--- --- --- ---- ---- 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. 3, Issue 4 July, 1995 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 staff B Da 411 - HardC.O.R.E. staff C Yo! We Want Your Demos staff D Note from the interim Editor rapotter@colby.edu 002 Monthly Articles A Regional Report: Atlanta martay@america.net B Regional Report: Europe helmut@cosy.sbg.ac.at C The Inside Scoop r.macmichael@genie.geis.com -- The English Reggae Connection:MACKA B, NOLAN IRIE D Homeboy from Hell Monthly isbell@ai.mit.edu -- Mobb Deep, _The Infamous_ E The Singles File 3JB3BAUERJ@VMS.CSD.MU.EDU F Back to the Old School r.macmichael@genie.geis.com G Roots-N-Rap rapotter@colby.edu -- The Meters 003 HardC.O.R.E. Editorials A The Source -- Straight Slippin' krs_one@iastate.edu 004 The Official HardC.O.R.E. Album Review Section A Catalyst Entertainment krs_one@iastate.edu B Channel Live/Mad Lion rapotter@colby.edu C Collapsed Lung N.A.Smith@bradford.ac.uk D East Coast Tribe krs_one@iastate.edu E Fun^Da^Mental rapotter@colby.edu F Herbie Hancock rapotter@colby.edu G J. Bond and DJ Goldfinger r.macmichael@genie.geis.com H Main Perspective krs_one@iastate.edu I Masta Ase Inc. davidj@vnet.net J MC Breed 3JB3BAUERJ@VMS.CSD.MU.EDU K Prophets of Truth davidj@vnet.net L Pump Ya Fist r.macmichael@genie.geis.com M Urban Dance Squad r.macmichael@genie.geis.com ***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 I Used To Love H.E.R. Common Sense Crossover EPMD Mass Appeal Gangstarr True to the Game Ice Cube Outta Here KRS-One How About Some HardC.O.R.E. M.O.P. Time's Up O.C. Straighten It Out Pete Rock and CL Smooth In the Trunk Too $hort Remember Where You Came From Whodini Access info: FTP: ftp://ftp.etext.org/pub/Zines/HardCORE/ Gopher: gopher://gopher.etext.org:70/11/Zines/HardCORE WWW: (Site is moving, more info to come.) E-mail: to subscribe, e-mail listserv@vnet.net with this line of text in body of your message: subscribe hardcore-l ***C*** Aight, let's say you got a hip-hop 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 and want to give you and your friends' efforts a little publicity. Well, have we got a deal for you... HardC.O.R.E.'s review section isn't just for the 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, A Tribe Called Quest and Ol' Dirty Bastard. 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 or reading HardCORE, you never know who might want to hear your music. Give us a shout. You can e-mail me at davidj@vnet.net or Flash at krs_one@iastate.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? Peace... the HardC.O.R.E. Review Staff ***D*** Professa R.A.P. --------------- NOTE FROM THE INTERIM EDITOR This is a test of the HardC.O.R.E. prevention against Sucka Hip- Hop Zines: in the event of a real emergency, you would have been instructed on which magazines to read, and how hard to throw them into the nearest (virtual) wastebasket. Once again we're back, with another issue that's more solid than Khallid Muhammad, while other publications just suck a little harder at the big music industry tit. Now this issue may be a little slimmer than usual -- but it still has just as much bounce to the ounce. And you know ain't nobody gettin' paid for the work we put into this -- we only do it out of love for the music. It's been said before, but it's worth saying again: hip-hop will never die! Despite the barrage of recent attacks by Bob Dole, William Bennett, C. Delores Tucker -- and despite the corporate cowards over at Time-Warner who are running every which way to satisfy them -- the music goes on. It's true, I think, that there's been something of a slump lately -- the same old same old in new packages. But this isn't the doing of hip-hop artists so much as it is the work of a music industry that can't tell which way the wind is blowing until someone else pisses into it. For those sucka MC's who can't come up with rhymes besides blunt, front, and stunt, ease back muthafuckas, it's gonna go to a whole new level. It's happened before, and it's gonna happen again; hip-hop has always re-invented itself out of a mix of the old and the new -- Grandmaster Flash did it in '82, Run DMC in '83, LL in '85, PE in '87, Tribe in '89 -- and the book on the 9-5 is still being written. For those who think hip-hop comes in a factory-sealed package, skip it, g'won home and take only those medications prescribed by your employer. For the rest of y'all, 'ere's de real ting. * * * * [Before I sign off, I'd like to thank Flash, David J., and Laze for helping me put this thing together -- it takes more work than you'd think!] //peace// <---RAP---> Section 2 -- TWO ***A*** Martay the Hip-Hop Wiz ---------------------- THE ATLANTA SCENE Atlanta is about to heat up this summer, so get ready to sweat. Too Short, who lives here more often than not these days (supposedly he splits time between here and Oaktown, but he seems to be here mostly), recently held a celebration for another Gold record at Club Illusions. I guess "Short Dog" is hella used to these events by now as many as he's had, but congratulations are due once again. Also at Club Illusions (there's always somethin') was a record release party for the Dayton Family from Po Broke records. American Rap Makers host Arnell Starr was in the house taping for his weekly video show. Po Broke (as you may have seen in the ads recently) has a deal with Relativity (who doesn't these days) and they have relocated to Atlanta from Flint, Michigan (following their homies Breed and Andre Rison?). Local rapper DJ Wen was shooting a video for his single "Thank you Mom (for being my Dad)" on Mother's Day. This is the 2nd single from his LP "You Got to Give 'em What They Want" on A & A records. Creep Dog (from the DOGS) is back on the scene solo with a new label here in Atlanta (Uniroyal Records) and a new single "Bounce that Booty". Freaknik rolled through Atlanta and mad kids came through (though not quite as many as last year) and of course Midtown and Downtown were on LockDown. The systems were bumpin' Montell, Adina and that Meth & Mary joint along with massive amounts of Miami Bass. Tha Bomb had a special Freaknik show that lasted from 8pm til 2am and that was even a simulcast with WRFG's Saturday night Hip-Hop show, so basically Freaknik was cool with the exception of a little bad weather and a few incidents of ignorance by some knuckleheads representin' dumb shit. Finally, MC Lyte was just in town recording material for her new LP and she's working with Jermaine Dupri, so I would expect something interesting from that combination (So that's why she's hangin' with Da Brat in that video). Anyway, peace for now. Martay ***B*** Helmut Mayer ------------ THE EUROPEAN SCENE "Graffitis: Same Art, Different Flavor" In the wake the mysterious January 31st incident in Fernando Valley, California, when William Masters shot at two young graffiti sprayers, killing one 18-year-old with a bullet in the back of the head and severely injuring the other (yet another case where it's rather obvious that skin color plays an all-too-important role in people's judgment), I'd like to take a look at the European, especially German, graffiti scene. It all started in the beginning of the '80s when the first waves of graffiti swept over from the States and the first grafs could be seen on walls in London and Paris. First, most grafs have been just tags of the sprayer, his/her name written on walls in graf style. I wonder, if this could be interpreted as marking territory in analogy to animal behavior. Now I could be trapped as labeling sprayers as animals, but this trap should be easily passed by thinking of people who shoot at sprayers. Why does Bob Marley's line "It's not the human race, it's just a rat race" come to my mind? Anyway, the style of names was also adopted from the US, some letters and a number at the end, for example KRS-1. Right from the start the connection with rap music was loose. Some sprayers are pure artists, some are DJs or MCs in a rap group. The thing they had in common was the thrill of illegally spraying on walls and articulating things their way. A main point of attraction for sprayers are train stations and industrial zones due to the lowered probability of running into people having problems with colors on grey walls. Stars quickly emerged inside the graf scene, and in the last several years more and more sprayers have been invited to spray a public building officially. The "illegal" art remains, however, and in Germany special police task forces are employed to chase down sprayers. Usually, the caught sprayers are fined as much as $70,000 (also depending on the estimated value of the building they sprayed on). As you might guess, many are unable to afford this, and they often go to jail for a year on the average. Some prominent names among insiders are Can2, Loomit, Gee1 (Germany) and Mode2 (France). And to all brothers and sisters in Great Britain: don't hit me for not mentioning your scene. I hope to visit London soon following up with some special pieces on HipHop culture over there. "Hip-hop's all around, the members is growing." Digable Planets' line applies very well to the graf scene in Germany where more and more sprayers come together in posses and try to take their art form to the next (hopefully peaceful) levels. Is there a special sprayer's greeting and farewell? I don't know, but this is always good... PEACE -- Helmut ***C*** Ryan 'Laze' MacMichael ---------------------- INSIDE SCOOP Macka B, Nolan Irie, and Mad Professor: The English Reggae Connection Now, sure, Jamaica is known for it's reggae, but Britain?!? Few realize the power of the strong UK reggae scene. Names like Tippa Irie and Macka B lead off the DJ set while Mad Professor, an absolute genius in the realm of dub (and beyond), takes credit for the sweetest production that side of the Atlantic. Recently, DJ Macka B, crooner Nolan Irie, and dub king Mad Professor made a 5-city showcase tour in the United States that got an extremely good response. Two shows in Honolulu, Hawaii (where "Squeeze Me" was the #1 single for the *entire* summer) started the tour off, and it ended at The Roxy in Washington, DC. I had the opportunity to make a night-trip to The Roxy to catch the show, but due to transportation problems (namely getting screwed by my ride there two days before the show and being forced to take public transportation) I only got to see the so-so opening act, local reggae band Blacki Locks. Either I need to get a car or convince the Metro to run beyond midnight. In any event, though I didn't get to catch the performance I had been waiting to see for several months, I did get to speak with Macka B and Nolan Irie -- the two vocalists on "Squeeze Me". Here's what came down at the upstairs of the noisy Roxy, in a hallway, away from the press party: LAZE: I noticed over the last few albums... actually, the last 10 or 11 albums (laugh)... that you've covered just about the whole gamut of political topics. Where are you planning to go from here since you've already covered so much material? MACKA B: Well, until we have a perfect world, I will still continue to do what I'm doing. It's far from being a perfect world, you know? Even though I've covered some things in the past, they got to be covered again, 'cause the more the people hear things, not just from me but from everybody, the more chance there is of changing things, you know? I'll just continue to do what I do. I can't say whether I'm going to do this or I'm going to do that -- I get an inspiration, and