In 1995, Nathaniel "Kool G Rap" Wilson released his debut solo album. For production, the emcee enlisted Dr. Butcher, Buckwild, Naughty Shorts and T-Ray. Guests included MF Grimm, B-1, Sean Brown and Nas.
Skit intro, then the album opens with the title track whose production was conceived by the project's main beatmaker, Dr. Butcher: dirty dusty midtempo drum that is perfect, dark and tense samples from Weather Report's "Mysterious Traveller" and Quincy Jones' "Guitar Blues Odyssey: From Roots to Fruits". On this great boom bap beat, Kool G Rap opens his first solo album with a velvety, energetic, flowing delivery, with a simple hook and a tribute to Nas, in a track dedicated to the cee-lo, dice game, writing history again, because it's the first time someone makes a track on the dice game..
Naughty Shorts signs the first single of the album, "It'a a Shame". Boom bap, vibrating bass, dirty dusty midtempo drum, samples from Southside Movement's "Love is for Fools". Kool G Rap lets the rhythm breathe and makes a memorable entrance, one of the most beautiful and elegant in the history of hip-hop, deeply smoothness, velvety and regular delivery with an unstoppable, spectacular, dope flow. Soul-rnb hook by Sean Brown, the New York emcee returns for the second verse providing some of his best flows, creating a masterpiece. Thematically, this is another piece about the fast life, thug life, the good life, the luxurious lifestyle of the mafia boss and about materialism, hedonism, enjoying the benefits of the life of crime, the money made thanks to the criminal life lived as a millionaire drug dealer. Classic cut, one of the best of the decade.
The fourth choice, "Take 'Em to War", welcomes the first guests to join him in rapping, B-1 and MF Grimm. The beatmaker T-Ray takes a sample from David Axelrod's "A Divine Image" to build the sound carpet: excellent bass, good looped guitar riff, dirty and dusty midtempo drum, the beat gives dark vibes. The underground emcee from New York MF Grimm has the honor of opening a track of Kool G Rap, in a classic album by the way: he boasts a cold, lucid, clean, focused, slow, hardcore rapping, suitable for the track, reciting lyrics in which he describes his life as an assassin providing gangster-mafia lines. The young emerging B-1 is more loose, presents a more flowing execution, also on the life of a mafia hitman. G Rap's energetic delivery on the last verse with a spectacular dope flow also about the life of a hitman, the whole track is structured on being a hired killer for the mafia.
In the next dozen minutes, the author returns to solo. Dr. Butcher is again behind the keys for the next track, "Executioner Style": drums that hit, hard, severe and right, harsh and minimal, bad and evil, irregular and bipolar. Nice samples, scratches on the simple hook. On this boom bap with a dark and gloomy mood, the emcee pours a velvety, energetic, deeply flowing delivery, in a track where the author is again a killer, providing verses with an impressive series of multisyllabic rhymes. T-Ray returns behind the keys for "For da Brothaz": gorgeous melodic samples from Art Farmer's "Soulsides", dirty midtempo drums dusty, dry and light, another horn sample from Idris Muhammad's "Power of Soul". The soundscape gets bittersweet vibes, the rhythm is cheerful and melancholic, a little dark, finds some joy on the hook. Kool G Rap performs a socio-conscious narrative about the fast life of the youth of the inner cities and their premature end due to the life of crime with one of his best deliveries, hardcore, velvety, smooth, dope.
"Blowin' Up in the World" welcomes Buckwild on production. The boy member of DITC provides a sensational rhythm, a jewel. Heavenly sample from Bobby Caldwell's "What You Won't Do for Love", paired with a screeching loop and xmas bells in the background, typical of Buckwild's production. Dry, hard, dirty, dusty, shiny drum, raw and deep bass in the background. Over this exquisite soundscape, with fast, gorgeous and flawless hardcore rapping, Kool G Rap makes an autobiographical cut about the poverty he experienced in his youth in the first verse, addressing his early life in crime as a drug dealer and his survival in the criminal underworld in the next stanza, and how he gave up crime for a career in the music industry as a rapper, started by DJ Polo, who gives him success and security, taking him away from the danger of the streets and continuing to "blow up the world" (hence the title) in the final verse. The track chronicles his rise to the top of the game from the bottom and is a masterpiece, unrivaled in flow and delivery. Buckwild stays behind the keyboards for the next track, the second single from the album, and writes history because the joint is one of the best in the history of hip-hop.
