I agree, he never topped it. His flow on Tha Shiznit still blows me away. He really had a gift for putting words together in a way that sound super rhythmic and just flowed like a muhfuggah. Production on this album is just crazy. Audiophile quality, imo. I saw him open for 311 years a while back and he put on a great show, actually a better set than 311. I've seen some clips of his recent concerts and they seem to be a snoozefest.
Sorry to jump back to '93, but just wanted to say I have the Shaq LP and it's one my favourite albums on physical media! A friend gave it to me as almost a joke gift a few years ago knowing that I'm an occasional fan of both hip hop and the NBA, and was surprised at how listenable it was. It gets more than its share of plays and I feel that everyone is laughing with it, rather than at it. Further to '93, I've never fallen out of love with Black Sunday or Enter the 36 Chambers.
Feel free to jump back to anything prior. I used to have the Shaq tape back when it first came out, but it's one of those albums I haven't yet replaced on CD. Maybe I need to? I was definitely glad I got Black Sunday on CD in the last year. My cassettes are long gone!
It's true, and furthermore, the traditional record producer isn't usually writing/creating the music. A hip-hop producer, on the other hand, has a large part in creating the song apart from the lyrics. Granted, they may not write the notes, but they are doing the crate digging, sampling/looping, programming drum machines, etc. Seems to me that a traditional record producer would not be quite as involved in the song's creation, right? Yes, there are some producers who are also songwriters, like Max Martin or Phil Spector. But I think of some of the other great producers, like George Martin or Jimmy Iovine, and I don't recall them doing much, if any, songwriting.
It did distort how hip-hop was made. Big-time producers like Premier at his peak were getting crazy money to produce one song on an album. Ghostface supposedly spent over a million on producers for his first post-Rza album.
I guess. Ok. It's not that I disagree with that article, but this phenomenon wasn't the killing blow for Hip Hop. It was the "bling era" of the late 90's-early 2000's that Ruined Hip Hop. In my opinion, anyway. But that's another topic. You guys are really talking about Shaq's album like it's a lost classic? I love you guys, really, you know I do, but I'm dying over here! Good Morning! Finally home after a long 12 hour shift, I'm sorry. Ahem, ok. 1994: Loved this song back then, love it so much more now.
I read that article and I think the premise is a bit faulty. It assumes hip hop is album driven and not single driven, which really is more of an ebb and flow within any given period of time. I don't think that's the case. All you have to do is look at the glut of hip hop 12"s from those earlier eras. Who was buying a whole album from Roxanne Shante? Hell she didn't release one until '89. That's just one example but there are many. So maybe once hip hop proved its sales then other producers wanted to get in on the game, attach their money to a solid "investment" and reap the rewards and then either start or expand a label or studio. Money ruins a lot of things, and when big time producers and investors moved in on hip hop the product suffered (and continues to). Most of what was happening in those glory days were financed/produced either internally or by various street level orgs including a lot of decently scaled drug dealers who were closer to the focus of the music. But it seems to me there were always multiple producers involved with artists. Maybe it was different when it was mainly singles but that focus on singles never really went away. You could stock several rap/hip hop festivals with multiple one-hit/two-hit wonders, it's just the way the music is.
I wouldn't say it's a lost classic, but I do like the album's two singles and the earlier single he did with Fu-Schnickens. This is a great song and one I play regularly. I may have to revisit the entire album, because it's been many years since I've heard it. I don't know if it will be as insanely good as Shaq Diesel, but...
Just a week after Illmatic came out, Outkast dropped their classic debut... I think this one might actually top Shaq Diesel...maybe. Of all the albums that came out in '94, I played this one the most. I remember thinking at the time that nothing else sounded quite like it. It stood on it's own, and perhaps that was in part thanks to the production of Organized Noize. Lyrically, they weren't yet covering any deep or "out there" topics like on later albums. Here's a couple excerpts from an article: "The first album was street," agreed Andre... "It was all about bein' a young guy, protectin' your own, all about bein' a pimp and a playa, and just bein' a fly guy. A lot of gunplay, a lot of smokin', it was Southern lifestyle at the time. And I think a lot of that just came from the music that we were hearing, wanting to appeal to a certain crowd. Dogg Pound, Snoop, Geto Boys - those were the people that we loved, and we wanted to be in that crowd." Hip hop, perhaps more so than any other genre, seems to pride itself on how closely the art is reckoned to mirror the artist's life - and its audience seems to judge its artists by how small a deviation between the two they can maintain. Yet here we have a group that would become one of the art form's biggest-selling and most revered institutions, freely admitting that a debut album made when they were still at school is all about a lifestyle they'd learned about from listening to other records. Full article here: The Quietus | Features | Anniversary | 20 Years On: OutKast And Southernplaya- listicadillacmuzik
I was only probably 1 are the time but I read that these guys were awarded best new artist in hip hop. Unfortunately, they weren't welcomed by the hip hop community and booed at the awards.
You're right! Here it is in this VH1 documentary: To be fair, it seems like the audience was booing everyone that night. The east coast, the west coast, and the south.
May 24, 1994 The long-awaited debut from Jeru The Damaja The Sun Rises In The East. The single "Come Clean" had been out for months (since October 1993), and it was one of the coolest-sounding productions DJ Premier had ever done. Finally, the album arrived, and it did not disappoint. "D. Original"
l That is a great series. Every couple of months I spend some time checking the videos that have been posted. I think Amoeba Records is a sponsor and where he gets some of the vinyl he uses. A lot of comments have people daring him to do Paul's Boutique. He would need four turntables and another set of hands
A friend has a long running "Samples" show on youtube. I do the soundtracks for it occasionally, and we ARE working on Paul's Boutique!