I just do it. It's kept me in good standing up till now, so I'll just keeping doing it. LAZE: Your first number one hit was using the "Invasion Dub" in about 1986, what got you working with Mad Professor? MACKA B: At the time I was doing some TV work in England, and I was on this show. Every week I had to do a topical lyric about something that happened in the week. And Professor saw one of these shows and sent a message to Birmingham, where I live, and asked if I would do some work with him. So I took some of my lyrics down to him and played them to him, and he said, "Yeah man,"... he wants to do something definitely. So in the next week we got together and he gave me some of his riddims, and I put some of my lyrics to his riddim and we came up with the piece "Sign of the Times." On the reggae circuit it did very well, number one on the reggae charts and those things. People in different countries seemed to like it as well. From then, every year we've been doing LPs and 45s. LAZE: (to Nolan Irie) Have you worked with Macka B or Mad Professor very much previous to this? NOLAN IRIE: Well, I started in Ariwa four years ago where I met Macka B. Around '90, '91, '92, '93 time I started to team up with Macka B to do a few combinations and stuff. But prior to that I was working with Professor for four years, so far, in the studio for my own album which I have out called WORK SO HARD. I'm working on a second album right now. But me and Macka B generally team up every now and again to do a tune for the people. Stuff like "Squeeze Me" or "Here Comes Trouble," whatever vibes take us at the time. LAZE: How have your shows been going so far? MACKA B: They've been going very well. We started in Hawaii and it was excellent. "Squeeze Me" was a big hit over there. The reaction was great. We did two shows in one day in Hawaii and we went to L.A. and it was good as well. And San Francisco and New York. And now Washington. LAZE: Is this your last stop? MACKA B: Yeah, yeah. Then back to England. LAZE: (to Nolan Irie) Are you pleased with how it's been going? NOLAN IRIE: Very pleased. LAZE: (again, to Nolan Irie) Are you from England, too? NOLAN IRIE: I'm from a town around 50 miles away from London. It takes me about an hour to get to the studio. I'm quite near to where the vibes is happening. But, yeah, I've been here in America. Touring around is being excellent and the vibes is being great. And you guys (points to me) are being great, too. LAZE: Thanks... have a good show. MACKA B: Alright... respect due. NOLAN IRIE: Thanks a lot, man. Both guys were very polite and wonderful to deal with. Later on I accidentally stepped on Macka B's foot (he stands a full foot taller than me -- a big, BIG man) and simply got a friendly smile in return. And I spoke again shortly with Nolan Irie as he chilled himself out at the bar. Respect due to both. I'm quite disappointed I didn't get to see the rest of the show or catch up with Mad Professor. In any event, the most recent of Macka B's releases, DISCRIMINATION (ARI 098) is a very strong political statement, yet at the same time fun and entertaining 'cause "the vibes is right." Also notable are his other recent releases, HERE COMES TROUBLE (ARI 088) which features the single "Squeeze Me" (on CD 5" at ARI 7048), JAMAICA, NO PROBLEM? (ARI 078), and BUPPIE CULTURE (ARI 048). Macka B is an often overlooked talent on the DJ scene even with his distinctive English/Jamaican accent and powerful tracks. Mad Professor owns the Ariwa label and has innumerable albums. The most recent are his "greatest-hits" of sorts, IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD PROFESSOR (ARI 105), BLACK LIBERATION DUB PT. 1 (ARI 095), and THE LOST SCROLLS OF MOSES (ARI 087). All are amazing examples of the Mad Professor's unique dub ingenuity that have yet to be matched. These guys are a very important part of the reggae scene and are often overshadowed by dancehall killers like Buju, Mega, Shabba, or Mad Cobra. But give them their due respect and check their albums and any shows near you. ***D*** Charles Isbell -------------- HOMEBOY FROM HELL MONTHLY What? You mean you've already bought it? This time: _The Infamous_ by Mobb Deep Next time: _Hiphopera_ by Volume 10 _Boxcar Sessions_ by Saafir _Black Business_ by Poor Righteous Teachers Last time: _Holy Terror_ by The Last Poets _Non-Fiction_ by Black Sheep _Genocide and Juice_ by The Coup _Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age_ by Public Enemy _Illmatic_ by Nas _Hard To Earn_ by Gang Starr Catch Ups: _Tricks of The Shade_ by The Goats [Ed. note: Yeah, right.] _Straight Outta Compton_ by N.W.A _Enta Da Wu Tang (36 Chambers)_ by Wu Tang Clan _Cypress Hill_ by Cypress Hill ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Distinctiveness: Shrug. Dopeness Rating: In point of fact, this is a solid Phat. But despite that I find myself thinking, "Well, so what?" Shrug. Rap Part: Something about the voices are a bit too, too, something, but they *do* have solid skillz and every once in a while they get off a strong lyric, even if it's about the same ol' thing. Shrug. Sounds: Usually phat, but way too familiar. Shrug. Predictions: Well, they appear to have blown up. Rotation Weight: Apparently, quite heavy... at least for a while. Message: Gangsta is still in... even in NYC. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tracks: 16 at 67 minutes. Label: RCA Producers: Exec'd by Mobb Deep, Matt Life and Schott Free Profanity: Yep, yep. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I get email from a lot of folks about my reviews. Usually, it's to say something like "I like your reviews" or "I respect your opinions even though I disagree with what you thought about MC so-and-so." Sometimes, I actually get letters that border on threatening (usually from relatively young men who tell me stuff like "you don't understand true hip hop" and "you'd better hope that no one from SomeToughCity, USA ever reads your stuff, 'cause you might get beat down"). But, like I say, by and large it's fairly positive and I don't seem to be universally hated. On the other hand, there are times when I *know* going in that I'm a pretty much all alone. For example, I can't stand Nice & Smooth. They just grate on me in a way that I can't describe. Since N&S get props, I tend to be the only one spouting this opinion at any given time. I think this is about to happen again. As far as I can tell Mobb Deep is thought to be the shiznit by a whole lot of folks. I think MD is pretty good, but there's nothing about them that's spectacular or even distinctive or interesting. After listening to them for awhile, all I can do is shrug. I mean, check it: I'm not saying that they're bad (not bad meaning good, but bad meaning bad), I'm just saying that they're pretty much in the middle of the pack in their subgenre. In a time when everybody with some skillz has a record contract, it's not enough to be good and solid. I want the folks who blow up to either bring something new to the table or to do the old stuff pretty damn well. When I load up my CD player with five CDs, I don't want to feel like I'm listening to one long record by the interchangeable MCs. The folks who make up Mobb Deep are solid, they got skillz, but that's all I can say for them. I mean, think about the NBA. Just about all of the players are better than everybody else in the world at what they do (or close enough, anyway); however, that's just not good enough. Once you make it to the NBA, you'd better do *something* more than just be better than the folks watching you on TV if you want to get special props. See what I mean? Hmmmm. Let's get this review started. "The Start of Your Ending (41st Side)" is not the obligatory introduction. It's actually a song. Five points. Havoc is up first. "25? Nah, kid, you're gettin' life Forever burnin' in hell Niggas is trife It's the... semi-auto You can bring it on, yo I'm pullin' down, strippin' niggas just like a porno flick, I'm sick" Nice muzak. Prodigy steps up next. "Where you been at? You musta cut class If it ain't me another member of my crew will kick your ass We do damage to limbs In 91 stompin' you out with black timbs" This track is pretty representative of the whole CD. A nice, vaguely WTC-like piece of muzak, some folks talking in the background, some well-delivered, if straightforward, lyrics with one or two really good lines. Can't complain. In "[The Infamous Prelude]", Prodigy takes some time out to explain a few things to us, rapper-to-listeners. "So don't ever in your life get me confused with some of them other niggas that you might see on TV or hear on the radio and such Know what I'm sayin'? I mean, this is me, P I'm speakin' for my f*ckin' self When you see me at the show, on stage, or on the street I definitely, got the gat on me, know what I'm sayin'? Know what I mean? It ain't like I'm tryin' to be a tough guy Or tryin' to make people think I'm crazy by sayin' all this sh*t" "I ain't super nigga I'm a little skinny motherf*cker It's all about who gets who first, though" I found it pretty ironic, actually, but I'm probably reading far too much into it. So, anyway, that brings us to "Survival of the Fittest," one of their big hits. Not a bad track, all things considered. Nice muzak, if a bit familar and repetitive. Lyrics said with authority. "As long as fiends smoke crack I'll be on the block hustling countin' my stacks" "But sh*t happens for a reason You find who's your true peoples when you upstate bleedin'" But they're the same lyrics you heard before, aren't they? Or am I just insane? Anyway, this a good release in that it tells you a lot about the album. If you really like this song, you'll probably be into the whole CD. That brings us to "Eye for an Eye (Your Beef is Mines)". This one features Raekwon the Chef and, of course, Nas, last year's NY wunderkind. "Let me start at the beginning" "Another war story from a thirsty young hustler Won't trust ya, I'd rather bust ya And leave ya cold for the cops to discover" Anyway, another solid effort. Good choice o' beat. Nice lyrics. Can't say anything bad about it. "[Just Step Prelude]" comes up next. It's about a minute of a capella... "It's all strange My niggas locked down thinking long-range And see they names in the Daily News third page" ...that presumably acts as somewhat of an intro for "Give Up The Goods (Just Step)" featuring Noyd. This one's a bit less familar on the muzak tip, a bit sparser with even more in-your-face lyrical stylin'. "I can't cope with these niggas tryin' to shorten my rope" "Know what I mean? I'm a natural born hustler Won't try to cut ya Pull out my 44 and bust ya" I like this one a little more than I do the other tracks so far, but I'm not really sure why. It might be the combo of the faster tempo behind the otherwise more relaxed muzak. Whatever it is, I kinda like it. Similary, "Temperature's Rising" does it for me, as well. Nice sample, too (except that drum really gets on my nerves). "Just say ya guilty" It's more of a story that the other tracks and I appreciate the effort. "Years ago when we were younger Seems the hood took us under" Pretty good. This brings us to "Up North Trip." "Chill for a while, make them think the beef's stopped" "Watch the cocaine boil Keep my eye on it so the sh*t won't spoil" I don't like it. Plain muzak and so-so lyrics that don't go well together. "Trife Life" is better. Better sample, too. "Check it out, son So we take the gats for precautions Plus this trick lives in Brooklyn, home of the coffins She might got a whole battalion of buck-downers waitin' for us to get off the train and surround us. Or maybe I'm blowin' the sh*t out of proportion But the sh*T do happen to niggas very often So f*ck it, a nigga gotta do what he meant to 'F*ck the world' is my mental" Nothin' new story-wise, but it's told well, so that's fine. "Q.U.-Hectic" has solid muzak. Solid flow. Solid delivery. "Ain't nothin' soft or sweet I lift ya off your feet When I cock back the heat" It's nothing special, really. "Right Back At You" is a bit more original. I kinda like it. Big Noyd and Raekwon return, joining Ghostface Killer (is there any album some Wu-Tang Clan member isn't on? Anywhere?). "Imma point the finger at all you wannabe gun-slingers You got a real ice grill but are you really real? Step to the hill and Imma test your gun skillz Cause real niggas don't try to profile You just a chump who needs to get drunk to buck wild But swing that bullsh*t this way and Imma make your vist to the bridge a motherf*ckin' short stay" I like it anyway. "[The Grave Prelude]" reminds me of the middle sequence from Cube's "Alive on Arrival" off _Death Certificate_. "Don't worry about me, man. Get Boyd." It segues to "Cradle To the Grave" "They locked me up for twelve days I can't comprehend Now I'm a free man on the streets again chasin' St Ides down with some Segram's Gin Life is like a dice game and I'm in it to win." "Yo got my mind on a place to hide from police sweatin' dogs as I'm runnin' cross 12th street" This is another good one, muzak wise. Otherwise, same story, different track. Q-Tip is featured on "Drink Away The Pain (Situations)." It opens with a nice little play on the UTFO candy-rhyme from way back when with candies replaced by, well, you guess. "You know she drive me crazy She's my number one lady Met her back in '89 actin' like she's forty" Anyway, to no one's surprise, Q-Tip is on and the production is all good. Muzak is top-notch and the lyrics are much better than usual. "She started gettin' jealous Steamed, cause I spent more green on the fellas 'F*ck them niggas, spend that cheese on me. See if they be around when you need p*ssy.'" This brings us to "Shook Ones Pt II". Like "Survival of the Fittest," it's done quite well on the radio/video circuit and has been played to death. "Cowards like you just get they whole body laced up with bullet holes and such Speak the wrong words and you will be touched" "And no such things as halfway crooks." Anyway, you've heard the song before. It's pretty good at what it is and it's fairly representative of the whole album. Big Noyd returns for the last track, "Party Over." Damn good beat. "My beeper kept beepin' the other numbers startin' leakin' Who was this on my mind I was thinkin'" And Big Noyd drops serious lyrical bombs this time around. "'But she's cryin' and she says has feelin's and sh*t'" I really like that line. Hmmmm. Well, that's it. Bottom line? Well, I like 'em. And if you like the songs you've heard from them so far, you won't be disappointed with the CD. You'll listen to it for a little while and bob your head when you hear a song on the radio or see them on BET. If that makes you happy, then by all means pick up the album and be happy. Go forth. Ahhh, but will you grab this CD five years from now when you're looking for a semi-classic? Or even a year from now? My guess is: no and no. If you're in a gangsta mood, you'll probably pick up _Straight Outta Compton_ or _Amerikkka's Most Wanted_ instead. Or maybe _OG_. On the other hand, it's not like every hip hop album you own has to be a classic. This is a solid effort and, like I say, if you like the releases so far, you won't be upset with the album (as opposed to, say, Craig Mack, who had a great single and a compartively weak album). I guess I'm saying that they're good. Not great. Not weak-as-hell. Good. It's a nice album and probably as good as most of the stuff you own. It's not like you'd be buying Hammer or something. There. Glad I could help. But that's just one Black man's opinion--what's yours? (C) Copyright 1995, 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.... ***E*** Jesse Bauer ----------- THE SINGLES FILE Sunz of Man: "Soldiers of Darkness" b/w "Five Arch Angels" Wu-Tang Records is coming out hard with new group Sunz of Man. The crew is very reminiscent of Gravediggaz; both tracks feature undoubtedly shaolin beats with an especially eerie twist and horrorcore- type rhymes. "Soldiers of Darkness" and the b-side, "Five Arch Angels," are both solid tracks produced by 4th Disciple. Sure, you may at first want to say they are copies of other shaolin groups, but when you get down to it, the shit is good as hell. The Gza/Genius: "Labels" Another solo bid out of the Wu (although not his first), the Genius gives us "Labels" in which he illustrates his hate for record companies and their structure. Currently its not available for retail sale, but should be out on a B-side sometime in the near future. Check out the clever lyrics as the Gza is "hittin' batters up with the Wild Pitch style" (notice the reference to the now-extinct label -- RIP). The Rza-produced song has both a Gza mix and a Rza mix with original, clean, instrumental, and acapella versions included. Both mixes are nice. The B.U.M.S: "Take a Look Around" b/w "Rain" Hella mixes are on this 12" for the A-side, but what you really need to do is check out "Rain". The cut features Saafir and is produced by Joe Quixx. Damn! With the B.U.M.S lyrics like "I bet your body jiggle like gelatin / when I crack your vertabraes and extract ya endoskeleton", the Saucee Nomad's ill style (my man comes off PHAT on his verse) and Joe Quixx rippin it up "on the fader" you could "put 20 bitches in a circle and you still couldn't fuck around" with it!! A must peep!! Special Ed: "Neva Go Back" b/w "Just A Killa" Special Ed finally gives us another one, after years and years of waiting. The first single of the new LP is fairly promising. Ed is "pumpin' like Donovan, plus a little vicious" on this one with a phat sound. Plenty of versions (album, radio, instrumental, and acapella) are included on the 12". The only real negative is the B-side featuring Bounty Killer. Straight up, the song is BUTT. Still, "Neva Go Back" and the fact that it is Special Ed makes it a must. AZ: "Sugar Hill" Phat, melodic beats with fine singing on the part of Miss Jones accompany AZ's flow very well. The song definitely makes you think back to Nas and "Life's a Bitch" which, of course, isn't too bad of a thing to remember. Usually I'm not a fan of singing in my hiphop songs, but "Sugar Hill" gets only better because of it... Lin Que: "Let It Fall" b/w "Par Ley" What the hell happened to Lin Que? She is back and she has some rough beats and rough rhymes. "Let It Fall" proves she can rap with the best of female MCs and after an abscence, is a very pleasant surprise. ***F*** Ryan "Laze" MacMichael ---------------------- BACK TO THE OLD SCHOOL This month I'm going to take us back... way back... Pre-Grandmaster Flash. Pre-Sugarhill Gang. Back to August 1969. That's when Miles Davis' style-changing BITCHES BREW was recorded. Over 90 minutes of some of the weirdest jazz to ever be recorded by one of the true masterminds of the music. This is one of the hardest albums for old-school Miles' fans to digest. It's such a drastic change from MILES SMILES, KIND OF BLUE, and especially his earlier BIRTH OF THE COOL work. I had a very tough time accepting it when I listened to it a year or so ago. I picked it up from the library again, recently, though to give it another listen. I'm glad I did. Because even though I love the classic Miles Davis more than _anything_, this record changed music as a whole. Everything from 70's rock (this album eventually led to the TRIBUTE TO JACK JOHNSON shortly after) to modern jazz was affected. And today, looking back, hip-hop was also affected, even though it was still in it's embryonic stages at that time. The first cut, "Pharoah's Dance" has such an odd electric feel to it that if you can't dig the first two minutes, the rest of the album isn't worth the time for you. But at the same time, there are loops galore in this first two minutes that have a frighteningly eerie feel to them -- eerie enough to give the water samples in "Come Clean" a run for their money. This cut is prophetic in the idea that it predicted the down, dirty, scummy electric-sounding samples that would be used in hip- hop 25 years later. The second cut is the title track. This song has perhaps the illest bassline one will ever hear -- why it hasn't been sampled I don't know (or should I say, before I just sampled it). Then about three minutes into the cut come the drums -- they are the backbone of this piece of the 27 minute song. A drum roll leads in, and instead of dropping a snare on the first down beat, the drummer pauses and hits on the upbeat and then moves into a more conventional, yet hip-hoppish stutter-style drum set. As I listened to this cut, I started to freestyle... it seemed so right. This bit of the song is a break beat gone berserk with sounds! Pure flavor. "Spanish Key" kicks off with drums and bass that make it sound like Curtis Mayfield's going to break out with "Superfly", but then the odd Scooby-Dooish wavering keys come in along with seemingly random electric piano shots by none other than Chick Corea. Miles' trumpet seem a lot more deliberate and on beat than the previous two cuts, which helps the organized confusion of this song. About three minutes into this one, the flavor drops to strict head-bobbing with a moving bass, active drums and noise all over! Following is "John McLaughlin", a much shorter cut than any of the others on this album. It's a pretty hard cut to dig, to tell the truth. There seems to be very little structure to this song except for the guitar which knows exactly where it's going (sounds like Eric Clapton) -- a totally different direction from the rest of the instruments. From the get-go "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" sounds like a slowed-down, funked-up version of a track that Cypress Hill would be rhyming on. This 14-minute groove is fluid. Just jump on the wave and ride it. Period. Closing out the set is "Sanctuary". Though not especially hip- hop sounding, the overpowering Davis trumpet solo has some good sampling opportunities. So the question I'm asking myself now is: "Where were my producer's ears last year?" I guess certain things grow on you as your mind expands and you begin to notice early influences in works like BITCHES BREW. To tell the truth, maybe Miles should have left Easy Mo Bee alone during the Doo-Bop recording and called Wayne Shorter and crew back in. ***G*** Professa R.A.P. --------------- ROOTS 'N' RAP Diggin' in the Crates, part 2: The Meters / Josie Records There's no mistaking Hip-hop's distinctive beat -- boom-bap, original rap -- whether it's backing up Heavy D and his Boyz or Sinead O'Connor. And when you start to search for the roots of this beat, the telltale trail takes you to one of two places -- Memphis, where Booker T. and the MG's Al Jackson Jr. sent out a whiff of those funky onions, or else a bit further down south -- N'Awlins to be precise -- where Joseph "Ziggy" Modeliste put sticks to skins and plugged in the original live wire of fatback funk with the Meters. Modeliste's driving, funk-hop beats are without peer, and have made the Meters' Josie Records singles among the most sought after by DJ's for years. But the ultimate history of the Meters is as old as Crescent City itself, and is tangled up with that first family of funky southern soul, the Nevilles. So let's take it on back: The Neville brothers had been making music since the mid-50's, when Art Neville's vocals on "Mardi Gras Mambo" kicked off his career with Hawketts. By the mid-60's, though, he was looking for new avenues of creativity, forming a band fronted by brothers Aaron and Cyril that was then known as the Neville Sounds. It was this band which brought aboard Modeliste, along with George Porter Jr. on bass -- and which inspired Art to switch to a Hammond B-3 organ. Guitarist Leo Nocentelli filled out the instrumental sound with his combination of well-timed solos and burning bits of rhythm. While the Neville Sounds honed their skills with regular live gigs, it was the instrumental backbone that caught the ears of producer Allen Toussaint, who brought them to his Sansu label, where they became the in-house band, much as Booker T. and the MG's had up at Stax. At Sansu, they backed up artists such as Lee Dorsey, Betty Harris, Irma Thomas, and brother Aaron. In 1969, they signed a contract with Josie Records and became The Meters, turning out more classics that year than most artists do in a decade, among them "Sophisticated Cissy" (Josie 1001), "Cissy Strut" (Josie 1005), "Ease Back" (Josie 1008), and "Look a Py-Py" (Josie 1015). Another standout cut from this period is 1970's "Chicken Strut" (Josie 1018), which was picked up by DJ Mark the 45 King for Queen Latifah's "Wrath of My Madness." What was it that made these tracks so potent, so suggestive, so effortlessly funky? Modeliste's drum style is part of the answer, but the true reason is deeper than that: everyone in the Meters played rhythm. Unlike many other bands of the time, who played all over the beat, the Meters accented the drums and built their sounds within Modeliste's percussive parsing. The result was something wholly new, and though they couldn't have known it at the time, it was a hip-hop DJ's dream come true. Any Meters album is a breakbeat album; as Porter describes it: "I guess the reason why our tracks are used so much in the hip- hop thing is that they were serious rhythm tracks waiting for a melody. It was like having a window without the curtains because we had nice big, gaping holes in the music." (qtd. in the _Funkify Your Life_ booklet) Seeing the Meters live around 1970 must have been something like seeing hip-hop _in utero_; many of these classic tracks (such as "Cissy Strut") started out as "break songs" -- that is, instrumentals played just before the band took a break, during which Art Neville would tell the crowd to stick around, they'd be right back. It had all the ingredients of hip-hop except a turntable. Within the next couple of years the Meters branched out further, filling out a new prescription for funk that was so far ahead of its time that no other pharmacy could dispense it. In 1970, way back before Bootsy Collins, the Meters were already exhorting their audiences to "Stretch Your Rubber Band" over a dense conjunction of pumping drums, thumping bass, and alternating keyboards and guitar riffs. "A Message from the Meters," recorded that same year, brought social commentary together with funky backup in a way that foreshadowed everyone from George Clinton to Grandmaster Flash. The mid-70's saw more expansion for the Meters, and a major- label contract with Warner Brothers/Reprise. For better or worse, this contract meant what it still means for all too many groups: less control of the final product. Nocentelli, putting it politely, notes in retrospect that "at that time, Warner Brothers was very, very inexperienced in terms of R&B." The group put in long hours in the studio, only to see the results rejected by Warners' staff (check out the Rounder records compilation _Good Old Funky Music_ to hear some of the "outtakes" from these sessions -- some of the funkiest grooves ever committed to tape). Eventually, under pressure from all sides, the members of the group went their separate ways, though they have reunited on occasion, and a version of the group tours today with Art Neville as "The Funky Meters," (George Porter is the only other original group member to remain in this new configuration). Nocentelli and Modeliste have gravitated to Los Angeles, where Nocentelli bases his own namesake band; the two have also joined to provide backup for artists such as Earl King and Maceo Parker. Modeliste took a turn on drums on Nicky Skopelitis's Laswell-produced _Ekstasis_ album, besides his regular gig with the Nervis Brothers band. If you listen to his drumming on _Ekstasis_, you can hear that it still packs every ounce of funk that it did twenty-six years ago, even when buried under new-agey funk-rock guitar. In part on account of their relative obscurity, the Meters are in the odd position of having samples that are more recognizable than the originals. Besides the "Funky Chicken" loop on "Wrath of my Madness" mentioned earlier, the Meters have turned up in all kinds of surprising places. As far back as 1970, "Look-ka Py Py" generated a Jamaican cover version (by the Hippy Boys), and the cross-currents between the islands and the Meters remains strong (check out 1972's "Soul Island" for the other half of the call-and-response). Del tha Funkyhomosapien took a slowed-down loop of "Same Old Thing" for his diss track "Same Ol' Thing" (on 1991's "I Wish my Brother George was Here"). Jam Master Jay cut a snippet of the same track on Run-DMC's "For the Maker" on their "Down with the King" album. And K-Cut picked up "Ease Back" (along with a snippet from Wilmer and the Dukes, another Sansu records act) to help Queen Latifah demonstrate "The Way We Flow." In fact, the more you start listening for them, the more Meters loops you start to hear -- Salt'n'Pepa, Heavy D & the Boyz, Das EFX, Ice Cube, and Big Daddy Kane have all wrapped their rhymes around a Meters track or two. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY Luckily for all of us, Rhino Records earlier this year issued the first anthology to cover the Meters' recordings for both Josie Records and Reprise in real depth. The title is "Funkify Your Life: The Meters Anthology" (R2 71869), and it fills 2 cd's to the brim with uncut N'Awlins funk. For those interested in searching out more, the various Charly Records releases include most of the Meters' early recordings, as well as other configurations of the Neville Brothers; you could start with "Legacy: A History of the Nevilles" (CD NEV 001-2), which includes a generous helping of the Meters. Rounder Records has also done its share, both by re-releasing the Look-ka-Py-Py album (Rounder CD 2103) and by issuing the studio tapes that form "Good Old Funky Music" (Rounder CD 2104). Those interested in a sample of what the Meters sounded like live can also check out "Uptown Rulers! Live on the Queen Mary" (Rhino R2 70376), a sonic treat recorded in 1975 at an industry party for Paul McCartney and Wings (with whom the Meters had recorded on "Venus and Mars"). I'm indebted in this article to Don Snowden for his extensive liner notes to "Funkify Your Life," as well as to Gilles Bacon and Clive Anderson for discographical and historical information. Section 3 -- THREE ***A*** Steve 'Flash' Juon ------------------ THE SOURCE -- STRAIGHT SLIPPIN' Here's a quiz for all the hip-hop heads in the internet who digest music periodicals the way I snack on Pringles Right Crisps: who remembers the following in The Source magazine -- 1. Regional Reports? 2. A Top 15 instead of a "Heavy Rotation?" 3. No fashion spreads? 4. Record ratings you could actually trust? 5. Singles got reviewed alongside the albums instead of "Sure Shot Singles?" 6. When Havoc and Prodigy won "Unsigned Hype" before they were Mobb Deep? 7. On the tip of #6, remember when Biggie Smallz won? The Artifacts? 8. When James Bernard used to "Do the Knowledge?" 9. When Reginald C. Dennis was in any way involved? Ponder six and seven for a moment. Why have none of the recent Unsigned Hype winners gotten large? Back in the days, KRS-ONE and I both knew rap would never die, and the hip-hop nation knew The Source was truly THE SOURCE for hip-hop music and culture, coast to coast. One minute you had an Islamic Summit, the next minute Public Enemy was on the cover, and you could find full-length interviews with Heavy D, KMD, and 3rd Bass between the same sheets. Those were the days... Nowadays, however, The Source can't seem to get anything right. In fact, they look and read more like an 8th grade suburban hip-hop wannabe. This magazine, once the bible of hip-hop, now seems unable to keep the difference between tracks on an NWA LP and on their EP straight (just check their Eazy-E post mortem). Speaking of Eazy, how many times did they put him or Luke on the cover in the past 18 months? And what about somebody a little more deserving like Pharcyde or Brand Nubian? GOOD LUCK. I should have known better the first time TLC graced an issue. And since when did I care about what gear the most upwardly mobile hip-hop head could afford to wear? My perspective is that I'd rather wear torn jeans, a ratty hat, and some ass-out faded dungy gray Nike's than sport all the shit they show in the magazine and have NO money for my hip-hop music. Who's with me on this? Did you really want to look at some Michael Jackson impersonator giving Karl Kani another free ad? I don't give a FUCK about that shit (and that's word to Vibe magazine too). We've all known it ever since the staff walked because Almighty RSO threatened their way into an issue. Still, the words need to be said, and to those hip-hop journalists, personalities, and fans everywhere who read HardC.O.R.E., I'm putting it out there for everyone to see: The Source is STRAIGHT SLIPPIN'. And do me a favor -- somebody tell that wack-ass samlove@aol.com that you do NOT subscribe to HardC.O.R.E. by e-mailing the guys in charge at their old, cancelled e-mail addresses. Why didn't he come to THE MAN with the facts instead of reprinting facts from a year-old subscription drive? These guys check facts about as well as Biggie checks his figure. When my subscription runs out, I'm letting it. If your subscription is running out, do yourself a favor and do the same. Section 4 -- FOUR **************************************************************************** THE OFFICIAL HARDC.O.R.E. REVIEW SECTION The pH scale 6/pHat -- EE-YOW!! A hip-hop classic! 5/pHunky -- Definitely worth the price of admission. 4/pHine -- Pretty good, give it a listen. 3/pHair -- Some potential here, but it's not fully realized. 2/pHlat -- Falls far short of a quality product. 1/pHlat -- Get that Vanilla Lice shit outta here! **************************************************************************** ***A*** Steve 'Flash' Juon ------------------ CATALYST ENTERTAINMENT 12's Things have kind of been on slow and low lately from my man Marc, but I still gotta give my props where props is due for the free shit and the good shit he keeps hooking me up with. That said, the remix 12" of Funkdoobiest's "Dedicated" is *all* that. Both remixes are on the money, my favorite being the Funkmaster Flex version, although Jazzy Jeff's slice will probably get the most radio play, and it's the only remix that also includes an instrumental. If you haven't heard the original version of this track, it uses the familiar Roy Ayers loop from "Everybody Loves the Sunshine" and speaks of the homies who have fallen, gone, or moved on. The lyrics haven't changed for these new versions, but the music is as good if not better. Funkdoobiest remixes are never a dissapointment, which is one of the best things the group had to their credit despite a somewhat mediocre debut LP. However, I think I can wholeheartedly recommend their new LP "Brotha's Doobie" despite the fact it probably won't have the cool remixes, and I look forward to Marc sending me a copy to review. Peace. pH rating - 5/pHunky ***B*** Professa R.A.P. --------------- CHANNEL LIVE, "Station Identification" (Capitol) MAD LION, "Real Ting" (Weeded/Nervous) Without question, KRS-ONE is one of the most formidable MC's on the planet. From "Criminal Minded" to "Return of the Boom Bap," the Blastmaster has ruled non-stop, and while other rappers from the mid- 80's are all "Outta Here," Kris just keeps getting stronger, as his mind- bending freestyle "Ah Yeah" (on the "Pump Ya Fist" compilation) proves. A few months ago, I read about someone who called a bunch of rappers on the telephone and asked them to drop a freestyle on the spot -- it came as no surprise that KRS-ONE was the only one who met the challenge. Kris's production skills, however, are another story. His efforts for former members of the BDP posse, such as Ms. Melodie and Sista Harmony, were lackluster at best, and parts of the H.E.A.L. album were downright embarrassing (no disrespect, Kris -- but hearing you and Michael Stipe bouncing off each other along with Harmony's tuneless vocals has gotta be one of the all-time low-marks of music in general, never mind hip-hop). With dancehall tracks, KRS -- one of the first rappers to drop some ragga flavor -- has fared better. He seems to be at his best when he finds a collaborator -- like Shabba Ranks -- who has enough lyrical prowess to fill out the raw ghetto sound he favors. So it was with some trepidation that I picked up two recent releases -- Channel Live's "Station Identification" and Mad Lion's "Real Ting" -- both produced by KRS-One. Sure, "Mad Izm" was the bomb, and Mad Lion's "Take It Easy" had been ringin' in my ears for months -- but I wasn't sure what whole KRS-produced albums would sound like in the '95... I have to say I am impressed. Where others looking to blend hip- hop and dancehall sounds have failed, Kris has prevailed, while at the same time droppping an incredible variety of unheard-of beats with Channel Live. I think it's safe to say that he'll be a candidate for best producer in next year's New Jack Hip-Hop Awards. In a time of faceless funk and production-line junk, Kris's new sound offers everyone else a free tutorial on how to do it right. I'll start with Mad Lion, since it's been in the works the longest. I'll never know what it is with the recording industry, that it takes over a year to follow up chart-busting singles with an album, and this disc was delayed over and over in the shifting sands of the spring lineup. I was almost beginning to forget what I was waiting for, but hearing the new single "Own Destiny" on the "New Jersey Drive" soundtrack reminded me. With gunshots ricocheting like Prince Buster in Dallas, Texas ("This is a hold up!"), the Lion got lyrics in gear and bounced off everything from Tenor Saw to I-Roy, a tour-de-force few dancehall artists could muster. So when "Real Ting" dropped, I was waiting in line. Kris kicks it right off with the old boom bap: "Betcha didn't know we was comin' like this!" "'Ow does it feel?" Not bad, for starts. Then the Lion runs into "Double Trouble": Double Trouble That's what ya get when my blood pressure bubble Dis ting'll get ya body turned into rubble Ya never were cool, ya never were humble Now its time fe de bad boys, dem rumble The Lion's voice flows over #1 brother Kenny Parker's bass-heavy riddim like boiling coffee on a hot stovetop; unlike some dancehall rhymers (who sound as though they gargle with Drano to try to crawl down into Buju Banton's vocal range), Mad Lion has a lot of tune in his grumble, and uses it to full effect. He throws down challenge after challenge, from the gangsta rhymes of "See a Man Face" to "Shoot to Kill." The only sour note is a pointless paean to the 9mm, "Nine on my Mind," in which the Lion flexes his "singing" skills a bit too far. More to my liking is "That's All We Need," which opens with a snippet of Tenor Saw stylee, followed by some madd lyrics wrapped around a chanted chorus like fingers around a blunt: Mad hip-hop Reggae and weed That is all the real niggaz dem need It flows perfectly into the fast-paced ricochets of "Own Destiny," which melds with equal ease into the similarly flavored "Crazy." Hearing the singles in the context of the whole album, you have to give Mad Lion major props for versatility in a form where it's hard to tell one growler from another. KRS brings it all to another level with his production skills, making "Big Box of Blunts," into a perfect blend of hip-hop and dancehall sound, and comes to front with "Bad Luck" Yes, without a fraction of a doubt Chillin' Know what I'm sayin'? Big respect, Bronx in the house Know what I'm sayin'? Brooklyn, 'nuff respect Uptown! You know what time it is! This is that hard, hard hard CORE! Word. The raw ghetto sound is in full effect here, and Mad Lion takes the occasion to toss out his resume: I 'member back in the days when Mad Lion wasn't paid Bad boy from Brooklyn with the flat-top fade Reggae artists go through all the same shit If you ain't got no name, people cyan't get wid it Everyone's a music critic, tellin' you the way to go Now it's Mad Lion rippin' live show and radio On the radio, just like a jam comedy hour If ya say ya wack, well ya gotta go Ya know, I'm weeded, I'm definitely heated The chorus you'll repeat it, repeat it, repeat it! Hip-hip glock glock, you're inna bad luck Test my line and get fucked! It's the kind of track that gets under your skin bit by bit, 'till you don't even need a tape to hear it -- your head will be noddin' in your sleep. Then the title track rolls up with its catchy counterpoint between Lion's roars and Marlon Steward's smooth vocals, which should give groups like the Born Jamericans a run for their money. In fact, thinking of the Jamericans, you start to realize how deeply Lion is steeped in Jamaican sound; I kept having to remind myself that he's from Brooklyn. Hearing the creeping grooves of "Take It Easy" once again, it's clear that KRS-One's production and the Lion's non-stop flow are both part of the equation; together, they take both hip-hop and dancehall to the next plateau. Kris's funky boom-bap minimalism draws on the best of the current crop of Jamaican sounds, even as it remains totally New York, and if the Lion stalks closer to the city than the Yard, it doesn't show in his high-decibel growls. The whole tape is butter from start to finish, and though you've probably heard a few of these tracks before, you won't mind hearing them again. Channel Live is one of those straight-outta-nowhere success stories that shows that, at least some of the time, skills alone *will* prevail. The story is that Hakim and Tuffy met KRS-ONE at one of his H.E.A.L. lectures and gave him a copy of their tape. Ya gotta admit, it takes nerve to do, but it worked; KRS himself sat down with these brothers and produced a new demo, which landed them a contract with Capitol Records. Remaining on as producer -- and lyrical counterpoint on "Mad Izm" and "What! (Cause and Effect)," Kris lent Channel Live the kind of doctor-assisted sucka-cide not too many young rappers get. After hearing them trade rhymes with him, the only question is whether they can kick it on their own -- and the rest of the tracks they prove that they can. That's not to say that it's all even. "Station Identification" and "Sex for the Sport" feature Rheji Burrell's smooth-with-a-creepy edge production, and the rhymes are up to the task -- though nothing too special. "Lock It Up," "Alpha and Omega," and "Homicide Ride" showcase Fugees backup man Salaam Remi, who digs a bit deeper in the crates; his jazzy loops on "Lock It Up" have a 'Midnight Marauders' kinda feel, and his spooky piano on "Alpha and Omega" evokes a horrorcore landscape that matches the lyrics perfectly. Ultimately, though, the production on this album suffers from the smorgasbord effect, and it's the Blastmaster's back-to-basics sound that gives the album its underlying unity. For instance, on "What! (Cause and Effect)," Hakim drops the message over one of the funkiest beats on the disc (listen for the samples from the Meters' "Handclapping Song"): Modern day slaves makin' the trade for the riches Our bruthas ain't niggaz and our sistas ain't bitches Mental psychosis, negative osmosis, Yo, I be a pimp with some new type hoe shit Which leads right into "Mad Izm," which has already blown up, and "Reprogram," which is about to. It's some strong stuff: I and me, don't try me, G I rip tha beef off ya back Ya fuckin' with the Lion and me I got juice, for suits or groups That wanna stoop to get slowed down like parachutes Rippin' shit, my flavor kicks like En Vogue hits So hold on, ya never ever fuckin' get it Damn. After these tracks, you start to think these guys can do anything. "Sex for the Sport" keeps the flow going, and "Down Goes the Devil" provides the best fuck-tha-police drama since Ice Cube went fishing for cops with donuts in "Say Hi to the Bad Guy": I walk around maintaining, not to be a rebel But everywhere I look or go, there's another devil He plays a role, like ya down, faker than an actor Before he gets to me, I'm trackin' down the damn cracker I got madd stress, I can't take it no more Day after day, devils follow me through the stores Like my pores, it's sweatin' me and upsettin' me I don't steal, but I'll wet cha G, just for testin' me I always be looking in the mirror of my Land Rover See-uh, the Oversee-uh, pulls me ovah Just 'cos I got a Jeep with a fat system Put down ya gun, we'll go toe to toe mista! Hakim and Tuffy share KRS-One's revolutionary ethic, and their channels transmit more reality than most "reality" rappers can handle; it's not about packin' a gun, it's about knowing the real enemy: the capitalistic bourgeois system. On other cuts, though, this political awareness seems to slip a bit; "Alpha and Omega," with Remi's catchy but predictable horrorcore loops and its twilight-zone lyrics, comes off like a rerun on Nick at Nite, and "Homicide Ride" (another Remi track), despite its vivid brain- splattering imagery, goes past the point of pointlessness in an effort to drop showy metaphors. Ultimately, though, you have to acknowledge that these are two talented kids who can really bust some knowledge, even in a time when it's almost going out of style. They should watch out, though, that they don't stray too far from their Teacha -- consciousness can evaporate all too quickly on the music-industry hot plate. pH level (for both albums) -- 5/pHunky ***C*** N.A.Smith@bradford.ac.uk ------------------------ COLLAPSED LUNG, "Jackpot Goalie" (Decepetive Records) "Who the HELL is Collapsed Lung?" you may well be asking yourselves. God only knows, but they've got an excellent band name. The band Collapsed Lung is a mixture of rap and rock. The only similar type of band to compare them with is Senser, although Collapsed Lung is perhaps not as hardcore. They previously dropped one 12 inch ("Chainsaw Wedgie") and an EP ("Thunderslyinvacar") before this album, which was released on April 4th in the U.K. and met with lukewarm reviews from this country's reviewers. This is a mixture of styles. Some songs have excellent funky bass lines whilst others are straight out mosh pit anthems. Interested?? Read on... The first tune is called "Maclife intro", and indeed is just that. Loads of samples overlaying a loud bass line. Then kicks in "Maclife". This is perhaps the most hip-hop oriented track, with the rapper's (can't remember his name, sorry) smooth raps complementing the drums and guitars. The Lyrics are a bit questionable in the sense that they make no sense (e.g. "Gotta hand it to the bandits/It's a gambit but their skin is all the thicker/Nicely into a Cherrypicker"). I suppose if you like the Pharcyde then you'll dig this. The following two tracks "Down with the plaid fad" and "East my goal" have both been labeled by the Melody Maker as "dead cert singles" and will go down well with the British indie seen (currently obsessed with bands such as Blur and Blur). They are hardcore with thrashing guitars and smashed up drums and have excellent chanting capabilities (like "Jump Around" by House of Pain). It's hard to keep your feet on the ground while listening to these two! The fifth track is called "Interactive" and is about the Internet. It was made for a Channel 4 television program called Equinox) and features the talents of Anne Anxiety Bandex. The rapper's smooth lyrics put together with the female's well-sung chorus makes this a laid back number which is reminiscent of the Stereo MC's. The album from here on in gets a little played with the same styles appearing again repeatedly. Two tracks worthy of a mention are "Burn Rubber Burn" and "Dis MX" which are both brilliant jump-up-and- down-lots-and-get-very-sweaty songs. Overall, I liked the album, even though I thought it wasn't as good as their first releases. I imagine it will be one that grows on me (such as Ill Communication by the Beastie Boys). It's not exactly relaxing music but would be good at a party of the "Come-Up" or when your on the way out to get pissed. Oh, and the lyrics are funny as fuck!: "The only gangsters I know sit outside the Baptist Church and drink Tango." pH Level -- 4/pHine ***D*** Steve 'Flash' Juon ------------------ EAST COAST TRIBE, "Bassment Tape '95" (Bahari Records) Why hasn't this label gotten large yet? They've got to be getting pretty massive in Atlanta by now. I remember when they put out "33 1/3 First Day of School" and their roster consisted of two or three artists. Now their roster has fairly well known small hip-hop artists like Natural, Reign of Terror, J. Bond and DJ Goldfinger, and MUCH more. After a short intro, B-Right (yeah, that same brotha who wrote about Bob Marley for HardC.O.R.E.'s Feb/Mar issue) drops some serious science on "Fight 4 Watcha Stand 4." Tossing up a nice mix of serious MC mind development with a little reggae toasting, he comes off with KRS- ONE flavor over a piano type loop. Yeah, I can dig it... I think we all remember Martay talking about Natural from his monthly column on Atlanta, well here she drops much flavor on two cuts -- "True Indeed" and "Just Don't Get It", one per side. For my money, this girl could take on Hurricane G in a one on one and come out on the top. Better yet, I'd like to see them in a duet together -- could be SMOOVE. She could use some better beats though. Calling DJ Premier? "No One is Safe" from the Reign of Terror, as they put the horror into hip-hop the way it *should* be done. Keep an eye out for their full length LP, coming to a record store near you soon -- should be Halloween meets the Crypt Keeper meets Onyx meets Atlanta. Yeah, Martay's cut is aight, but I sweat the beat more than his flow (sorry bro). J Bond and DJ Goldfinger have got some smooth flavors going in "J on my Mind." I've been told their album is Bass type shit but this cut is one to groove to, real slow-like, not bump and grind with. If their album was like this they'd give Big Daddy Kane a run for hip-hop dons of the slow dance song. To be honest their are weak points to this sampler. I'm not checking for 'jerome' (damn Boyz II Men wanna-be mark), Rhythmlord, or the Warridue Kids. None of their shit on the first or the second side of this Bahari Sampler impresses me, but I suppose it's a good sign that this label can afford to sign some great acts and have a few mediocre ones as filler. All in all, though, the future of this label is bright. If somebody offers you a copy of this tape, it's worth the time -- as are most of their artists. pH rating - 5/pHunky ***E*** Professa R.A.P. --------------- FUN^DA^MENTAL, "Seize The Time" (Beggars Banquet/Mammoth/Atlantic) [Editor's note: An earlier, 2-CD import version of these recordings was reviewed a while back in Vol. 2 of HardC.O.R.E., but since these brothers have now released their work in the U.S. on a 1-disc version on Mammoth, it seemed like a good time to remind everyone that missed them the first time that they're still in full effect.] Fun^da^mental has been called the UK's answer to Public Enemy, and with good reason. Their uncompromising assaults on racism, their militant Islamic rhymes, and even their dense wall-of-noize mix brings to mind the glory days of "It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back." Yet something is very different too; instead of the funky drummer, the beats are a blend of bhangra and hip-hop, with tablas joining the cymbals, and the mix includes Islamic quwaali chants along with flutes, digerdoos, and something called the Vox Daraaboca. It's a unique blend, born of the UK's intersecting diasporas of Pakistan, India, Africa, and the Caribbean that has recently given birth to such artists as Apache Indian, Transglobal Underground, and Marxman. Yet despite the intensity of the music and lyrics, the fusion doesn't always work, which can make listening to the album all the way through a frustrating experience. I can't quite put my finger on it -- but let's take it track by track, and have a look at the what works and what doesn't. "Dog-Tribe" opens with a threatening answering-machine message from a British skinhead: "You communist nigger-loving Paki thumps, you fucking dickers, we're gonna 'ang you for burning the British flag!" In response, Fun^da^mental kicks some potent rhymes over a supercharged bhangra beat: The dog tribe seeks the skin and puts them in a pound Retaliate and you'll be six feet underground Pushin' up daisies, 'cause the devil sent you to tame me But you can't face me Ya see, I grips mics, wrecks mics, Condition my mind to finally come to terms Anyway, wake up, wake up, 'cos I'm on a self-defense vibe Never down, but always with the tribe It's a lyrical toe-to-toe, and Fun^da^mental pulls no punches. Picking up on the momentum, "Seize the Time" loops a Malcolm X speech and builds itself within the phase-shifted rhythm of its words: "You ain't never never never never NEVER seen the wrath of the black man!": They don't like anybody like me X was in the X, Luther King was next But they're only two from millions My people been treated like aliens Los Angeles was just a rehearsal First we come looting, next we'll be shooting Here comes another Huey P. Newton ... This could easily be Paris or Chuck D here, except for the British accent and the tablas and flutes in the background. Veteran mixmaster Aki Nawaz (who, with Ian Astbury, founded The Cult back in the early '80's) brings it all together in one massive wall of noise, and when it works, it WORKS. The next track, "Mera Mazab" takes an eerier, dub-like beat and lays down some serious Islamic shit: The devil operating through the media Morality replaced with hysteria You say money is everything and money makes the world go Down, down, down, Quilh uallahu shadh You go for yours, 'cos I'm in Jihad As this song reaches its climax, the impassioned voice of a Quwaali singer -- it sounds as though it could be Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan himself -- enters into the mix, and adds another level of intensity. Unlike American groups whose "Allah U Akbar" is all too often just a slogan in the mix, these guys are serious about their religion. Still, as you listen on to the later tracks, the knowledge gets buried deeper and deeper under a dense soup of vocal samples, multi- layered drums, sirens, tablas, and noise. It works, but it starts to grate on your nerves after a while. After all, even Public Enemy didn't mix *every* cut as dense as "Terrordome." There are some other standout tracks, though -- "No More Fear," which is about as close to a New York hip-hop beat as Fun^da^mental gets, "New World Order," with its funky dub bassline, and "Mother India," which works hard to be a womanist manifesto (though too many of the women it praises seem to be famous mainly for their selfless sacrifices to lovers or spouses). It's a different kind of groove, but once you get deep enough into it, it can take you to some low down interior planes you didn't even know existed. Fans of African Head Charge, transglobal underground, or Marxman will feel right at home, and even if the beats are unfamiliar the message is as strong and uncompromising as they come. As hip-hop increasingly becomes an international music, the kinds of fusions accomplished by Fun^Da^Mental may well hold the future of rap music as the rhythm of resistance: The white man fights for his so-called land But that so-called land belongs to us The original people of the land So rise, rise, Aborigine, rise Rise up, rise native tribes of America, rise Rise, South America, rise Kayappa Take what is rightfully yours Rise against materialism, capitalism Take what is yours by any means necessary ... As the album ends, a the sound of a clock ticking drifts up through the layers of the mix, finally standing alone, a reminder that, as the Last Poets say, "Time is Running Out." So seize it. pH Level -- 4/pHine ***F*** Professa R.A.P. --------------- HERBIE HANCOCK, "Dis Is Da Drum" (Mercury) Back in the day, Herbie Hancock earned his place in the history- books of Jazz with his work with the Miles Davis Quartet, as well as a series of solo albums that pushed the sonic envelope of jazz. Over the latter part of his career, he's charted his own course, often offending highbrow Jazz aficionados who thought anything too funky could threaten Jazz's status as serious music. Starting in 1973 with "Headhunters," Hancock broke out into a whole new aural world of possibilities, leaving aside the piano for an ever-widening array of electronic keyboards and giving purists heart attacks left and right. Hip-hop heads will remember 1983's "Rockit," which brought Hancock together with Grandmaster DST by way of producer Bill Laswell, and in the intervening years Hancock has continued his eclectic course; most recently he was heard on the "Red, Hot and Blue" compilation providing funky backup for the smoky vocals of MeShell Ndege'Ocelllo on "Nocturnal Sunshine." Yet in the meantime, hip-hop-jazz collaborations have multiplied like tribbles, ranging from the serious shit of Guru's "Jazzmatazz" and Greg Osby's "3-D Lifestyles" to the cut-and-paste hip-jazz readymades of US3's "Cantaloop" and the elegant but too often sleep-inducing tracks of DJ Premier & Branford Marsalis's "Buckshot LeFonque." Hancock, though, is not one to be daunted by anything that could be called a trend. It's clear from the outset of "Dis is da Drum" that he's been doing this shit for years, and is taking it just where *he* wants to take it. The result is not a rap record (the only rap on this disc, Boo-Yaa rhymer "Roc" Griffin's effort on "The Melody," is earnest but clunky), but it has hip-hop sound and hip-hop