Stress Eater - Everybody Eats LP - Red Vinyl

Silver Age (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.

If you know me, you know I love early 90s hip hop.  If you know me, you also know that I really struggle to find hip hop that came out after 1994 that I can connect with.  I'll occasionally find something from the later 90s or early 2000s that scratches a similar itch, but as far as new records being release right now, it's exceedingly rare that anything makes sense to me.  The one exception to that is Czarface.  You may be able to tell from the artwork that Stress Eater is a new group from that same 'Czarface Universe.'

Where Czarface is 7L, Esoteric and Inspectah Deck, Stress Eater is 7L, Esoteric and Kool Keith.  So, we get the really nice production that is what always draws me into Czarface and then we swap out one of the guys from Wu Tang for one of the guys from Ultramagnetic MCs.  Not sure how this is a record that could possibly miss for me.  And it does not.  I mean is has a song called "Mecha and the Sole Brother" and that is one of the best song names I've seen in a long, long time.

The thing about Czarface (and now Stress Eater) that really sets it apart from most hip hop these days is the production.  It's full, it's varied, it has loud drums, it's everything I like about the sound of 90s hip hop without actually sounding like it's from the 90s.  I mean, there are echos, for sure, but it sounds like a modern evolution of that sound - not a carbon copy of an older sound.  

Lyrically, Esoteric is coming out with his usual rapid fire, pop culture heavy lyrical flow.  Dropping references that I chuckle about and also making some deep cut comic references that go completely over my head, his raps always hit for me and make me pay attention to what he's saying.  Speaking of paying attention to lyrics, Kool Keith is one of those MCs that always benefitted from repeated listens.  

For me, this is the best Keith has sounded since the 90s, and a lot of that is because he finally has top tier production that really take advantage of his unique delivery.  I feel like you'll always get the best results from Kool Keith if you give him a beat that has a steady, consistent pace.  He's at his best when you let him go off beat if he needs to, rather than forcing him to adapt to some bizarre, nutty production.

It's nice that it seems like we can count on a Czarface project most years.  I'm hopeful that means we can also start to count on future Stress Eater records in the future.  I dig this every bit as much as any of the Czarface records I have.

Stress Eater - Everybody Eats:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_l9VsBx05p_mg8SmPSSMJOeFOuoGyCh3DM

Souls Of Mischief – 93 'Til Infinity (The Remixes) 2xLP

Jive (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 actually picked this up on Record Store Day Black Friday last year, but didn't get around to writing about it until now.  93 'Til Infinity is one of my top five hip hop albums of all time, and most days I'd probably say it's in my top three.  I've been obsessed with it since the very moment I saw the title track on Yo! MTV Raps when it first came out.  

This album is meant as a companion piece, with remixes and a B side from the 12" singles that came out around the album's release.It's great to have these songs in one place, but it also feels like something of a missed opportunity to me.  While there was only one official B side on those early singles, "Good Feeling," this really was the time to finally get a version "Cab Fare" on to a proper release.  I know, I know - sample clearance.  But this was the time to try.  I also think that "Get The Girl, Grab The Money & Run" from the Low Down Dirty Shame soundtrack should have been added.  Two more new songs would have gone a long way.

As far as the remixes go, they are all stellar, but there's not that many.  Only four remixes are here, which is fine, because that's all that was made.  They're definitely worth checking out if you haven't heard them before, giving a completely new flavor to tracks like "Make Your Mind Up," "Never No More," "That's When You Lost" and of course the remix to the song "93 'Til Infinity." 

Let's do some math here.  One B side.  Four Remixes.  Why is this a double LP?  It's because the rest of the album is full of instrumentals.  Five instrumentals and an acapella version of the title track.  I'm not a DJ, so I really don't need these very much.  Are they cool to listen to?  Absolutely.  But it's kind of scattershot with instrumentals of three LP versions and two of the remixes.  If this was a whole album of the LP instrumentals, yeah - sign me up.  But this kind of feels like an unnecessary double LP.  I'm probably more sensitive to it than usual because of the RSD tax making this a pretty pricey record.  I would have been perfectly happy with a single LP that doesn't have any of the instrumentals.  And add in "Cab Fare!"

Souls Of Mischief – 93 'Til Infinity (The Remixes):

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mCSBGVk3AseBaG81kdOUmmLA79TPQAlWg

Digital Underground - The "Body-Hat" Syndrome LP - 2 Versions

1992 (Tommy Boy)

2023 (Tommy Boy, RSD Black Friday 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 "Body-Hat" Syndrome is the third Digital Underground album and it originally came out back in 1993.  I'm pretty sure I bought it back then, but it didn't survive one of my CD purges over the year.  The reason I'm pretty confident I owned it is because both of the LPs I'm about to talk about are missing a track I remember vividly where DU called out a bunch of other artists that lifted or repurposed the beat of "The Humpty Dance" over the years.  

I didn't listen to this album for many years, but decided to revisit it a few years ago.  And like the Digital Underground records that came before it, I enjoy it - for the most part.  Every DU album is too long.  That's kind of the gimmick, really.  A long, diverse album with some grand slams and a few misses along the way.  

The albums single, "The Return of the Crazy One" is the main Humpty song on the album, and for my money it's actually the best Humpty song in their entire catalog.  It has such an ear worm of a beat behind it and it inevitably gets stuck in my head for days every time I listen to it.  While writing this right now the album is playing in the background.  I actually skipped "Return of the Crazy One" so it's not stuck in my head all day, but its piano riff is still managing to penetrate my brain.

The other thing that I like about the album is that it marks one of, if not the earliest appearance of Saafir on record.  He pops up with his off kilter cadence and in my opinion elevates every song he touches.  I wish he had been part of the group on their first two records as well.

So, I have two versions here.  The single LP version is the original pressing from 1993 that only came out in Italy.  It's missing a few songs, and it's a whole lot of music crammed onto a single LP, but it was the only thing out there for 30 years.  Thanks to my buddy Scott, for grabbing it for me to ship over to the US.

So naturally, within months of me finally pulling the trigger and buying a copy, a deluxe double LP version was announced for 2023's Record Store Day Black Friday.  This version is infinitely superior, but it is missing the "Humpty Awards" track from the CD I mentioned earlier.  Still, it has all of the real songs, sounds great and can still be found super cheap on Discogs.  Worth it just to get "Crazy One" stuck in your head for a month.

Digital Underground - The "Body-Hat" Syndrome:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_l-giHafleaouUvM364aeD6CL6R7eXFdtI

Czarface – Czartificial Intelligence LP – Stole The Ball Edition - Orange Vinyl (/5000)

Silver Age / Virgin (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.

Czarface is definitely releasing the most consistently great hip hop records today. Yes, there are folks (like Del) that still put out records that I enjoy immensely, but you can count on Czarface to put out an album every year or two and have it be great every single time. Czartificial Intelligence is the follow up to last year’s Czarmageddon and like that album, was launched on a Record Store Day related event, in this case, Black Friday.

The Record Store Day version of this album was a run of 5000 copies, was pressed on orange vinyl and had alternate artwork. But the biggest difference between the RSD version and the regular one is the inclusion of 2 bonus tracks not on any other vinyl version of the album. Which is a cool little bonus. But in digging around a bit, it seems that the versions available on streaming sites and MP3 also include these two extra tracks. I’m not mad that these songs are accessible to more people, but in some ways it makes me think that the normal version of the vinyl is just missing two songs, since they seem to exist everywhere else.

But back to the album itself, Czarface consists of Inspectah Deck and Esoteric on the mic and 7L handling production duties. They are one of very few hip hop acts that make records that feel like the Golden Era. The production sounds modern, but still clings on to the type of beats that connected with me as a teenager. It’s loud, with big drums and tons of low end. The samples are futuristic at times, leaning into the group’s comic book influences, but still sound warm and familiar. It’s a balancing act that very few can accomplish these days.

Lyrically, the subject matter definitely leans into what some might call nerdy territory. But, it’s material that resonates with me the same way that my mind was blown the first time I heard Das EFX and all of the pop culture references in their lyrics. Lots of highlights on this album, but in particular the two tracks where Kool Keith shows up are really memorable to me (though one of them, “Live and Czarnegie Hall,” is one of the RSD exclusive tracks).

All in all, it’s another great Czarface record. I’m always grateful that I stumbled across them a few years ago and am hopeful they keep leading the charge of hip hoppers that manage to still make records that connect with me.

Czarface – Czartificial Intelligence:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kkSIJwPflww9utIqH0RSVFf885zuqKVuw