A Happy Born Day shout-out to Canadian Hip-Hop veteran, Eternia! If you're not familiar, do your Googles!! Before Kool G Rap did his new album with producer MoSS, there was an Eternia & MoSS album called "At Last" on Fat Beats Records that featured Joel Ortiz, Reef The Lost Cauze, Rah Digga, Lady of Rage, Termanology, Ras Kass, Jean Grae and more. It was nominated for every music award Canada has, and was ranked on DJ Premier's Top 25 albums of 2010 at #17. That just scratches the surface, visit Bandcamp for more! Below is the latest offering from Eternia, going in over a classic Brooklyn banger from Smoothe The Hustler, 'Broken Language,' for the 90s-inspired Canadian MC mixtape, M.I.C. Series. Full disclosure: If you're not already aware, I've toured the world with Eternia as her manager and business partner, and she's 1 of my favorite people in the whole world! In other words, I'm bias ... but that doesn't change the fact that she's a beast! Listen...
And, as always, it's nice to get support from the OGs...
'Once Upon A Time In America' was released on this day in 1996 via Profile Records. The production by D.R. Period and the undeniable chemistry that blood brothers Smoothe Da Hustler & Trigger Tha Gambler had on record made this a gem of an album out of Brooklyn. Whether it was Smoothe & Trigg going back to back with innovative rhyme patterns on 'Broken Language,' rhyming backwards on 'My Brother My Ace' or on the would-be single, 'Only Human,' they delivered great tracks along with D.V. Alias Khryst. Maybe some of you remember it from my old website, but Smoothe and I did an interview over 10 years ago, where he spoke about his time away from music raising his son after his baby mother died from a brain aneurysm, some of the artists who ran with his style in his absence, his album with Ice-T and lots more to do with his SMG label. The one thing I know for sure, go to any party & throw on 'Broken Language,' Brooklyn will take over that whole party, lol. After that interview, I remember catching a show he was on at the old Knitting Factory and then side-stage at Rock The Bells the year Nas & DJ Premier headlined. His energy was good, we chopped it up briefly & crossed paths one more time at Fat Beats, where he did a quick drop for a mix I was working on at the time. 'Broken Language' video below, and The Source interview is up above.
"Quick, name the two joints that had Brooklyn hard-rocks puffing and posturing with pride over the last few months of '95. Give up? Does the phrase "When the East is in the house" ring any bells? How 'bout, "Your death threater, sender / Head spinner / Rap beginner / Light dimmer / Three knock-out winner?" If the names Blahzay Blahzay and Smoothe Da Hutler, along with his brother Trigga, haven't popped into yo cerebrum as yet, you need to go to the back of the class and stick your face in the wall. Well, to the delight of the fates and lyric-lovers all over, these two acts have joined forces to revisit Blahzay's "Danger." You'll wanna click play below and then continue reading ...
"Blahzay's Outloud opens things up in his strident, straightforward baritone. "Medina animals eat you like purina / Cat chow I never bow still I aim to please / Drain what you got as if I was your main squeeze / Wack MCs ease / The end is here at last / Jet real fast with your tail between your ass." But it's the presence of Smoothe and Trigga that significantly ups the lyrical ante on this joint, particularly Trigga, who delivers a razor sharp piece of vocal ass-whip: "The misdemeanor / dreamer / money schemer / slip the clip in the infrared beamer." More dangerous indeed." All verses go!
"Here comes that Brooklyn aesthetic again - slang talk, crook walk and glock cock attitude. Smoothe Da Hustler, a product of the mean streets of Brownsville, Brooklyn, is poised to big-up the borough lovely with his debut release ... "Broken Language" is the real jewel here. Smoothe pairs up with his brother Trigga to deliver one of the most jaw dropping performances by a duo in some time. The two engage in vintage hip-hop, switching back and forth in an endless series of self-aggrandizing descriptions. As the sinister, sting-adorned track pulses in the background, Trigga and Smoothe strive to metaphorically outdo each other. Trigga: "Your death threater, sender, head spinner, rap beginner, light dimmer, three-knock out count winner / Your gun reacher, bustin' shot teacher, your funeral service church preacher / Your black hearse coffin' seeker." Smoothe: "Camera, the beer guzzler, the slug to your mug tussler, the drug juggler, the crazy thug hustler / The lexus wanter, the chain, ring and bracelet flaunter." Undoubtedly - as summed up quite succinctly by Smoothe - the "hottest n!gga out this winta." - The Source, 11/95. Prod. by DR Period, check it out below...
"Death becomes Smoothe Da Hustler: "I got off the train, and a kid looked at me in shock and said, 'I heard you got shot, son!'" Smoothe is regaling his crew at Brooklyn's Nexx Level Studios with the much exaggerated tale of his death. This past New Year's Eve, a man who resembled Smoothe was reported on a local news show to have been killed. Even Smoothe's mother and his younger brother / occasional rhyme partner, Trigga da Gambler, panicked. It was easy to believe Smoothe's hustling days had caught up with him. But Smoothe chuckles at the memory. "I was in a hotel room, butt-naked with socks on, lookin' like this" - he folds his arms and assumes a laid-back mack daddy pose - "watching the news." Like Wu-Tang Clan's 1994 "C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)" and Black Moon's "Shit Iz Real" from 1993, "Brooklyn Language" - the B-side to Smoothe's first-released but less-embraced "Hustlin'" - exquisitely defines the moment. Over stripped-down drums, Smoothe and Trigga each drop maxims Dolomite-style: "The money stasher / Gun-blastin' razor slasher / The human asthma breath taker / Body dump waster." It's Brooklyn gangsta rap, from a brother who's lived it." Check out the visuals (again) to "Broken Language," article continues below...
"I sold drugs and all that," Smoothe admits, "to take slack off my mother - which she didn't want us to do." In his spare time, though, he and Trigga wrote rhymes and Smoothe recorded two songs for his friend, producer D/R Period. Things seemed to be movin' on up, but in 1994, Smoothe's hustling landed him in jail for six months on a gun possession charge. "Period got a buzz going while I was locked up," says Smoothe. Upon his release, he signed a deal with Profile. Now he's slangin' metaphors instead of dope. Once Upon A Time In America, Smoothe's coarse debut, is a hard look into his past and the forces that shaped his outlook. "This album is my life," he says, shrugging. "People think thug n!ggas can't get deep because we rock hoodies and portray a certain image. We're surrounded by it - but that doesn't mean our minds are trash." - Vibe, April 1996.
