Friday, April 06, 2012

And while I am still on the subject (of music). I  have to say that during the 90s I basically spent all my time listening to hip hop and one crew I was pretty obsessed with, who are probably up there with Gravediggers or (I kid you not) those first two L.L.Cool J albums in terms of  my most  listened-to-ever records is Tha Alkaholics.Yep. I know  that they are  not the  most progressive  end  of 90s hip-hop but they were just irresistibly witty, smart and funky, and despite being party-rap they didn't sound any less psychedelic or out-there than, I dunno, Company Flow or whoever.

Though round about the mid 90s hip-hop did seem really busy, lost of fabulous stuff going on in several different directions.

The first two albums are the best, aren't they, the point where E-Swift really sounded like the best producer in hip-hop, up there with Primo, but the later albums certainly have their fair share of awe-inspiring moments too.







and of course...


5 comments:

David K Wayne said...

LL Cool J got a bad rap (sorry!) IMO. As far as first class teenager's music goes, his first two albums were brilliant. I played 'Bigger and Deffer' to death as when it came out. Maybe Public Enemy eventually made him sound corny, but even 'I Need Love' was ahead of its time compared to much more facile and lame 'love raps' that followed.

Greyhoos said...

Funny you bring this up. Yeah, for the most part, My musical diet throughout most of the decade was rock-free. Started out immersed in midskool hip-hip, and just followed the beat from there through a bunch of other stuff.

I've found that certain midskool stuff of the sock-cap era doesn't translate for younger listeners, mainly because it strikes them as being too rapt up in "novelty." And the 'Liks were unfortunately an act who sometimes suffered under the weight of their own schticky premise. Which was a shame, because there were a lot of great rhyme schemes (and some great beats and bass) at play in the stuff. My introduction to them came via this oft-overlooked jawnm which is still a favorite of mine...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpYS0H4ZadU

And this one, which has great delivery (on top of the excess of "hip-hop hands" in the video)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBCamnOTf4Q

But hey, what the fuck do I know? A friend of mine who grew up in Comptom and wass a big 'Liks devotee told me I'm a retard for having l really liked the Beatnuts. Shrug.

carl said...

shall we set up some hip-hop mid and oldskool posts on the decades blogs. we could have a running youtube soundclash (everyone gets one track each) posted in the same thread.

it might be, y'know, fun!

Greyhoos said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Greyhoos said...

Hmm, I might be game. One each in a collab post -- as opposed to the style of guitar riff/solo shoot-outs?