Casual - Meanwhile... 2xLP (/200)

Trumindz (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.

Casual's debut, Fear Itself, is one of my favorite records in the history of hip hop.  Easy top five, probably top three.  Jive dropped him before he had a chance to release a follow up and it wasn't until 1997 that Casual released Meanwhile.  It was independantly released via Hieroglyphics own label, Hiero Imperium, and only came out on cassette.  I picked that up off the Hiero website in 97 while I was in college.  I liked it well enough, but I remember being a little disappointed with it considering how much I loved his first album.

Truth be told, I wasn't really in a space to appreciate a good hip hop album in 1997.  I wouldn't go so far to say I was against hip hop or anything like that, but I was really sour about how much the sound had changed and the type of music that I had identified with in formative high school years had kind of left me behind to seek fame and riches.  When Dope Folks released a barebones vinyl version of Meanwhile a few years ago, I reevaluated it and found that it had aged so much better than I had remembered it.  Are the beats on par with Fear Itself? Not exactly, but they're still really good.  Especially in comparison to what was being shoveled out by most rappers in 1997.

Up to that point we had a self released tape and a single LP with a generic sleeve for Meanwhile's official releases.  But finally, nearly 30 years later, Trumindz stepped up to the plate of put out a double LP version with full artwork, remastered and with a bonus track.  This is absolutely the definitive version of this album.  It looks great and sounds great, finally elevating this release to something that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the other incredible Hieroglyphics releases of this era.  

I'm so thrilled we finally have this version and can only hope that Trumindz decides to give the same sort of love and attention to The Shamen record that got a barebones CD release on Hiero Imperium in the early 2000s.  To me, that's the last crown jewel of the Hiero catalog that needs the deluxe reissue (though I certainly wouldn't turn down more Hiero Oldies and Hiero B Sides reissues).

Casual - Meanwhile...

https://casual1.bandcamp.com/album/meanwhile

Casual - Meanwhile... LP

Dope Folks (2016, 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 25+ 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.

Fear Itself by Casual is one of the greatest hip hop records of all time.  Gun to my head and forced to rank my favorites, I'd probably put it at number two on my all time list.  I've listened to that album so many times over the years and it was a real staple of my junior/senior year of high school in 1994.  I didn't hear from Casual again until I was in college.  In 1997 the Hieroglyphics crew had all been dropped from their respective labels and regrouped on the internet to start self releasing their music.  I bought two cassettes from their website; Del The Funky Homosapien's Future Development and Casual's Meanwhile...

Honestly, both felt like a little bit of a let down at the time.  I had moved on from most hip hop by 1997 and even though I was really excited to finally have new music by two of my favorites, it was pretty obvious to me that hip hop's golden era was over.  Over the years I've come to appreciate these records more than I originally did.  Even though Meanwhile doesn't hit the same highs as Fear Itself, it is still a really strong record showcasing Casual's pretty unmatched battle rap prowess.

In 2016 Dope Folks freed this album from tape only purgatory and finally remastered and rereleased it on vinyl.  I was unaware that this had happened at the time and as a result missed out on the red vinyl version.  Still, I'm happy to finally have this album on vinyl and the remastering really helps out the production as it previously had sounded a little thin to me.  The bass is now fuller and the vocals a little crisper than they had been on the original version.

I hadn't listened to this album in a while before picking up this vinyl version.  I'm really glad it was reissued as I'm listening to it again with a bit more context and more of an open mind than I had in '97.  It's a good record, probably the third best one Casual put out (I also really love an early 2000's record of his called Truck Driver).  I'd still like to add the red vinyl version to the collection if I can find one at a decent price, so we'll see if one turns up.

Casual - Meanwhile:
https://casual1.bandcamp.com/album/meanwhile