Renowned bass player, producer, and member of DJ Premier’s Badder Band Brady Watt has been bringing his groove to video lately, linking up with MCs and singers for a series of videos he’s calling “Bass & Bars.” Each entry has Watt laying down a bassline for a guest to recite a beloved verse or two from their career. Previous entries in his series include Bun B, Pharoache Monch and MC Eiht. This week, Watt links up with Cypress Hill frontman B-Real as he delivers two classic Cypress Hill verses from 1993’s “Insane In the Brain” and 1991’s “How I Could Just Kill A Man” breakout. B-Real Details How He Developed 1 Of Hip-Hop’s Most Distinctive Voices (Video) As B-Real takes us through his memorable “Insane In the Brain,” Watt enthusiastically rocks alongside the MC, recreating the beat purely on bass. B-Real drops his classic bars on point: “To the one on the flamboyant tempa, / Just toss that ham in the frying pan / Like spam, get done when I come and slam, Damn, I feel like the Son of Sam / Don’t make me wreck sh*t, hectic / Next get the chair got me going like General Electric / ‘Aaaant,’ the lights are blinking, I’m thinking, It’s all over when I go out drinking.” As B-Real spits his last four bars, Watt slickly transitions into a cool rendition of Gang Starr’s “DWYCK,” produced by his band-mate, DJ Premier. As Watt fades out from “DWYCK,” he plays a bass rendition of the “How I Could Just Kill A Man” beat. B-Real dives into his first verse on Cypress Hill’s first ever single, and infamous track off the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreassoundtrack. Before B-Real finishes his verse, Watt slides right into a bass cover of Dr. Dre’s “Dre Day” beat, switching pace with absolute ease. MC Eiht & Brady Watt Make A Westside Connection On A New Version Of m.A.A.d. City Both B-Real and Brady Watt prove that they’re skilled in their lanes by never missing their cue, and delivering their respective crafts on-point. #BonusBeat: Watch Bun B spit vintage verses from “Get Throwed” and “Draped Up” alongside Watt on bass.
You wouldn’t be blamed for thinking Mobb Deep’s near-perfect album The Infamous… was their debut project, especially given it’s well-deserved critical acclaim over the years. However, the East Coast rap duo actually popped up on the scene a whole two years prior with Juvenile Hell on April 13, 1993, and today we’re looking back on the rookie rap offering on the LP’s 26th anniversary.
4th & B’way/Island/PolyGram Records
Way before blessing us with “Shook Ones” and “Survival of the Fittest,” Kejuan Muchita and Albert Johnson — you may known them better as Havoc and Prodigy, respectively — were just two teens from NYC trying to make their mark in the rap game. The group had just changed their name to Mobb Deep after spending the prior year as “Poetical Prophets,” the name they’d get their first taste of fame under in our own Unsigned Hype section circa July 1991 for The Source #22 (see below). The album was distributed through 4th & B’way Records, the label Eric B. & Rakim saw success with five years prior on their classic debut Paid in Full, and was supported by the singles “Peer Pressure” and “Hit It from the Back.” Although the album didn’t take off with either single, it set the guys up with a rugged sound they could perfect & make a blueprint out of to come back and dominate just a few years later.
Mobb Deep’s first appearance in The Source, back when the 16-year-old duo went by “Poetical Prophets.” (Issue #22; July 1991)
Even without critical or fan-supported success, Juvenile Hell still had its gems. From the Big Noyd-assisted “Stomp Em Out,” with its jazzy sample and call-out style chorus, to “Flavor for the Non Believes,” which recalls their Poetical Prophets days demo tape Flavor for the Nonbelievers, each track is a sonically-authentic product of the boom bap era at its peak. The sole charting single, “Hit It from the Back,” even made it to #18 on the Billboard Hot Rap Singles. Above everything though, this was Prodigy and Havoc’s first time showing the world that they could produce just as well as they rap, which of course we’d see them show off on an even greater scale later in the group’s career.
Overall, Juvenile Hell will always be remembered as the start of a Hip-Hop legacy that will continue on even in the absence of Prodigy, who sadly passed away a few years ago on June 20, 2017 due to complications from his lifelong battle with sickle cell. Through albums like this one, as well as The Infamous…, Hell On Earth and Infamy among others, his legacy will continue to live on and the group will always be seen as legends to the game.
