Del The Funky Homosapien - Future Development 2xLP +7" - Black & White Splatter Vinyl (/500)

Rhymesayers (2026, 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.

Future Development is Del's third album and it was originally meant to be his third for Elektra before he was dropped.  There's a lot of lore about how much of the eventually released album would have been the Elektra version, but that's not anything I can speak to with certainty.  All I can say is that the first version of Future Development that was released was on cassette only in 1997.  I mail ordered that from the Hiero website in those early internet days and found it to be solid, but I din't like it as much as his prior two.  

The next time this album crossed my path was when I found a copy of the 2002 reissue of it on CD at a random NYC record store that I don't remember the name of and I think that was the only time I was ever in there, killing time before a show at Arlene's Grocery or Luna Lounge or whatever pop up venue in that area of the city had bands playing.  It made me reevaluate the album and I liked it a lot more having let some time pass.  Eventually, I picked up the double LP a few years ago and for whatever reason, that's when it really clicked for me.

I'll still say this is an album with highs and lows.  I don't love every song on it as there are some where the production is just a little too slow and dreamy for my personal taste.  But as a whole it's a very strong record and has many highlights where Del reconfirms why he is my favorite MC of all time.  His flow is unlike anyone's and his ability to weave complex rhyme patterns, internal rhymes, external rhymes (sometimes no rhymes) and still all make it work in a way that seems so effortless is nothing short of remarkable.  Even on the tracks that might not have my favorite beats, Del still shines on the mic.

I'll have to be honest, the main reason I bought this LP again was the art of the deluxe version.  It harkens back to the original cassette artwork and I have a fondness for that.  Including a bonus 7" with some extra songs doesn't hurt either.  While they weren't part of the original release of this album, they're of the era and fit in pretty seamlessly.  Makes me wonder if they were slated to be part of whatever version would have ended up on Elektra.

Del The Funky Homosapien - Future Development:

https://delthefunkyhomosapien.bandcamp.com/album/future-development

Mobb Deep - Juvenile Hell LP - Red Vinyl

 

Island / Universal / Urban Legends (2018, 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.

People in hip hop love Mobb Deep.  I mean, they really love Mobb Deep in a way that I was keen to try to understand.  They made there bones starting in 1995 with the release of their nearly universally acclaimed sophomore album The Infamous...  That's after my prime time of hop hop fandom, so I wasn't around for that when it originally came out.  That means it's time to backtrack and while that album probably is the place that most people would start considering its reputation, I had to start with their debut, Juvenile Hell.  Part of that is because it's their debut and why not start at the beginning, but the other part for me is that it came out in 1993, right in that sweet spot of hip hop production that I love.

And the production is really solid.  It tends to be on the slower side of things, which is something that I don't always have the most patience for, but the tempos vary enough and the sample selection is strong enough that the beats really do sit in that sweet spot I mentioned earlier.  Lyrically, I completely understand where Mobb Deep get their reputation of being storytellers of the highest order.  The tales they tell veer towards the complex, telling stories of the neighborhood mixed with some other tracks that are a bit lighter, content wise.  They keep the lyrics tight and tidy, able to effortlessly string together rhyme schemes without it feeling like they're shoehorning in a word just to make the rhyme work, every syllable serves the story they're trying to tell.

It's also an album teetering on the line between confidence and arrogance as Prodigy and Havoc were still in their late teens when they recorded this debut.  They have the sort of swagger and poise of much older MCs and listening to it in hindsight it's really interesting to me that the album didn't seem to make much noise in 93 (to be fair, I never heard of it back then and I couldn't have been more obsessed with hip hop at the time) and the group was subsequently dropped.  They came back a couple of years later with The Infamous.. and their trajectory changed massively.  But I'd be lying if I didn't say that the charm of their debut might actually connect with me a bit more.  The production is more in my wheelhouse and these guys are no slouches on the mic.

Mobb Deep - Juvenile Hell:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lnXqjsBtsxvPfQciHOAmVZ4EsthX7gw_s

Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet 2xLP

Gang Starr Enteprises / TTT / INgrooves (2019)

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.

When I started to type up the label name and release date, I was kind of shocked that this record is seven years old already.  It's been sitting in my 'to write about' pile for almost as long.  As I've mentioned before, I'm trying desperately to get through a backlog, particularly of hip hop records, so I'm doing my best to focus on the ones that have been sitting around for a while.  I'm not sure that anything in my pile has been sitting as long as this.

