In the mid-nineties, a dream hip-hop supergroup was born and what on paper is considered one of the best ever, The Firm: Nas, AZ, Foxy Brown and Nature, with Dr. Dre as producer.
The guys come to the project from different points in their artistic careers. Nas has dropped the best album ever, a milestone of hip hop critically acclaimed, but not commercially supported. In 1995, he appears as a guest on albums by Kool G Rap ("4,5,6") and Raekwon ("Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..."), both of which focused on mafia themes, using the moniker Nas Escobar, increasing his popularity in the circuit and also becoming the first to guest on a Wu-Tang Clan album without being a member of the Staten Island group. After losing that year's Source Awards to Biggie Smalls' album "Ready to Die", Nas decides to change the style of his records by attempting a more commercial approach, replacing his manager MC Serch with Steve Stoute. In early 1996, "Illmatic" is certified gold by RIAA, and Nas is recording his sophomore with the Trackmasters, producers who worked, among others, with Notorious BIG on his debut album.
Around the same time, Brooklyn emcee AZ was launched with his debut verse on "Life's a Bitch" and the following year released his first album "Doe or Die", which included the gold-certified hit "Sugar Hill" and the track "Mo Money, Mo Murder (Homicide)", which critics consider one of the first unofficial Firm tracks, featuring only AZ and Nas. Queens rapper Cormega had his career cut short by an incarceration in the early 1990s — and is honored by Nas on "One Love" — and was released from prison in 1995. Finally, the quartet is rounded out by talented Brooklyn rapper Foxy Brown, who caught the attention of the Trackmasters after appearing on LL Cool J's album "Mr. Smith" on the track "I Shot Ya". The artist appears on some hit singles, including "Ain't No Nigga" from Jay-Z's debut album "Reasonable Doubt" (1996).
AZ and Foxy Brown both started a label war to get their signatures, the first in 1995 signing with EMI, the second one the following year goes to Def Jam, which later also signs Cormega, while Nas stays at Columbia Records and his manager Steve Stoute has a deal with Interscope Records to which Dr. Dre is also linked through his Aftermath. This intertwining of labels is at the root of the group's problems even before they start recording their debut album. In 1996, Nas includes AZ, Foxy Brown and Cormega in the track "Affirmative Action" of his album "It Was Written", produced by Trackmasters. In the same year, the producers collaborate on Foxy Brown's debut album "Ill Na Na", which becomes a great commercial success and is certified platinum. "Affirmative Action" is considered to be the first song by the Firm: Nas gathers the other three rappers and gives them a verse each in the track, whose theme is a robbery by three characters with mafia ties. The song received acclaim and hit the charts despite not being released as a single, and was a favorite on the streets and with critics, enough to convince the performers to accept Nas' proposal to form a supergroup.
The supergroup was created by Nas, his manager Steve Stoute and producers Dr. Dre and Trackmasters. The group was originally composed of Nas, AZ, Foxy Brown and Cormega, however, shortly before starting to record their album, Mega was excluded from the Firm and his friendship with Nas Escobar ended. It's unclear why the rapper was kicked out of the supergroup, but in fact he was replaced by the young emerging rapper from Queens Nature. According to some versions, he left after having artistic differences with Nas or because the emcee and his manager preferred Nature to him, according to the most accredited ones, the reason for his exclusion was his manager Steve Stoute: he wanted Cormega to sign with his company, even though Mega already had an agreement with Def Jam. Upon leaving the group, Cormega began a long feud with Nas and Nature that would last well beyond the end of the Firm and continue for years, fueled by the fact that his 1998 debut album, "The Testament", was shelved forever by his label after the emcee had some disagreements with his manager Chris Lighty.
The Album
The disk starts off well. Very well. Maybe too well. You can't start off better than this to establish an album, I mean musically. Because the guys take Morricone. The production is credited to the Firm themselves, which doesn't mean anything, because the group is made up of four rappers and a producer, it could have been anyone. In any case, it samples "Poverty" by Ennio, directly from the soundtrack of "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984) by Sergio Leone. The group begins their album with a tribute to one of the best mafia movies in history, while they sample a speech by Clinton from 1996. The next choice is "Firm Fiasco". Nas' intro that pays homage to another classic movie about the mafia, "Goodfellas" (1990) by Martin Scorsese, bouncing boom bap conceived by Dr. Dre and Chris "The Glove" Taylor (Taylor's beats are all made exclusively by him or almost, the beatmaker therefore asks that Dr. Dre be credited with him as co-producer in order to promote his name in the circuit): dry midtempo drum, dusty cymbals, roaring bass, dusty strings, splendid sample from Charles Aznavour's "À Ma Fille", solid rhythm, velvety, glossy, soft musical carpet for the silky flow of AZ and Nas, here at their best. In the final verse there's Foxy Brown who tears the rhythm.
