The Raw Addict, 12.20.09: Honorable Mentions
Posted by Phil Watts, Jr on 12.20.2009
These are the artists that I left out (whether on purpose or I just forgot about them). Plus, the return of Al Green and the return of the Souls Of Mischief!
Hello, everyone.
Before I finish up my 100 Favorite albums of the decade, I decided to dedicate a column to all the albums that I left out, whether on purpose or negligently. There are some records that I am kicking myself for not including.
LIST OMITIONS
The UN, UN or U OUT
UGH!!! I am PISSED that I didn't put this one in. This is the debut album of THE UN, who first showed up on Pete Rock's PETESTRUMENTALS. It's sad that the group dissolved after this, with only Roc Marcy still active.
This was Murs & 9th's first and third crack at a colabo respectively. These two albums were not that bad, but the second, MURRAY'S REVENGE, was much tighter, so it made the cut.
On the wake of J-Dilla's untimely death, BBE Records cranked out a quicky album of old, new, and unfinished material from him. While I liked some of his other projects better (hence this project's exclusion), this does deserve some mention.
I originally wanted to put this in here, since it was in my original Top 100 list from years back…but with the onslaught of great Pete Rock projects that came out since then, this one kinda got lost in the shuffle. Edo is still dope as hell, though. He's one of the few veteran MC's that got better with time.
Ugh. Another one I should've added to the list. El has been one of my favorites since the days when Rawkus first started. I should've grouped this with I'LL SLEEP WHEN YOU'RE DEAD like I did a few other selections on the list.
Madlib & Cut Chemist, BUNKY'S PICK & 5 Variations of IN THE RAIN
I wanted to find some kind of way to fit this into the countdown, since it would've been the lone EP on the list. There are two reasons why I wanted to include this: 1) "Bunky's Pick", Cut Chemist's mix of various funk breaks, shows that he's much more effective on his own than he is with his former group The Jurassic 5 (a group that I am NOT much of a fan of), and 2) Madlib taking Bill Wooten's rendition of the Dramatics' "In The Rain", and making six top notch beats out of it, showcasing his incredible ear for beats. You can have all the great records you want, but if you don't have THE EAR, then you're not going to be able to take full advantage of them. And to show that he has class, he includes the song, too.
Sadly, I couldn't find either selection anywhere, but here is Mos Def using one of the beats from "6 Variations…" for a song called "Pistola"
Mos Def, ECSTATIC
Thanks to the use of many pre-released instrumentals from various Madlib, Oh No, and J-Dilla instrumental albums (like the one I mentioned above), this is certainly Mos Def's best sounding album since BLACK ON BOTH SIDES. The problem is Mos Def himself. I know he's trying to convey hard times in his songs and there‘s nothing wrong with that, but he sounds so uninspired through most of it…and the cumbersome singing doesn't help. He and Kweli are overdue for a reunion, and hopefully if it ever happens, he'll lighten up a little bit.
When they first arrived, they dropped one of the illest debut albums in Hip-Hop and solidified the Hiero sound with 93 ‘TIL INFINITY. Then they tried to switch to a harder, more bass-heavy, sound with NO MAN'S LAND, with mixed results. FOCUS saw the crew trying claw their way back after the whole Hiero conglomerate got dropped from their respective labels. While TRILOGY was a case of two extremes, with songs ranging from HOT ("Medication", "Sound Science", "Interrogation") to HOT TRASH ("4th Floor Freaks", "Last Night", "That's Ain't Life", "Mama Knows Best"). MONTEZUMA'S REVENGE is a return to form for the Souls. With Prince Paul overseeing the project, The Souls finally give us an album that comes as close as possible to the feel that made 93 'TIL a great album. Though not perfect by any means (A-Plus‘ beat for "You Got It"…PLEASE back away from the synthesizer) It's still one of the best albums of the year, and one of this year's best comebacks (next to Raekwon's CUBAN LINX 2)
DECLASSIFIED ALBUMS AND REISSUES
InI, CENTER OF ATTENTION and Deda, THE ORIGINAL BABY PA
This was to be Pete's first two acts for his label SOUL BROTHER RECORDS in the mid-90's. However, Elektra Records wasn't willing to back him so they left him and his artists out in the cold. These two albums would soon get bootlegged and heavily downloaded since then, until the people at BBE Records released both albums…without Pete's permission (note the lack of interludes, and the inclusion of two songs from Rob-O's SUPERSPECTACULAR, both not done by Pete, but BBE gave him the credit anyway).
This was the album that Large Pro told us to wait for in Tribe's MIDNIGHT MARAUDERS. However, in a Geffen Records brain-fart, they decided to shelve it and leave him out in the cold. Large Pro eventually released a cobbled together version that was sold with copies of the mediocre 1ST CLASS album. However, this year, he gave it an official release, and included songs that originally weren't in the version that came with 1ST CLASS.
What? You think I'm doing write ups for all that?! PLEASE!
It's like this--COLD CHILLIN' RECORDS. One of the greatest Hip-Hop labels of all time. Home to one of the greatest crews of all time. It's great that the prople at Traffic Entertainment saw fit to reissue them, so that today's generation can know what it's all about…and believe me, these children need to know.
