Philly's Most Wanted - Suckas
With a debut almost entirely produced by The Neptunes, Philly's Most Wanted coulda been contenders or, at least, the cheese steak city's answer to The Clipse. Too bad then that their album was less Lord Willin' and more "What the fucking lord were they thinking having every song featuring cringeworthy falsetto hooks and unsuitable beats which Usher probably rejected when searching Neptunes r&b production tapes for the U Don't Have To Call beat?" Suckas is the abandoned diamond amongst the faeces and BANGS with Mr Man and Boo-Bonic (hardly suprising the album flopped when the two rappers were so terribly named) recounting various examples of what a sucka is over a naggingly infectious standard pre-Grindin' Neptunes track, meaning it's a slight variation on the Superthug beat. Suckas Part 2, which some halfwits actually prefered to the original, had a song-stealing Beanie verse but suffered ruiniation at the hands of the various beat-switches and the hook, which is about as close to audio HIV as is scientifically possible.
Kurtis Blow - Do The Do
The highlight of Blow's sophomore platter Deuce and his 2nd best song after Hard Times. Not quite as good as the similarly monikered Doing The Do by Jeckyll & Hyde but still one of the finer slices of pre-Planet Rock and The Message disco-band rap with an absolute killer dum-dum-dum-dum-de-dum-duh-dum bassline. Both the Deuce LP and the 12" of Do The Do itself used to go for mere pocket lint until it was revealed some tampon commercial sounding LTJ Bukem tune sampled the drum break and 'intelligent drum & bass' loving ponces pushed the prices of both up to, on occasion, the £50 mark. More importantly than all that, though, is the trivia that this was the first ever rap song to mention Your Momma.
Husalah - Live Life Illegal
The Jacka - Murder Somebody
Jacka & Husalah's Shower Posse album was intended to be a conceptual collaboration based on the Jamaican coalition of gangs of the same name with the two Mob Figaz heavyweights rhyming over reggae tinged beats but laziness, label issues and incarcerations meant the album was never fully realised and ended up being just another hastily pasted together Mob Figaz album with a handful of stunning highlights, which is good enough for me. Hus's Live Life Illegal bears a clear Thizz Nation influence with its jocose rhythms sounding distinctly like something off one of the last Mac Dre albums and rumours that Hus' was actually imprisioned on flashing charges due to his claim in this that he spends his time "hanging out in the parking lot/pulling out my cock a lot" are still unconfirmed. Meanwhile Jacka's Murder Somebody is an O-T-T stream of nihilism which would make Prodigy or Beanie proud over hypnotic guitar and a squelchy fart bassline, which successfully manages to capture the whole Mob Figaz oeuvre of Bay Area gang$ta-rap mixed with a considerable east coast thug-rap influence in just under 3 minutes and a half minutes.
Real Live - Get Down For Mine
De La Soul - I Can't Call It
The High School High soundtrack hasn't quite been afforded the same status as other 90s movie soundtracks full of exclusive tracks which never appeared elsewhere like Menace II Society or even Above The Rim but, quality wise, it's up there with either of 'em. Wu-Wear by RZA, Method Man & Cappadonna and Pete Rock & Large Professor's The Rap World are the two cuts which made the most noise at the time but both pale in comparison to the inclusions by Real Live and De La. Get Down For Mine is as good as any of the highlights on Real Live's underrated album, with Larry O. being one of the better exponents of We-just-saw-Goodfellas-and-Casino mafioso rap and K. Def looping up Love Unlimited Orchestra's Strange Games And Funky Things to better effect than anyone has used it before or since (sorry EPMD). I Can't Call It, on the other hand, is some downbeat, wordplay laden, Stakes Is High era De La grumpiness with subtle flourishes of the Money (Dollar Bill Y'All) boopity-bips and Maseo cuttin' up dialogue from Last Night Changed It All. Pity the D'Angelo and Jodeci cuts on the soundtrack were shit, though, eh?
3 comments:
do the do! classic
is that the gillie da kid guy in philly's most wanted?
Nah, Gillie was in Major Figaz.
You needn't worry either way because those interviews he did dissin' Wayne ("when did it become cool for Daniel San to dis Mr Miyagi?") are more entertaining than any music he's released.
That Jodeci song on High School High is bad because that's one of the few songs that Devante (the songwriter and producer of the group) didn't produce or write.
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