Skit, then "Phone Tap", second single from the album. The Glove and Dre on keyboards: the boys take a scientific sample from Chris Barber's Jazz Band's "Petite Fleur", hard muddy drum midtempo, fat bass, hypnotic rhythm, mafia, cinematic, impressive. AZ and Nas trade verses talking on the phone while being bugged by the feds. Spoken hook by Dr. Dre, the two emcees return to trading short verses, Nature also infiltrates with a short contribution, the rhythm carries the boys for several minutes and could go on even longer. The Trackmasters and Curt Gowdy are credited for the beat of "Executive Decisions": masterful sample from Tino Rossi's "O Corse, Île D'Amour", magnificent strings, dry drum hard skeletal midtempo, robust bass, sublime cinematic beat. Nas delivers at his finest and sweeps away the music with an untouchable flow, Nature continues on to the second verse with an irregular, messy, carefree style. Hook sung by the boys, AZ completes the work with a breathless flow and tears the cut in a spectacular and extraordinary way, it's fantastic. Outro in back n forth between AZ and Nas.
The pick number six is "Firm Family", a showcase for Nature's talents on the mic: the up-and-coming rapper busts out a couple of stanzas flanked by legend Dr. Dre and a rnb hook from Traci Nelson over a production by The Glove and Dre that takes its cue from a soul sample of The Moments' "Sexy Mama". Chunky bass, dusty midtempo drums, sweet strings, gorgeous soundscape, Nature delivers with a smooth, velvety, silky, dope style, Dr. Dre follows with some of his more relaxed flows, still a bit stiff and beefed up, but it sounds nice and adequate over this smooth and fluid production. When you get to "Firm All Stars" you expect all the boys in the group to perform in a mafia posse worthy of their best songs, instead the Firm keep it all in the family, sending Foxy Brown and his younger brother, Gavin "Pretty Boy" Marchand, at the time a young newcomer to the game, into the studio. Skeletal drum, graceless bass, bare hi-hats, simple rhythm by the Trackmasters, who take a sample from Larry Young's "Turn Off the Lights". Pretty Boy himself has the honor and burden of opening this tune, delivering a whole verse with an irregular and syncopated style, and performing the hook together with Nas, Pretty Boy again drops a few verses acting as a trailblazer for his sister Foxy, who rips the cut. The same Pretty Boy returns to the mic and closes a new verse, Nas performs the final hook.
Skit that precedes "Fuck Somebody Else", a solo sex anthem by Foxy Brown, accompanied only by Traci Nelson for the hook, on a production by the duo The Glove & Dr. Dre: soft drum, solid bass, elegant sample from The Jones Girls' "You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else". The album hits a turning point with the Trackmasters' production on "Hardcore": dry, uptempo drums, twangy, distant bass, cautious hi-hats, samples from Cheryl Lynn's "Encore". Nas and Foxy Brown trade verses back and forth, sometimes interspersed with a hook from Miss Jones. Track number eleven is "Untouchable", Dr. Dre & Mel-Man on keyboards (actually the beat is made by Mel-Man alone and Dre is equally credited as co-producer): the rhythm is again beautiful, stunning and cinematic, thanks to a fantastic sample from The Temptations' "Mother Nature", elegant clean piano, dirty vibrant relaxed bass, snappy muddy uptempo drum, dusty hi-hats, this is one of the best rhythms on the album. After Nas' intro, the piece is actually a Wizard solo, who flies on this dreamy musical carpet with an irregular, fluid, relaxed style. It's the shortest cut on the album but also one of the best despite the absence of all the members of the group. Wizard should be Mike "Whiz" Epps aka Wiz aka G-Wiz, one of the rappers who will go on to compose the future group of Nas Jungle's brother, Bravehearts.