Choice number eight of the album, "Fast Life". Beautiful glossy sample from Surface's "Happy", a piece from the mid-eighties, powerful and vibrant bass, light, dry, clear, midtempo drum. The soundscape painted by Buckwild, at his second and last production on the album, is left to breathe, then Kool G Rap delivers with a deeply flowing energetic style and annihilates the beat in a superlative way with a wonderful, fantastic, dope flow. Simple, effective, iconic hook. Elegant entrance by Nas Escobar, who recites his text with a velvety, fluid, silky, calm delivery, his rapping style is son of G Rap. The last verse is a back and forth between the two emcees, the boys have delivered an iconic cut that is among the best in both their catalogs. Thematically, Kool G Rap returns to the luxurious style of the mob boss and describes how he and his friend Nas run the business, making money from drug trafficking and drug deals, shooting down rivals if necessary and living in luxury. This track is, according to G Rap himself, a handover from him to Nas, a new young man emerging in the Queens, New York and hip-hop scene in general. Nas comes in with a mafia narrative about buying guns and going shooting like it's Christmas (and the Christmassy vibe is provided by Buckwild's bells in the background) and the luxurious life inspired by the mobsters of the thirties. The last verse, in back n forth, shows the boys celebrating their success from nothing, and their luxurious lifestyle after living a life of crime.
After producing the first single, Naughty Shorts makes his second and last beat on the album for "Ghetto Knows": crisp bass, horn loop in the background, guitar riff, dark piano, heavy uptempo double hard drum, the rhythm has a dark mood. His rapping is fast, hardcore, lethal, fantastic. The author narrates the situation in the ghetto, the criminal life, the shootings and the weapons that the kids have to carry to defend themselves from the dangers of the neighborhood and claims to be the toughest and most lethal of all on the streets, in a piece in which he is again a killer in the streets of his neighborhood. Choice number ten is a remix credited to Da Butcher of the main single. Scratched hook, boom bap, dirty dusty drum, dirty rhythm, underground, with dark samples from Ryo Kawasaki's "Bamboo Child". The remix sounds inferior to the original and is made with an almost farting sound, similar to those made by DJ Premier in his experimental moments: it is not horrible, but it clearly ruins the holding of the record and the fluidity of a production that until now was totally impeccable. The extraordinary performance of G Rap keeps the piece nailed with hot wax.
In place of the remix of "It's a Shame" towards the end of the album there should be "Hey Mister Mister". The song is produced by T-Ray. Deep vibrating bass, dry hard dirty midtempo drum, dissonant piano keys in loop, ringing sample, rhythm left to breathe. Kool G Rap enters and delivers two extra-verses with a lethal, hardcore rapping style, flowing on this somewhat dark and bare sound carpet, spitting angrily at some girls. The song is voted first on Complex's list of the most violent songs ever in hip-hop. The piece is in the album's tracklist, but several labels refuse to distribute the album with this track in it and Kool G Rap is forced to give it up, replacing it with the remix and later publishing it independently the following year.
Dr. Butcher also produces the eleventh and final track on the record, "Money on My Brain": a not-so-great sample from Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon", a slow, hard, dry drum, and a fat bass. The production is a bit cheap and doesn't quite keep up with the high level of the previous nine, and is also too similar to the remix we just heard moments before. On this graceless boom bap, the Jamaica, Queens-raised emcee B-1 opens the joint with loose, energetic, effortless rapping. Manhattan rapper MF Grimm delivers with a steady rapping style, and closes Kool G Rap with one of his best flows, fast, silky, energetic, unstoppable. B-1 describes the quiet, calm, and lush life after a career in crime, still thinking about the money made through robberies, murders, drug dealing, drug trafficking, delinquency, thuggery, and life on the streets. MF Grimm delivers his lyrics on the same themes, murders, life on the streets, girls, drug trafficking, dealing and crime. In the last contribution, G Rap maintains the same topics focusing more on the mafia lifestyle, finally stating that he's still a drug dealer, despite having had a successful life in crime, enjoying the fruits of his labor. Guest rappers B-1 and MF Grimm have the honor of closing one of the best albums of the decade.
For additional listening, I personally recommend dusting off the remix of "Fast Life" that Buckwild released in 2010 for his EP: the producer freshens up the cut with sensational production for the stellar joint of Kool G Rap & Nas.
Final Thoughts
Between the late 1980s and the late 1990s, some of the most famous films about organized crime were released in cinemas, such as "Scarface" (1983, De Palma), "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984, Leone), "The Untouchables" (1987, De Palma), "The Godfather: Part III" (1990, Coppola), "King of New York" (1990, Ferrara), "Goodfellas" (1990, Scorsese), "A Bronx Tale" (1993, De Niro), "Carlito's Way" (1993, De Palma), "Casino" (1995, Scorsese) and "Donnie Brasco" (1997, Newell). They all have one huge common denominator in "The Godfather" (1972; and its sequel two years later), directed by the emerging director Francis Ford Coppola and co-starring an emerging actor, Al Pacino.
Kool G Rap is one of the first to name the actor in reference to his interpretations of mafia characters in one of his songs, "Road to the Riches" (1989). The same is considered one of the first mafia rap songs. Alone, he invented mafioso rap in the late 1980s and continued it into the early 1990s, and his contribution was not recognized and had no following. In the wake of the aforementioned movies, mainstream hip-hop music began to address the subject with greater intensity and in the mid-1990s, mafia rap, a subgenre of gangsta rap that had become the new trend that hit the charts, took over the East Coast. In 1995, when the genre was exploding in New York, Kool G Rap returns and is hailed as a glorious Roman commander returning from an interminable exile, a legend. He took advantage of this opportunity to reclaim his place in the game and on the throne, and made what is probably his last classic album, four out of four in six years, his first as a solo artist (or at least, his first not credited with DJ Polo).
The Queens emcee is coming off a run of three albums released as a duo with DJ Polo that are considered classics, among the best ever made. In early 1993, Kool G Rap split from DJ Polo following the media controversy surrounding the cover of their last album, "Live and Let Die" (1992): the cover depicts two hanged police officers, and follows the controversy caused by the song "Cop Killer" by Ice-T, which involves Warner Bros. Records. The major label refuses to distribute the duo's album, which leads to the dissolution of the distribution agreement with Cold Chillin' Records, which is forced to publish and distribute it independently. In 1995, Cold Chillin' reached an agreement with Epic Records to distribute Kool G Rap's new album, which also became the last album released by Cold Chillin' before its dissolution in 1997.
For the recording of the album, the author moves away from the city and into the isolated countryside of Bearsville, New York, where he manages to record in serenity building a dark and dirty album, typical of the streets of the city of New York. The production is simple, minimal, dark, beautiful, composed of dark bass lines, perfect drums, delicious samples, the music provided by the boys is impeccable. Kool G Rap's rapping is sensational, spectacular, velvety, unstoppable, the emcee is at his best, providing excellent rhyme schemes, wordplay, lyrics, imposing himself once again at the top of the game as one of the best lyricists. Thematically, the album pours on typical gangster rap topics and makes them cinematic, detailed, more graphic, redefining underground hip-hop and inaugurating a new subgenre, mafioso rap.
Released by Cold Chillin' Records with distribution by Epic Records subsidiary Epic Street, the album achieved considerable success in sales, reaching #1 on the rap chart and #24 on the pop chart, becoming one of the best-selling hip-hop albums of the season. With a running time of just over forty minutes, the album also maintains considerable replay value and is one of the strongest releases of 1995, rightfully considered one of the best underground street rap albums in hip-hop history and a distinct classic of the nineties.
Rating: 9.7/10.
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