Celebrate the 26th anniversary of Mobb Deep’s debut album Juvenile Hell by giving it a spin today, and let us know some of your favorite tracks by hitting us on Facebook and Twitter! Also, read the original review from The Source Issue #45 (June 1993) below:
In 1993, the Mario Van Peebles film Posse hit theaters. At its release party, some of Brooklyn’s finest showed up, along with Biz Markie. One of the film’s stars, Big Daddy Kane, hosted the New York City event. He appeared in the Western alongside Van Peebles, Stephen Baldwin, Tone-Loc, Tiny Lister, and Blair Underwood.
In the opening part of the sequence from the “Video Music Box Library” video on AFH TV (available for a free 30-day trial), the crowd is cold. Jay steps to the front of the stage and kicks the opening bars from his “I Can’t Get With That” verse without a beat. He uses syncopated rhyming to demonstrate a cash-counter and machine gun. A year later, this DJ Clark Kent-produced song would be the B-Side of “In My Lifetime.” However, on this night, a 24-year-old shouts out Kane (not Dame Dash as the 12″ version lyrics would) for “makin’ his ass rich.”
Later in the vid’, Jay kicks his “Greatest MC” routine, another Clark-laced cut. Again, he does it a capella. He hands the mic to Jaz, who follows with a play on their “Originators” motif (which they would do to bookend the 1990s). In the background, Cee plays the same breakbeat that Tupac, Biggie, Kane, and company would use in their famed live freestyle.
However, it is Busta Rhymes, who Jaz hands the mic to, that seems to get the greatest crowd reaction. Busta was then a part of Leaders Of The New School, between the crew’s two albums. Busa’ kicks a boisterous freestyle with didactic lyrics. The audience erupts as the concert progresses. Busta shouts out Lil Shawn, Dante (presumably his Elektra Records A&R Dante Ross), and others, including his burgeoning Flipmode Entertainment as well as L.O.N.S.
As Busta kicks more rhymes, the B-I-Z paces back-and-forth behind him. Meanwhile, Jay booms background lyrics. Finally, Biz stands beside B.R. As the two briefly dap it up, the Biz won’t start until he has Busta’s mic too. Once in his hand, he begins with a “can I kick it?” routine, building up the crowd.
Although he was gearing up to drop his fourth LP, All Samples Cleared, Biz freestyles before the hometown audience. The MC/DJ/producer kicks an unusually raunchy verse, but the crowd seems to love it. The Cold Chillin’ star who was then a featured cast member on In Living Color, references the “Men On Film” sketch in one of his biggest punchlines.
In 1993, the Mario Van Peebles film Posse hit theaters. At its release party, some of Brooklyn’s finest showed up, along with Biz Markie. One of the film’s stars, Big Daddy Kane, hosted the New York City event. He appeared in the Western alongside Van Peebles, Stephen Baldwin, Tone-Loc, Tiny Lister, and Blair Underwood.
In the opening part of the sequence from the “Video Music Box Library” video on AFH TV (available for a free 30-day trial), the crowd is cold. Jay steps to the front of the stage and kicks the opening bars from his “I Can’t Get With That” verse without a beat. He uses syncopated rhyming to demonstrate a cash-counter and machine gun. A year later, this DJ Clark Kent-produced song would be the B-Side of “In My Lifetime.” However, on this night, a 24-year-old shouts out Kane (not Dame Dash as the 12″ version lyrics would) for “makin’ his ass rich.”
Later in the vid’, Jay kicks his “Greatest MC” routine, another Clark-laced cut. Again, he does it a capella. He hands the mic to Jaz, who follows with a play on their “Originators” motif (which they would do to bookend the 1990s). In the background, Cee plays the same breakbeat that Tupac, Biggie, Kane, and company would use in their famed live freestyle.
However, it is Busta Rhymes, who Jaz hands the mic to, that seems to get the greatest crowd reaction. Busta was then a part of Leaders Of The New School, between the crew’s two albums. Busa’ kicks a boisterous freestyle with didactic lyrics. The audience erupts as the concert progresses. Busta shouts out Lil Shawn, Dante (presumably his Elektra Records A&R Dante Ross), and others, including his burgeoning Flipmode Entertainment as well as L.O.N.S.
As Busta kicks more rhymes, the B-I-Z paces back-and-forth behind him. Meanwhile, Jay booms background lyrics. Finally, Biz stands beside B.R. As the two briefly dap it up, the Biz won’t start until he has Busta’s mic too. Once in his hand, he begins with a “can I kick it?” routine, building up the crowd.
Although he was gearing up to drop his fourth LP, All Samples Cleared, Biz freestyles before the hometown audience. The MC/DJ/producer kicks an unusually raunchy verse, but the crowd seems to love it. The Cold Chillin’ star who was then a featured cast member on In Living Color, references the “Men On Film” sketch in one of his biggest punchlines.
Twenty-five years ago this season, OutKast released their first single, “Player’s Ball.” Big Boi and André 3000 had appeared on TLC’s remix to “What About Your Friends” as teenagers in 1992. Like that opportunity, “Player’s Ball” was birthed out of LaFace Records trying to cross-promote its fledgling Rap duo.
For the 1993 holiday, A LaFace Family Christmas would be one of many label compilations marketed to fans. TLC, Toni Braxton, and Usher were centerpieces on the 10 tracks, and rightfully so. On the cover with those three acts, as well as A Few Good Men, was ‘Kast, barely showing their faces under the big wreath graphic from Antonio “L.A.” Reid and Babyface’s imprint.
That was by design. Since the Tri-Cities High School students rapped before the run-out on TLC’s 12″, their label was reportedly not wowed by the group’s sound. “[L.A. Reid] was like, ‘Yeah, I think I like them, but I don’t think that they’re stars,” André 3000 recalled in the 2016 Netflix documentary, The Art of Organized Noize. Presumably, the Christmas compilation needed filler for the R&B ballads from buzzing vocalists. The label brass turned to ‘Kast’s producers to cook up something. As respected labels like Death Row, Tommy Boy, and Def Jam typically did, soundtracks were a place to test the waters, even if the prospects felt grim.
Veteran production trio Organized Noize was grooming OutKast, as they had been for some time. Ray Murray, Rico Wade, and Sleepy Brown were recording the teenagers’ vocals in Wade’s grandmother’s basement, affectionately remembered as The Dungeon. That’s when they got the call from LaFace. In 2012, Wade told Complex‘s Linda Hobbs, “[The] thing is, we don’t really f*ck with Christmas like that. That’s where we were at the time, we were on some, ‘Christmas is not one day out the year, it’s every day.’ For us, it was just about being realistic. People get caught up in the excitement of, ‘I got to buy this, I got to do this and that” and they lose they mind.” The hitmaker added, “I told OutKast, ‘We gotta do a Christmas, song but we’ll just talk about what we don’t do on Christmas, or what it means to us.’” He would later pinch a beat that partner Ray Murray had been work-shopping for a group called The Drip Drop to bring what Dre and Big wrote to life.
High Snobiety aggregated a MySpace interview back in 2016 that captured the reluctance in the studio. Wade says, “I thought, ‘How the f*ck are we gonna do a Christmas song? We’re a Rap group! How are we gonna get any respect?’” They did, simply by refusing to compromise.
As legend has it, a straightforward Christmas song called “Socks & Drawz” evolved into a present for what was to come in the form of “Player’s Ball.” The song made the Christmas compilation, as did a 55-second “Joy All Day” interlude oddly credited to the duo, despite its lack of a clear-cut connection to the group.
Although it holds back the red-and-green socks, scarves, and any mentions of mistletoe, “Players Ball” is a Christmas record at its core, especially on the compilation verse. One can hear it in the sleigh bell percussion of the song, and the opening line, “It’s beginning to look a lot like wha—.” The line is a sardonic contrast to the fairy-tale winter wonderlands and the Dirty South reality. That attitude holds through 3 Stacks’ verse, which references snow, “tis the season,” and “Silent Night.” He closes with that mantra, “You thought I’d break my neck, to help y’all deck the halls? / Oh naw, I got other means of celebratin’, I’m gettin blizzard at HoJo, I got that hoochie waitin’ I made it through another year can’t ask fo’ nothin much mo’/ It’s OutKast for the books I thought you knew so now you know.”
The Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik version finds ‘Dre stuttering and covering up some of the seasonal cues, as well as the mention of Christmas Day and chimneys in the chorus to prevent an excellent song from being pigeonholed.
In the second verse, Big Boi references the lack of a Christmas gift wish-list in his cold reality, after opening the bars with “Hallelujah, Hallelujah,” broken down into syllables. OutKast took an assignment and made art out of it. Big and ‘Dre did not do what so many rappers in their position would have—just tried at another come-and-go record to appease the label and built-in fanbase. Instead, they went big and bold. They stayed true to the notion that not all Christmases are white, plentiful, and happy. This realness resonated, in a way that made a Christmas record sound hot in the middle of an Atlanta summer.
The song, serviced as a single in November of 1993, would take on a life of its own. The record superseded filler on a predictable label compilation and became the first taste of a game-changing 1994 album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. Puff Daddy directed the video that left the Santa hats and wreaths at home. That release began an album-run as historic as any in Hip-Hop.
Twenty-five years ago this season, OutKast released their first single, “Player’s Ball.” Big Boi and André 3000 had appeared on TLC’s remix to “What About Your Friends” as teenagers in 1992. Like that opportunity, “Player’s Ball” was birthed out of LaFace Records trying to cross-promote its fledgling Rap duo.
For the 1993 holiday, A LaFace Family Christmas would be one of many label compilations marketed to fans. TLC, Toni Braxton, and Usher were centerpieces on the 10 tracks, and rightfully so. On the cover with those three acts, as well as A Few Good Men, was ‘Kast, barely showing their faces under the big wreath graphic from Antonio “L.A.” Reid and Babyface’s imprint.
That was by design. Since the Tri-Cities High School students rapped before the run-out on TLC’s 12″, their label was reportedly not wowed by the group’s sound. “[L.A. Reid] was like, ‘Yeah, I think I like them, but I don’t think that they’re stars,” André 3000 recalled in the 2016 Netflix documentary, The Art of Organized Noize. Presumably, the Christmas compilation needed filler for the R&B ballads from buzzing vocalists. The label brass turned to ‘Kast’s producers to cook up something. As respected labels like Death Row, Tommy Boy, and Def Jam typically did, soundtracks were a place to test the waters, even if the prospects felt grim.
Veteran production trio Organized Noize was grooming OutKast, as they had been for some time. Ray Murray, Rico Wade, and Sleepy Brown were recording the teenagers’ vocals in Wade’s grandmother’s basement, affectionately remembered as The Dungeon. That’s when they got the call from LaFace. In 2012, Wade told Complex‘s Linda Hobbs, “[The] thing is, we don’t really f*ck with Christmas like that. That’s where we were at the time, we were on some, ‘Christmas is not one day out the year, it’s every day.’ For us, it was just about being realistic. People get caught up in the excitement of, ‘I got to buy this, I got to do this and that” and they lose they mind.” The hitmaker added, “I told OutKast, ‘We gotta do a Christmas, song but we’ll just talk about what we don’t do on Christmas, or what it means to us.’” He would later pinch a beat that partner Ray Murray had been work-shopping for a group called The Drip Drop to bring what Dre and Big wrote to life.
High Snobiety aggregated a MySpace interview back in 2016 that captured the reluctance in the studio. Wade says, “I thought, ‘How the f*ck are we gonna do a Christmas song? We’re a Rap group! How are we gonna get any respect?’” They did, simply by refusing to compromise.
As legend has it, a straightforward Christmas song called “Socks & Drawz” evolved into a present for what was to come in the form of “Player’s Ball.” The song made the Christmas compilation, as did a 55-second “Joy All Day” interlude oddly credited to the duo, despite its lack of a clear-cut connection to the group.
Although it holds back the red-and-green socks, scarves, and any mentions of mistletoe, “Players Ball” is a Christmas record at its core, especially on the compilation verse. One can hear it in the sleigh bell percussion of the song, and the opening line, “It’s beginning to look a lot like wha—.” The line is a sardonic contrast to the fairy-tale winter wonderlands and the Dirty South reality. That attitude holds through 3 Stacks’ verse, which references snow, “tis the season,” and “Silent Night.” He closes with that mantra, “You thought I’d break my neck, to help y’all deck the halls? / Oh naw, I got other means of celebratin’, I’m gettin blizzard at HoJo, I got that hoochie waitin’ I made it through another year can’t ask fo’ nothin much mo’/ It’s OutKast for the books I thought you knew so now you know.”
The Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik version finds ‘Dre stuttering and covering up some of the seasonal cues, as well as the mention of Christmas Day and chimneys in the chorus to prevent an excellent song from being pigeonholed.
In the second verse, Big Boi references the lack of a Christmas gift wish-list in his cold reality, after opening the bars with “Hallelujah, Hallelujah,” broken down into syllables. OutKast took an assignment and made art out of it. Big and ‘Dre did not do what so many rappers in their position would have—just tried at another come-and-go record to appease the label and built-in fanbase. Instead, they went big and bold. They stayed true to the notion that not all Christmases are white, plentiful, and happy. This realness resonated, in a way that made a Christmas record sound hot in the middle of an Atlanta summer.
The song, serviced as a single in November of 1993, would take on a life of its own. The record superseded filler on a predictable label compilation and became the first taste of a game-changing 1994 album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. Puff Daddy directed the video that left the Santa hats and wreaths at home. That release began an album-run as historic as any in Hip-Hop.