A skit accompanies the listener to "Five Minutes to Flush": the track is another showcase for the talent of the young emerging rapper from Queens Nature, who delivers three verses alone with Roger Troutman uncredited on the hook. The Glove & Dr. Dre place a badass sample of Whodini's "Five Minutes of Funk" to establish the musical base of the track. The sample is sweetened, funky bass, dusty cymbals, light hi-hats, soft downtempo drums, soft light keyboards, an ideal soundscape for the effortless fluid flow of Nature. Troutman's vocoder hook is accompanied by a funky bridge. The last skit of the album introduces the listener to a track that quickly becomes a favorite among the dusty streets of the five boroughs, "Desperados": Curt Gowdy & Trackmasters behind the keyboards, samples from Wasis Diop's "Dune", soft drums, soft bass line in the background, plucked guitar. Intro and hook by Nas, there should also be a verse of his, but after hearing the contribution of Canibus, the rapper from Queens decides to eliminate his verse from the track. Canibus in fact enters hardcore and kills the cut with an extra-verse that is rightly considered to be among his best in career. Hook by Nas and Foxy Brown, the posse is closed by AZ and Nature, both with a loose, smoothness, regular, fantastic flow. The trio builds one of the most appreciated tracks of the album.
Only a few minutes before the end comes what is designated as the main single of the project, "Firm Biz". In production L.E.S., who started out producing "Life's a Bitch" for Nas' debut with AZ, and in the following years produced for AZ ("Sugar Hill"), Fat Joe ("Envy"), Shyheim ("Shaolin Style"), Mobb Deep ("Street Life"), Royal Flush ("Worldwide"), LL Cool J ("Starsky & Hutch") and Nas ("Suspect") among others, before this record. The boy samples Teena Marie's "Square Biz", uptempo dry drum, light hi-hats, piano loops. AZ opens with his fast velvety flow, pop hook by Dawn Robinson, Nas continues with a somewhat stiff rapping style, fast, regular, made urgent by the drum, Foxy Brown tears the track in the last verse. The song has all the ingredients to be a great success and a high-budget music video directed by Hype Williams is shot: despite also good radio and TV airplay, the song barely reaches the Billboard charts and fails to enter the Hot 100 and this is considered a commercial failure. The track does better in the UK, where it reaches the top twenty among singles and the top five among hip-hop tracks, becoming one of the best-selling of the season.
"I'm Leaving" features the Trackmasters in production for a duet in which Nature is joined by guest Noreaga, rapper from Queens. Dry midtempo drum, plucked guitar, minimal rhythm. The CNN emcee descends with flows inspired directly by his records with Capone, a hummed hook that pays homage to Peter, Paul & Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane", then the two performers exchange short verses in back and forth. The album is closed by "Throw Your Guns": dry midtempo drum, vibrant bass in the background, good melodic production conceived by the Trackmasterz. Intro by AZ, extra-verse by Half-a-Mil who travels with a good flow, hook and verse by AZ, the piece is a duet with the two boys.
Among the recommended tracks to accompany the listening, there is the remix of "Firm Biz" and "La Familia". The remix of the album's lead single sees a different rhythm and lyrics than the original. This remix is made by Trackmasters, stars of the album: wonderful sample from Malcolm McLaren's "World's Famous", glossy soundscape, dusty disco dance drum, thundering bass, fresh keyboards, great rhythm. Intro by Nature, Half a Mill tears the cut dropping the first verse with a smooth, inspired, confident, dope flow. Nature flows regularly in the wake of the Brooklyn rapper, the sample breathes briefly, rnb hook by Mary J. Blige. AZ provides his verse with a good flow, followed by Foxy Brown in the fourth stanza, with an irregular, rough, energetic style. Nas brings the remix to the bottom with a final verse.
The second is "La Familia", of which there are several versions. The track is a Firm original that fails to make the album's tracklist and is a classic. The first version is included as a b-side to Foxy Brown's single "I'll Be" for her debut album and the single goes gold. For whatever reason, both Nature and Cormega are introduced as members of the Firm in the intro, but Mega's contribution is missing from this version. Sample from Eddie Floyd's "Check Me Out", soft dusty downtempo drum, muddy bass, dilated strings that thin out into the ether, guitar riffs, a few piano keys hinted at and distant in the background, beautiful soundscape. Foxy Brown opens the posse and flies on this soft and rich production, dropping bars with a relaxed colloquial style. Nature picks up the mic and spits with a good regular, dirty, fantastic style. Nas on the third verse, effortless, flowing, AZ follows with a spectacular, velvety, dope flow. Another version of the song sees Cormega in place of Nature on the same Trackmasters beat: movie skit, then Cormega himself introduces the posse with an irregular first verse, recited with a colloquial, fluid, effortless style. Nas follows on the second verse, then Foxy Brown with his contribution that is cut compared to the version of her single, always closing AZ with the same verse. The song is included in a Cormega compilation.
