Friend of Ice-T and member of his crew Rhyme Syndicate, in 1988 Erik "Everlast" Schrody releases his debut single, "Syndication", produced by Bilal and co-produced by Ice-T and his producer Afrika Islam. The record is dropped with Ice-T label Rhyme $yndicate Records and boasts the logo of Warner Bros. Records printed on. The following year, the guy releases the single "Never Missin' a Beat" with Warner Bros, then in 1990 drops a couple of other singles ("I Got the Knack" and "The Rhythm") and his debut studio album.
The music is handled by Bilal Bashir, he provides also keyboards and scratches, while John Breyer plays the guitar and Mike Green plays the sax, both in "Pass It On". The unique song left to a producer other than Bilal is the single "I Got the Knack", which is produced by Quincy D III, here at the beginning, while the scratches are provided by DJ Lethal, whom he would later join to form the hip-hop group House of Pain. The credited guests are Ice-T, Donald D and Diva (aka N'Dea Davenport of the Brand New Heavies). Divine Styler and Kendu are present, both uncredited, in "Fuck Everyone".
Bilal Bashir's production isn't horrible, here there's a wide range of simple, minimal, frenetic, skinny beats, disco house crossovers, hip house rhythms that are basically techno, more energetic beats, rockin', uncontrolled or pounding drum machine and hard in the background, light, jazzy-funky or tense, heavy and dark rhythms. Everlast drops decent bars, it's average within the 1990 game, without ever surprising, he doesn't seem to have a precise direction to hit: an irregular record comes out, full of crossover fillers that the rapper's decent fast delivery cannot control worthily and that poor functional hooks don't contain.
Two notes: "The Rhythm", with the unmissable Ice-T and Donald D, I want to point it out as one of the first techno rap cut in history. Second point, there's the ballad, yes, even on an Everlast album ("On the Edge"): livable rhythm, jazzy soulful with minimal drum machine, the rapper provides a slow spoken-rapped delivery, not too bad to be a ballad.
With a cover that was perhaps reminiscent of "Raging Bull" (1980), Warner Bros. Records secured what was expected to be rap's next champion and distributed the album through a deal with Rhyme Syndicate. The project appears adequately constructed, with eleven full-length tracks, no intros, outros, interludes, or skits, a remix of his debut single, few guests, and a decent running time of just over three-quarters of an hour.
It was supported by three singles, peppered with a plethora of samples — over 50 — and was ready to be devoured by fans. However, the market rejected it, and critics gave it a lukewarm reception, partly due to the fact that the young man was overshadowed by a single appearance by his mentor Ice-T. Due to the album's commercial failure, Warner Bros. dropped Everlast and the rapper subsequently founded his own group House of Pain, immediately achieving the success he had failed to find as a solo artist with this effort.
Rating: 5/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment