90s Tapes (2025, 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.
I wrote about the original pressing of this Rough House Survivers record a couple of years ago and looking back on it, I spend more time writing about what a great year 1992 was in hip hop than I did the actual record. To be fair, I still don't think 92 gets the credit it deserves, but in some ways I didn't give Rough House Survivers the credit they deserved while trying to make that point.
Luckily I get another swing at it because hip hop's best reissue label has reissued this classic as a double LP (with a bonus 7"), As usual, the pressing g sounds incredible and really highlights what I love most about this album, the incredible production work. This is an album full of jazz based loops, be, fat drum beats and the sort of accompanying horn accents that set off the whole package. There's a good, solid tempo throughout the album. It never gets super fast or frantic, but it also never drags or becomes too slow to keep things interesting.
In addition to their DJ Swinn, Rough House Survivers have 3 different MCs taking turns on the mic, As is the case with a lot of multi-MC crews that don't spend a lot of time identifying themselves, I won't pretend that I always know exactly who is providing the rhymes at every turn but whether it's Dread One, Kev or Roberto, all three rise to the occasion that the production provides. You're never going to get a subpar bar. That fact is even more impressive when you see the rogue's gallery of guest appearances with microphone killers like Grand Puba, CL Smooth and Sadat X dropping by to further light up a few tracks. That the main 3 MCs are never overshadowed is nothing shot of remarkable.
Once again, I cannot say enough great things about the amazing work that 90s Tapes puts into their release. I wish they were allowed to handle every hip hop reissue, though that sort of workload might be a tad overwhelming. I can only be grateful for the classics that we do get to have and their Rough House Survivers reissue is a perfect example of how to treat an album. While the group may not have gotten the attention and accolades that they deserved at the time, at least they have a incredible version of their album to put on the shelf.
Rough House Survivers – Straight From The Soul:
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