Rush (2015, Reissue)
Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.
Following up on last week's Redman debut LP update, I also managed to acquire a copy of his sophomore album Dare Iz A Darkside. One thing that I have noticed is that a lot of classic hip hop LPs have been rereleased over the past ten years, but most of them went back out of print pretty soon after that repress. There have been several occasions where I had to hunt just as hard for a three year old reissue as I would for an original 90s pressing.
Dare Iz A Darkside falls into this category. I have been hitting up all of the usual stores as well as keeping an eye on eBay and Discogs. Funny enough, I finally found it by going several pages deep into a Google search and came across a record store in Costa Mesa that said they had the record in stock. I wasn't confident it would actually show up, but I ordered it anyway. Figured the worst that could happen is I'd end up with a refund. I can happily report that a few days later a brand new sealed copy of the lenticular cover version showed up.
I didn't have this record when it originally came out. 1994 was a turning point year where I started listening to more punk rock and less hip hop and I imaging this album slipped through the cracks as a result. I only heard if for the first time years later. While I don't connect with it quite the same way as I do with the first Redman record, there is a lot to like about this followup. The beats are still rugged and hard hitting and Redman proved early on that he was a lyricist a step above many.
It is a great album and it's actually the only other Redman record I've ever listened to aside from the first one. Are any of the others worth checking out? I tend to be leery of anything that came out after 1995, but maybe it's time to explore Redman's discography a bit more.
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