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

The Cardigans - First Band on the Moon LP

Universal/Stolkholm (2019, Reissue)

Last week I wrote about the Cardigans' record Life, which I kind of bought by mistake as I forgot that "Lovefool" wasn't on it.  It's a great record and defintiely worthy of a spot in the collection, but I did have to immediately fix my mistake and grab a copy of First Band on the Moon on vinyl as well.

This is the record with "Lovefool" and hot damn do I love that song.  I've had the 7" of it for decades, having picked it up in the UK when I was there on a trip in 1997 buying way too many records (no dot com back then).  It';s still the highlight of the album to me.  Granted there are some other great songs like "Never Recover" and "Been It," but as a whole I actually think Life is a much better record as a whole.  

The thing about this record that holds it back a bit is that the songs are a little slower for the most part. It's always good, but for me it only ventures into great when they pick up the tempo a bit.  Life feels like a record that's just a bit more fun overall, but this is the record with the hit.  I guess I just have to have them both.

The Cardigans - First Band on the Moon:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k7Glv0bFa8fU9OgSFL3vA4V2pT4lOMb5s

Music From G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero LP

Universal/Hasbro (2020)

I love 80s cartoons and toys.  They're just part of me as a person at this point.  Sitting at my desk now I'm surrounded by Star Wars, Voltron, He-man, Godzilla and much more.  When I saw that Hasbro was going to release the soundtrack for the G.I. Joe cartoon, I figured it might be something worth picking up.  After all, I do like collection records.  But I am also trying to cut down on the number of records I have that I don't actually play.  But, the collector won out and I picked up a copy.  

I went with the standard version as opposed to the Barnes & Noble colored vinyl exclusive. Typically, I pretty much always will go for the limited variant if I have the chance, but in this instance it would have cost almost ten dollars more than the one I was able to order from Amazon.  Plus, the standard version has better artwork.

When I put this on the turntable to listen to, I was actually shocked how much I enjoyed it.  The score of this show is pretty incredible, with rousing military themes that remind me a lot of the sort of thing you'd hear in those middle era Showa Godzilla movies.  Not necessarily the tried and true Ifukube themes, but some of the other composers that tackled his adventures in the late 60s and early 70s.  This sort of music is upbeat, bouncy and time and just feels so triumphant. The other thing that I like, though I'll concede others may not, is that the version of the opening theme on this LP is without the vocals.  I vastly prefer it this way, even though it's not specifically what I heard on my TV as a kid.

Even though I had mainly purchased this as a 'collectible,' I have a feeling I'm going to end up listening to it a lot more than I had originally planned.  Just wish it had come with a download code as well.

 

Lords of the Underground - Here Come The Lords 2xLP

Music On Vinyl / Universal (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 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.

I actually didn't think that Lords of the Underground were the sort of band that would warrant a Music On Vinyl reissue of their albums.  I just sort of thought they were one of those great groups from the early 90s that were destined to be forgotten.  Not necessarily for any justifiable reason, it's just that the sands of time don't always treat everyone kindly.  I'm very happy to be wrong and the ability to pick up a slick, high quality version of this album on wax is great news.

Like just about all 90s golden era hip hop, I discovered Lords of the Underground from Yo MTV Raps.  Specifically the song "Funky Child."  While I don't remember seeing it played frequently, I saw it enough times that the main horn riff sample (from James Brown's "My Thang") was lodged in my head pretty quickly.  It's still my favorite Lords song all of these years later, but they were not a one hit wonder, the entire album is really strong, particularly when looking back on it with twenty five plus years of hindsight.

This is a group that did a tremendous job on the production of their songs.  The beats are always full sounding and hard hitting.  When combined with the fast paced lyrical flow, it creates songs that are head nodders, but are also really fun.  The lyrics are dynamic and it really sounds like the band had a good time making this record.  I have to say that I am not as familiar with the band's second album, Keepers of the Funk, but I think I should probably give that one another chance as Here Come the Lords holds up really well.

Lords of the Underground - Here Come the Lords (Youtube full album playlist):
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lHp2W0CI7hqyr2Oz7X-_xznAEWTExtxk0