Chi-Ali - The Fabulous Chi-Ali LP

Relativity / Violator (1992)

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 have absolutely no memory of Chi-Ali from when I was listening to hip hop in 1992 (the miracle year).  Chi-Ali was the same age as me when his debut, The Fabulous Chi-Ali, dropped when he was just 15 years old.  I can't say that I was particularly into the kid or young teenage rappers at the time, but I'm not sure I ever even heard his name until decades later.  And to me, that's kind of odd as Chi-Ali was a member of the Native Tongues (Tribe, De La, Black Sheep, etc.) and the album was mostly produced by The Beatnuts.

Luckily I did stumble across Chi-Ali eventually because, particularly from a production standpoint, this is a pretty killer album.  If you know hip hop in a post Low End Theory world, this has just what you are looking for.  Smooth bass lines, kick drum for days and a melodic feel that never drifts into being too slow or boring.  It just perfectly hits that pocket of jazzy hip hop that is always associated with the Native Tongues.

On the microphone, CHi-Ali is totally fine and certainly in the upper echelon of the 'kiddie' rappers of the era.  His voice is understandably pretty high pitched, but he makes that work for him as he navigates the rhymes and stories he's telling.  Is he a little preoccupied with making himself sound older and/or more mature than he actually is? Sure, but what 15 year old isn't.  Mix his talent with such incredible production gives you a great listen and really makes you wonder what he could have done had he been able to put out a follow up in say 1994 or so.  Two years makes a big difference at those ages.

Unfortunately this copy that I picked up isn't exactly what I was hoping for.  The cover is super minty, but the LP itself has some surface noise issues that are a but more than I'm OK with.  So at some point I'm going to have to pick up an upgrade, but at least I have a really nice cover to pair with it when the time comes.

Chi-Ali - The Fabulous Chi-Ali:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lxf8b1uWjJZZ8matoup_qq2l8iYC5Y3vk