Part of the reason is not really knowing what to say about it.  This was released in 2019.   Guru from Gang Starr passed in 2010.  There's this whole drama where Premier didn't have access to Guru's archive for a while and it's kind of a convoluted mess that I don't feel like trying to explain right now., in part because I'm not even positive that I understand it completely.  He did eventually get access and pieced together this album using the vocal material available to him.  He paired his production to the vocals that were available and brought in guest appearances to flesh out everything until there was enough for an album.

As a technical marvel and a final tribute to the legacy of Guru, I don't want to disparage what everyone was able to accomplish.  I'm glad they did it.  For me, just judging it as an album and forgetting the extra emotional baggage, it's only OK.  The production is solid, but not remarkable.  As much as I love Gang Starr and Premier's production, I have always preferred the sounds he was crafting in the early 90s.  The later we get, the less it connects with me.  It's not like I'm saying Moment of Truth wasn't a well produced record, but I don't think it holds a candle to Daily Operation or Hard To Earn.

The rhymes that they were able to get from Guru's archive are strong.  I've always found him to be underrated as an MC with Premier's production getting so much of the group's attention.  Guru has always been a master at a laid back, confident conversational flow and this material is no different.  The problem is there's probably not enough for a full album, thus the many, many guest appearances.

It's tough to not be the old man saying "back in my day, hip hop albums only had one or two guest appearances and the main MCs did the rest of the heavy lifting," but I have to say it.  I don't buy a Gang Starr record to hear someone else rapping.  Sure, it's cool if Jeru shows up for a song, but when that is one of a dozen features, it turns into a compilation and that's too much for me.  Not to mention that many of the MCs brought in don't really have much to do with Gang Starr and it's a little jarring having them pop in on a verse or drop down a bizarre hook that doesn't have much to do with what Guru was rhyming about.

Still, the fact that it exists at all is a great thing, as a tribute to Guru and Gang Starr and as a bit of hopeful closure for DJ Premier.  Not to mention that there are moments on here that are truly great.  They are unfortunately only just moments though.  Worth a listen if you are a fan if nothing else.

Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mfOxmtWGvvX7ehOGD9IlGqOPgZqSk5P8U

Diamond D And The Psychotic Neurotics – Stunts, Blunts, & Hip Hop 2xLP

Get On Down (2014, 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.

Diamond D (Or Diamond as he's billed on this particular album cover for whatever reason) is part of the Diggin' In The Crates (DITC) crew and has hand on the production side of classics throughout the 90s.  He also can step up to the mic with the best of them as he proves on his debut album from 1992: Stunts, Blunts, & Hip Hop.  I've written before about my never ending love for 1992 as far as being one of the most under appreciated years in hip hop, but I haven't written about this album before.

Part of the reason is that for whatever reason, l I didn't hear this album back when it was released.  I was neck deep in hip hop at the time, but whether it was from lack of funds or lack of awareness I didn't check this album out until quite a few years later.  I've also had this on vinyl for absolute AGES, but kept passing it over to write about something different over and over.  The funny thing is it's because I love this record and don't want to inadvertently give the impression that I don't.

How could that happen? It's mostly because of one track, "Sally Got A One Track Mind."  I just don't like this song.  It's slow, it's kind of a downer and it's sitting there at track three, just grinding the album to a halt before it even begins.  I know it's a song that people point to as being one of the great cuts here, and I will never try to convince someone not to like anything, but this is one of those songs that has never clicked for me personally.  Once I get past that, this is a record that just dishes out classic after classic, but "Sally" is a buzz kill for me every time.  Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about Diamond D as the double threat that he is.  

Diamond D produced almost every track on this in addition to handling the vocal duties.  On the production side, you can almost hear Stunts, Blunts, & Hip Hop forcing its way out of the 80s sound and laying the blueprint for what the 90s would become.  The sound is perhaps a little more sparse than what was to follow, but you can hear the progressing as new ideas and samples take hold as you move through the track list.  When it comes to rhyming, Diamond can hold his own there as well.  He has a smoother flow that I find similarities with Lord Finesse in.  When you combine the vocals and the beats, it's just another bonafide 1992 classic.  I have no idea why it took me so long to write about it, but it's essential, both as a standalone album and a crucial building block on 1990s golden era hip hop.

