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 write up of Intelligent Hoodlum's debut album, we have his follow up, Saga of a Hoodlum. It was on this album, that he brought the name Tragedy more to the forefront. It's also much easier to write about Tragedy than writing Intelligent Hoodlum over and over again, so we'll go with Tragedy from here on out.
I really dig the first record, but one of the shortcomings all these years later is that the 1990 production sound is a little dated to my ears. I still like it, but I tend to need to be in the mood to listen to something of that era to really get into it. Saga of a Hoodlum came out in 1993, which is right there in the middle of my favorite time in hip hop. The production has caught up to Tragedy's rhymes and as good as his debut is, for me, this one blows it out of the water.
Yeah, I suppose a few of the samples are not exactly unique and if you can listen to "Funk Mode" without immediately thinking of Brand Nubian, kudos to you. But that really doesn't hinder my enjoyment of the record at all, I'm too busy enjoying the beats and listening Tragedy uncork killer rhyme after killer rhyme. This would be the last time Tragedy would put out an album until 2001. I haven't heard that one, and do want to check it out, but more than anything, I lament the extended time off from 1990 to 1993 without an album. in a time period where groups were dropping albums every year and innovation was at an all time high, I wonder what Tragedy could have done with another release in between the two that came out.
This album was not released on vinyl when it was originally released, so it's great that it finally came out for the album's 25th anniversary. I didn't know it came out originally, so I had to backtrack and hunt down a copy. Double vinyl is great and I really do like the new artwork, though I personally would have preferred it with the original. Mostly because the art doesn't really fell like something that would have happened in 1993, it's too modern an aesthetic. The original art might not look as 'nice' as this, but it's of that era and fits more with the music, I think. Still, a great reissue and one worth looking out for.
Intelligent Hoodlum - Tragedy - Saga of a Hoodlum:
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