In the early nineties, some producers have the merit of inventing g-funk, the sound that will condition the musicality of West Coast hip-hop records in the following years. With their 1990 debut, Above the Law are probably the first group to have imported this kind of sound into an official studio album, released by Eazy-E's Ruthless in which there's still Dr. Dre working on the second NWA album after also contributing to the production of the debut of Above the Law.
The first LP of the group is a success, with the singles "Murder Rap" and "Untouchable" that topped both the rap chart. In September 1990, members of the group clashed with Ice Cube and Da Lench Mob, his group, during the annual New Music Seminar conference. Anticipating the release of Dr. Dre seminal debut "The Chronic" (1992), that featured a similar g-funk music sound to that one of the debut disk of Above the Law, the leader of Pomona group Cold 187um has claimed that he was the first to pioneer the g-funk sound and that Dr. Dre's work was largely inspired by his record.
Coming off Ruthless in a bad way along with a few others in 1992, Dre takes that sound, which he has already inserted abundantly in "Efil4zaggin", and takes it with him to Death Row Records, a label that will be revered, among other things, also as the homeland of g-funk. Despite being a tireless perfectionist like few others, the Compton producer anticipates Cold 187um and manages to release his solo debut, "The Chronic", a couple of months earlier than the second album by Above the Law, crediting himself for having made first a whole album with an entirely g-funk production.
Above the Law release their album, but it's now 1993, and their production, although constantly maintaining a g-funk sound, isn't at the same level of cleanliness, clarity and, above all, musical quality compared to that made by Dre on his LP. Cold 187um immediately claims that he was the one who came up with the new sound that captivates fans beyond Memphis, but who can believe him when he arrived later and with a production that compared to "The Chronic" is poor?
The musical landscape chosen by the producer of Above the Law is almost the opposite of what is considered the pivotal record of the West Coast, and one of the last acts on the scene to excel in the genre, just before the East Coast's energetic return to the throne. The production of both records features a funky boom bap with slow and tight drum, however, while Dr. Dre delivers warm, crisp, clean and layered rhythms, excellent samples, mesmerizing taut synths and velvety bass, Cold 187um chooses cold, dark, raw, simplistic beats, easy samples often by George Clinton, cheap synths and rusty bass.
On this sound carpet, KMG and Cold 187um bring a pretty generic gangsta lyricism, with many discreet, not too solid, festive cuts: the tracks aren't weak, thanks to a good style of competent rapping and rhythms that we could define a little experimental, which more or less work. To help the guys with rapping, 2Pac, Money-B, Kokane, Eazy-E and MC Ren also show up, all of which offer solid performance, but I wouldn't say any of them give classic cuts or clear highlights.
Produced by Ruthless Records and distributed by Warner Bros. (via Giant), the album achieves a good commercial success, reaching the top 40 among pop records and sixth in the rap chart. Among the most evident defects of its constitution, the fact that it has an overall length of over 70 minutes, with fifteen long songs (none under four minutes), which limits its quality and replay value, despite being a listening quite smooth: in conclusion, the album disappoints from the point of view of the musical quality, and unsurprisingly from the thematic one, it's a significant step back from the debut three years earlier. Recommended for gangsta and West Coast fans.
Highlights: "Call It What U Want", "Game Wreck-Oniz-Iz Game", "V.S.O.P.", "Process of Elimination", "G-Rupies Best Friend", "Mee vs. My Ego".
Rating: 7/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment