Hip-Hop Vinyl Trip: Part II

Now we’re into Part II of our trip through my hip-hop records¹. I’ve got all my singles lined up in order of tempo and I’ve got my LPs handy. We’re starting here at around 89 beats per minute and we’ll creep up to around 94.

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The first track here, It’s Over, is minor in the history of hip-hop. Kurupt is no legend, yet he’s a key part of two legendary albums. On Dr. Dre‘s The Chronic and Snoop’s Doggystyle . Lyrical Gangbang and Stranded On Death Row are standout non-single tracks from Dre’s album, while Ain’t No Fun and For All My Niggaz & Bitches are memorable from Snoop’s 1993 release. So, Kurupt is no slouch and I was down to buy this single in 2001 while in college. 2001 is when friends started to ask me if I considered DJing. I began to consider doing parties, so I made my first order from TurntableLab.com (online presence of a physical store in Brooklyn). Also included in this order were the next four tracks, Get Ur Freak On, Ugly, Can’t Deny It, and Let Me Blow Ya Mind.

Here I get into what I call leap-frogging, playing one track then throwing the next track’s acapella over the first’s instrumental, then bringing the full second track, then moving into the next one with its acapella. So each track has a novel element while I use all the recognizable parts.
Missy’s Timbaland-produced track hit #7 overall and #3 R&B in 2001 and was heard at every party. Ugly, also produced by Timbaland, hit #15 on the Hot 100 and #6 on the R&B chart. Bubba Sparxxx didn’t become the next Eminem (despite being white!) but this song was huge.

Can’t Deny It was Fabolous’s debut single, hitting 25/13. Its real strength is the Nate Dogg chorus, RIP. Nate Dogg of course has his roots in The Chronic, and it was Dr Dre that produced Let Me Blow Ya Mind. Eve had hit #1 on the album chart with her debut, was featured on Missy’s Hot Boyz which was a #1 Hot Rap track for 18 weeks, but here she has her first big solo hit, reaching #2 on the Hot 100. This also was where Gwen started guesting in crossover tracks away from No Doubt, eventually having a hit solo career of her own.

Next we step back to 1994, when Craig Mack’s Flava In Ya Ear reached #9 on the Hot 100 and #4 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop. This was Mack’s only real hit in an 18-year career, definitely on the strength of guest appearances by LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes, and Notorious B.I.G. still a month before he became huge with Juicy.

Can It Be All So Simple was Wu-Tang Clan’s last single from their 1993 album Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). The single was released in 1994. Wu-Tang Clan changed everything; after RZA and GZA were dropped from Tommy Boy and Cold Chillin, their new group went completely away from the mainstream, with RZA solidifying his own distinct production style. The Wu definitely had the last laugh over those fake-ass A&Rs (record-label artist-and-repertoire executives): “First of all, who’s your A&R / A mountain climber who plays an electric guitar / But he don’t know the meaning of dope / When he’s lookin for a suit-and-tie rap that’s cleaner than a bar of soap / And I’m the dirtiest thing in sight”. Their debut album–full of instant classics–sold millions of copies and Wu-Tang Clan went on to rule the world.

Next we take it way back to NYC 1983, Beat Bop by Rammellzee and K-Rob. My first exposure to this track, without knowing it, came via Young MC sampling ‘Get funky in the place’ in the intro to his track Non-Stop from Stone Cold Rhymin. Beastie Boys crystallized the source in 1994 when they namecheck K-Rob and Rammellzee in ‘B-Boys Makin With The Freak-Freak’ (the title comes from a line in Beat Bop). The single was re-issued in 2001 so I picked it up. The track is long, wide-open, somewhat spacey, right at the heart of the downtown NYC art scene (cover art, production expenses, and inspiration came from died-young legendary artist Jean-Michel Basquiat). In the mid-2000s I found out through my neighbor that his son, Public Image Ltd bassist Allan Dias, played bass on Beat Bop. Small world, starting from my Young MC cassette at age 9. Naturally, from here we drop the aforementioned Beasties track, always one of my favorites from Ill Communication.

Next up is The Homies, a Tone Loc track from his debut album, Loc’ed After Dark. I bought this cassette from K-Mart when I was 9 in 1989, along with Young MC. Young MC actually wrote Loc’s two big hits, Wild Thing and Funky Cold Medina. The Homies was always one of my favorite tracks on the album, but it would take me until 2002 to discover the sample used. A 2002 Cut Chemist mix, Rare Equations, revealed to me the sample as Hey! Last Minute by The Meters. The Meters immediately became my favorite instrumental band, bar none.

Funkdafied is a song I recorded onto videocassette off of Yo! MTV Raps in 1994. I picked up the vinyl in 2001 since the single had the acapella, which I drop here to put the extended remix (with guitar solo by Johnny “Guitar” Watson) of Dr. Dre’s Let Me Ride under it. Let Me Ride was a hit song with a hit video, unavoidable in late 1993.

Fast-forward to another Dre production, this one from 2001: Family Affair by Mary J. Blige. This topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 6 weeks that fall. Mary J. had been active for 9 years and hit the top 10 with Real Love in 1992.

Departing from the pop chart we have ODB’s Brooklyn Zoo. I put his Return To The 36 Chambers album as the best solo Wu-Tang effort, by far. ODB has the most variety in his delivery, RZA’s production is top-notch, and the album maintains my interest with few guest vocals.

A good match for ODB or Wu productions in general is Jeru The Damaja’s D. Original. Jeru was a great lyricist and the grit here is reminiscent of the original Wu album. D. Original was released 6 months later, so even though it was produced by long-established DJ Premier, the Wu is definitely an influence here.

Back to the top of the charts, we have TLC’s Creep. Every single from their CrazySexyCool album hit big and this was the biggest, hitting #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks. The video was even bigger with their silky pajamas. TLC led the charge from the south, coming out of Atlanta even before Outkast, and our last track stays in the south for Houston’s Geto Boys with Mind Playing Tricks On Me. This is a great early (1991) example of a narrative rap telling personal stories, realism outside the predominantly jokey milieu of Slick Rick or Young MC.