “Rosa Parks”. Probably the most obvious since it’s the most accessible and fun, but it’s cool and will be great to pull out at a party. This track was nominated for a Grammy, but courted controversy with the real life Rosa Parks and lawyers seeking to sue OutKast for using the civil rights activist’s name. Brilliantly funky track.
This week: Well, I started something. And (luckily) at this stage I’m determined to see it through. The secret, I think, will be in making this project part of what I do every week – almost like it’s the undercurrent that will run through my life while everything else is going on. Anyway, kudos me for starting.
thehifielective 