Reader Review: Geto Boys - The Geto Boys (October 17, 1990)

(Today's Reader Review is handled by P_Captain, who uses the allotted space to discuss one of his favorite albums, The Geto Boys, from the crew of the same name. Read on for more, and leave some comments for him below.)

In 1988, the Ghetto Boys consisted of Prince Johnny C, Jukebox, DJ Ready Red, and their dancer Little Bill. Signed to a deal with Rap-A-Lot, they released Making Trouble, which was more or less a Run-D.M.C. ripoff both musically and delivery-wise. Unsurprisingly, the album tanked, and the CEO of their label, James "J. Prince" Smith, decided that there were changes that needed to be made to the crew.

Willie Dee, a solo artist signed to the same label, released his debut album Controversy in 1989, and J. Prince liked his work so much that he invited him to write some tracks for the Ghetto Boys. Johnny C and Jukebox didn't like anything Willie wrote, so they refused to record with him. Prince demanded that they participate or leave the group entirely: unsurprisingly, they both chose the latter. As such, Willie Dee became a Ghetto Boy himself, alongside DJ Ready Red and Little Bill, who decided that what he really wanted to do with his life was rap, changing his name to Bushwick Bill to mark the occasion.

To round things out, J. Prince reached out to a close friend of his, an artist named Brad Jordan who worked under the handle Akshen. Akshen released "Scarface", a twelve-inch single on Lil Troy's Short Stop Records, which was successful enough to eventually convince him to both change his name (to match the title of his breakthrough single) and to join up with the Ghetto Boys. With this new line-up complete, the group went from the Texas answer to Run D.M.C. to what was referred to as a southern N.W.A., as Willie Dee, Bushwick Bill, and the newly christened Scarface were heavily influenced by their peers out West. Around this time, Willie decided to drop some vowels from his rap name, shortening it to the more professional Willie D.

In 1989, they completed work on Grip It! On That Other Level, the first Ghetto Boys album using the new crew, releasing it independently on Rap-A-Lot Records. Success was immediate, and the Boys were on the receiving end of fair amount of controversy due to their violent habits, taking what N.W.A. started to “that other level”. Former Def Jam Records boss Rick Rubin took note of the Boys and decided they would be a good fit with his new Def American Recordings label.

As they were now being promoted to the mainstream (with distribution being handled by Geffen Records), the crew (with Rubin's input) decided that retooling their original effort would be the best course of action. They changed their group name to the Geto Boys and decided to retitle their album in an eponymous fashion, as an easy way of getting people to remember their name, although for some reason they included the article in the title, calling the new project The Geto Boys. Ten out of the twelve tracks featured on Grip It! On The Other Level were rerecorded, now that the Boys had access to better recording equipment and a slightly bigger budget, and a few other tracks were thrown in to round things out.

When The Geto Boys was being readied for release in 1990, Geffen Records had cold feet, pulling out as the distributor due to the violent content in many of the songs (specifically “Mind Of A Lunatic”), classifying the album as objectionable material. Luckily, Rick Rubin was able to secure a better distribution deal with Warner Bros., who handled the release even though they also distanced themselves from the content. In fact, the album was originally released with a secondary warning sticker, alongside the Parental Advisory, which read: “Def American Recordings is opposed to censorship. Our manufacturer and distributor, however, do not condone of endorse the content of this recording, which they find violent, sexist, racist, and indecent.”

Although I struggled to find any blatant racism, The Geto Boys is most certainly a controversial album, taking hip hop to levels it had never achieved before. In addition to the distribution issues, the original release featured a sample of The Steve Miller Band's "The Joker" on "Gangsta of Love", a sex rap chock-full of graphic depictions of brutally sexual acts, which the band clearly did not want to be associated with. (Strangely, the Grip It! On The Other Level version has that sample to this day. Maybe The Steve Miller Band has no idea what underground rap is.) The uncleared sample caused The Geto Boys to quickly go out of print, although it was re-released with an updated “Gangsta Of Love” that now legally sampled Lynyrd Skynyrd's “Sweet Home Alabama” (because that's better somehow?), and with the secondary warning sticker removed.

So, were the results really worth all the controversy and is The Geto Boys all that good? Read on to find out.

1. FUCK 'EM

The Geto Boys start out with what is a extremely aggressive rant against politicians who tried to keep them down, parents trying to censor them and everybody else they had to battle in order to have their album released. This is a classic cut which features Bushwick, Willie D, and Scarface all going at it with what can only be described as “focused anger”, even though Scarface's appearance is rather brief. The Tony Montana sound bites also add to the joy.

2. SIZE AIN'T SHIT

This is the first track from Grip It! On That Other Level to appear. This time, Bushwick Bill takes a solo turn to brag about the size of his penis and how his short stature (being a dwarf and all) doesn't matter and he can bring it to anybody who is stupid enough to fight him. The lyrics are slightly altered in the third verse, but other than that, it's the same song. Although Bushwick is no lyrical genius (hell, he didn't even write his lyrics: Willie D helped him out), his passion and energy put into the performance sells it for me, similar to how Eazy-E can record a classic without ever picking up the pen himself.

3. MIND OF A LUNATIC

The original Grip It! On That Other Level version was not as brutal as this remake, which is credited as one of the fathers to the hip hop sub-genre horrorcore. This is also one of the best songs I have ever heard, and others obviously agree: even Marilyn Manson has attempted to tarnish this track's legacy by recording a crappy cover. On the original version, Bushwick raped his female victim and then murdered her, but on The Geto Boys, he repeats the same process, but ends his verse by having sex with the corpse, making this our chosen genre's first direct association with necrophilia. The instrumental is out of this world, so even if you are adverse to deviant violent and sexual descriptions, you should still be able to enjoy this. Scarface's super-long verse is a mini-masterpiece: this remake is where his legendary words "I sit alone in my four cornered room starting at candles" originated, which were made even more famous later on, when the Geto Boys released “Mind Playing Tricks On Me”.

4. GANGSTA OF LOVE

This song originally featured only Willie D and Scarface on Grip It! On That Other Level, but when Rick Rubin picked them up, he added Bushwick to a fairly large part of the song, reducing Scarface's role yet again. He clearly didn't like Scarface for whatever reason and wanted him out of the crew (something Face himself noted in a past interview), but regardless of the backstory, the results on here are even better than on the original album. If you come across a copy of The Geto Boys in a store, it's one hundred percent likely that your version will contain the “Sweet Home Alabama”-sampled version instead of “The Joker”, but it actually doesn't matter all that much: this is still a classic sex rap with some of the wittiest and most brutal lyrics ever.

5. TRIGGA HAPPY N---A

The word classic is being tossed around freely on this review and while I agree it is being overused, it's the perfect word to describe just about every song on The Geto Boys. And you can add this song to the long run of perfection. DJ Ready Red has a lot of fun on this cut, sampling some of Al Pacino's dialogue from Scarface, and the three verses are all excellent examples of gangsta rap, as the Boys describe robberies of both liquor stores and random victims. Rick Rubin decided (again) to reduce Scarface's presence by removing one of his two verses from the original "Trigga Happy N---a", but the end product isn't affected a bit.

6. LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

We've finally gotten to Scarface's solo. Instead of performing a first-person account again, Face rewrite his lyrics and turns the song into a social commentary, casting himself as the omnipresent narrator instead of being the guy who actually deals the drugs, escapes from the cops, or shoots guns in between recording tracks in the studio. As result, this song is a lot better than it originally was. Ready Red provides another excellent beat with a slight country twang, making this probably the most obviously Texan song on the entire album. (Um, most people in Texas don't ride horses to work. I don't think it's been considered “country” in decades.)

7. ASSASSINS

This song was originally performed by Johnny C and Sire Jukebox on Making Trouble, interestingly enough. Willie D, Scarface, and Bushwick Bill each take a turn spitting one of the three verses, showing a lot more energy than the original artists could ever muster, although the lyrics remain exactly the same. The beat sounded outdated in 1990, so you can imagine how it plays today, but the brutal lyrics of the Geto Boys help this to still work, although they aren't as much “Assassins” as they are “homicidal maniacs” on this track.

8. DO IT LIKE A G.O.

This single, which was originally a song written for Willie D's Controversy, originally featured Johnny C and Jukebox instead of Scarface and Bushwick Bill: this would mark one of the only times that the original Ghetto Boys actually agreed to recite Willie's lines. This track elevated the Geto Boys to a higher status than other local Houston heroes. Unlike the Grip It! On That Other Level version, this remake features the rappers delivering their lyrics with a lot more aggressive energy, lending a bit more authenticity to the anger prevalent in the bars. I've always found it funny that the group never bothered to remove the phone call intro to the track, as it features J. Prince talking to Willie D and the original Ghetto Boys.

9. READ THESE NIKES

This Willie D solo effort started off as my least liked track from the album, eventually rising all the way to my favorite. How can one song mark such a drastic change of opinion? It isn't because of the beat, which is alright. Willie's hilarious (and highly quotable) verses about beating down random people who try to mess with him is what sells it for me. Each line is just as funny as the one before it. It may not appeal to everyone as much as the other cuts on The Geto Boys, mostly because the other two guys are nowhere to be found, but seriously, if there were only three cuts here I could label as classics, this would definitely be one of them.

10. TALKIN' LOUD AIN'T SAYIN' NOTHIN'

On Grip It! On That Other Level, Scarface performed the first verse, but Rick Rubin deleted him from the song entirely, so what we're left with is Bushwick's lone verse going against hypocritical parents and Willie D's two contributions dissing both pretenders claiming to be from the streets and cheating girlfriends. Scarface's verse was far from the best originally, though,so it doesn't really matter that he's missing from this track, which samples the James Brown song of the same name. Using a James Brown sample is pretty well-worn territory in hip hip, but Ready Red manages to get more out of one sample than many other producers can get out of a whole album, and that's saying something.

11. SCARFACE

This is the song that put Brad "Scarface" Jordan on the map as one of hip hop's greats: it needs to be heard by anybody who is only familiar with his work from The Fix and his many guest verses. This is also where I truly believe the mafioso rap phenomenon truly began. If you told me that Kool G Rap wasn't influenced by this when he wrote "On the Run", I would not believe you. This song has nothing to do with actual mob life, but it shares the same vision as the majority of entries in the sub-genre: Scarface is a cocaine drug lord who fights off rivals and gets sex with ease. This song is pure perfection. The N.W.A samples used throughout make this even more gangsta than it already is. With horrorcore and now mafioso rap on the table, tell me how many other rappers were capable of birthing two hip hop sub-genres within the same album.

12. LET A HO BE A HO

It's pretty funny that Ready Red would sample Pink Floyd's "Money" for a song about prostitutes who are not to be trusted. This lyric alone makes this song for me: "So why you wanna kill when she says no more? / You ain't the first to be dumped by a god-damn whore!"

13. CITY UNDER SIEGE

This is a political rant against Ronald Reagan, the government's participation in the drug trade, and corrupt cops. The Boys were inspired to write this track after hearing about a female who was killed by police officers after undergoing a chase because she was too exhausted after work to pull over. Even with the shift in overall subject matter (when compared to the rest of the album), "City Under Siege" ends the album with a bang and holds up like every other song on The Geto Boys.

FINAL THOUGHTS: The Geto Boys is an undeniable classic to me and is probably my favorite album of all time. Every track is pure perfection: there isn't a dull moment here, and it says a lot when this fifty-five minute masterpiece is the only album to make it onto my iPod in its entirely. There are no useless skits or filler tracks: everything on The Geto Boys is essential.   The Geto Boys is also the greatest Southern hip-hop album of all time, surpassing anything from Scarface as a solo rapper, anything OutKast or UGK have ever made, and absolutely everything from the last decade.  Every song on this album is pure gold: anybody who considers themselves a hip hop fan needs this in order for their collection to be complete.

BUY OR BURN? If you have read this far, then you know what the answer will be. Rush to a damn store to pick it up already.

BEST TRACKS: Every song is perfect. I'm serious!

-P_Captain

(Questions? Comments? Concerns? Leave your thoughts below.)

My Gut Reaction: Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday (November 22, 2010)

After the interlude that was the Kanye West review, this year's focus on the female emcee ends today with the debut album from newbie Nicki Minaj, entitled Pink Friday.  (If you predicted this album seeing a write-up because of the dates I revealed for the stunt blogging week, then congratulations!  You get a cookie.)

Nicki, born Onika Maraj (which actually helps make sense of her rap name), is a Queens-based artist (I know, I had no idea until today, either, as it's not as though she sounds like she could hang with Mobb Deep or anything) who released a couple of mixtapes before finding herself signed to Lil' Wayne's Young Money imprint.  She's currently being positioned as this generation's amalgamation of Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown, in that she's willing to flaunt her body in music videos and during live performances while making cameo appearances alongside rappers and R&B singers alike. 

However, everyone needs to have their own hook, and Nicki Minaj plays off of the fact that she pretends to be batshit crazy.  She frequently speaks in bizarre, ever-changing accents (see: her cameo at the beginning of Kanye West's "Dark Fantasy"), switches personalities on a dime (in this field, she seems to rival Kool Keith and MF Doom, two artists she will outsell in a fucking heartbeat), and appears to be visibly bored whenever she performs, not unlike KiD CuDi.  In fact, a lot of her appearances in music videos seem to capture her trying to amuse herself.  When you discover that she was a drama geek in school, though, these sudden out-of-character outbursts seem absolutely justified.

After signing with Lil' Weezy, Nicki appeared alongside her new crew, Young Money (I don't know if the group was named after the label or vice versa: it's a "chicken or the egg" kind of deal) , on their debut, the creatively titled We Are Young Money.  This project also featured her labelmate Aubrey "Drake" Graham, also a recent signee, along with a bunch of no name I-don't-give-a-fuck-about-them artists such as Tyga, Mack Maine, Gudda Gudda, and Jae Millz, along with Wayne himself.  This project was a success (which isn't surprising, since most rap fans these days appear to be fucking morons), so as the lone female emcee in the group, she was poised to be the second solo artist out of the gate, right after Drake was finished capitalizing on his new post-So Far Gone following.

Minaj decided to release "Massive Attack", a, um, massive departure from anything she had ever dropped before.  In the video, she was seen writhing around in a jungle wearing a green wig (shades of what Lil' Kimberly Jones was wearing in her "Crush On You" video.  See, it's all been done before, folks.)  However, Minaj's bid to become the hip hop equivalent of Lady Gaga was dashed by a poor mainstream response, so the track, originally intended to be the lead-off single for her debut Pink Friday, was immediately removed from the final cut, while Nicki went back to the drawing board.

Pink Friday is the second-most highly anticipated rap album of this Thanksgiving season (sorry, Lloyd Banks and My Chemical Romance), due to her multiple hit singles (none of which I've ever heard, but I'm told Nicki Minaj is quite popular), her "breakthrough" guest appearance on Kanye West's "Monster" (which appears on the actual most highly anticipated rap album of this Thanksgiving season), her flaunting of her live-action Barbie doll persona, and promised cameos from Eminem, Rihanna, Drake, and absolutely nobody else in the Young Money crew, a tactic Drake also used on his debut, Thank Me Later.  What good is having a crew if you can't even be bothered to throw them a bone?  (Lil' Wayne, who would have almost certainly provided a verse, was in prison during the recording of Pink Friday, so I'm sure he'll pop up on a remix or something.)

However, you should consider today's blog as a public service.  Under absolutely no circumstances should you actually pick up Pink Friday for any of your loved ones.  I'll explain why.

1. I'M THE BEST

Nicki plays it straight on the first Pink Friday track, dedicating her album to women everywhere who have been told that they will never succeed because of gender politics. It's a nice message and all, but it sounds a bit foreign when it's coming from Minaj's mouth, since throughout her short career, it's never really been established that she has met any sort of adversity along the way: it's almost as though she suddenly appeared and has been critically acclaimed ever since, without the usual obstacles that most female emcees face (see: Lil' Kim, Foxy Brown). Still, this is a Nicki performance that doesn't hide behind ridiculous accents or tons of studio trickery, and as a result, she actually sounds genuine over this Kane Beatz instrumental. She's far from the best, but on here, she's definitely not the worst rapper I've ever heard. Huh.

2. ROMAN'S REVENGE (FEAT. EMINEM)

And that tiny amount of goodwill I developed for Nicki Minaj during “I'm The Best” is now fucking decimated. This song is almost entirely unlistenable: it's like someone took a shit in your ears while force-feeding you a burger tainted with mad cow disease, and you're now suffering from the aftereffects. Swizz Beatz, who continues to get work because of why?, gives an uncharacteristic instrumental to Nicki's Roman Zolanski persona (hey, maybe next time you shouldn't take your name from a convicted child rapist, eh?) and Marshall Mathers, who trots out Slim Shady as though his newer fans are somehow cognizant of that early Eminem doppelganger: they only know him as a guy who is willing to record songs with Rihanna.  The accents are on full blast for both of these motherfuckers, but while Eminem's bars actually sound like he took his time with writing them (that's my only compliment for this song, so enjoy it while you can), Minaj seems to have only read a single page in labelmate Drake's playbook, as nearly all of her bars use that offhanded metaphor flow that sounds really fucking stupid now. Also, borrowing a Busta Rhymes line from A Tribe Called Quest's “Scenario” for the “hook” only leads me to agree with my wife's comparison between Nicki Minaj and a Busta Rhymes that needs his Ritalin dosage upped, thanks to her spastic line readings and substitution of shouting in place of lyrical depth. Groan.

3. DID IT ON 'EM

Producer Bangladesh, who was involved in a lawsuit against Young Money very recently but is now apparently producing for the crew again, tries, yet again, to replicate the success of his background work on Lil' Wayne's “A Milli”, but comes up with unfortunate results, thanks to Nicki's obsession with defecating on her competition. Surprisingly, this really terrible (I don't want any of you two thinking otherwise) song features a Minaj performance that comes the closest to meeting those comparisons between her and Missy Elliott that were prevalent when she first appeared on the scene. In no way is this a good thing, though: I enjoy Missy's music, but Nicki comes across as a copycat who missed the whole point. This is just sad.

4. RIGHT THRU ME

This ode to a significant other is one of Pink Friday's singles. What's hilarious about it is how she takes the potential sweet line, “You see right through me”, and undercuts it with, “How do you do that shit?” (italics mine), thereby negating the message of the song. Minaj does sound the most vulnerable that I've ever heard from her on here, but the song itself sounds false and vapid, which probably means that, not only is this a huge hit outside of my household, young women everywhere have already claimed it as their own ode to their husbands, boyfriends, or life partners. Young women everywhere need to pick up some better taste the next time they're at the store.

5. FLY (FEAT. RIHANNA)

Rihanna, who has never declined a request to perform in a guest capacity on a rap song, handles the vocals on “Fly”, which purports to be an inspirational track, but its intention is diluted when you realize that Minaj was just rhyming about shitting on her opponents not two songs ago. Still, Nicki plays it straight on this track, too, sticking with just the one voice and focusing on her lyrics. Given Rihanna's presence, it's a given that this will eventually become a single, and while I will absolutely always change the channel when it comes on the radio, it isn't entirely worthless.

6. SAVE ME

Like her labelmate Drake, Minaj harbors dreams of being both a rapper and an R&B singer, so “Save Me” is played without a hint of irony, and to be honest, her sung vocals aren't completely horrible. They're certainly not great, either, but listeners will be able to cope, thanks to the unexpected drum-and-bass breakdowns littered throughout the instrumental, which instantly turn this song into something more interesting than it really is, thanks to the beat's tendency to snap you awake at random intervals. I'm sure Young Money/Cash Money/Universal will quickly excise the lone curse word on “Save Me” and unleash this as a single for adult contemporary audiences. Hell, they turned nearly every song on Drake's Thank Me Later into a radio single, so why the fuck not?

7. MOMENT 4 LIFE (FEAT. DRAKE)

Speaking of Drake, he returns the favor Nicki did for him on his debut album by providing an expected guest verse for Pink Friday. His presence guarantees that this will become one of the more popular joints off of Pink Friday, but his own performance is the worst part of this song. The T-Minus beat sounds like an obvious bid for radio airplay, but while Nicki's verse is quite terrible, her singing on here isn't, and the hook grows on you after countless repetitions. Expect to hear this shit crammed down your motherfucking throats for the remainder of 2010.

8. CHECK IT OUT (FEAT. WILL.I.AM)

With “Your Love” scoring big in Nicki Minaj's main demographic (twelve-to-sixteen year old girls who shop at Aeropostale and don't understand what good music is supposed to sound like), she quickly scrambled for a new, pop-leaning single, settling on this atrocious will.i.am-produced shit that swipes part of The Buggles's “Video Killed The Radio Star” for its beat. Nicki's bars sound gimmicky and awful (on tracks like these, it's almost as though she records a reference track for herself to fill in the blanks later, but afterward, she gets lazy and elects to release the version filled with fucking gibberish), so obviously “Check It Out” is someone's most favoritest song ever. (If that someone is you, then you're not allowed to read this blog anymore.) The Black Eyed Peas are currently (and have always been, if you ask me) the worst representation of hip hop culture still making music today (yes, I rate them as worse than Soulja Boy and Waka Flocka Flame, because the output on their earlier, pre-Fergie work indicates that they should fucking know better), but isolating will.i.am from the rest of the group creates mixed results: his solo career rightfully ended before it even started, but as a producer, he's done some alright work for Nas and The Game. Not for Nicki Minaj, though: predictably, this song also falls into the “unlistenable” category, right next to “Roman's Revenge”. I couldn't skip past this mediocrity quickly enough.

9. BLAZIN' (FEAT. KANYE WEST)

Nicki Minaj's obsession with ruining the music of the 1980s for me continues over this Drew Money beat, which rips off “Don't You (Forget About Me)” from Simple Minds (best known as the song from The Breakfast Club). Luckily, her evil plot against me is thwarted this time around, as the instrumental on here bears little to no resemblance to the Simple Minds hit. Kanye West, whose guest appearance was inevitable given Minaj's contributions to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, spits an extra-long verse on here (not Cappadonna on “Winter Warz”-length, but still pretty long) that reaches no new ground, but is still refreshing to hear, as him hogging the microphone means that Nicki was prevented from unveiling yet another new persona with yet another asinine accent. But this overall track was bleh.

10. HERE I AM

I usually disregard rap song choruses, as they tend to suck on an inordinate number of balls, but this track's hook sounds like it's incomplete, rushed to store shelves without any sort of quality control. The beat is much more dramatic than Nicki Minaj deserves: it sounds like it could be a better fit for one of The Lox's crime tales. But I've noticed that I can tolerate the tracks on which Minaj sticks with her main persona-slash-voice, and “Here I Am” is no exception. In other words, this was alright.

11. DEAR OLD NICKI

Taking the whole “schizophrenic” trait by the horns, Nicki Minaj pulls a Kool Keith and uses one personality to address an entirely different personality on this song. The pre-fame Nicki, according to this song, was an underground artist with the integrity that Minaj had to discard once she hit it big. This seems like it should be a track featuring Nicki lamenting what she had to give up in order to get to where she is today (not unlike Slim Shady eulogizing the Infinite-era Eminem, except that event never actually happened), but instead, we get an artists who thrives in the spotlight and refuses to change. Oh well, maybe dear old Nicki will pull herself out of her grave when Roman Zolanski's homicidal tendencies start to cause some problems for Minaj's career. The Euro-pop sensibilities of the Kane Beatz instrumental also don't help matters any: if anything, it only underscores the overt contradiction of the song.

12. YOUR LOVE

After the failure of “Massive Attack”, Nicki elected to take an opposite approach, deciding on a shitty love rap that your girlfriend can't get enough of, which, by the way, is a terrific and entirely justifiable reason to drop her. (I got lucky: my wife finds Nicki Minaj abhorrent, although to be fair, she's only familiar with her work on Kanye West's “Monster”. However, she feels no need to conduct any further research, and I respect that.) Sampling Annie Lennox worked for The RZA (his “Tragedy” bites from “Here Comes The Rain Again”, technically from the Eurythmics, but still), but for Minaj, using “No More I Love You's” creates a sound that doesn't actually exist in nature. If I didn't already have a pounding headache before, “Your Love” just sealed the deal, as it is the audio equivalent of banging your head against the wall and expecting a different result each time.

13. LAST CHANCE (FEAT. NATASHA BEDINGFIELD)

For the final song in the original program, Nicki Minaj aims for the pop charts yet again by recruiting British songstress Natasha Bedingfield (of “Unwritten” and “Pocketful Of Sunshine” fame) to sing over a guitar-driven Drew Money concoction. Given the fact that the guest star spends the last minute of the track singing about shooting people, though, the message is more than a bit muddled. Thankfully, Nicki sounds as unfocused as ever on here, so my interaction with “Last Chance” is limited to listening to it just this one time. Huzzah!

The deluxe edition of Pink Friday contains the following bonus tracks.

14. SUPER BASS

“Super Bass” actually sounds like what I was afraid all of Pink Friday would be: Nicki trots out her personalities to spit some verses, and on at least one occasion, I was convinced that one of her personas was doing an impression of an entirely different persona. Other than the fact that this song exists for Nicki Minaj fan service only, as it doesn't further her story along at all, I couldn't figure out why this was left off of the main program, as it certainly doesn't sound any worse than some of the shit that made the final cut. Oh well.

15. BLOW YA MIND

Kicks off sounding corny as fuck, but the shitty introduction hides an undeniably interesting instrumental that another artists needs to appropriate immediately. I'm thinking Pusha T. Anyway, Nicki tries to adapt to the beat, and does just as well as you would expect, which is to say that I hated her performance, especially when she resorts to threatening to place her pussy on your chin. Because that would cause you to sit up and pay attention to the actual music, right?

16. MUNY

From the Nicolas Cage movie of the same name.

The following bonus track is only available if you're unfortunate enough to download Pink Friday from iTunes.

17. GIRLS FALL LIKE DOMINOES

When I first read about this bonus track, my first thought was, “I bet Nicki somehow samples The Big Pink's 'Dominoes'”. And my second thought was as follows: “I fucking hate The Big Pink's 'Dominoes'”. If this song ever sees a proper release, it'll become a hit, and I'm dreading that day, because then I would have to flee to Canada, and getting through airport security here in the States has gotten that much worse. At least Nicki Minaj used all of Pink Friday to commit to her overall weirdness: nobody sane could ever release this project. But that doesn't mean that anyone should ever listen to it.

The version of Pink Friday sold at Best Buy contains two further bonus tracks, both produced by Swizz Beatz. Not only do I not have that version, I don't care enough to look up anything about it, thanks to Swizzy's involvement and the fact that Best Buy exclusives are usually crap. Feel free to let me know in the comments if I'm wrong, though.

THE LAST WORD: Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday eschews any opportunity to develop a loyal fan base by catering to the fickle pop music crowd, only throwing occasional bones to hip hop heads, most of whom don't give a fuck about Nicki Minaj anyway. As a result, the album is as schizophrenic as our host appears to be. She claims to have dedicated this album to women everywhere who are oppressed, but resorting to rhyming about her vagina doesn't send a clear message to anyone, except that Nicki Minaj is really aiming to become the new millennium's answer to Lil' Kim, who once did the exact same schtick, except without the need of multiple personalities. The production on Pink Friday is tailored to our host, which means that Drake would sound terrible over any of these beats (and he does, in fact, sound terrible on “Moment 4 Life”), which only click every so often, but when they do, tiny portions of Pink Friday are actually decent enough to listen to. Those moments are few and far between, though: Nicki Minaj doesn't bring anything new to the hip hop table, and yet she will inevitably sell more copies than any of the other female artists I wrote about last week. It seems as though our quest to discover new talent for our chosen genre has led us astray. Nicki probably has it in her to record an album or two that are actually pretty good, since not all pop rap has to sound dire, but Pink Friday isn't one of them. Neither of you two still reading are going to listen to this shit anyway, but if you were at all tempted, I'm telling you: Don't.

-Max

My Gut Reaction: Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (November 22, 2010)

For those of you two in the States, you can relax: Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy has finally dropped. You can resume your normal Thanksgiving holiday as scheduled.  Everyone else in the world...um, enjoy your usual Thursday, I guess.

You're already familiar with the backstory for how Kanye West recorded his comeback album, so I'll only hit the high points for the sake of filling in some blank space. After interrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye decided to take some time off to find himself, not unlike what young twenty-somethings do after they finish college but are unaware of the pressures the real world will impose. This wasn't surprising, as his mother had passed away recently, but Kanye never really got a chance to mourn, and on top of that, he apparently also broke up with a long-term girlfriend, which inspired his departure from hip hop, his Auto-Tuned 808's & Heartbreak, which I still say is much better than what most people give it credit for.

After bumming around the world for a while (being filthy rich affords you such luxuries), 'Ye quietly decided that what he really wanted to do was record another rap album. He found a studio in Hawaii that would be perfect for his needs: it provided space for productivity, but if he ever needed a break, he was already in one of the world's top vacation destinations, and also there's a lot of different type of weed that can be purchased there. However, upon his arrival, he was tricked by a local into completing three difficult tasks before he could access the studio's front door.

He completed the first, talking a suicidal bear down off of a window ledge, with ease, thanks to the assistance of a freshly-baked homemade pie that he carried around in his car for such an occasion. The second task proved a bit more challenging, as he was forced to judge a talent competition where the contestants were made up of space aliens from another galaxy: Kanye had to overcome both the obvious language barrier and his hatred of Spin Doctors standards, which seemed to dominate the proceedings. The third task coerced him into kidnapping an entire ballet company from Paris, which he accomplished by donning a fake wig and pretending to be Kurtis Blow, scouting performers for a bar mitzvah. Afterwards, he wasn't really sure what he was supposed to do with the ballerinas, so he decided to employ them himself as his newest backup dancers-slash-weed carriers.

After finally gaining the keys, 'Ye locked himself in the studio and decided to call up a slew of hip hop heavies to join him during the recording process of what was once supposed to be called Good Ass Job, but instead ended up being My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Names such as DJ Premier, The RZA, Pete Rock, and Madlib were thrown around with careless abandon, as they were all allegedly providing production for a guy who was already a producer-slash-rapper in his own right. Lord only knows what happened to those sessions: only Prince Rakeem made the final cut of the album, as Kanye suddenly realized that he embodies every characteristic of the egotistic and should probably handle the majority of the production for what was supposed to be his return to hip hop. He wasn't afraid of stacking the deck when it came to guests, however: in addition to the likes of Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, Fergie, and Rihanna, all of whom would guarantee some extra scans for Def Jam Records (who allegedly spent over five million dollars on the recording of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy), Kanye also invited Raekwon, Elton John (no, seriously), La Roux's Elly Jackson, Chris Rock, Bon Iver, The-Dream, Drake, Ryan Leslie, and his own protégées John Legend, KiD CuDi, Big Sean (on a bonus track only), CyHi Da Prince, and his newest G.O.O.D. Music signee, Pusha T (from the coke-rap duo the Clipse).

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy leaked earlier this month, and overwhelmingly positive reviews came flooding in almost immediately, with many claiming this to be Kanye's masterpiece. (Side question: how many of you two actually enjoyed the thirty-five minute short film-slash-music video for "Runaway" (that's included in the deluxe release), and how many of you found it to be mildly interesting but mostly insufferable, like me?) The man is absolutely capable of putting out some compelling music: I will say that I did not see this career trajectory coming when he first spit his rhymed through a jaw that was wired shut after a near-fatal car accident (see: “Through The Wire”). But is My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, a rap album sequenced as a bleak fairytale describing the rise of a successful artist and the not-entirely-irrational fears that drive his everyday actions, really worthy of all of the praise it's been getting?

Well?

1. DARK FANTASY (FEAT. NICKI MINAJ, BON IVER, AMBER ROSE, & TEYANA TAYLOR)

After some bullshit introduction from the phony English-accented Nicki Minaj (who sounds about as bad as Madonna did when she was married to Guy Ritchie) that was also used for the "Runaway" short film-slash-music video, and a brief-but-pleasant chorus, Kanye West presents listeners with the best RZA beat that was never given to the Wu-Tang Clan. (The production is also credited to 'Ye and No I.D., but it's fairly obvious who did what.) Yeezy takes to the beat as if he never stopped rhyming in the first place, spitting two verses that are catchy as fuck (the “Too many Urkels on your team, that's why your wins-low” line, which also appeared during his BET freestyle cypher, still makes me laugh), so it's clear that he was relishing the opportunity to pretend that he was a legitimate part of the Clan. This is a fantastic way to kick things off, even with the bizarre spoken-word third verse added in midway through. I only wish that RZA's beat contained harder drums, so that it would have that much more of an impact when it finally kicks in. Oh well. I still loved this shit.

2. GORGEOUS (FEAT. KID CUDI, RAEKWON, & TONY WILLIAMS)

It seems more than a bit blasphemous to not include Raekwon on the song that The RZA co-produced, but whatever. The title of this song makes absolutely no sense, but aside from that minor complaint, this isn't bad, mainly because of the funky instrumental (handled by 'Ye, No I.D., and Mike Dean) and our host's three verses, in which he comes across as more lyrical than ever before. (He even uses up a bar to attack “a South Park writer with a fish stick”; based on this evidence and 'Ye's attack on Saturday Night Live during “Power”, it's obvious that he watches too much television.) CuDi, as always, is nowhere near essential for the song to be successful (yeah, I said it), but he only handles the chorus, which could have been worse. However, no matter how hard he tries, Kanye is outshined by the aforementioned guest star Chef Raekwon, who delivers a characteristically sleepy verse, but still manages to sound good because 'Ye had the brilliant idea of slightly distorting the vocals, so that you're hanging onto his every word instead of worrying about his overall health. “Ye does the same for his own vocals, too, so the consistency definitely adds to the overall experience.

3. POWER (FEAT. DWELE)

There isn't much I can say about “Power”, the first single from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, that I haven't already written, but I do still like it today. I do wonder if 'Ye will ever release the version with the alternate second verse that he performed on SNL. But it's not important enough for me to care for more than three sentences.

4. ALL OF THE LIGHTS (INTERLUDE)

A thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable musical interlude. Although I appreciate the fact that 'Ye was considerate enough to isolate it from the actual song it shares a title with, I actually wouldn't mind if the two tracks were combined.

5. ALL OF THE LIGHTS (FEAT. RIHANNA, ALICIA KEYS, FERGIE, THE-DREAM, RYAN LESLIE, ELTON JOHN, CHARLIE WILSON, KID CUDI, JOHN LEGEND, TONY WILLIAMS, DRAKE, ALVIN FIELDS, KEN LEWIS, & ELLY JACKSON)

Kanye West throws a dinner party, and instead of asking his guests to bring different dishes, he insists that they all contribute to this one song, which gives “All Of The Lights” the distinction of having the most bizarre guest list I've seen this week. (This track rivals some of the G.O.O.D. Friday releases when it comes to random combinations of artists.) Early word on this song, which leaked in several different versions before now (the leak pissed 'Ye off so much that he threatened to shut down the G.O.O.D. Friday offerings for good, but he had a change of heart after hearing the overall response) was fucking amazing, and I will say that I walked away from this final version with this shit stick in my head. But while the (awesome) instrumental and the female vocals mostly connect (even though my wife mentioned that she's sick of hearing Rihanna pop up on every rap song ever, a sentiment I strongly agree with), the male vocalists are all lost in the shuffle, aside from two: KiD CuDi channels Krayzie Bone for some reason, and Elton John manages to fit in pretty well. Also, the rhymes on here are alarmingly weak. Fergie's short verse is pretty bad and entirely horrible (par for the course for her, I must say), but the true offender on here is Kanye himself, whose verses are borderline horseshit. (The only line of his I liked was, “Her mother, brother, grandmother hate me (in that order)” (parentheses mine).) But I'll probably still play this song over and over again, as it does sound celebratory as fuck, and since it's supposed to be the next single, I'm sure I'll get sick of this track eventually. For now, though, I like it a lot, although I flat-out don't understand why some critics believe 'Ye's line “I'm headed home / I'm almost there” is so deep when it really isn't. Sadly, this song was very clearly recorded in small components and assembled together in the studio, so you will never hear The-Dream talk about what it was like to work alongside Elton John.

6. MONSTER (FEAT. JAY-Z, NICKI MINAJ, BON IVER, & RICK ROSS)

“Monster” is the first disappointment on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, but not because it's a bad song or anything. Aside from a few newer flourishes, this is the exact same song that 'Ye unleashed as part of the G.O.O.D. Friday series. There are no new verses, and Rick Ross isn't suddenly rendered more interesting or anything: his intro actually sounds more unnecessary, if that's even possible. Although I'm still not a fan of hers, I've grown to appreciate the fact that Nicki Minaj stays on topic with her verse (even though it sounds like it was performed by approximately six of her multiple personalities), something that Kanye doesn't even bother to do. (He will “put the pussy in a sarcophagus”, though. Which absolutely doesn't mean what he wants it to mean.) The beat is still pretty good (if not exactly monstrous), and the performances from all the players (except Officer Ricky) are still a delight. My favorite part of this song is how one could easily misinterpret Jay-Z's lyrics: after he runs down a list of classic movie monsters, it's almost as though he tacks on “Christians” before asking “What do these all have in common?”. (And yes, I'm aware that Hova actually says “Question”. It's a joke, people.) Oddly, Charlie Wilson shared billing on the G.O.O.D. Friday track, and I swear I can still hear his vocals on the album version, but he isn't listed in the credits anywhere. Weird.

7. SO APPALLED (FEAT. JAY-Z, PUSHA T, CYHI DA PRINCE, THE RZA, & SWIZZ BEATZ)

The best G.O.O.D. Friday song thus far (yes, in my mind, this just edges out “Chain Heavy”) doesn't necessarily fit on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, but this song is so fucking awesome that I really don't care. I'd love to see a video for this, maybe done as a direct sequel to Hova's “Run This Town”, given the similar sample and dark tones shared between the tracks. Jay-Z turns in the best guest verse on the entire album, with Pusha T coming in a close second. (The more talkative half of the Clipse even gets a slightly more majestic ending to his verse that he did on the free version, but it leads into an bonus Swizz Beatz recitation, so there is a downside.) It turns out that I didn't get my wish: The RZA still only does a glorified hook. But everyone with an actual verse sounds great over this dramatic, poignant instrumental. One of the best songs of the fucking year.

8. DEVIL IN A NEW DRESS (FEAT. RICK ROSS)

I thought this was the weakest G.O.O.D. Friday song when I did my write-up, but that was a bit of an unfair judgment, since what 'Ye leaked was an incomplete song. So here is the full version, which now inexplicably features a verse from Rick Ross, albeit one that is isolated from the rest of the track, so it sounds more like an afterthought than a true collaborative effort. Bink!'s instrumental still sounds like a poor early-Kanye West imitation (although I liked the mid-song instrumental break), and Officer Ricky's verse isn't anything special (I don't see the appeal, and the fact that he now seems to ad-lib “uh” within his verses like The Notorious B.I.G. used to do makes me want to Hulk out), so maybe my original opinion is still valid: this is still pretty weak. It is what it is.

9. RUNAWAY (FEAT. PUSHA T, THE-DREAM, & TONY WILLIAMS)

Kanye takes his second single and goes all art-house on us, stretching it out to nine minutes in length by adding some annoying piano keys at the very beginning (so as to continue to concept of his live performances of the song, in which he appears to be crafting the a on the spot), throwing in some of the sampled vocals (huzzah!) from the live performances, changing the “girl” in his second bar to a “bitch” (that's a curious edit, by the way: it's not as though the song was clean before, so why alter that now? Maybe he was just trying to be more of an douchebag), and tacking on the same Auto-Tuned coda that you heard in the "Runaway" short film, in which it sounds like the machines have both become sentient and are dying from emphysema. So he kinda-sorta fucked up a great song. It's still okay, but there was really no reason that he should have allowed his artistic tendencies to get the best of him in this way. Besides, we'll always have the single edit. Pusha T still sounds fantastic on here, though.

10. HELL OF A LIFE (FEAT. TEYANA TAYLOR & THE-DREAM)

Our host's instrumental on here is fucking awesome, but the lyrics leave me feeling empty, since Kanye's hedonistic tendencies get the best of him, turning some of his bars into a poorly written Penthouse Forum letter. The beat on here is so sleazy-good that you may have to steam clean Yeezy's sperm out of your carpet after you're done listening to it. Also, the man should absolutely step the fuck away from the Auto-Tune (which he uses to sing his own chorus), and I say that even though I actually liked 808's & Heartbreak a great deal. The track is also a bit too long for its own good. But the music on here is so fucking good, it comes pretty close to overriding all of my criticism.

11. BLAME GAME (FEAT. JOHN LEGEND, CHRIS ROCK, & SALMA KENAS)

An early tracklisting of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy listed Pusha T as a collaborator for this track, so I was a bit disappointed to find that he isn't actually on here. This track is nearly eight minutes long because of an extended interlude at the end, but the music on here is so fucking great that I didn't mind. Kanye and John Legend (who sings the words “bitch” and “motherfucker” as if he was Motown's answer to Nate Dogg) use the melancholy piano keys and strings (liberally borrowed from Aphex Twin's “Avril 14th”)to stare objectively at a dying relationship, and this shit is actually pretty powerful stuff. Which is why it's almost derailed when Chris Rock appears at the end as the other man, but luckily that risk ultimately pays off, since he's funny, but not so funny that he distracts the listener from the overall point of the song. Thanks to the music, this is some gut-wrenching stuff. Kudos, 'Ye.

12. LOST IN THE WORLD (FEAT. BON IVER)

“Paranoid” was the song on 808's & Heartbreak that could qualify as a club banger: “Lost In The World” is My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy's bid. I understand that's an odd generalization to make, given that this song features samples from both Bon Iver (“The Woods” - although he also appears on the song itself, so that's interesting) and Gil Scott Heron's “Comment #1”, but it's true. This track certainly isn't bad, as it beautifully encompasses 'Ye's growing disconnect with the world around him, but it only really consists of one verse and a shitload of distractions.

13. WHO WILL SURVIVE IN AMERICA (FEAT. BON IVER, CHARLIE WILSON, KAY FOX, TONY WILLIAMS, ALICIA KEYS, & ELLY JACKSON)

The Gil Scott Heron sample that was used on the last track plays out a bit longer to act as an outro to both “Lost In The World” and the album in general. You two should already know how I feel about spoken word outros, but the fact that 'Ye set this one to music makes it interesting to hear at least the once.

The iTunes version of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy contains the following bonus track.

14. SEE ME NOW (FEAT. BEYONCE, CHARLIE WILSON, & BIG SEAN)

“See Me Now” was a terrible song that 'Ye leaked himself, and he was so encouraged by the response that he decided to create the G.O.O.D. Friday series, so I guess some good came of it. However, I never liked this song because it sounds boring as shit. The album version features a newly mastered sound and an additional verse from 'Ye's apprentice Big Sean, who spends the majority of his time defending his boss, like a good lackey should. But the song itself is still not very interesting, unless, once again, you really need to hear Bey sing the word “n---a”. By the way, has Charlie Wilson officially signed to G.O.O.D. Music? He sure does pop up on the free leaks an awful lot.

There was word on the Interweb of additional iTunes-exclusive bonus tracks for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: “Chain Heavy”, “Mama's Boyfriend”, “Power (Remix)”, and “Pure”. This news turned out to be false, although I wouldn't be surprised if “Mama's Boyfriend” (a song 'Ye talked up during the recording process) and “Pure” (a collaboration with Mr. Hudson that nobody had ever even considered before it popped up on the fake tracklisting) ended up leaking down the line. (The other two tracks are already freely available as a part of G.O.O.D. Friday, although the “album” version of “Chain Heavy” was allegedly going to feature M.I.A., so who knows what will happen.)