Kwest The Madd Lad, THESE ARE MY UNRELEASED RECORDINGS
His debut (creatively titled THIS IS MY FIRST ALBUM) was one of the funniest albums I've ever heard. Thing is, being signed under Rick Rubin wouldn't ordinarily be a bad thing…unless it was a Rick Rubin that was out-of-love with Hip-Hop and was more interested in other music instead. As a result, Kwest's album got no promotion (other than a cover story in RapPages) and was released with little fanfare. A few years ago, they found some other songs from those sessions and released through No Sleep Records. This is definitely worth searching for if you want some off-kilter humor.
After listening to both his work with Ultramagnetic (the FOUR HORSEMEN album and Don & Keith's CENUBITES) and his solo album, DIABOLIQUE, I keep wanting to hear more from him. This man had some gutter beats. This comp gives us some of his mid 90's material.
When Vol. 2 came out, everyone's reaction was "where's volume 1?" A lot of us have only HEARD OF Volume 1, thanks to Questlove going on the OkayPlayer boards every other day letting everyone know that he has it and WE DON'T! Vol. 1 and UNRELEASED were released with black covers (Vol. 1 would get the official reissue treatment after J-Dilla's death, using a variation of the Vol. 2 cover).
By the way, I haven't forgotten about Volume 2. Stay tuned.
The Wascals, GREATEST HITS
When I first heard "Class Clown", I had my name on the waiting list for this album (which they really called GREATEST HITS). It's just too bad it took 14 years for the people at Delicious Vinyl to finally chisel the dust off and release it. The sad thing about it was that the label was going to release this project as it was intended, but the group was in such disarray that they split before the release date. With no group to help promote their album, the label decided to shelve it. If only.
As you can tell, this is purely a Hip-Hop centered list. Rarely do I ever bring up other forms of music in my columns, mainly because today's R&B absolutely SUCKS. If I do bring up R&B, it's usually the R&B from years past (after all, I'm probably the only writer here at 411 to do a 2-part feature on SHALAMAR!) Here are some non-Hip-Hop albums that I loved during this past decade.
D'Angelo, VOODOO
D'Angelo was one of the unsung heroes of R&B in the late 90's. However, there was a lot of people (myself included) who were a tad bit disappointed with VOODOO, since it wasn't as solid an album as BROWN SUGAR was. The album did have some moments. If I was to decide what D'Angelo should do for his comeback, I think he should return on the FUNK tip. Let everyone else do the ballads and the neo-soul shit. It's been a long time since anyone brought some funk shit to the game, and that's what I think D should do.
Yesterday's New Quintet, ANGLES WITHOUT EDGES
Joe McDuphrey, EXPERIENCED EP
Sound Directions, FUNKY SIDE OF LIFE
In between Hip-Hop albums, Madlib also works on various Jazz projects under different names. Most of them are under the name Yesterday's New Quintet, a 'group' consisting of 5 'members' (each of them putting out their own solo material). Meanwhile, Sound Directions has Madlib playing the role of band leader. A lot of it ranges from "pretty damn brilliant' to ‘bitting off more than he could chew' (the Stevie Wonder cover project, STEVIE). The different identities are to let people know what they're getting and if they aren't crazy about Madlib's jazz efforts, they could take comfort in the fact that he'll still drop some Hip-Hop shit.
Putting all the Roots stuff aside, the best thing ?uestlove did this past decade is his move to bring back Al Green. Both he and keyboardist James Poyser went through painstaking efforts to bring back that ol' Memphis sound, setting the stage for Al's big comeback. It's as if he never left.
Speaking of comebacks, this legendary group came through with their best work since the early 80's. This time, they got help from a lot of current names like Raphael Saadiq and will.I.am., yet they still treat this like an EWF project, which is good. I could do without the bland cover of Outcast's "Way You More", though (when you have the damn PHEONIX HORNS, what do you need Kenny G for?!)
Another comeback I was looking forward to. After the death of longtime producer Arif Mardin (who carried her through most of her solo career), Chaka decided to return with her first R&B album in over 10 years. Her vocals are just as strong as it ever was.
Patti Labelle reunited with Nona Hendrix & Sarah Dash a few years ago (and even took upon the time-honored tradition of outshining all the overrated young bucks at the BET Music Awards), and came back with their own comeback album, BACK TO NOW. Yeah, we had to deal with Wyclef's ill-advised attempt at making them go AUTOTUNE in "Roll Out" (I always though Wyclef was an overrated cornball, but this is LOW, even for him). Thankfully, there were much more capable collaborators to help drive it, namely Lenny Kravitz and the Philly International duo of Gamble & Huff.
When he first came out as part of Tony Toni Tone' over 20 years ago, he was the last person I expected to come out with a project like this. Raph and his army of musicians did an incredible job bringing back the spirit of the old Motown sound without it sounding forced. I hope he does more projects like this(or better yet, some artists from way back start begging him to produce them).
The late great Eazy E, The late great Rudy Ray Moore, Buckwheed of Da Wascalz, and a bunch of other knuckleheads wish you a MERRY MUTHAFUCKIN' CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!