Diamond D And The Psychotic Neurotics – Stunts, Blunts, & Hip Hop:

https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCymQzV2rUMuXj7jd3Dnww2g

Rough House Survivers – Straight From The Soul 2xLP +7"

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:

https://90stapes.bandcamp.com/album/straight-from-the-soul

Last Jazz Club - Jazz Is... LP - White & Green Vinyl (/100)

 

Chopped Herring (2018)

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.

A few years ago I stumbled across an album called Neva Sellin' Out by Tha Anthom 'N Mike B.  It was an incredible album full of really nice production.  I've been patiently waiting for a follow up, but that' isn't something that has materialized just yet, so in the meantime I went about trying to find this album by Last Jazz Club.

Last Jast Club features the production and DJ skills of Mike B from Neva Sellin' Out fame.  Here he is paired with an MC from San Diego called Veks.  Veks does an admirable job on the microphone, weaving his higher pitched vocals over, around and through the beats.  If I had to do a side-by-side comparison to Tha Anthom, I probably prefer Anthom ever so slightly due to a small preference for the tone of his voice, but both have the vocabulary needed to fill out their respective albums.

Where Last Jazz Club really shines for me is in the production.  As the name of the group likely implies, we've got buckets of jazzy loops and samples creating a warm, textured sound.  There's so much great upright bass driving the bulk of this album and when paired with the loud, thumping drums, it hits that perfect sound.  While I do think that the tempos as a whole run a little slower than I typically like, the way the sounds are crafted and the loops are used make complete sense in the context of the album.  Not everything has to be fast for me to enjoy it and the laid back groove of this album shows that you can decrease the BPMs and still keep me interested.

Last Jazz Club - Jazz Is...:

https://lastjazzclub.bandcamp.com/album/jazz-is 

Dredknotz - Under Pressure 4xLP

90s Tapes (2025)

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.

Dredknotz were a group that were active in the mid 90s.  Helped along by DJ Richie Rich of 3rd Bass fame, the tracks that comprise Under Pressure have been done and waiting for a release since 1995.  It wasn't until 2025 that they finally saw the light of day, courtesy of my favorite reissue label, 90s Tapes.

1995 is usually that line in the sand for me, it's where hip hop started to move in a direction that wasn't what I wanted out of it.  But as I've mentioned many, many times in the past, I have constantly found exceptions to this rule the more I dig around and I'd include Dredknotz in that list.  Under Pressure is built on the back of some dark, upright bass loops, blaring horn accents, alongside of plentiful kick and snare drum rumbling. It gives the album a post-Enta Da Stage Boot Camp Clik sort of feel when it comes to the production.  

Sometimes I wish the tracks were a bit faster, as slower tempos are kind of the bane of hip hop released after 1994 for me, but Dredknotz keep the energy level up with a lively, dynamic lyrical delivery.  While not to the same extreme as Onyx, there are times where Dredknotz remind me of a slower, moodier version of those kings of Queens.  The end result is an album that harshly rumbles along, never getting too wild, but also never slowing down to the point where I lose interest.

90s Tapes did another fantastic job with this reissue, from how great it sounds, down to the the smallest details of the art.  Not being a DJ and only being a person who likes to listen to records, the release being a quadruple LP to include all of the instrumentals is probably a bit more than I need personally.  Though I imagine there are plenty of folks significantly more talented than me that wouldn't have it any other way.  

Dredknotz - Under Pressure:

https://90stapes.bandcamp.com/album/under-pressure

Lord Finesse - Return of the Funky Man 2xLP - Tan & Black Splatter Vinyl

Get On Down / Giant (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.

For me, 1992 is the miracle year of hip hop.  While it's not the year that most of my favorite records came out, I think it's the best and most consistent year of hip hop before the golden era started showing signs of cracking.  It built off of 1991 and took things, particularly from a production standpoint, to higher levels.  Innovation was careening forward weekly with new releases that explored new ground in a genre that was making sure the world knew was here to stay.

Return of the Funky Man is Lord Finesse's 2nd full length, though he's lost DJ Mike Smooth since his 1990 release.  Also by this time the Diggin' In The Crates crew (or DITC, for short) saw their notoriety rising as Diamond D and Showbiz & AG were making noise.  Despite all of that, Lord Finesse flew under my radar when I was buying records in 1992.  I don't remember seeing Finesse on Yo! and I guess what The Source had written about him wasn't enough to make me hunt down anything by him at the time.  Part of that is tragic, because this is exactly the sort of thing I was listening to at the time and I should have had decades to grow with this record.  But on the plus side, I was able to discover a true classic many years later and hear the exact kind of hip hop production I love in the mid 2010s.

And it is the production that really makes this record soar for me.  There's enough of that late 80s and early 90s fast tempo drums, with those eclectic samples and bass lines that were starting to assert themselves by this point.  There isn't a stinker in the bunch as every song is funkier than the one before.  On the mic, Finesse has a voice that did take me a little time to get used to.  It's a little higher pitched and nasally, but not in an over the top B-Real sort of way.  Just in a way that didn't grab me immediately and required a few listens to have his lyrics sink in. Once they did sink in, it became easy to see why he's so respected all these years later.

While I cannot say that this splatter colored vinyl is aesthetically the most pleasing record I have ever seen, I am gratefully to have a nice double LP reissue of this as even the 2005 and 2014 reissues had become quite scarce over the years,  If he originally flew under your radar like he did mine, it's probably time to give Lord Finesse a listen, and this is a great place to start.

Lord Finesse - Return of the Funky Man:

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=e9kJNgcTmCM

Sham & The Professor - Split Personalities LP

Freeze / Priority (1994)

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 wish I knew a little more about Sham & The Professor.  There's very little information about them that I'm able to find on ye olde internet, though that isn't exactly surprising as the actual informational content on the internet has been vanishing over the years.  That's a completely different, and very depressing, topic.  But all I can really find about this early 90s hip hop group is their list of releases on Discogs.

Split Personalities is the debut Sham & The Professor full length album though there were a bunch of single released leading up to and shortly thereafter its 1994 release date.  There's also a follow up that came out in 2001, but I haven't delved into that one just yet.  I don't even remember exactly how I stumbled across this album.  It may have been from those recommendations that show up at the bottom of Discogs listings, but I'm not positive.  However I found it, I'm sure glad I did as it's a great album.

1994 is that transitional year in hip hop for me.  While there's lots of great records, there's also quite a few that are moving in a direction that I don't care for.  On the production side, Sham & The Professor sit right where I want a record to be.  This is bass heavy, thick production with pounding drums and the sort of samples that take control of my neck, rendering me incapable of not nodding my head along in approval.  There's also some nice fast beats, as one of my biggest peeves about mid 90s hip hop is how slow it is.  

Lyrically, both Sham and The Professor can hold their own.  They complement each other and pass the mic back and forth with ease, reminding me of how seamlessly groups like EPMD are able to do it.  The content is serious, though they are certainly able to battle and do so on occasion.  The way that they fold their flows into the beats is super impressive and it leaves me scratching my head about how these guys slipped through the cracks for me for so many years.

It took me a minute to find a nice copy of the LP at a reasonable price, and mine was sealed before I popped it open.  The only complaint I have about any of this is that Split Personalities is one of those 90s hip hop records where the vinyl is a single LP and because of that there's not as many songs on it as there are on the CD version.  So we only have 11 of the 17 tracks on the vinyl, which bums me out.  Especially egregious is "Murder on My Hands" being missing from the vinyl.  That's a killer song.  Maybe someday one of those great reissue labels like 90s Tapes will do a fancy rerelease of this, but for now I'm just happy to have the record period.

Sham & The Professor - Split Personalities:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kMXJzZEopn4aGKs1Qwud-PeyjqYXV5qTo

Del The Funky Homosapien + AMP Live - Gate 13 2xLP

IOT (2018)

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.

This is another one of those records that I bought ages ago and still haven't written anything about it.  I will buy pretty much anything that has Del The Funky Homosapien's name on it.  He's been my favorite since No Need For Alarm rearranged by brain back in 1993 and as far as golden era rappers go, he has had way more successes in the intervening than most in my book.  

Del always, and I mean always, brings in on the mic.  I'm not sure there has ever been anyone that has ever rapped in a way that connects with me more than him.  There's something really unique about the way he weaves his rhymes in super intricate ways, but makes them so they can still be understood and digested.  He has a cadence that has been part of my life for over 30 years and it's always familiar, but surprising, if that makes any sense.  This album is no exception, every song has piles of lyrics to dissect and enjoy.  And unlike a lot of folks, del has not abandoned the concept of having a hook.

What separates good Del albums from great Del albums is usually the production.  I'm not familiar with AMP Live and I wasn't really sure what to expect as far as beats go.  And honestly, they're somewhere in the middle.  I don't think they're incredible, but they're good enough.  I wish they were a little louder and faster, a bit more rugged perhaps.  There's something that feels a little clinical about their sound.  Even the ones that I really dig, like "Gravy Train," seem to be missing a little bit of fuzz or analog hiss that would make everything feel a bit more grounded.  

So as far as Del's catalog goes, I'd put this in somewhere in middle.  Gate 13 is not the same thing as his 90s releases (which it's not going to be, that was ages ago). but it's a solid record and gives Del an easy to listen to playground to spout off his unmatched lyrics.

Del The Funky Homosapien + AMP Live - Gate 13:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kMin2n6cIQxGtL8j56vZX-LMRZU1uq11U

Daddy-O - You Can Be A Daddy But Never Daddy-O LP

Island (1993)

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.

Daddy-O is likely best known for being part of the hugely influential hip hop group Stetasonic.  They split up after their 1991 album Blood, Sweat & No Tears and the next time we would hear from Daddy-O was on this album, his 1993 debut You Can Be A Daddy But Never Daddy-O.  I don't think it made much of a splash when it was released, I certainly don't remember hearing about it at the time.  1993 was a pivotal year in hip hop as the genre was moving at an alarmingly fast bace, changing weekly.  A new album released by someone whose group's heyday was in the 80s probably wasn't as exciting to the tastemakers at the time.

It wasn't until many, many years later that I stumbled across this record and decided to check it out.  I would not go so far as to proclaim it a 'lost classic' or anything that grandiose, but it's a very strong record that I think would have made a bit more noise had it not come out during such a crowded time in hip hop.  

More than anything, I really enjoy the production on the album.  It's a hard hitting, east coast flavor that fits in nicely with the sound of the era.  There's a ton of head nodders in here and while not necessarily treading any new ground, it's a fun listen.  Lyrically, Daddy-O knows what he's doing.  He's got a steady flow that works with his scratchy vocal delivery.  I think perhaps he could have spent a bit less time talking about how much he likes other rappers, as it's a topic that certainly comes up more than once, but it's not that I'm in any way opposed to a good old fashion shout out.  

Again, there's nothing earth shattering here, but the steady vocals mixed with better than average production makes it an album worth checking out.  Unfortunately, the only vinyl version that exists is this 'clean' promo version.  Daddy-O isn't swearing all over the place, so it being clean doesn't bother me that much.  But the bigger issue is that the LP only has 12 of the 16 songs that the CD does.  It's even missing the single that it advertises on the hype sticker, "Brooklyn Bounce."  I'm not sure how much demand there is for a nice reissue of this album, but I'd certainly buy one.

Daddy-O - You Can Be A Daddy But Never Daddy-O:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mYGZawQKOZxaUL48KJjycB6z7Aitr5dPo

Kaotic Style - Infinity LP - Yellow Vinyl (/50)

Dope Folks (2021)

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.

As I continue to try to clear out records that have been sitting around for too long without being written about, we come to Infinity by Kaotic Style.  Back in 2022 I had written about the first of the Kaotic Style releases that Dope Folks had put out.  I had this record when I wrote about that one.  I've had it long enough to have gotten one of the limited to 50 copies versions on yellow vinyl.  I just never wrote about it.  Again, trying to clean that up as best as I can.

Kaotic Style is really strong early 90s, East Coast hip hop.  About half of these songs were pulled from singles released between 1991 and 1992.  The remaining half are unreleased songs that the group recorded between 1994 and 1996.  If you look at the time frame and the geography, it's a pretty safe bet that this is going to be the exact sort of hip hop that I want to listen to.  The songs from the early 90s singles are really strong for that era.  I would have absolutely been into these guys if I had access to their music in 1992.  The flows are really strong, with lyrical structures that go beyond simple rhyme schemes into more complex microphone magic.  Everything is upbeat and the words per minute keep up with and often exceed the beats per minute.

The production can more than hold up to the lyrics as it's that boom bap style that I love so much.  Even the songs that were recorded past my usual 1994 cut off don't fall into the slow, often boring production that I think tends to dominate 1995 and 1996.  Now, is the singing break of "Get Down" my favorite thing on the album?  No, but even that isn't very offensive and the lyrics more than make up for it.

I'm not really sure why these guys didn't get a chance to put out a full album back in the 90s.  They just never broke out of the underground.  While it's a bummer that because of that I never got to hear Kaotic Style when they were active, those underground styles are why these tracks still sound so fresh and exciting in 2026.

