Gang Starr "Moment of Truth" (March 31, 1998)

Only a few rap groups have managed career-long consistency, among them A Tribe Called Quest (whose new album will come out in June) and Gang Starr. "Moment of Truth" (Noo Trybe/Virgin) is the latter's fifth album, its first in four years. The wait's been worth it, as DJ Premier once again brings his unmatched production skills to bear on rapper Guru's authoritative missives. At the start of the new album, Guru boasts, "We update our formulas. . . . The rhythm style is elevated, the style of beats are elevated. . . . There's always a message included." Indeed, messages stressing knowledge and self-determination are sprinkled throughout: "Take responsibility . . . make your moves right and exact . . . if we don't build, we'll be destroyed . . . each one teach one . . . cultivate, multiply, motivate/ Or else we'll die." In the title track, Guru admits to a looming depression fueled by both social history and personal weakness: "I'm ready to lose my mind/ But instead I use my mind," he says, further rejecting drugs and alcohol because "all that's going to do really is accelerate/ Those anxieties that I wish I could alleviate." Later, in "What I'm Here For," he rides a mesmerizing piano loop and declares, "While some choose greed/ I chose to plant seeds for your mental spirit and physical temple/ Bob your head to it/ There's the water, you've been led to it." "Royalty" teams Gang Starr with Jodeci's K-Ci and JoJo on an anthem that's both gently critical and unconditionally affirming. There are also several collaborations with other rappers, the most interesting being the orientally flavored, mystical-leaning "Above the Clouds" with Wu-Tang's Inspectah Deck, and "Betrayal," a languid "Mean Streets" parable about money, greed and lust that effectively teams Guru with former Geto Boy Scarface. (The WP article continues below, click play and keep reading...)

While there are a few questionable digressions -- "She Knowz What She Wantz" is lame and slightly misogynistic -- the most vituperative tracks are reserved for "wack" rappers and pretenders, from the back-on-the-block surge of "You Know My Steez" and Big Apple-centric "New York Strait Talk" to "The Rep Grows Bigga," which mixes verbal beat-downs on ghetto celebrity lifestyle with frustration over the distance between the group's commercial success and its artistic impact. Guru's raps seem particularly invigorated this time around -- the monotone delivery sharp, the flow smooth, the lyrics straightforward and uncompromising -- but it's still Premier's production that lifts "Moment of Truth" above the competition. Premier favors clean, distinct beats that avoid gimmicks and commercialism. With few exceptions, they draw the listener into the messages with clever, mesmerizing sonic textures that bear repeated listening. - The Washington Post (4/15/1998).

Onyx "Bacdafucup" (March 30, 1993)

Yikes! It's the attack of the bald heads! Get ready for Onyx, the new solid piece of musical phatness that I had to shoot the bootlegger for. I'm open and gone on these kids and I'm seriously killin' the batteries in my Walkman. "Bacdafucup! Bacdafucup," the new NYC rudeboy rush hour theme, is just the beginning of this mad excursion through the United States Ghetto. This ain't "gangsta," this is real. Mr. Sticky Fingers has the ill voice you will never forget as he puts a Tech-9 in your mouth and robs you of your props. His partner in crime, Fredro Starr, has his back, as the rest of bald-headed massive (Big DS and Sonny Ceasar) bring it to the table hard. Sawed-off pump jams, like the current underground single "Throw Ya Guns" or rowdy LP cut "Here and Now," will make you want to reach for the ski-mask and step, but before you troop to the bullpen, be advised that this album is not just rude. It is an extremely dope vision of ugliness that is not for the sensitive. When they're not pledging allegiance to the "U.S.G.," they're offending everybody but the bad boys with hardcore XXX-rated jams like "Black Vagina Finda" and "Suckin' The Next N!gga's D!ck." While the topics they kick are real enough, after awhile the b!tch-n!gga-b!tch lyrics and the frenzied screaming do become monotonous. Nevertheless, the lyrical chemistry between Sticky Fingers and Fredro Starr combined with the phat production work of Chyskills (Large Professor's old school homey) and Kool T blows into orbit and leaves you open for more." - The Source (March, 1993). Revisit the LP below...

Also from The Source (June, 1993) are these images...

Wrecking Crew "Wu-Tang Pulp" (2012)

Philadelphia conglomerate The Wrecking Crew have just release their first full-length project, Wu-Tang Pulp. Has-Lo, Zilla Rocca and Curly Castro have reworked cuts from the iconic ’90s group’s catalog and, for some tracks, done straight cover songs. Zilla Rocca had the following to say of the project: “What started as a simple idea in 2009 has formed into a completely flushed out re-imagining of the most iconic collective in Hip Hop history. Wu-Tang Pulp is an album shaped from the hearts and minds of three die-hard killa bee fanatics who spared no details in paying the ultimate homage to their heroes. Tackling records from RZA, Ghostface, Method Man, etc. is no easy task when you grew up with 36 Chambers in your Walkman, drawing the “W” on your high school composition books, and rocking Tommy Hilfiger tees in the summer because Raekwon said so.” - via Respect Mag. Check out 2012's Wu-Tang Pulp as an exclusive Bandcamp release streaming below...

Big L "Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous" (3/28/95)

There is a small number of MCs who can keep you hanging on every syllable; Big L may soon be among them. L's lyrical wit, clarity and lethal one-liners have more lasting value than gold ingots on his debut Lifestylez ov da Poor and Dangerous. He gives his mentor Lord Finesse the first shout-out on the album's opening cut, "Put It On," before delivering a tireless parade of hardcore punch lines that rock like a left hook to the grill. As an MC, Big L clearly casts himself in the rhyme-savvy old-school; the callous, often brutal tone of his first-person raps is cleverly offset by imaginative lyrical hooks ("I got a crime record longer than Manute Bol") on nearly every cut, transforming outrageous rhetoric into artistic gems. While he can drop your jaw like a Paul Mooney outburst on "No Endz, No Skinz," Big L will also astound you with his fluid hardcore flow on "MVP," "Danger Zone" and "I Don't Understand It," along with the posse-cut "8 Iz Enuff." - CMJ New Music Monthly, April 1995. Big L's debut album is certainly a release we need to continue to celebrate along with the life of one of our slain legends. Hopefully you cop'd the exclusive 25th anniversary vinyl last year, the images of it are above and below. Revisit Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous below and R.I.P., Big L!

Original contact sheet from the book Contact High...

UFO Fev & Frank The Butcher "The Thrill" (EP Stream)

UFO Fev follows up his phenomenal release with Big Ghost, The Ghost of Albizu, with this latest 6-track EP produced by Frank The Butcher entitled The Thrill. This is some gritty New York City hip-hop here boasting "intricate story telling and production led by a one man orchestra," says their album-blurb. Born in East Harlem, growing up in Thomas Jefferson Houses, UFO Fev was inspired by his favorite rappers like Big Pun, Jay-Z and Beanie Siegel. He's been rather prolific in recent years, so hit the archives for other dope releases and props to Frank The Butcher, who has a handful of dope mixtapes in the archives, as well. Listen to Fev and Frank The Butcher's The Thrill EP below...

Digital Underground "Sex Packets" (March, 1990)

"We were serious act at first, trying to be this techno, pro-struggle-oriented civil-rights movement type of thing," says Digital Underground's main man Shock G from a hotel room in Oakland. Of course, for those who remember the first time they heard D.U., serious wasn't a word you would use to describe them. The group, consisting of rapper and producer Shock, rapper Money-B, DJ Fuse, singer Schmoovy Schmoov and drummer/producer Chopmaster J, was constantly morphing, and that was what always kept their fans guessing, laughing and shaking their asses. Party fun via musical lessons studiously gleaned from George Clinton's P-Funk mothership was most definitely what Digital Underground was known for, with rolling, juiced-up hit singles (and groundbreakingly popular MTV videos) like "Doowutchalike" and "The Humpty Dance." Ironically, Digital was very serious about the album's original main concept: Sex Packets. An idea developed by Shock's roommate Earl Cook (a.k.a. group vocalist Schmoovy Schmoov), Sex Packets were pills that would control the mental images that gave men and women wet dreams. Shock laughs: "Schmoov actually had, in his briefcase, the plans to create and get study and research going for these things. He was trying to get a grant from the government to develop them." Shock admits "we made up a lot of shit surrounding the album," including his aliases Humpty Hump, The Piano Man and MC Blowfish. "We were deliberately throwing out all the hip-hop rules, trying to break them," Shock remembers. "I always wanted Digital Underground to be this big supergroup, but we didn't have all the true characters yet. If I had a vision of a kind of guy we needed, I'd just be that guy." They brought it all in and let it all hang out. "We were like Fuck it, we're gonna be on some Funkadelic shit, and do all kinds of different songs and wear all kinds of different hats," he says. "All of us tugging in different directions made it a really rich gumbo album." Surely a great time in hip-hop, revisit the LP below...

Shock G humps his way through their funky classics below...

The Notorious B.I.G. "Life After Death" (March 25, 1997)

Holding back the tears, you can't help but think back to three 27 years ago when the poetic masterblaster known as the Notorious B.I.G. dropped his groundbreaking debut, Ready To Die, on the unsuspecting ears of the hip-hop nation. Although we had already boogied to the Brooklyn bounce of "Party and Bullshit" and shared his fantasies of seducing Janet Jackson on the mixtape favorite "Dreams," no one could have predicted how this record would forever change the landscape of current day hip-hop culture. Introducing the character of the Versace-don gulping Cristal from crystal flute glasses, Biggie came across as an aged-hustler who was tired of playing the rock-slanging game, but never became bored of retelling those crack in da dayz stories. With his husky from far too many blunts voice, Big documented the illmatic mean streets of his Bedford Stuyvesant stomping grounds. His tales of gunshots after midnight, snatching "the baby rings and the number-one-mom pendants" off of unsuspecting victims, and chilling stories of rivals plotting on his life became a part of his ever-expanding persona. But, within all of this, Biggie didn't seem to be looking to glamorize the pain of urban madness that surrounded him. Under the guidance of Bad Boy's flamboyant CEO Sean "Puffy" Combs, the Notorious one wasn't afraid to reveal his desire for the finer things in life. Unlike most rappers, Big was able to go pop with Billboard smashes like "Big Poppa" and "One More Chance," and still maintain street credibility and respect from fellow MC's because of lyrical masterworks like "Unbelievable" and the nerve-ending narrative "Warning." Cont'd...

