Debut record for Extra Prolific, Oakland hip-hop duo part of the Hieroglyphics crew and composed of Duane "Snupe" Lee and Mike "Mike G" Gray, probably both originally from Texas, I'm sure for the former, but not for Mike G. The album remains internal to the Oakland collective, with production, lyrics and rapping performed by the members of the Hieroglyphics: Snupe and A-Plus are among the major producers, Mike G, Casual and Domino provide some beats, while guests are Casual, Opio and Pep Love. For some reason, Mike G isn't present in rapping in any of the cuts, so the record is pretty much a Snupe solo.
Mike G is featured in the intro, where he's also credited as a producer, then Snupe's record begins. "Brown Sugar" is a bad start: cheap rhythm, weak and sluggish drum, ridiculous sample, the rapper spits slow and steady without impressing. The MC himself brings out an honest beat on the third track, with a near mobb sound, performing slowly and relaxed. Domino is simply not a good beatmaker and provides another mediocre rhythm in the following choice, which precedes "Sweet Potato Pie": Snupe's generic soundscape, poor drum, mediocre sample, the boy's rapping is weak and slow, but to bury the cut is the rnb pop hook. In "Cash Money" it seems like a competent guy behind the keyboards has finally arrived: A-Plus places the second decent production of the edition, boom bap with decent sample and thumping tight drum, honest carpet for Snupe's slow syncopated delivery. Casual introduces himself as the first guest on the album and teaches his Hieroglyphics homie how to spit, performing his lyrics with a lively, sparkling and youthful style, in what is the shortest and best cut of the project.
A-Plus is the author of the next beat, nevertheless, his choice is cheap: simple funky boom bap, poor slow pounding drum, honest sample, Snupe hasn't the ability neither to ruin the tune nor to improve it. When it's his turn to choose the rhythms again, compared to those who preceded him, he looks like an amateur: the beat of the eighth cut is meager and his rap clearly uninspired. In any case, the boy finds a good musical carpet for "First Sermon": the production sounds East Coast, dark, gloomy, sad, boasts an excellent sample from "A Secret Place" by Glover Washington Jr., cheap, pounding and slow drum machine, good delivery of Snupe and nice sax from the same sample around the functional chorus. I would like to make it easy and write that nothing will sound better on the rest of the record and that listening can be interrupted here too, but the LP isn't that bad. A-Plus produces "Now What" and delivers its worst beat of four: the music is bad, based on a cheap drum and an extravagant sample. Opio, rapper of the renowned Souls of Mischief, sounds bad, Snupe sounds worse.
The tape sinks into a ballad in "It's Alright", with pounding downtempo drum, light samples, female chorus on the hook and spoken delivery. The following cut is the last one made by A-Plus behind the keyboards: the beatmaker finds a curious sample, a slow pounding drum and a horn on the scratched chorus, to support the light-hearted bars of the Houston rapper. "Go Back to School" is one of the best tracks, surprisingly, it's a production performed by Snupe: he combines two excellent samples, "High on Life" by Shamalar and "Dolphin Dance" by Glover Washington Jr, with a pounding midtempo drum machine, while delivers regular along with the latest guest on the record, Pep Love. On the outro, consisting of a jazzy boom bap with good samples and a dry, tight drum, Snupe seems to go looser and more unrestrained than the rest of the tape. Two untitled cuts follow: the first is a cheap remix of "Brown Sugar", the second is "Give It Up", good jazzy rhythm, messy drum pounding, decent delivery.
Distributed by Jive Records via Zomba, it achieves an honest commercial success, entering the top 50 of rap records. Hailed as a second-rate release by the Hieroglyphics, it's ignored by most critics who merely attest to the fact that yes, this LP actually exists. 14 tracks + 2 bonuses, about 47 minutes of listening. Rapping is mostly braggadocio and scandalous, but it hardly gives me any problems, the guy has neither the energy nor the personality to carry on a project that lasts so long with so few bars and with a listless, light-hearted, very weak and flat rapping style. More than the themes, the absence of a strong musicality weighs heavily: the production is very irregular, inconstant and for most of the time bad, mediocre and generic. There are just a few good moments scattered amidst so much mug and slush and that's not quite enough to save the entire effort. I'm not going to make any irony about the group name, but holding back is hard: these guys aren't good, they're not good at all, possibly they're the weakest in one of the most underrated and forgotten collectives in hip-hop, and they've what feels like a set of discarded beats by other artists who are all better of them (Del, Souls of Mischief, Casual), it's not even that important after all, but to further complicate its life, what are these guys doing? They spit on the plate where they eat directly at the album release party, where they bark at their own label, which obviously drop them right away, masterpiece. A great way to step out of the mainstream music market with style.
Highlights: "Cash Money", "First Sermon", "Go Back to School".
Rating: 5.3/10.
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