THE LAST WORD: So is Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy the masterpiece that other critics are making it out to be? Unsurprisingly, not so much. 'Ye's return to hip hop makes for a really good album, at times even great, but it isn't an instant classic, as it's missing the cohesion necessary for the project to flow properly, thanks in part to our host's insistence on including a handful of the already-released G.O.O.D. Friday songs. (I wonder what this might have sounded like if, say, “Monster” was a bonus track, instead of being a part of the centerpiece.) Musically, Kanye's soundscapes (with occasional assists from others) sound like nothing else in our chosen genre: they don't even sound like anything the man has even done in the past, they are that forward-thinking. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy plays out as a “fuck you” to everyone else in hip hop, almost as though 'Ye is daring the rest of the industry to follow in the footsteps of his ridiculous artistic tendencies, which, admittedly, work more often than not. He even shows restraint by limiting the main program to thirteen tracks (well, eleven songs, a musical interlude, and an outro), so this is clearly not the same guy who recorded The College Dropout and Late Registration, even though he does share a social security number with that person. My biggest problem with the album is with the lyrics: although there are a handful of performances that push the boundaries of what Kanye is capable of (“Dark Fantasy”, “So Appalled”, and “Power” come to mind), there are songs on here that would look like a fucking joke when transcribed (“All Of The Lights” specifically, although the lone verse on “Lost In The World” also qualifies). Most of 'Ye's lines are singularly focused on fucking, a subject that has always sounded a bit forced when coming from him. However, the music built around those two examples is strong enough to overcome all obstacles, so that's just a minor quibble regarding what will probably become the hip hop album of the year. There are missteps, sure, and I was left wishing that he didn't rely on so many guest artists at times (even though most of the outside contributions were pretty goddamn good), but I enjoyed My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, even though it isn't perfect. But was there any way it ever could have been, realistically? Good work, Kanye.

-Max

RELATED POSTS:

Catch up on Kanye West here.

MC Lyte - Lyte As A Rock (September 17, 1988)

My focus on female emcees ends today with a look at the debut album from a woman who is actually the inspiration for the majority of the ladies I wrote about this week: Lana Moorer, better known as the one and only MC Lyte.

Lyte began rapping at the young age of twelve: by seventeen, she became the first female emcee to release a full-length album, her debut Lyte As A Rock.  She recorded it with the help of the rap duo Audio Two, who just so happened to be her brothers.  (Rap newcomer and blogger punching bag Charles Hamilton is also related to MC Lyte; I guess hip hop just runs in their family bloodline.)  Lyte became well known for her concise rhymes, attention to detail, and her motherfucking cursing, which only lent more authenticity to her bars, especially since she didn't rely on profanity as a crutch. 

Lyte As A Rock is generally considered to be a ten-track hip hop classic, featuring a heavily sampled sound that would be damn near impossible to replicate today.  MC Lyte quickly gained a wider following, soon eclipsing her brothers and moving on into the world of acting, although she does occasionally drop back in on the rap game every so often to say hello and bring us our mail.

Sorry these introductory paragraphs are so short, but it's been a long week.

1. LYTE VS. VANNA WHYTE

For the life of me, I have never figured out why this track made the final cut of Lyte As A Rock. It's a deejay cut as rap album intro, except it's annoying as fuck, and Lyte doesn't even appear until the very end, where she starts dropping name brands and model numbers of studio equipment as though she received an extra cookie for each one she memorized. Was Wheel Of Fortune even that popular with the hip hop crowd that producer Alliance thought he could wring a viable song out of it? Because he was fucking wrong.

2. LYTE AS A ROCK

Lyte As A Rock makes a complete u-turn from the bullshit opening number with some hard sampled drums (and a hilarious interruption right at the beginning, which I may only find funny as a grammar nerd). The chorus (and its use of a sound bite from Ashford and Simpson's “Solid”) is a bit tacky, but MC Lyte attacks the microphone with a focused intensity that rivals most of her male counterparts at the time. She ignores the fact that she is a woman, spitting her verses with a minimum of horseplay. Audio Two's musical backing, albeit a bit dated, is fucking refreshing in our era of overproduced beats, too. This should have been the intro.

3. I AM WOMAN

The beat is almost laughably dated. “I Am Woman” is one of the few songs on Lyte As A Rock where our host, albeit briefly, refers to her gender, although it most certainly isn't used as any sort of detriment or excuse. I would imagine that growing up surrounded by hip hop (thanks to her brothesr, anyway) helped her polish her flow, bit there isn't anything memorable to quote from on here, and is it just a coincidence that the lone song celebrating her femininity is also the shortest one on the album? Discuss.

4. MC LYTE LIKES SWINGIN'

The almighty Prince Paul provides the beat for this song (although he may not have established a separate identity from his crew Stetsasonic at the time: during the track itself, Lyte credits the instrumental to “Stetsa”), and it sounds exactly as a drum-heavy, scratched-to-high-heaven rap song should sound. Lyte is in her element, surrounded by a wall of beautiful noise. I am concerned with that title, though: even in 1988, “swinging” meant something entirely different than what Lana is allegedly talking about. Still, this was entertaining, at least.

5. 10% DIS

Probably the most well-known song in MC Lyte's entire catalog, but that doesn't mean that the praise heaped upon her verbal assault on rival rapper Antoinette is undeserved: this shit still bangs today. Over a Audio Two beat that only slightly deviates from their own hit song “Top Billin'”, Lyte dismantles her opponent, helping my younger readers understand why they've never even heard of Antoinette while MC Lyte's name continues to pop up on blogs worldwide. And she does all of this without ever actually naming her opponent, which makes “10% Dis” a far cry from the battle records of today. It's also good to know that Lyte also gets some use out of her brother Milk's “great big bodyguard”; does that mean he gets paid double? Whatever, this shit was nice.

6. PAPER THIN

The fact that “Paper Thin” is over five minutes long is misleading: Lyte stops rhyming at the halfway point, and the rest of the track appears to be the actual instrumental restarted, complete with the ad-libs we heard the first time through. But the part that is the actual song is pretty good. Lyte explores relationships in a fairly superficial manner, but most people look at them in the exact same way, so that's not a big deal: most folks go out on dates with the high hopes of seeing the other person naked at some point and, fingers crossed, sleeping with them. Lyte doesn't get that crass (although all of the stuff about sucking on her toes is close enough), but the main point is still there. The King Of Chill instrumental was still pretty good, even though it quickly wears out its welcome.

7. LYTE THEE MC

You only think the drums dominate this showcase of lyrical dominance over most other female emcees: when the track finally ends, you realize that the slow-rolling bassline, hidden comfortably in the background, pretty much makes this song. The hook is dull, and the title is awfully stupid, but MC Lyte does impress on here, spitting enough hot shit that you feel completely full when she leaves the booth and allows Alliance's beat to ride for an additional minute.

8. I CRAM TO UNDERSTAND U

Lyte describes a bad relationship with a guy who gradually unraveled into someone that she wanted nothing to do with. Attention to detail is important in a storytelling rap, and MC Lyte passes the test: hell, I felt bad for her when the very first hiccup occurred between her and “Sam”. The beat is understated, existing solely to help our host segue into different phases, until the very end, when it's revealed that the love interest is actually a crackhead. This shit was pretty good.

9. KICKIN' 4 BROOKLYN

Lyte kicks three quick verses for Brooklyn in less than two and a half minutes, using only a minimalist Audio Two instrumental (all drums, all the time) as her accomplice. Dated as fuck, but that means that new listeners will have no trouble deciphering her lyrics, which come with the sheen of being freshly polished. The boasts are elementary, but MC Lyte is just trying to prove that she's a better rapper than you are, so there isn't anything wrong with that, although new listeners won't necessarily gravitate toward this track for any reason.

10. DON'T CRY BIG GIRLS

Well, they can't all be winners.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Lyte As A Rock is a pretty sound debut album. MC Lyte chooses not to harp on her status as a female emcee (although she is a part of the elite, and she sure as hell brags about that frequently), electing instead to simply kick her rhymes. Lyte proves herself behind the mic with a polished, assured flow that would sound unnatural coming from a then seventeen-year-old had she not been so goddamn convincing. The beats on Lyte As A Rock, while mostly banging, are incredibly dated, and your level of enjoyment will be directly proportionate to how much you like and appreciate old school rap. But even this far removed from its original release date, most of Lyte As A Rock still holds up, especially the tracks listed below. With the increasing number of inferior female artists in this mostly male-dominated musical genre (especially those who resort to shock value tactics or sexual healing in order to sell records), it's always refreshing to hear a woman who can hold her own behind the mic. Lyte As A Rock is just good music.

BUY OR BURN? You should pick this one up. It's consistently entertaining, and it may change your perspective on what hip hop sounded like back in 1988. Besides, it contains “10% Dis”, which is just awesome. So there's that.

BEST TRACKS: “10% Dis”; “Paper Thin”; “MC Lyte Likes Swingin'”; “I Cram To Understand U”; “Lyte Thee MC”; “Lyte As A Rock”

-Max

My Gut Reaction: Northern State - Dying In Stereo (June 3, 2003)

No matter what I write about the New York rap trio Northern State, here's the most important thing you two need to know: these three white chicks started this group as a fucking goof. 

I'd understand if you don't feel the need to finish reading this post.  All our chosen genre needed was three white girls co-opting the culture while turning it into a joke at the same time.  However, the problem is that hip hop is already a fucking joke.  Have you heard what is played on the radio today? 

You should all be fucking ashamed of yourselves.

Anyway, Northern State is made up of three girls who met in high school.  Made up of Spero, Sprout, and Hesta Prynn, they named themselves after a highway in their hometown of Long Island.  Although they started life just fucking around behind the mic, they actually began to take this rap shit seriously, releasing an EP, Hip Hop You Haven't Heard, in 2002.  Encouraged by some mystifying positive reviews from people who almost certainly didn't really understand what hip hop was supposed to sound like in the new milennium, Northern State rerecorded the songs from that project (and conjured up a few extras) for what ended up being their debut album, Dying In Stereo, released independently in 2003. 

Northern State's sound is best described by me as a cross between the Beastie Boys (the most obvious influence on these ladies) and indie rock duo Tegan and Sara, which makes sense when you realize that Hesta Prynn has since moved on to a solo career that has included working with Tegan and Sara.  But before that happened, Dying In Stereo managed to impress enough people that Northern State's follow up, All City, inexplicably included production help from the likes of DJ Muggs and motherfucking Pete Rock, both of whom recovered rather quickly from their enormous lapses in judgment.

Okay, maybe this won't be that bad.  The Beastie Boys started off as parody of rap music (after they switched over from being a punk band, anyway) and then grew into their current roles as hip hop elder statesmen, so who's to say that Northern State can't do the same thing?

I'm going to raise my hand.

1. A THOUSAND WORDS

And so this ridiculous excursion begins. The first verse not only sounds like paint-by-numbers rapping, it even plays with the very idea of a rhyme scheme as if the group had somehow earned the right to do so (which, technically, they do), which could have been interesting, had this song been any good. The Beastie Boys comparisons are obvious, but these three don't yet sound excited enough to deserve them, The hip hop cliché “Where ya at?” is also repeated so many times that I'm convinced that Northern State has actually utilized one thousand words over this weak instrumental, credited to three entities: GoodandEvil, Jesse West (an artist in his own right, apparently), and Northern State themselves. I'm not looking forward to the rest of this.

2. TRINITY

The beat is fairly minimalist, which means that the lyrics are not obstructed in any way. Thankfully, all three ladies already sound much better than they did on “A Thousand Words”. The hook sucks (this is a rap song), but I actually liked the sample used, last heard (in my mind) on Ini Kamoze's “Here Comes The Hotstepper” and Ice Cube's title track from the Friday soundtrack. The Beastie Girls concept works much better on here.

3. AT THE PARTY

Dying In Stereo is no Licensed To Ill, but this track comes the closest to the engaging non-stop party that was the Beastie's Def Jam Records debut. Modify these verses just a bit and you'll be convinced that Ad-Rock, MCA, and Mike D at the very least ghostwrote this shit. The instrumental, which is admittedly stagnant much of the time, goes into overdrive during the chorus, which, surprisingly, does not completely suck, as simple as it is. This was actually not horrible.

4. THE MAN'S DOLLAR

These three ladies straight spit all over the track. I just realized that last sentence could be interpreted in a dirty way, but you two just need to get your minds out of the gutter. Anyway, they are most definitely not three Rakims with the pen and the pad: hell, they're not even three Trinas. But do I prefer to hear these chicks on the mic than, say, a Nicki Minaj? Since I asked myself the question, the answer is obviously and unequivocally yes. (That's usually how it works.) Northern State chooses not to rhyme about sexuality, instead letting their rhymes speak for themselves, which, oddly, places them alongside the better female lyricists in the game such as Lauryn Hill and Bahamadia. Said rhymes are not great by any means, but this song is entertaining enough, I suppose, and I can't say that about anything I've heard thus far from Nicki Minaj.

5. VICIOUS CYCLE

The beat is actually fairly good: its calm demeanor masks a sinister undertone that is highly appreciated. The lyrics are all fairly shitty, though, as the ladies elect to fuck with rhyming conventions yet again, with poor results. The overall message is a decent one, though: one shouldn't discount women in the rap game (or anywhere else) simply because of their gender. (Perhaps if you didn't title the song after a phrase that could easily be turned against any woman depending on the time of the month, this could have been a more effective message.) If Northern State were to re-record this track today, I have no doubt that it would sound much better with their years of experience, but even if they did that, there's no guarantee that anybody would listen.

6. SIGNAL FLOW (YOU CAN'T FADE ME)

Bonus points for referencing both Nigella Bites, a now-defunct cooking show starring British hottie Nigella Lawson, and Brand Nubian's “Don't Let It Go To Your Head”, which is not the first Brand Nubian track that would pop into anybody's mind when thinking of their overall legacy in our chosen genre. Those points are taken away quickly, though, for resorting to the cliché “You can't fade me” in the title, as that phrase hasn't been cool since 1989. Just like this entire song, now that I think about it. And yes, I realize that last sentence made no sense.

7. ALL THE SAME

Yeah, that's what I say about most hip hop. Congratulations, Northern State, you've just been lumped in with the majority!

8. DYING IN STEREO (FEAT. DJ MAURICE “M.O.P.” PERRY)

Well, I can't say that Dying In Stereo doesn't end on a high note. The beat on this title track is fucking dope: delete the guest's ridiculous (reggae) contributions, and this could potentially even earn a spot on your iPod. No, seriously. I demand that some other rappers jack this instrumental for their next mixtape freestyle. The lyrics don't make any sense when you actually transcribe them, but they still sound decent. It's amazing what a good beat can do for mediocre rhymes (see: DJ Premier's work with Group Home), especially the phrase “I cast you out!” on the hook, which actually sounds good within this context.

THE LAST WORD: Northern State may have started life as a goof, but Dying In Stereo is far from being a parody: instead, it just sounds like a bad rap album. Hesta Prynn, Spero, and Sprout never shake off the stigma that they are three whits girls making fun of rap music, and since none of Dying In Stereo is (intentionally) funny, the entire project is rendered pointless. It wasn't the exercise in masochism that I was expecting, though: the title track is actually quite good, light years beyond the other seven songs presented. But you're not left wanting to hear more from Northern State, which is a problem: instead, you're left hoping that the Beastie Boys will file a federal lawsuit for copyright infringement. So yeah, I don't get what is supposed to be appealing about Northern State, but then again, nobody else does either, as the trio haven't exactly broken Billboard records. Dying In Stereo could have been much worse, but it could have also been a lot fucking better.

-Max