90s Tapes (2023)
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 thirty 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.
You Oughta Know is another one of those albums that has been sitting in my to-write-about piles for way too long. This came out in September of 2023. That's almost two and a half years ago and it seems crazy that I still haven't gotten to it. Better late than never I suppose, but this write up is not what I would call prompt.
Sons of Sam existed in the early 90s and were recording tracks during the peak of the golden era of 1993 to 1994. They released one 12" single and that was pretty much all that was heard of them until some reissues later on. You Oughta Know is the ultimate of this reissues as it puts out what should have been the groups debut album. Recorded during the timeframe mentioned earlier (aside from bonus track recorded in 1996) this feels like the sort of record that would have slid nicely into a late 1994 release.
The beats are good and many of the tracks lean towards the more laid back side of the equation. We're not yet at a full on 1995 and later snoozefest, there's enough ruggedness that propels the tracks forward with hard hitting drums. If anything these songs are more like the jazzy mellower moments of Tribe with lots of upright bass, but with very different vocalists. And it's not every song, you get to something like "Get It On" and the BPMs ratchet up while hitting the soul section of the crate digging and we're in the midst of a song that would have definitely been a favorite of mine if it had been released back then.
Lyrically PA-Kid and Xav both bring their A game and the result is two MCs that have that deep voiced gravitas that make their rhymes seem even more important. Admittedly, I don't always know which one is which as they are not the type of MCs that say their own names all the time, but they are equally skilled and whoever is rapping gets the job done.
The album recieves the usual lavish 90s Tapes treatment saving this album from the dustbins of history. When they pull something like this out of obscurity and make it available, that's when they often do their best work. And Sons of Sam is right up there with their best releases.
Sons Of Sam - You Oughta Know:
No comments:
Post a Comment