Usually when you start listening to this genre from the foundation, for fun or thanks to some friend, you end up around the usual superhyped names. I don't think anyone starts from the Sugarhill Gang or Kurtis Blow. He'd give up hip-hop after five minutes. Rightly. The milestones are always and remain those, those of the nineties, it's not even necessary to mention them, you always start from there and then you go back and forth in time and with the artists. Sooner or later you pass by some of the hyped names I mentioned earlier, often they end up being simply two or three names that at first seem generic to a newbie and that in reality therefore don't tell you anything. You never heard of them, it's normal. AZ, Big L... If you reading this text, it means that you too have heard «Big Pun».
Puerto Rican, son of the South Bronx, grew up with the myth of basketball and boxing and with a passion for hip-hop. Poverty forces him to remain homeless until the insurance compensates him and begins his new life in the rap world, discovered and launched by Fat Joe in the mid-nineties, after he had tried to break through on his own. Big Pun makes his debut in the industry appearing as uncredited guest in Fat Joe's second LP "Jealous One's Envy" in the track "Watch Out", with a memorable verse, shortly after signing with Fat Joe who had discovered Big Punisher after listening him rapping on the streets while walking in the Bronx.
In the same year, Fat Joe and Big Punisher are protagonists in the Funkmaster Flex mixtape of 1995 with a dope freestyle over the genius rhythm invented by The RZA for Raekwon's "Ice Cream". The next season, the emcee is credited as Punisher in "Wishful Thinking", a posse track along with Fat Joe, B-Real and Kool G Rap in a mixtape of DJ Clue? for the magazine The Source. Is also guest in Flesh-n-Bone solo debut, in a tune with Joey Crakk. In 1997, Big Pun is featured with Cuban Link in the album of the Beatnuts. Later, he signs with Loud Records, appearing in two other Loud disks after that of Flex, entering in "Soul in the Hole" movie soundtrack with the banger "You Ain't a Killer" and in "Loud Summer Heat" with the hit "I'm Not a Player": this latter cut gave birth to the album, and becomes the first single of the disk. In 1997, Pun starts to record tracks for his debut album.
After a brief intro, the album is welcomed by "Beware". JuJu of the Beatnuts chooses a wonderful sample from "Theme for the Losers" by the Maestro Henry Mancini, song excerpt from the documentary "Visions of Eight" (1973). Mesmerizing abrasive keyboards, wonderfully sad, tense, dusty violins steeped in melancholy, beautiful, Mancini is a genius. Prodigy of Mobb Deep opens the album in a menacing way with a tribute sample that comes straight from Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones, Part 1”. We're not even a minute into the play and you already know this entire LP is going to be a hip-hop classic. JuJu drops a dusty uptempo drum, thin hi-hats to accompany it, solid bass, Big Pun enters and sweeps everything away with an unstoppable dope flow. Prodigy sample works as chorus, is fantastic. Two verses by Pun announcing his arrival on the hip-hop scene to the others, immediately proving himself better than practically every other rapper in the space of four minutes with a superlative rhyme scheme, wordplay, lyricism and execution. Nothing to say. Perfect cut. JuJu soars into pole position as the most underrated hip-hop producer of the '90s with this effort.
Rockwilder creates the beat of "Super Lyrical". Boom bap, skeletal light drum, booming bass, obsessive tight loops. Pun calls one of the best lyricists ever in hip-hop and proves to be on his level here. Black Thought of The Roots is guest in the second verse, then for the last stanza the two pezzonovantes go back and forth after a hook created with samples from Canibus and Biggie Smalls. A sexual skit precedes "Still Not a Player", remix of "I'm Not a Player". In 1997, the Loud Records A&R Sean C (of Puff Daddy's production team The Hitmen) plays to Big Pun tracks of his production partner Knodoby. Then, Punisher hired Knobody to remix his debut single "I'm Not a Player". Chris Rios has the idea of merging his tune with the rnb singer Joe's "Don’t Wanna Be a Player". Knobody, Dahoud Darien & Damon “Nomad” Patterson are credited behind the keys. Knobody takes a sample from Brenda Russell's "A Little Bit of Love", skinny hi-hats, pop drum, solid bass line, pop piano keys, Big Pun releases his first mainstream hit.
After an interlude there's the pick number seven, "The Dream Shatterer". The beatmaker Domingo takes samples from Don "Sugarcane" Harris' "Funk & Wagner" to create a vibrant boom bap soundscape, uptempo dusty drum, rusty bass, leading rhythm to support the fast rapping of Big Punisher, that destroys a rhythm fueled by Wagnerian Valkyries in one of his most appreciated bravado tracks, with the first verse considered among the best ever in rap. Domingo keeps this beat for Big Pun for three years since the recording sessions of Fat Joe's second CD. The original version of "The Dream Shatterer" has a Buckwild clamorous beat with an immense sample from Barry White's backing vocal group Love Unlimited song "Under the Influence of Love", however, around the same time Puff Daddy releases Black Rob's "I Dare You" with the same sample from Love Unlimited. Pun chooses to move the acapella of "The Dream Shatterer" onto the beat kept by Domingo and comes out a bomb.
Frank Nitty of Trackmasters is the beatmaker of the pop rap song "Punish Me", love song of the Bronx emcee with the rnb singer Miss Jones, which legitimizes Pun [and Fat Joe's] desire to take the throne [of King of New York] left vacant by Biggie and which no one at the time had yet managed to occupy stably and with clear authority. Listening to this track, you understand how this effort is a sort of twin to The Notorious B.I.G.'s seminal debut, featuring hardcore, street, bravado cuts, sexual skits, songs where he calls on the best on the circuit to compete, and songs for women like this one, designed to also attract a female audience and fly towards the sunny golden shores of the mainstream.
Skit, then "You Ain't a Killer". The Hitmen's Younglord behind the keys. Three-second loop of a couple of dissonant piano keys and second slick piano keys sampled from Michael Jackson's "With a Child's Heart", ill synths taken from Kool & the Gang's "Summer Madness", Younglord adds a rough uptempo drum, creating a masterpiece soundscape for this street-gangsta track. Second part of the previous skit, then "Caribbean Connection". Younglord stays in production for a tune that takes the title from the name of the group composed by Pun, Cuban Link and Triple Seis. Over a sample of Johnny Osbourne's "Ready or Not", Punisher is joined by The Fugees' leader Wyclef Jean. Skinny drum, booming bass, tight loops, Wyclef Jean offers an extra-verse in straight rapping after Pun.
"Glamour Life" brings together the Terror Squad in a posse track whose title explains the themes, the boys enjoying the pleasures of the good life. Amazing sample of George Benson's "The World Is a Ghetto", dusted violins and strings, booming and deep bass, skeletal drum, the soundscape invented by LES is mafioso, cinematic, wonderful, the beat is perfect for the track themes, Cuban Link leads the way from the first bar, rapping at his finest with one of his most smoothness flows. Chorus by Big Pun, then Triple Seis for the next verse at his debut in the rap game, good performance. Fat Joe at the third stanza with a dope verse, fantastic lyrics, complex rhyme schemes that he seems to have never had, when Joey is near Punisher his pen improves incredibly. Armageddon shows us another side of the good life in the next verse, Big Pun closes with a minimal contribute in a cut that is more of a showcase for his buddies than anything else, and in any case it works.
Mike "Trauma" D and Jugrnaut of The Infinite Arkatechz are the beatmakers of the title track. Hypnotizing beat, obsessive loops, curse strings, hard drum, deep bass, the rhythm works. In this crime rap track the Terror Squad member Prospect makes his debut with the hook and the last verse. After a skit there's "I'm Not a Player". The producer is Minnesota, member of Money Boss Players along with Eddie Cheeba, Lord Tariq and Tray Bag (Hell Razah brother), among others. He takes samples from "Darlin' Darlin' Baby" by The O'Jays and by Steve Khan to create the beat destined to rnb group SWV, pop drum, warm bass, Pun drops a sexual tune that is released as main single of the album and becomes a vibrant rap hit (#3 on the rap singles chart).
Big Punisher bridges the gap between the West Coast and the East Coast by including in his album a cover of a Snoop Dogg & Dr. Dre hit, "Deep Cover". In production are credited Big Pun, Fat Joe, Dr. Dre and Colin Wolfe. The beat is the same: deep warm bass line, drum hard as life, touch of keys, deep g-funk synths, dope rhythm. Big Pun enters with what Complex defined as the greatest 8 bar verse of all time: the author and Fat Joe rapping about the contract killing of an Italian mafioso in the Little Italy of the Bronx on the orders of corrupt police officers, also incorporating references to mafia films such as "The Godfather" (1972) and "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984), but their plan doesn't go as planned. Big Pun closes his eight-bar verse with a masterful tongue twister, props to Joey Crakk for managing to convince him to keep the tongue twister in the track. It starts a back and forth between the two emcees over the rhythm of Dr. Dre.
"The Rain & The Sun" is an interlude in which Big Pun tries to sing on a light production realized by dead prez, also credited as guest along with Prospect. This tune is seen as a heir of Biggie's "Playa Hater". The Mighty V.I.C. is behind the keyboards in "Boomerang": sick sample from Alain Goraguer's "Le Bracelets", splendid dark, tense soundscape, hard drum, robust bass line, crazy beat, Big Pun narrates his life as a gangster, then he begins to have problems and is forced to flee the city. Armageddon of Terror Squad recites the hook in this masterpiece. The third and last single of the record is "You Came Up". Rockwilder takes a sample from "Dont Ask Me" by Ramon Morris, liquid sounds, shrill horns, pop drum, rough bass line, Big Pun and Noreaga of CNN prophesy the platinum record, inevitable event using Rios' own terms, in this sort of cheerful victory lap that takes place during the race itself, in which there are also some memorable tributes to 2Pac.
The album moves towards a sort of natural conclusion with the arrival of "Tres Leches (Triboro Trilogy)". Resounding sample from Gary Burton's "Las Vegas Tango", hypnotizing sounds, amazing booming bass line, powerful bass, dusty drum, oriental vibes, scratches by DJ Roc Raida. The beat is crafted by The RZA. Prodigy homages Eric B. & Rakim's "I Ain't No Joke" for the chorus and drops the first stanza with a rough, sharp flow. Inspectah Deck flies on this soundscape with a dope rapping style, Big Punisher kills the cut with a fire verse, unstoppable flow, devastating and overwhelming rapping, he takes his track. Atomic piece. The title refers to the three boroughs of New York represented, Prodigy from Queens, Rebel INS from Staten Island and Punisher from the Bronx. Last skit of the tape, then "Fast Money", one of the first track recorded by Pun for his solo debut. Danny O & Gerald “EQ” Robinson offer a tight musical carpet for this track, the emcee robbing banks in this narrative piece. Cheap drum, piano keys in loop, powerful bass echoing on the beat, the rhythm sounds choppy and difficult to manage. Showbiz of DITC is the last producer of the disk. Busta Rhymes is the guest of "Parental Discretion", but is confined on the chorus, while Big Pun runs over a gloomy beat of Show, sample from "Le Bracelets" by Goraguer — same of "Boomerang", but sampled in a different section —, good drum, bouncy bass line, loop of keys, there's a good contrast between the rhythm and Busta Rhymes' crazy execution on the hook.
Final Thoughts
Now. What's special about Big Pun? It's not a simple question, it could be answered that it's all here, it's all condensed in this vast (if you remove the skits: regular) album where he performs with a smoothness and at a speed basically never reached by any other artist of the genre until that moment, inspired by Biggie and almost able to touch him while maintaining a strong personality on the mic, with legendary peaks of lyricism, an excellent pattern of internal and multi-syllable rhymes, inconceivable metric patterns never seen before and never seen again, a technical flow much faster than the average, always dope and recognizable and a breath control that's simply and authentically absurd performed by a man who has come to weigh almost 700 pounds. A unicum. But it wouldn't be entirely fair and true, because Christopher Rios doesn't stop with this album. There's so much Pun in "Don Cartagena" to make it basically another of his [great] albums, and if the first effort of Terror Squad enjoys any merit it's only thanks to this man.
Pun's debut is a killer album that claims him as one of the best ever born in New York and worldwide in hardcore hip hop. Prove to the game that he's an excellent lyricist, here he faces almost half scene, rapping alongside Black Thought (Roots), Inspectah Deck (Wu-Tang), Prodigy (Mobb Deep), Busta Rhymes, Noreaga (CNN), dead prez. Themes and rhythms are versatile, while maintaining a tendency towards gangsta-mafioso, there are several crossover R&B tracks and for the club, sexual tunes, pop rap songs, dirty cuts for the streets, songs for purists, funky ones, all of which are united under the remarkable accessibility for the mainstream public. Production helps, it's dark, robust, gritty (LES, Dr. Dre, RZA, Beatnuts, Showbiz, Rockwilder), a mix of hardcore and pop rhythms.
However, it's not a classic — too long, too many skits (the sexual ones are easily skippable), a couple of crossover fillers and some gray beats — but it's really well executed, of the highest level. It's the first Latin solo album to become platinum and earned him a Grammy nomination for best rap LP, a timeless record remembered as one of the best of the nineties.
Highlights: "Super Lyrical", "The Dream Shattered", "Capital Punishment", "Twinz (Deep Cover 98)", "Tres Leches".
Rating: 9.4/10.
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