There’s no denying the importance of the Kings from Queens in the development of this here rap shit, but truth be told, when I first started copping TDK D-90 dubs of Kool & Deadly and Criminal Minded that whole shout-rap style was sounding real primitive. Not only that, but the fact that headbangers were sporting Run-DMC shirts on the strength of their Wrestlemania appearance wasn’t exactly inspiring me rush out to cop Tougher Than Leather. Why would I want to waste me time with some “nursery rhyme white friendly rock rap faggotry”1 when I could be soaking-up some Rakim in my Sony Megabass auto-reverse? Had I started listening to rap a year earlier, would I too have stood in a record store for an hour, staring at the cover to Raising Hell and thinking “Rap has made it!” like Chuck D?
Considering my obsession with rap trivia, it’s amazing that I never got around to grabbing a copy of Rakim Told Me, but since Brian Coleman just threw me a copy of his expanded edition, I’ve finally been able to absorb this shit. Anything involving Schoolly-D is essential as far as I’m concerned, and best believe the chapter covering Saturday Night – The Album was the first thing I read. This is the kind of thing that’s been lacking in hip-hop publishing – first-hand accounts and footnotes on actual songs, instead of grand discussions about everything but. This project’s greatest strength is the fact that even the chapters dealing with albums I could care less about (Onyx, Digable Planets) are still a good read. Here’s some examples of the kind of gold we’re dealing with here:
[Five random quotes]
5. KRS-One: “Me and Scott went to Sleeping Bag and met with a guy named Will Socolov. That was the one of the greatest record companies ever. No one ever got paid anything, you got paid in marijuana. But it was a great label…even though no one was ever paid. Just-Ice got paid, He’d go up there every week and they’d just give him money.”
4. Fredro Star on Bacdafucup: “While we were recording the album, niggas was on LSD the whole time, straight up. We was dropping papers, taking meth tabs, during that whole album.”
3. Schoolly D on P.S.K.> “When we recorded that, the engineer, Jeff Cheesesteak, was all nervous, too with eight black guys showing up. He was worried about motherfuckers stealing shit, which they did. I didn’t know, but all my homies was upstairs cleanin’ out all kinds of microphones. I made them take the mics back, though.”
2. Slick Rick on Teacher, Teacher> “That was another filler track. I wasn’t really feeling that one. That was there just to make the album reach twelve [songs]. It was empty, it had no soul to it. I didn’t put no effort into that song.”
1. Afrika Islam on I’m You Pusher> That was the first video and yeah, that guy Pimpin’ Rex was a real pimp.Rex would come to the studio with like twenty girls, but he’d be like, “Don’t touch them, I haven’t cleaned them up yet.”
Now all I need to do is track down the first edition for the Critical Beatdown chapter…
Pudgee is better known for being one of the prime suspects in the “Gay Rapper” hoopla of the mid-90’s and for doing a white label with Biggie than anything else, but his first album was notable for the simple fact that it featured pre-Pop Life production from the Trackmasterz – filtered basslines, echo-heavy horns and hard snares all over the shop. Pudgee was also capable of delivering some decent punchline rap, but when paired up with G Rap he sounds pretty average. It doesn’t help that G is on fire for this feature either – his rapid-fire display is capped off nicely with a timely nod to Columbo.
One of the all-time highlights in my Unkut Dot Com experience would have to be speaking to DJ Kenny Parker last year, and when I recently had the chance to speak to his younger brother Kris a week or so ago, it was on like Donkey Kong. The problem was, unlike the three hours I had to talk with Kenny while he was kicking back at the crib, KRS was in the middle of a KOCH Records press day, which meant I had only a 45-minute slot to work with, which ended-up being only 40 minutes after some jerky before me ran overtime. Nevertheless, he proved to be every bit as entertaining as I’d expected, carefully walking the line between brilliance and insanity during our conversation, while the album itself finds the Blastmasta regaining some of his old swagger on the better tracks.
[some other interviewer hump who’s on my dime] Why Marley Marl?
Marley is a karma. You know the whole battle – the Bridge Wars – KRS vs. MC Shan, Boogie Down Productions vs. the Juice Crew, Scott La Rock vs. Marley Marl and Mr. Magic, Red Alert vs. Mr Magic on WBLS/Kiss-FM…the whole thing. We always were friends – the members of the Juice Crew, Boogie Down Productions, Red Alert and Marley Marl. We started off battling, no doubt. It was real for a good year – maybe six months – it was real in the field. Bronx was lookin’ at Queensbridge, Queensbridge was lookin’ at Bronx, you couldn’t go into certain neighborhoods…it was real for a minute. We managed to get past that, because there were certain rules. Zulu Nation was more respected then by the artists than now, and we would never go past peace, love and unity and safely having fun. So we were able to have a battle without throwing guns, because the first one who drew the gun, Zulu Nation would punk you right there on the spot. So we were under a certain hip-hop principle. Keep in mind, Roxanne Shante was battling UTFO under the same principals, MC Shan was battling LL Cool J under the same principles…Salt ‘N Pepa had started their careers at the same time, battling Doug E. Fresh, same principles – and here I come, answering MC Shan. It was the whole answer record era. So we were answering each other, not on a beef, “I’m gonna shoot you”, but out of competition. And the competition was fierce and it was real and fights did break out!
Thursday June 14th 2007,
Filed under: DVD's, Reviews
Written by Robbie
I’ve got to give it up to Beatdawg for tracking down some of the more obscure producers on this follow-up to his documentary from a few years back. Any flick that gives King of Chill, Easy LG and DJ Doc airtime alongside the traditional big names is doing something right. Having only seen a shitty bootleg VHS copy of the first installment (which had some hilarious quotes from Lord Finesse and weird footage of a sweat-drenched Diamond D), it’s clear that Deep Crates 2 is a far more polished piece.
All due respect to the gals of the world, but even more respect to Kool G Rap’s ability to make ignorant records about dames. As great as “Talk Like Sex” (and, to a lesser extent, “Fuck You Man”) may have been, there’s little doubt that G’s finest post-”Men At Work” output was his Bitch Haters Club period. As any serious student of KGR is aware, duke was making a nice chunk of bread from the skin trade in his younger days, so the content of these songs is hardly science fiction. How many rappers from New York were talking this grimy in the nineties? “Break A Bitch Neck” is some ill test-pressing only material that showcases G and Akinyele dumbing-out in a manner that would have made JT Money and DJ Drugz proud-as punch. “I Ain’t Trickin’” covers the standard anti-gold digger message, but in the hands of the Kool Genius it goes far beyond the call of duty, while “Check The Bitch” addresses important issues of the day, such as so-called “sophisticated women” and “bitches from the other races”.
