It's the second album of the Three Times Dope, for those who haven't seen the first ("Original Stylin'", 1989), that sucked too. Originally known as 3xD (then 3-D), the Philadelphia hip-hop group is composed by Duerward "DJ Woody Wood" Beale, Robert EST" Waller, and Walter "Chuck Nice" Griggs.
Part of the Hilltop Hustlers Crew, that included Cool C, Da Youngsta's and Steady B, among others, around 1987 the group signs with Hilltop Hustlers Records, label of Steady B's uncle Lawrence Goodman, also father of 2/3 of the rap group Da Youngsta's. As 3-D, the group releases a couple of singles with Hilltop Hustlers, "Crushin & Bussin'" and "From da Giddy Up", which achieve success among the public and allow them to gain an initial fan base. In 1988, the group publishes also the single "Original Styling", then deals with Arista and releases "Greatest Man Alive", that leads to the debut CD. Around this period, 3-D argues with their manager, author and producer Lawrence Goodman, leaving Hilltop Hustlers label.
In this disk there's the same confusion as always, the production created by Chuck Nice is very awful: quite bad, mediocre, frenetic urgent, cheerful, sometimes sprinkled with jazzy, skinny rhythms, in the end the beats deviate towards dance pop. A couple of rhythm are invented by Dale Hogan, Keith Spencer and LaVaba Mallison. Moses Worrell co-produces "Peace Ya' Self". The rhythms joined instrumentals played by Doug Grigsby (bass), Mike Tyler (electric guitar), Phil Nowlan (keyboards) and Andy Kravitz (drums), while the scratches are provided by DJ Woody Wood.
The tape is mixed by Chuck Nice and Joe "The Butcher" Nicolo. Larry Lar is the major guest of the LP. While the delivery of the group is often mediocre and down under the "mediocre" level, a little spoken a little sung, or in rapping, urgent according to the rhythm, generally between the extravagant and the indecent. Other commercial errors such as functional pop lame hooks and samples that clash with the tracks don't help. The only crossover piece on the disc is the best from a musical point of view.
I don't really know in what genre to catalog this stuff; it distances itself from any known hip hop subgenre and I don't think it can easily fall under the term "hip hop". While their debut LP enters pop chart, this effort manages to extract a couple of minor hits ("Weak at the Knees" and "Peace Ya' Self", both charted in the rnb single chart), peaking #30 among rnb albums, proving to be a commercial flop and ending the trio's career. 4/10.
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