October 22, 2009 – 7:13 pm
I’ve focused so far on the so-called “backpack” hip-hop, which is admittedy where my bread was buttered in 1993-94, but one group rose out of the Shoalin Slums in 1993 to show us that hip-hop with a bleaker, hard-edge can still carry innovative production and brilliant wordplay.
1993’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) came seemingly out [...]
October 20, 2009 – 3:57 pm
ba-ba-baaah..
ba-ba-baah…
You’re already dancing aren’t you? Ali Shaheed Muhammad should get the Nobel Prize for beatsmithery.
That Weldon Irvine sample that kicks off the first single from 1993’s “Midnight Mauraders” triggers a pavlovian head-nod in any fan of hip-hop. That the first voice we hear is Trugoy from De La Soul, is fitting on an album that [...]
October 17, 2009 – 4:48 pm
Sticking to Oakland, and the Hieroglyphics crew for the today’s look at Hip-Hop 1993-1994, here’s “Wrong Place” off of Del the Funkee Homosapian’s 1993 album, “No Need for Alarm”. Built around a woozy, heavily phased guitar loop from the B.T. Express’ “What You Do In The Dark”, this track finds Del in his “stoney jester [...]
October 15, 2009 – 7:23 pm
I’ve been thinking about and listening to a lot of hip-hop that came out or was popular during 93-94. Maybe it’s because associate this music with mix tapes blasting out of the 1984 Mercury Marquis Station Wagon that was my first car, but I challenge anyone to come up with a better 24 months [...]