Final Thoughts
The creation of the group creates great enthusiasm and ambitious expectations within the hip hop scene, received all the attention by the scene and arousing great clamor, being immediately labeled as the greatest hip hop supergroup ever. It's perfect, should be perfect. There's everything you could wish for, but despite having all the elements for success, from young, talented and lyrically impressive MCs, excellent storytellers, a good concept inspired to "Scarface", famous and less notorious, sex appeal, a tight female rapper, gold and platinum artists, artists who had dropped classics and commercial hits, to Dr. Dre & Trackmasterz on a modern and avant-garde production, "Goodfellas" lyrics on "The Godfather" beats, the album fails incredibly to live up to all the ambitious expectations, harshly criticized by the public and insiders for its commercial pop tones and its silly and not inspired lyrics.
Few songs reach the quality level of the group's original cut "Affirmative Action" or its predecessor "Mo Money, Mo Murder (Homicide)", because the four instead of following the theme, they simply imitate mafia movies and rhyme with it without thinking, with very questionable results on a lyrical level: Nas and AZ don't sound at their best level, Nature stands out well and interprets his character worthily, coming out better than anyone else because he's the least known, while Foxy Brown's overly sexual nursery rhymes start to become unlistenable very quickly. Most of the guests manage to keep the project afloat with memorable performances, such as Canibus, Noreaga, Half-a-Mill and even Wizard, a little less so Foxy Brown's brother. Cormega instead saves himself from the flop of the album and is the only one to keep the name of the group alive through a series of dissing against Nas and Nature: it's the beginning of a long feud that lasts until December 2006, when Foxy Brown, Nas & Cormega perform "Affirmative Action" during a live show, putting an end to the feud. Excluding the skits, this is a record of a dozen songs in which the boys appear occasionally together and never all four join together in one of the tracks on the CD: the only time this happens is in the remix of "Firm Biz".
Recorded between Miami, Atlanta and Los Angeles, the inextricable tangle of labels doesn't favor the promotion of the project, which hits the shelves without even a precise title and is published by Columbia, Don Pooh Entertainment, Violator and Def Jam, distributed by Sony. The name of the group is inspired by the movie thriller "The Firm" (1993). The Firm becomes one of the most spectacularly [in]famous flop in rap. "The Album" debuts first on Billboard 200 selling 147,000 copie in the first week, charting in Canada (#8) and Europe, proving to be a major and international commercial success. In Canada, The Firm's LP sold over 50,000 copies and was certified gold, and sold a total of 925,000 ones in the United States, despite not being certified even gold by the RIAA.
The record is panned by specialized critics and is considered a failure: Sony expected the effort to sell at least three million copies, but instead it stopped under one, led to the definitive closure of the supergroup shortly after the release of the album, with the individual members taking solo paths. Negative criticism doesn't spare the emcees and the producers: reviewers are divided on the implications of the album's impact on the solo careers of The Firm members. According to The Source, the disk launches the careers of all the members due to its commercial success, Nas gains an even wider audience, while the other guys reached the top of the pop charts by being in a group with pezonovante Nas Escobar and despite all, the supergroup became an important viaticum for their respective careers. In the opinion of other specialized reviewers, the album destroys the career of the individual rappers and is the confirmation of the fact that Nas is no longer the talented artist of his early days after his sudden mainstream breakthrough and that Dr. Dre is finished after leaving Death Row.
From the day after the album's release, the artists resumed their solo careers, taking separate paths: while we can still speak [good] about Nas and Dr. Dre, Nature has never emerged from the underground and soon disappeared even after signed with Columbia, Foxy Brown has pulled out more bails than records, the Trackmasters have stopped working and AZ was the only one who stubbornly continued to pursue mafioso [rap] commercial success (he deserves props for this bold attempt), inevitably bouncing and forcing take shelter in the underground after a slight recovery from the crush with a couple of good albums.
Contrary to what almost all specialized critics say, the album is pleasant and enjoyable, composed of a glossy, polished, cinematic and intriguing production and lyrics inspired by the best mob movies delivered with some of the most fluid and silky flows of the season. It's the closest thing to a collaborative album by Nas and AZ, so a must for fans of both artists.
Rating: 7/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment