In 1993 "Poetic Justice" was released, famous for being one of the first movies starring 2Pac. From the soundtrack emerges as the second single "Indo Smoke", a piece by Warren G and Nate Dogg which goes well in the charts. Also with them is Rojal "Mista Grimm" Trawick, up-and-coming emcee from West Covina, California.
The video for the single features Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, 2Pac, Kurupt and Daz Dillinger, as well as Big C-Style, a DPGC affiliate who continued to collaborate with Daz in the following years, and Lil C-Style, original member of LBC Crew (and Tha Eastsidaz) who immediately comes into conflict with Snoop Dogg over financial disagreements and leaves the group, dissing Snoop, Dre and Nate Dogg in the famous diss track "Fuck Dre".
Back to Mista Grimm. The single is doing so well that Epic bets heavily on him, signing him to their subsidiary 550 Music and allowing him to record an entire album. In the meantime the boy releases another single, "Situation: Grimm", which was quite successful among the public. The album is ready to be released in the summer of 1995 distributed globally by Sony, the promotional single, "Steady Dippen", is released, which is completely ignored by everyone. I don't even know what's really wrong with this piece, there's actually nothing wrong. The groove created by DJ Jam is warm, funk, clean, there's a simple and effective rnb chorus, Mista Grimm presents himself with the most "snoopdoggest" flow possible and invents what I don't know how to define, a hit that isn't a hit.
It has all the elements of being a success, but ultimately doesn't even stand out among the other tracks on the record. Epic suddenly backs down, shelves the album and sends the young rookie rapper's career into quicksand. In the following years, Mista Grimm ends up on records by T-Bone (1995), DJ Pooh (1997) and Warren G (2001). In 2018, the project comes out on CD with an unofficial release and a cover where the guy is obviously pissed off, [took] 23 (f***ing) years for this?
Eight skits, eight real tracks. Bobcat, Warren G, Doctor Jam aka DJ Jam, DJ Pooh, Chase, Madness, Rashad Coes, Meech Wells, Def Jef and Da Rock behind the keyboards. On the mic Bobcat, Threat, Nate Dogg and Warren G. It's not the lost gem it could have been, not helped by the fact that it starts with three skits in a row (four in the first five tracks), but it's not a terrible effort either.
Rating: 4/10.
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