In 1988, schoolmates Fredro "Fredro Starr" Scruggs of Queens, Tyrone "Suave" Taylor and Marlon "Big DS" Fletcher, both of Brooklyn, formed the hip-hop group Onyx.
In the following years, the group got a contract with Profile Records, for which they released a single that didn't get much success. In 1991, the trio met Jam Master Jay and got the chance to do a demo for his label to be recorded within two months: Suave and Big DS fail to get to the studio, at this point Jeff Harris, manager of the group that had secured the contract with Profile, advises Fredro Starr to bring his cousin Kirk "Sticky Fingaz" Jones into the studio, who at the time embarked on a career as a solo artist with little success. Jones and Scruggs make two songs for the demo to be presented to Jam Master Jay, who decides to sign the group for his label. Jones, also from Brooklyn, joins the group as they prepare to launch their musical career, but loses all of their recordings when their music producer, B-Wiz, still tied to the criminal side, sells his SP-12 and is killed on the streets of Baltimore. Later, Manhattan producer Chylow "Chyskillz" Parker manages to find the group in Queens and proves skilled enough to join the Onyx: the quartet convinces Jam Master Jay to sign a deal for a studio album, managing to work profitably on a low budget. At the turn of summers 91-92, the group records the entire project.
Stuffed with LSD, the guys take down the most violent lyrics possible, aggressively spitting on murder, drugs, sex, guns, violence, and ghetto life, delivering in a yelling and hardcore style an unlimited number of criminals, thugs, misogynists, badasses and ignorant bars. In their role as lyricists they're generic, most of the time the performers are indistinguishable on the microphone and technically don't excel, but their highly hardcore, raunchy and raw delivery style is spectacularly smooth and energetic.
The production of the album is mainly done by Chyskillz, while Kool Tee, a label's beatmaker, does a couple of rhythms and Jeff Harris is also credited among the producers, although his real contribution to the rhythms is unknown. Jam Master Jay oversees all recording sessions and helps the guys manage the things behind the keyboards, and is credited with creating a good number of beats. Chyskillz is a fan of Native Tongues and jazz rap, originally his sound is close to that of A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, the MCs convince him to create another type of rhythms, harder, darker, filthy, dusty: the man is not wrong, there's not a single bad rhythm here, they're pretty much all fantastic, very minimal and tough boom bap beats, with a skeletal and tight drum machine, heavy, hard and pounding, some distant jazzy samples combined with sad and dark samples, dystopian. The musical carpet provided by Chyskillz is perfect to support the nihilistic bars and the ultra-aggressive and shouted style of the group, the music is typical of the East Coast scene of 1993.
Composed of 18 cuts, 6 skits and just under fifty minutes of listening, the album is the definition of hardcore hip-hop: raw, dirty, hard, dusty, it born, grows, runs, lives and dies on the street. It's an exaggeratedly gangsta record, deeply hardcore and highly sexist and misogynist, wallowing in its underground nature and punching anything that comes close and is present within the rap game before and after them: «Gotta Back the Fuck Up» is aimed at everyone, absolutely everyone. The Onyx prove to be right: up to now there's no one who can stand up to the comparison and it will take at least another eight months before someone arrives to be able to overcome them. Look at the cover, to understand how brilliant Sticky Fingaz is: the photo is taken from below, four bald guys with tough faces, dressed completely in black, like all great hip-hop albums, the cover anticipates what you're going to hear.
Distributed by JMJ Records, Rush Associated Labels (Def Jam) and Chaos Recordings (Columbia / Sony), the album achieved great commercial success, reaching the top 20 of the Billboard 200, top 10 among rap records, and entering the chart in UK. Supported by several hit singles that, despite an unnatural amount of curse words, get notable radio and television airplay, the record was certified platinum by the RIAA in the same year and is cemented as a hip-hop classic in retrospect.
Highlights: "Bichasniguz", "Throw Ya Gunz", "Here 'n' Now", "Atak of da Bal-Hedz", "Slam".
Rating: 8/10.
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