Kaotic Style - Infinity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58028yuMRgE

Brothers Of The Same Mind – Gotta Have Style 2xLP

 
Dust & Dope / Hip-Hop Enterprise (2021)

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.

Brothers of the Same Mind were active in the late 80s and early 90s.  Hailing from Sir Mix-A-Lot's backyard in Seattle, they had a few indie singles and EPs during that time, but the full length album that they were working had never been released until Dust & Dope and Hip Hop Enterprise stepped up to finally unleash their shelved album into the world in 2021 - 30 years after it should have originally come out.  This is another one of those records that I've had in my to-write-about piles for way, way too long.  But better late than never.

The first thing that jumps out at me is the production.  For material recorded between 1989 and 1991, it has that early hip hop sound.  I always feel like Low End Theory is the key marking point in hip hop production in that year.  Before its release there was a sound and after its release the sound moved forward very quickly.  Low End Theory isn't the only album in 1991 that ushered in that next stage of golden era production, but it's always the one that stands out to me as I noticed it in real time as it happened when I was 14.

So there are times where the production on this album sounds a little dated, with one foot still in that late 1980s sound.  Which, don't get me wrong, I like that sound, but it's one that I need to be in the right mood to listen to.  When I am in the mood, Brothers of the Same Mind do that sound as good as anyone else of that era.  The beats are upbeat, the samples are not subtle and there's lots of hooks built on scratching key vocal parts of contemporaries.  If you think for a second KRS-One's "Gotta Have Style" lyric isn't the foundation of the title track, you've been asleep at the wheel.  And it's not the only time we hear KRS on a sample.

Lyrically, the MCs all do a great job.  There's at least four of them, assuming DJ Swift doesn't end up on the microphone, but this is another example of me not really knowing who is rapping when as they don't identify themselves all that frequently.  But again, for late 80s, super early 90s, they hold their own with any of that pre-Low End Theory crew.  Not that everything is perfect.  I do not like the R&B sung hook of "Cool Drink (In The Springtime)" at all.  I never liked that crossover appeal sort of thing and when ever you get someone singing the hook like that it's an immediate turn off for me.  But a song like that is the exception, not the rule on this album.

I love finding these unreleased gems getting another chance 30 years later.  It makes me wonder what could have been had they been released as planned.  It makes me bummed that I had to wait so long to hear them.  But it mostly makes me feel relieved that albums like this are not just out there in someone's closet rotting away.  Stuff like this deserves to be heard.

Brothers Of The Same Mind – Gotta Have Style:

https://soundcloud.com/dustdope/brothers-of-the-same-mind-gotta-have-style-snippets

Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep 2xLP - Black & Silver Splatter Vinyl

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:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lIrV3RtOOxnKT13XsZjYCAorwyQHf2hZ0

Ugly Duckling – Down The Road 2xLP

Back 2 Da Source (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.

Other than the Hieroglyphics crew, there wasn't a lot of hip hop that I was paying attention to after 1994.  I had mostly moved on to punk and indie rock and when I would occasionally dip my toe back in to see what was happening, inevitably I would be disappointed.  But in the year 2000, two albums came out that made me reevaluate my relationship with rap.  The first of these records was Jurassic 5's Quality Control.  And the second was Journey to Anywhere by Ugly Duckling.  Both of these albums alerted me that there were still people doing interesting things in hip hop. 

Ugly Duckling seemed the more unabashed of the two when it came to harkening back to the style of hip hop I liked best.  Their production could have slid right in to 1993 and you'd hardly notice.  The rapping also connected with me, mixing the Das EFX pop culture references (but no diggitys) with the non sequitur these-words-just-sound-nice-together feeling of early Beck.  Name drop The Great Space Coaster and I'm paying attention.  What I didn't know at the time was that Ugly Duckling had been around for a while and had even self released an album on cassette back in 1995.  30 years later, Back 2 Da Source stepped up to the plate and reissued that long lost album on vinyl for the first time.

It's every bit as good as Journey to Anywhere.  Quite literally in some cases as six of the songs from that album also appear on Down The Road in some capacity.  For some, like "Pick Up Lines" and "Journey to Anywhere," are quite similar; demos of what was to come.  But for others, "If You Want To Know" and "Down The Road" being big examples, the production is wildly different making them feel like completely unique songs.  And sure, six songs repeating sounds like a lot, but there are ten other songs on here that aren't on Journey to Anywhere, and that's not even including the skits.

It's an incredible collection of songs and is just the sort of thing I really needed to hear in 1995, but never did.  This is the sort of hip hop I love, particularly in the way the beats are structured.  I feel like this kind of production is a completely lost art.  I'll never understand why no one can make records that sound like this anymore, but at least there is a seemingly unneeded number of 30+ year old records that I can go back to and cherish.

Ugly Duckling – Down The Road:

https://uglyduckling.bandcamp.com/album/down-the-road

Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. – New Funky Nation LP

4th & Broadway (1990) 

 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 can't write about Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. without first discussing how much I love the Judgment Night soundtrack.  A lot.  That's how much I love the Judgment Night soundtrack.  Once of the highlights being the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. collaboration with Faith No More, "Another Body Murdered."  It's such a tough sounding song with dark, driving music and really hard rapping courtesy of Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.  Such a great song and back they I was desperate to find more Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. but I never did.

Many, many years later I found out that they had a record that came out in 1994 called Doomsday and this record, New Funky Nation, that was released in 1990.  Right in the middle of that was a 1992 album called Good Times, Bad Times that was never released.  I think that's probably the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. record that would be most up my alley, even though I've never heard it.  It's closest in proximity to the Judgment Night soundtrack, Doomsday is way too overrun with G Funk nonsense and New Funky Nation is just a bit too late 80s to be what I'm looking for.

That's not to say it's a bad record.  It's not, it's actually pretty good, but it suffers from sounded a little bit dated the same way that a lot of late 80s hip hop can often sound.  It's the sort of thing that I need to be in the right mood to listen to, though when I am in that meed New Funky Nation fits the bill nicely.  What sets it apart from a lot of hip hop of the time is that Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. played instruments on the bulk of this album, laying down funk influenced bass lines, pounding the kick drum and hitting some nicely sung hooks.  

The lyrics and delivery is not quite as tough as "Another Body Murdered," but it's pretty close.  The Boo-Yaa boys are not messing around and it's the best part of the album.  I feel like if it had slightly more advanced sound and had come out in say, 1992 like their second album was supposed to, I think they could have dropped a classic.  New Funky Nation is very good, but I can't help but wonder what Good Times, Bad Times sounded like.  Best I can tell it's never been leaked online anywhere, though if I'm wrong and it has, someone please point me in that direction.

Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. – New Funky Nation:

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=wtj3sgm8M_I

Sons Of Sam - You Oughta Know 2xLP

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:

https://90stapes.bandcamp.com/album/ya-oughta-know

Ed O.G & Da Bulldogs – Life Of A Kid In The Ghetto LP

Get On Down / PWL America (2019, 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.

While I haven't had this reissue since it came out in 2019, I have been sitting on it for quite a while.  I grabbed it when it was on sale, so it was a pretty inexpensive addition to the collection and it's one of those early 90s hip hop albums that is often lauded as a classic.  I don't know that I can throw around that particular c word when talking about Life of a Kid in the Ghetto, but it does have elements of the classic sound of the early golden era.

I'll start with the positives.  On the mic, Ed (or Edo G as he tends to be known as these days) is great.  He can tell stories, he can self aggrandize, he ticks all the boxes of what you want an MC to do during this time frame.  I can't call him top, top tier, but I might also have a different opinion if this was a record I'd been listening to since it was released.  I only heard it for the first time in the past ten years, so it lacks a little in the nostalgia area for me.  But that's a me problem, not a problem with the rapping.  Ed can hold his own with most MCs that put out albums in 1991.

The reason that I can't really call this album a classic for me is because I think the production is a little uneven.  Hip Hop in 1991 was going through a pretty seismic change in regard to beats and production.  While other albums that year were pushing the envelope and exploring new sampling techniques and soundscapes, Life of a Kid in the Ghetto feels like it's still clinging to late 1980s sounds.  That's not to say it doesn't move the production forward a little, but when you realize Low End Theory came out the same year, the beats on Ed O.G.'s debut feel somewhat dated on certain tracks.

But the sum of all parts is still quite good.  I wouldn't have bought the record if I didn't like it, but it's one of those albums that has a sound that I really need to be in the right mood for.  If I'm feeling a little old school, Life of a Kid in the Ghetto fits the bill nicely.

Ed O.G & Da Bulldogs - Life of a Kid in the Ghetto:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m3D4AVE2F5O8EzNjQ_LEuLSbeIaaOfJu4

Harleckinz – 90two90six: The Demo Tapes 4xLP

90s Tapes (2024)

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've been sitting on this Harleckinz record since early 2024.  I really should have written about it way before now, but I've always felt it to be a daunting proposition.  Harleckinz are from Germany, so I have no real familiarity with them.  They certainly didn't make their way to the mountainous regions of northern New Jersey when I was younger.  This album is also a quadruple LP, so there's just a ton to get through,  Because of these things I've just delayed writing about it over and over, but that's not to say I haven't listened to it quite a bit.

What brings me in for this album, and with pretty much all hip hop is the production.  Beats are the most important thing for me when it comes to what I like about hip hop.  I don't think a spectacular MC works over bad beats, but great beats can elevate the most mediocre rapper.  That's not to say that anyone in Harleckinz is mediocre, but it's the beats that make be keep going back and listening to this.  These songs were gathered from various recordings from 1992 to 1996, and the ones that resonate most with me are the ones from the earlier part of that time period.

It's hard to generalize the sound of 25 tracks from a 5 year period, but as a rule the production is steeped in ;ow end, bass heavy samples over loud drums.  Most of the time, the tempo doesn't get dragged into that later 90s thing where all of the beats have to be slow enough to set your pacemaker to.  We've got decent BPMs most of the time and it gives the MCs in the group a great foundation for their lyrics.

And the lyrics are pretty good.  I can't really detect a thick accent or anything.  It's not like listening to this album is comparable to throwing on a Wizo record.  If you didn't tell me the group was from Germany, I don't know that I'd catch on that they weren't just part of the US based groups from the golden era.  I wouldn't call any of the rappers top tier, mind blowing MCs, but they get you from the start of the song to the finish with clever wordplay, solid rhymes and chant along hooks.  Paired with the excellent production and you've got the sort of record that I'm going to be into.  

I understand the completist mentality of loading this release up with all of the songs, but it's a large amount of music to take in during a single sitting.  There aren't that many groups in any genre that I want to listen to for over two hours straight, but throughout that time I can't point to many songs on here that aren't worth your time (other than the fact that I tend to skip the instrumentals, but that's a me thing, not really an issue with said instrumentals).  Harleckinz are a group that I'm glad I took the chance on, I love adding new golden era records to my collection and this is a great one.

Harleckinz – 90two90six: The Demo Tapes 4xLP:

https://90stapes.bandcamp.com/album/90two90six

The Future Sound - The Whole Shabang Volume 1 3xLP

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 could (and sometimes do) go on and on about what an amazing lebel 90s Tapes is.  They are the kings of the reissue game and release classic after classic, all of the absolute highest quality.  Even if the album isn't one I'm super into, the care they put into each album is the gold standard that all other labels should be held to.  Now, when you have that perfect storm of 90s Tapes tackling an album I genuinely love, that's been desperate for a real reissue, that's when the magic really starts to happen.

The Whole Shabang Volume 1 was the first and only album released by The Future Sound.  It originally came out in 1992, which I have said many times could be the absolute best year in hip hop history if you look at the overall quality of everything that was released.  Well, The Future Sound got lost in the that shuffle.  I have no memories of them from 1992 and it wasn't until decades later that I stumbled across the album on one of those internet lists touting under-appreciated albums. 

In the few years that I've been listening to The Whole Shabang, I've become completely enamored with it.  The incredible, upbeat production mixed with lyrics from Flashback and Relay create the sort of album that begs to be listened to repeatedly.  When I wrote about the original pressing of this album (a barebones, no artwork, single disc, promo only  endeavor) I compared them to UMCs and Lords of The Underground among others.   I still feel like that's the camp The Future Sound fits best in, feel good hip hop with killer production.  I wish they had the chance to follow this up with another album.

The 90s Tapes reissue is pretty much flawless.  We've finally got full artwork and the triple disc pressing not only sounds great, but includes pretty much every sound they could find that this group recorded.  Maybe noone really needs to listen to six remixes of "Lady / What's a Bro to Do?" in a row, but as a completist I sure do love having all of them at my disposal when I do want to listen to one of them.  I'm so thrilled that 90s Tapes was the label to finally reissue this semi-forgotten classic and it's on my shortlist for the best reissue I've picked up this year.

The Future Sound - The Whole Shabang Volume 1:
https://90stapes.bandcamp.com/album/the-whole-shabang-volume-1