Whoa, could this ever happen today? A ‘radical’ pro-Black musical group on the cover of a mainstream magazine? This issue was obviously popular back in ’92 because someone stole it from my dorm room. I had to purchase another copy from EBay last spring to post this but once again, I never got around to it until now. So this issue is a T.R.O.Y. blog exclusive. After re-reading it, I can see that it was probably stolen because of the Das Efx and Pete Rock & CL Smooth album reviews. If you weren’t aware, those groups were on fire in ’92 and the radio kept “They Want Efx” and “They Reminisce Over You” on constant rotation. Looking back, did both of their albums deserve 4 mics, though? I also forgot that this issue had a small article discussing the death of Kid Hood from Tribe's “Scenario” remix. I remember being pretty upset after first reading that back then. One verse and his career was over. If only that could have happened to Lil Wayne instead…
If you're looking for something else, then head on over to THIMK.
Percee P talks about this issue & the unsigned hype in this video that I recorded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDAjRlufY04.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the whole issue Vince!
x-clan, ftw! this is one of the few issues that i didn't dl from vincent's site last year. how do i get the password?
ReplyDeleteBIG PROPS! this is one of the ones i missed before
ReplyDelete^ pass = thimk
ReplyDeleteOh thank you, Vince, for anoter classic!!! I have all issues that you posted, exept this one. But i cant hold myself to not say that its too nasty to wish death on somebody (even if his name is Wayne). Oh course ikno dis was joke tho
ReplyDeletethis was a dope issue.
ReplyDeletei idk that Luke had beef with kid & play!!?? thats crazy, it makes no sense.
plus its always intriguing reading what the people up at Source telling us what new LPs are coming and what tracks they heard early. i guess they had no clue they were actually apart of history listening to future classic records.
im ready for more Vincent, i wish the links to ur old website was still working but they are all dead.
@Thomasv - Thanks for the video link.
ReplyDelete@Brandan - I will get you caught up on more older issues. Still can't believe you forgot to get them the first time.
I agree that "Mecca" is kinda overrated. I love Pete Rock stuff generally, but I actually think he was doing far better work on "The Main Ingredient" and "Centre of Attention", for example. Apart from a few cuts (TROY being the obvious one), I find the production style to be too much drums, not enough music - the short instrumental interludes between each track are, to my mind, better musically than the tracks themselves. Plus I can't really love CL, he just don't do it for me.
ReplyDeletethanks for this Vince
ReplyDeletesurely im not the only one who thinks Mecca & the soul brother is one of the finest hip hop albums ever made and well deserving of 5 mics
All the arguments against it are that its long... true but its 80 minutes of perfect, masterful music without a weak moment
The review also states that he sort of gets confused by CL on the end of some songs... surely thats a fault of the reviewer not CL himself
sorry for getting so preachy but I love this album
I agree on the part about CL (really, WTF is "the Tony Randall left in shambles"?), but other than that, I think Mecca was well deserving of the 4, if not more. Pete was really next level compared to most producers of that time. Premo, Tip, and Large were on his heels... but he just had this extra something with the way he hooked his tracks up that put him ahead of the rest. Premo caught up with (and passed) him by '94 though.
ReplyDeleteDead Serious was also worthy of the 4. I really wouldn't rank it any higher than that, but for its time, it was a really innovative album with a new style that nobody could do quite like they did. They weren't the first to use that quick-tongued style, but those pop culture references just firing off one after another and whatnot- lots of people tried it after Das, but none of 'em could fuck with that. It's just too bad so many niggas started bitin', cause they became prisoners of their own creation.
-D!