90s Tapes (2024, 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.
Originally released on cassette in 1995, Bomb Threat was definitely not something on my radar back then. It's another one of those misplaced relics that 90s Tapes has leapt in to rescue and give a proper reissue to. It's a short album, clocking in at 25 minutes and really only has six actual songs, making it one of the rare single LPs in the 90s Tapes discography. But it's still treated with the usual respect, looking and sounding great.
Bomb Threat is a crew and the album plays more like a compilation. Five of the six songs are helmed by specific MCs or groups and it's not until the final track that the whole unit is credited for a song. I don't know any of the individual groups or MCs on this record, but I certainly wouldn't mind hearing more from some of them.
As I've mentioned many times, 1995 is that line in the sand year for me with hip hop most of the time. 1994 and earlier is where my heart typically lies. If a record came out in 1995 or later, it's more of a rarity for me to connect with it. It does happen though, and Bomb Threat is one of those time, and it really boils down to the production for me.
There are great beats on this album, and while they tend to lean towards the mellower side of the golden era, they also lean close enough to that rougher early 90s sound to grab my attention. This is particularly apparent in the first two songs. "Phenomenal" by Bleak may not quite be phenomenal, but it's awfully good with a killer beat that Bleak runs roughshod over. The other highlight for me is "Sabotage" which is attributed to Lifesavas & Sly Brown Da Hornet. Again it's the production that seals the deal for me, though everyone on the mic gets the job done on this as well.
The rest of the songs are all good, there's nothing on here that I don't like, it's just those first two that tend to steal the show every time I listen to it. I'm not sure if any of these guys have more material from the early to mid 90s but if they do, I'd love to hear it.
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