Vinyl Me Please (2022, 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 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.
The idea of horrorcore rap isn't anything I've ever been interested in. Violence for the sake of violence in the lyrics, murder fantasy, Geto Boys style storytelling - none of that has ever been anything I've been that interested in listening to. I wasn't aware of Gravedigger as a thing back in 1994, or if I was I ignored and forgot them because of the whole horrorcore thing. When I decided to give Wu Tang another chance a few years back, I came across Gravediggaz. I was a little intrigued because of RZA being in the group, but I was way more interested in the fact that Prince Paul was part of it.
6 Feet Deep is the Gravediggaz debut and it definitely has that Wu Tang style of production, which again, is interesting because Prince Paul is the producer on the bulk of it. He puts his spin on the lo fi aesthetic with deep cut samples and a dark vibe over all. Lyrically, there's nothing mind blowing here. Nothing jumps out at me as being so deep into the horrorcore gimmick that the lyrics are offensive or over the top in anything more than a mostly cartoony sort of way. It's more braggadocios than anything else, I think.
It's the production that keeps engaged, even though I did buy this record knew when it came out and it has taken me nearly four years to get around to writing about it. It's one of those record that has good beats and I always enjoy it when it's on. It's just not something I find myself going to super frequently.
Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep:
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