...Now in 1997, six months after the murder of Tupac Shakur, I can still feel the chill I got when I sat down to listen to Biggie's second opus, Life After Death...Till Death Do Us Part. Moments after putting the advance tape into my stereo, my girlfriend opened the door and said, "Biggie was killed in Cali." And as my eyes swelled, I silently listened to an album that will undoubtedly become a classic to any true hip-hop fan. Chillingly opening with a dramatic scene of Biggie laying dead in a hospital room as sirens blare in the distance and sad piano chords drift like a ghost over his body, a sorrowful-voiced Puffy says, "We were supposed to rule the world, baby. Shit can't be over...shit can't be over." And as a flat-lining sound is heard, comes the weird soundscape of "Somebody's Gotta Die," a track that resembles a scene from an unmade blaxploitation film about Crooklyn gangsters trading shots in the projects. However, despite these suspenseful moments, this album makes a clear distinction from its predecessor. Unlike the cult of violence that seemed almost naturalistic on Ready to Die, the realm of gangster aesthetics on Life After Death seems more cinematic fantasy than real-life adventures in the 'hood. On the DJ Premier-produced "Kick In The Door," which loops Screaming Jay Hawkins, Biggie is busting down doors and waving his .44 like some kind of urban vigilante. Meanwhile, on "What's Beef?," which uses jungle influences in its grooves, Biggie moans, "Beef is when you need two gats to go to sleep/Beef is when your moms ain't safe up on the streets," like he wanted to rise above his own personal chaos. (Who wouldn't?) Cont'd below...

Exploring his desires to reach superstar status, Big's employment of fellow big-name artists leads to stunning results. R. Kelly adds his dirty vocal touches on "F#ckin' You Tonight," Puff and Big exchange playa-isms with Too Short on "The World Is Filled," and the mayor of St. James holds his own with Cleveland, Ohio's Bone Thugs-N-Harmony on "Notorious Thugs." That ambitious track alone reveals Smalls' diversity as an MC and his desire to be viewed as the greatest in his field. Still, despite inspired raw hip-hop diatribes like the RZA-constructed "Long Kiss Goodnight," and Primo's powerful "Ten Crack Commandments," Life After Death's finest moments are the instantly catchy, future-radio-favorites. While the slick-as-a-can-of-oil first single "Hypnotize" and the Rene and Angela-inspired "I Love The Dough" (featuring Jay-Z) are both banging, it's the remake of Diana Ross' "I'm Coming Out (More Money)," featuring the sleepy-voiced Mase and the boss man Puff Daddy, that swings the hardest with pure Bad Boy flavor. Although Biggie probably never intended the hit-fueled Life After Death to be his swan song as an artist, one can't help but view songs like the care-free "Goin Back To Cali," a parody of the Death Row sound, and the haunting closing track, "You're Nobody ('Til Somebody Kills You)," as yet another definition of tragic irony. Unfortunately, like Tupac before him, Big's potent verses of a violent death became a self-prophecy indeed. - The Source, May 1997 (5 Mics). Revisit this classic 2LP today, and Rest in Peace to The Notorious B.I.G!

Moderator "Midnight Madness" (Instrumental Album)

Moderator, the famed Athens-based producer, has assembled 14 tracks that run the gamut, each one evoking the devilish unpredictability of cult cinema and the dopeness of a phat break. Moderator is known for his extensive musical knowledge, with his tastes running from hip-hop to rockabilly, dub to Memphis soul, and all points in-between. On Midnight Madness, these genres intersect in dreamlike scenes from imaginary movies. There’s “Unspoken,” with its Latin-psychedelics, wah-wah guitar riffs, and rousing trumpet, resembling an alternate universe Morricone. Camp spookiness also appears on tunes like “Haunted Lover,” which combines a big breakbeat and vampy vocals for a creature showdown in black and white. The delightfully strange rears its head on cuts like “Once Upon a Time” and “Crystal Gaze,” both summoning playful witchcraft vibes straight out of a vintage Italian Giallo film. The downtempo flavor is heavy, casting spells on the fussiest of beat-headz. Moderator also whips out some twisted tribal lounge, as “Tamboo” delivers a rhythmic procession of fashionable zombies to the darkly lit dance floor. Just as midnight movies bring endless surprises, the tracks on Midnight Madness won’t stop revealing after multiple listens. Moderator’s intricate fusions unfold in exotic layers and there are sinister secrets to discover. Listen in below...