Premier Commits Sewaside

I don't have any Das EFX posts yet, so I figured I should make one. I mean, I'm not a HUGE Das EFX fan, but I've always liked 'em enough to pick up their albums as they dropped back in the day, and they definitely had some nice singles. But it's just one of those things where I look at the increasingly long list of artists featured on this blog in the right-hand column and see all these crazy names like Dr. T and the Klinic, Bobby Jimmy, Sabado Gigante, MC Frontalot, two entries for Tricky Nicky and so on... and none for the artists who've been basic hip-hop staples of the genre. I feels like I gotta patch some of these guys in. So here we go: Das EFX.

So the obvious choice would probably be to grab something off of Hold It Down, or maybe go ultra-purist and take it all the way back to their first single or two. But I figure I'll shoot somewhere for their more neglected zone, a dope single from their second album, Straight Up Sewaside. Straight Up Sewaside is interesting, because it did much better overseas... here in the US, most heads were already sick of their "diggity riggidy" gimmick and had written them off as copied and played out, one album wonders, even the source of punchlines by other MCs.

But before the days of the internet, kids in other countries didn't know know about their declining rep and still ate it up. I remember a segment, I think it was on Video Music Box, about how kids in Europe still loved Das EFX and considered them the #1 rap group, and it was like "wha?" We'd all moved on to The Wu-Tang Clan and didn't pay Das anymore mind. But those kids held them down long enough for the duo to re-invent themselves with the Premier-laced "Real Hip-Hop," and their Hit Squad association during the Erick and Parrish rivalry; so they got some of their buzz back. But Straight Up Sewaside is one that's usually left to the hardcore fans.

More interesting than most of the stuff from that album, though, is this little single. See, after their bigger singles off that album, "Baknaffek" and "Freakit," they snuck out one last single, a little more underground and actually one of the best in their whole careers: "Kaught In da Ak." It was already one of the better album tracks, darker and more serious - even "BakNaffek," which showcased a deliberately harder instrumental, was still full of "diggity wiggity" lines and references to Chris Kringle and Beavis and Butthead. This is more on some street shit:

"I check this nigga that I used to snatch jewels wit' back in the day; but nevertheless the kid's ass' slingin' gas to pay bills to afford some pills that kill stress."

Compare that to "Freakit:"

"Hot damn! I got more props than that Fox, Samantha. The hickety-dick slickest nigga wit the raps that sound nifty. Weight around a pound sixty."

...and it's no competition. The only pop culture reference they make here (if you can even call it that), is a comment on the infamous Tawana Brawley case.

But the real selling aspect of this one is the remix - an unheralded production by Premier that pre-dates their celebrated single "Real Hip Hop" by two years. The main "bomp bomp" sample sounds just like the stuff Premier would overuse in years to come, but it was fresh and new in '93. Plus, anyway, the way he chops the drums and lays in the more subtle elements (is that the sound of a toy laser gun laid in there?) sound great in any decade. And the way he starts the song off with the infamous "Bum-stiggidadee bum, stiggadee" vocal sample suggests Premiere was already consciously trying to move these guys away from their limiting reputation, or at least playing with it.

On the B-side, you get another album track, "It'z Lik Dat," and another exclusive remix. Again, it's another one of their better joints, with a darker, atmospheric beat and some more straight-up battle-style rhymes. The remix isn't by Premier this time, however, but by Solid Scheme, who also produced the original versions of both tracks, and most of the rest of EFX's stuff. It's okay, and a nice bonus; but in this case, the album version's better.

But even just the album version makes a nice companion piece to "Kaught In da Ak," two highlights from an otherwise forgettable album that's usually left to the hardcore fans. So even if you dismiss the group as generally being too corny, this is a respectable piece for your crates. ...And I apologize for the stupid pun in the title - couldn't help it. lol

Swizz the best producer ever? Not by a long shot

I might get a new moniker as the guy who always goes against Kanye dumbass west. But honestly, this time, I have some grounds other than personal reasons to counter his latest assessment that Swizz Beats is the best hip-hop producer of all time. Not to take from Swizz who has had a sort of resurgence as of late as he has found a sort of space in which his tracks can survive with a modicum of

Lyte + Premier = Bootleg?

In 2006, MC Lyte made a lot of comeback noise with a hot Premier-produced track called "The Wonder Years." There was a fancy, CGI-heavy video for it on YouTube, and a lot of fans were suddenly interested in picking up a new MC Lyte record for probably the first time in a long time.

...But then it never came.

I guess she was hoping for a major label to pick it up, and she didn't get the kind of offer she was expecting? Or maybe the digital age's assault on music sales and the fact that this song was getting spread all over the place just made her give up and say "fuck it, everybody who's interested already has this anyway?" I don't know; but fortunately bootleg label Word of Mouth (who also did that Natural Elements EP I covered recently) were there to scoop up the dropped ball.

This is one of Premier's better recent tracks, and Lyte comes with that unique spin on braggadocios rhyming we hadn't heard much of since her early albums:

"Pull up a chair,
Let me explain how I maintain the youthful glow;
For you that don't know, it's called H2O.
So stop askin' when I walk by,
How I look so young and stay that fly?
It's elementary.
Kick the liquor when you turn dirty thirty;
The rest is a secret, so I keep it for the worthy.
Some of us need to be doin' a bid,
Spittin' lyrics that's worse than Ridlan for kids.
They say, 'Lyte, they ain't ready for nuthin' new, kid,'
So we kick the same stuff, as if they were stupid;
Take the same beat and loop it
50 times - why not? That other group did.
It's idiotic, average and robotic.
I keep it real;
My mental thick like a Harley clique.
I got 'em singing Bob Marley hits (I don't want to wait);
They don't want to wait in vain,
But I'm worth all the joy and the pain.
Come hard when I hit; you know the name."

The hook is the weakest link... It's not bad, but it's by some random guy (Premiere lip-syncs to it in the video; but discogs seems to think it's Shabeeno of the NYG'z, which seems more likely) and it just makes you think, "what's this guy doing talking on the hook?" Also, he calls her "the female G Rap;" and I guess you could say she is, sort of, in the sense that she's the most respected female MC, lyrically, who's been in the game for roughly the same amount of years; but... she doesn't flow or write anything like G Rap. You'd expect a "female G Rap" to come with 50 million quick rhyming syllables and violent mafioso tales, right? So it just stands out as a weird comparison. Still, it's a fine, passable hook, that at least manages not to ruin the greatness established by Lyte and the instrumental.

This song alone makes this a must purchase (and it comes in Clean and Dirty versions), but there's actually a whole lot Premiere-produced goodness on offer here, so let's move on.

Next up is Cormega's "Dirty Game." This isn't unreleased at all: it first appeared on a 2005 12" single, b/w "Dirty New York," and then turned up on his 2006 album with Lake (who's not featured on this particular song), My Brother's Keeper. A few years later, Cormega put it out again, this time on his 2009 album, Born and Raised. It's a dope track, but serious Premier or 'Mega fans probably didn't need it included it here.

Now, on the flip side, we've got some Teflon. First is another exclusive. Well, it's mostly an exclusive... it had turned up on a few mix-tapes back in 2005 under the title "Married 2 tha Game," but "Married To the Game" (as it's spelled here) had never received a proper, unmixed release... much less on vinyl. It's an interesting track, a little outside of Premiere's usual vein, with a dramatic classical violin loop and subtle, un-bouncy bassline. It's helped a lot by a guest verse from Styles P, and comes here in Clean and Dirty versions.

Finally the last song, "Showtime," was released as a 2006 12" on Premiere's label, Works of Mart. That 12" featured clean, dirty and instrumental versions of this song plus a B-side, "Just Rhymin' With Krumb" (featuring, clearly, Krumbsnatcha); but only the dirty version of "Showtime" is included here. It's another hot Premiere track in Teflon's usual, MOP lite style.

So, I guess the idea here is essentially a 2-song 12" with exclusive tracks (the ones in Clean and Dirty versions), and the other two songs (only in Dirty) are just sorta tagged on as bonus tracks (that's the nice thing about being a bootlegger, I suppose... you can tack on anything by anybody as a bonus track, and it doesn't cost you anything)? Well, hey, I guess that's reasonable. The Lyte track alone already made it a must-have for me, and it's good to see that Tef and Styles track get a proper - if not legit - release. And the rest is just gravy. Definitely one for the crates.