attitude, and on a musical level outpaces almost anything done so far in this genre (exception: the Roots, who make live jazz and live rap come together). As Griffin asks: Now tell me How many individuals would take a chance on the sound of the streets? Let the funky beat enhance, makin' music with the hip-hop script, so take a sip... It's a sip, though -- not a big gulp. While the combination of acoustic piano and funky bass and samples on the kickoff track "Call it '95" is definitely phat, and the Afrocentric beats of the title track raise the ante again, the rest of the record falls short of expectations -- mine, at least. Griffin -- who besides his turn as a rapper does much of the sampling and sequencing here, is an innovative producer, but he's no live DJ. The absence of someone who could really cut things up street-style, like Grandmaster DST, is felt throughout, and it would have added something to invite some more current rappers down to flex their skills with Hancock and his funky jazz crew. Can you imagine Redman whopping it up over Hancock's funky piano? How about Q-Tip? As it is, the feel is more studio than street, though the sounds are funky the flow is a bit too laid-back to make many heads nod. For sheer lushness and musical virtuosity, though, it's an aural treat for your headphones, and it's much closer to the pulse of Afrocentricity in the '90's than most of the desicated hemming and hawing of so much contemporary jazz. There are moments, at least -- like the lowdown bass and African polyrhythms of "Juju" -- that pump a funk as deep as anything out there today -- it's only too bad we'll have to wait for someone else to sample them to find out their true hip-hop potential. pH Level -- 4/pHine ***G*** Ryan "Laze" MacMichael ---------------------- J. BOND AND DJ GOLDFINGER, "Bass Booty Mission" (Bahari) It's always bad news when the best cut on an album is the Intro. It's also bad of me to judge an album so harshly without some back up. And no, it's not *that* bad. It's just that "Bass Booty Mission" suffers from what every bass album since 1988 has: they all sound the same! "Bass Booty Mission" starts off with a positive- sounding intro, there's a nice Marvin Gaye loop with a couple emcees just coming off. But then we go into the first full cut, the title track. Even though it has an alright sample hooked up, it begins what is a long, tedious set of Cool Rock and Chaszy Chess drum loops and samples and those monotonous "pop that coochie" and "tootsie roll" chants. But that's from a hip-hop perspective. And from that perspective I was severely disappointed and bored in general (with the exceptions of a couple of samples, which I have a feeling that Cue hooked up, and not DJ Trans). However, to be fair, I should also look at this with a bass-music eye. So let me slip on my down-south shades and check out what I see. "Bass Booty Mission" follows other bass albums sporting a cover with much ass as well as using the words "bass" *and* "booty" in the title. Fortunately, it is a good party album with some chants that I see as working well in the clubs in the deep south, much like the 69 Boyz or 95 South (though I give J. Bond and crew a slight one-up on them). Though it is far from the originality of a Magic Mike album here, the more hip-hop flavored cuts stir up the mix of styles a little bit making for something that is at least a minimal deviation from the norm. So, to close it out -- if you're looking for the knowledge of Guru, the skills of Ras Kass, and the production of Premiere, you won't find it here. But, if you are looking for a party-flavor album that will have the fellas chanting, "Hell yeah, that'll work, / Y'all look real good in them tennis skirts", then you have a hit formula. pH Level - 3/pHair ***H*** Steve "Flash" Juon ------------------ MAIN PERSPECTIVE, "In Thru the Eyes" (Brute Force) Coming straight from Dover, NH on the Brute Force label, the "PLAYhahd joint for rap" is the crew of TMP, Prophet G, and DJ Diggemsmack. I know you're sitting there thinking to yourself, "What the fuck??!!?!", but just chill a'ight? This ain't some ol' bullshit. I ain't saying these guys are nice on a major contender level, but this is a quality tape which should at least make some noise in their own local. "Paying fucked up dues, it's just a way of life When you live by the word and die by the knife" - Prophet G "It was my hand, that rocked the cradle..." - TMP Those lines come straight from the first chumpie on the album, "Not For You." The theme they kick is basically what Treach said in "Ghetto Bastard" -- if you never lived in the ghetto, you wouldn't understand. The beat is kind of a mellow grit funk that sounds original -- I can't say it's any played loop or beat. G has an Akineyle-style voice but is perhaps a little too hyper with his delivery. Sometimes he flows but sometimes he just seems to be shouting off words. TMP (I'm guessing that means The Main Perspective) seems to be the more able mic controller, although G sometimes kicks the better metaphors. "Do the Dirt" has a nice theme and lyric approach, about staying true to the hip-hop aesthetic and kicking out fake gangsta MC's. True, it's been said better before by MC's like Del and Q-Tip, but this ain't bad. The line "I got my East coast pride wherever I go" should make them a lot of points with their obvious target audience. "Back and Forth" walks the line between really good or really strange, depending on the mood that I am in. The spoken part of the chorus is annoying, but the scratching of Run-D.M.C.'s "Rock Box" makes points with me. The "East coast pride" is mentioned again; it seems to be one of their main themes. The rest of the album reflects the same basic hip-hop/militant political viewpoint. With song titles like "Final Call" and "Death of a Nation," what else would you expect? "Final Call" gets the most props of all of the side B cuts, for good lyrics and excellent scratching of "Come Clean." It's probably my favorite cut on this short EP. I'd say we can be looking for more interesting work from both this group and their label. pH rating - 4/pHine ***I*** David J. -------- MASTA ACE INCORPORATED, "Sittin' on Chrome" (Delicious Vinyl) In 1993, Masta Ace and his new crew released one of the best hip-hop albums of the year in "Slaughtahouse." Contrary to popular belief, nobody really slept on this phat LP -- it's just that nobody bought it, either. It showed up on more Maxell tapes than dubbed mix tapes, prompting Ace and the I.N.C. to change their style a bit. This resulted in the bomb remix to an already bomb hit "Jeep Ass Niguh," which was renamed "Born To Roll" and featured the beginnings of the crew's new sound, which they dubbed Brooklyn Bass Music. "Keep your Daisy Duks on, just dance a little slower..." This is the idea behind their new album, "Sittin' On Chrome." Make no mistake about it, the I.N.C. put together something made specifically for the jeeps and the landcruisers. If you're the type who likes to slide a tape in the deck and boost the subwoofers so high that the rear-view mirror vibrates, this tape is definitely for you. But what about the rest of us, especially those of us that actually *bought* "Slaughtahouse?" What do we get? While we do get a good album in general, we don't quite get the same quality material that we got from the Masta and his crew before. In fact, most of the material presented here seems aimed more directly at a commercial target. You'll find lots of catchy phrases and choruses, as well as a slightly different delivery from Ace himself. He's on a similar style he used on the "Crooklyn" single, as opposed to the off-beat, on-beat style he hit us with last time. This time, he just hits us with the boom and almost coasts through the lyrics. Not that these lyrics are *bad*, mind you -- Ace still has plenty of skills, Digga sounds a little better than last time, and Paula Perry is on point as always (she oughta do a solo joint). It's just that something's missing here, something that made "Slaughtahouse" as phat as it was. Where there was no fast-forward material last time around, there is here. "What's Going On" went on a little too long, "U Can't Find Me" doesn't quite freak that Kool & The Gang sample like it should, and "Turn It Up" is filler material -- and straight R&B filler at that. Yeah, Shea has a good voice, but I'm not sure if I want to hear that on an I.N.C. album, especially with that played-out Roy Ayers' "Sunshine" sample in the background. There's plenty to like about this album. Rhymes are solid, some of the music is straight butter, and the bass just booms out the ride, but it seems the I.N.C. pointed this one directly at the commercial market to boost their sales. You can't really blame them, after what happened with "Slaughtahouse," but IMHO, that was all the more reason to stick with it, or at least incorporate more of that into this album. It's sad that the commercialism of the market has forced Masta Ace to change up like this. He deserves better than to fall into a niche just to boost his sales. Oh, and I gotta call out Digga for that dig at Common Sense in "Ain't No Game," an otherwise phat cut. Point penalty, Ock -- he's not the one to be messin' with, LD. "Resurrection" was too phat. pH Level - 4/pHine ***J*** Jesse Bauer ----------- MC BREED, "Big Baller" (WRAP) Veteran Eric Breed has been a personal favorite since dropping the single "Ain't No Future In Yo' Frontin'" out of Flint five years ago. Since the first LP, Breed has been putting out a release every year. His third album, "The New Breed", featured 2pac and on a phat track called "Gotta Get Mine", produced by Warren G. and Colin Wolfe. Breed snuck out of the public eye for a while, but this track renewed interest in the Michigan rapper. The Big Baller is back with number five. He now records where the playas play -- Atlanta, GA. And, like his last LP "Funkafied", the Dangerous Crew helps out on production. I've always had a liking for his voice, but the lyrics sometimes come up short. This happens too much on this release. You can think back to other songs such as "The Great Depression," "Black For Black," or "Teach My Kids" that actually have some serious subject matter, but I have yet to find it here. As always we start off with an AVI. That is, an Annoying Voice Intro. Why the past three LPs he has put this synthesized voice in, I have no clue, but BAM! "SFNU" comes on: "lutes and flutes", an ILL guitar lick, laidback bumpin beats, and even some scratching on the turntables. By the way, the name of the song is an acronym for Still Fuckin' Niggas Up. It's on hit. Another interesting side-note: the song is written by D.O.C. (look for a solo from him in the coming months). "Sea of Bud" features Jibri rapping and Too $hort talking about the joints he's smoking up in the studio. With a laidback blues-feel, this song is nice. L.A. Dre makes an appearance on the piano. I can assure you it's not a lie when the singy chorus comes on, "I got high one time / now I'm getting high all the time / wish I was drownin' / drownin' in a Sea of Bud" -- I've seen the man in concert with DFC (hella blunts up on stage). "Real MC" features Hurricane, and Beastie Boy beats can be heard throughout. Also, listen close for the beat from BDP's "Love's Gonna Get Cha (Material Love)" waaay in the background. The second half of the LP suffers from poor lyrics and fairly boring beats throughout much of it. Mighty Joe Riz, who makes a guest appearance on "You Slippin'," has a certain likeness to the Wu's Genius. Check it out. "Nightlife" offers us something interesting with some straight up weird sounds. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were all in the studio all messed up and started screwing around with sounds to come up with the combo they did. You don't hear this kind of mix on the other tracks. Other than "SFNU" and "Sea of Bud", there isn't a whole lot that is incredibly appealing. The sound is on some ol' funk shit and can be very good at times, but not consistently. Breed's voice is still dope, but the lyrics are still lacking. Definitely not his best work, but he still has a ton of respect from me. pH level - 3/pHair ***K*** David J. -------- PROPHETS OF TRUTH, "Funkee Revelations" (P.O.T. Records) Prophets of Truth are a Seattle-based hip-hop group that's starting to catch a buzz in Atlanta and Houston for their indie release single, "I'm Outs Ta Get Mines!" Despite having no real distribution set up for this single, they've already sold 10,000 copies of it. At the moment, they're talking with a bunch of record labels about a contract in the near future. They wouldn't be a bad gamble for a major label. They are a gamble, though, because chances are a large number of hip-hop fans aren't quite ready for their style. Production-wise, they keep it pretty simple. They add some slow, solid beats with a little Dre-funk, West Coast flavor, which is sometimes on and sometimes off. We'll just say if you like the West Coast sound, it's on. (See my review of Warren G.'s album in hc204). It's the rhyme style that will have people either nodding their heads or shaking them. It's hard to put how they rhyme into words. The best way to say it is that it sounds intentionally forced and jumps up and down quite a bit. It's as if you took Saafir, put him on beat (most of the time), turned his monotone around 180-degrees, and tightened up his face so that he sounded almost like a pouty toddler. This may sound like a dis, but it really isn't. It's just how P.O.T. MC's Rasheed and Tas sound on the mic. You either like it or you don't. Sometimes it works fine ("Playa Hayta"), and other times it just doesn't work at all ("Psyche Fucked" -- *none* of this track works at all for me). After about four cuts on this demo, it started to grate on me personally. Then came "Flavaz Phluxueight." On this freestyle cut, they relaxed their voices a bit and simply brought on the skills they have on the mic, which aren't bad at all. In fact, on this cut and "I'm Out Ta Get Mines," they showed off better form and delivery than when they forced their voices. Unfortunately, the beats on these two cuts didn't strike me as hard as the others. In addition, while P.O.T. hypes up "instilling positivity through reality-based music" and "making its audience realize the need to contribute productively to society" in its press releases, I really didn't hear any deep messages in their lyrics. It may have been because of the way they said them, though. All in all, I'd say Prophets of Truth have some potential. What they need to do is work a little more on their production -- make more clean beats like the first part of their demo -- and relax their voices a little and just let it flow, like they did on the second part of their demo. If they can combine those two things and throw them down on one album, you'll be hearing a lot from P.O.T. in the years to come. pH Level - 4/pHine (For more information on Prophets of Truth, call the P.O.T. hotline at 206-672-3523, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST ***L*** Ryan "Laze" MacMichael ---------------------- VARIOUS ARTISTS, "Pump Ya Fist: Hip-Hop Inspired by the Black Panthers" (Avatar/Polygram) With the barely mediocre PANTHER soundtrack, it's only fitting that the best of today's hip-hop generation put out an album inspired by the Black Panther movement. And to put it on the real, I think Huey Newton would be pumping this in his jeep if he were still around. The album kicks off with a song currently making it's run on the airwaves and video circuit, "Ah Yeah" by KRS-ONE. This self-produced track has a very simple, but yet thick and powerful bassline/drum pattern combination. And lyrically, this is Kris at his best: "Every president we ever had lied / Ya know, I'm kinda glad Nixon died." He takes a trip through black history, coming as Isis, Moses, Solomon, Jesus, Harriet Tubman, Truth Sojourner, Nat Turner, Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley, and Malcom X, stressing that as a black man, he *has* been here before, but misunderstood. "What ya say when ya see a devil down (ah yeah), / What ya say when ya take a devil's crown (ah yeah)." Track number two has Kam dropping science the way only he can. Despite the disappointing G-Funk/synth-dominated beat that seems to be pulling Paris as well as Kam down on the production tip, he still manages to come off with a nice, smooth cut that bumps trunks but still kicks knowledge. The vocal hook is the highlight of the cut: If living in America got you pissed, then pump ya fist! If you ever had handcuffs on your wrists, then pump ya fist! If you hate seeing black people get dissed, then pump ya fist! And If you're tired of being caught up in that twist, then pump ya fist!" Following Kam is the welcome return of Grand Puba with the typical slurred, laid-back flow as he kicked on "Reel to Reel." Ain't a damn thing changed, Puba still comes off. Vocal samples of Minister Louis Farrakhan and a funky-ass guitar top this lyrical sundae off like hot fudge. Puba drops: "Gunshots ringing in the heat of the night, / Mothers sitting home worrying if their seed's alright." Fourth up is Rakim, showing us he's obviously better off without Eric B. (speaking of which, what's up with the solo joint on Eric's part?!?). Easy Mo Bee, on the production, has proven he's come a *long* way since DOO-BOP. A sweet, jazz-flavored bass and what sounds like an organ twang provide a butter backup for Rakim's trademark flow. Yet another direct hit for "Pump Ya Fist." "I don't need a military, / I'm ill already." As if this first side lineup wasn't enough, Jeru the Damaja comes off with another nicely produced Premier track. Sure, it's pretty much the same ol' cop story, but his unique delivery makes even the most tired storyline well worth the listen. Tupac's decent showing on "Throw Ya Hands Up" and Speech's too- soft-for-this-soundtrack "Positive Vibe" close out the first side. The Fugees lead off the second side with "Recognition", a good overall track on which the kids recall many classic tunes from back in the day. That is followed by an energetic "It's the Pride" by Chuck D. which is bound to get the adrenaline flowing and the head nodding. Hats off to Chuck, who in his mid-30's, can still kick that shit (on the mic and on the boards). Ahmad hits the middle of the second side with "Only If You Want It" and damn it, I do. This 19-year-old still impresses the hell out of me with a more deeply set rhyme scheme than I've ever witnessed and knowledge well beyond his years. As first the "It's like a jungle sometimes" sample didn't seem quite right, but the "Time Bomb" sample brought this piece together to work beautifully. Ahhhhh... there *are* some dope emcees' on Warner Brothers! Sandwiched between the very mediocre Yo-Yo ("Crazay") and 5ive-O ("Out for Just Us") tracks is the above average, but far from mind- blowing Dred Scott cut, "I Gotta Get Mine". Someday he will: he's very close here, but just not quite cutting-edge. He does make a nice contribution, nonetheless. So to tie it all up, this 55-minute album catches a 11/14 hit ratio (meaning only three throw-away tracks), which is extremely good. "Pump Ya Fist" is one album that you should definitely plop the ducats down for. "It's better to die on your feet than to live your knees." pH Level - 5/pHunky ***M*** Ryan "Laze" MacMichael ---------------------- URBAN DANCE SQUAD, "Persona Non Grata" (Virgin Records) Two full albums and one live EP under their belt, Urban Dance Squad have developed a sort of cult following. You either dig 'em or you don't, there really is no in between. Their first release, "Mental Floss for the Globe," had several very original live music/hip-hop vocal cuts, among them, "Fast Lane," "Deeper Shade of Soul," and "Prayer for My Demo." Their second release, "Life 'N Perspectives of a Genuine Crossover," got a little different with stranger guitars, but kept focus lyrically. The cuts on this one were less memorable as individuals, but strong as a whole. Their 1995 release, "Persona Non Grata" brings us a very hard- edged sound, musically and vocally. In some cases it works especially well, like "Demagogue," the first single off of the album. "Demagogue" is hard, yet has the classic UDS sound. The second cut, "Good Grief!," also works nicely with hard drums, powerful guitars, and loud vocals with "flavor like Snapple." In general, this album has a sound to it that will appeal to the die-hard fans and those looking for something different in this year of Notorious B.I.G. monotony. However, there are points in the album where the vocals come across a little too loud -- almost as if they're being forced to sound harder than they actually are. Does this come from the fact that they are trying to grab a new audience with false bravado? No, I really don't think so. These kids have an energy that is so raw, true, and rare that it's really refreshing to hear something new from them. I'm just sorry I missed the live show when it hit Philly at the beginning of April! The copy I have is an advance cassette and has two bonus versions of "Demagogue" that are listed as "CD ONLY." But if I remember correctly, the CD is actually without these two versions. I'm not sure. Nonetheless, the "Dust Mix" is straight up butter. pH Level - 4/pHine ------------------------------------------------------------------------ You're probably sittin' there readin' this joint and thinking, "Damn, it's about time they got a new issue out. What's up with these guys?" Too much has been up, to be honest, and we're hoping to get it settled real soon. Flash has been busy transferring to Iowa State and making sure he can pay the bills. Sleepy's somewhere in Europe bein' Sleepy (Where ya at, kid?), and as a result, we've had to move HardCORE's Web site out of UNC-Charlotte. We'll be announcing the new site on the listserv and on Usenet News soon, and we promise to hook up that "Guess That Sample" contest like we said we would before. We'll even have RealAudio soundbites for your computer. (Check that shit out -- http://www.realaudio.com) As for me, I'm gettin' kicked out the house next month and may or may not be settled in my own place soon. Parents just don't understand. So as you can see, we all have had our own shit to deal with outside of HardCORE. Naturally, if we got paid for this, this wouldn't be an excuse, but we do this strictly out of love, and even a love of hip-hop has to take a back seat to making sure you've paid the bills -- unless, of course, that IS how you're paying the bills. In the meantime, everyone on the HardCORE staff owes much respect and gratitude to Professa R.A.P. for taking charge and helping us all put this issue together. We all hope he can add more of those phat contributions of his for years to come. Thank, Prof. As for the months to come, all hip-hop heads hold tight -- HardCORE ain't goin' nowhere. Until next time. L8A... David J. Director of Network Distribution "Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die." - Joe Louis