When Marcus asked me to write a weekly piece for TGRI on my favorite old school hip hop song of the week, I frankly laughed in his face. I’m no blogger, and certainly not a hip hop historian of any kind. But I can’t deny that old school hip hop (jeez, is it really 2009? I’m gonna say that for purposes of this column “old school” dates to the mid-nineties and before) is what I listen to. And I do have opinions on it. A lot of opinions. So here’s your disclaimer: don’t take this for more than it is, which is basically a rant on whatever song I feel like ranting about. Hopefully it’ll be informative, or at least entertaining, and maybe it’ll get you listening to some shit you didn’t know before, or forgot about. This week, I feel like ranting about “Live at the Barbecue” by Main Source.
http://www.youtube.com/v/R7dKfFM5LAw&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01
“Live at the Barbeque” was a b-side, and certainly not the biggest hit or even most well-done song Main Source put out. It’s a posse cut, basically a collection of battle-raps, true to the basic form of hip hop that came before it… independent verses tied together on a good beat by a simple and meaningless hook. That’s not something to disparage. That was the most basic structure of rap songs for more than a decade before “Live at the Barbeque” was released. What’s important in this song isn’t the message (for that, turn to “Just a Friendly Game of Baseball” or “Peace is Not the Word to Play”). It’s a showcase for pure lyrical acrobatics.
Lyrical dexterity, and here I mean when the rhyme and the flow dominate, and, indeed, entirely displace the message, has played a confused part in hip hop history. While it was unarguably showmanship and the pure and simple ability to rhyme cleverly that allowed the emcee to eclipse the dj in the late seventies, think of what happened twenty years later. In the late nineties, I, along with many of my hip hop “head” brethren, happily donned our backpacks and perjured our souls to disavow any affinity for the Puff Daddy’s pimpin’ or guns or ho’s or whatever. Luckily, hindsight is 20/20, and after a brief flirtation with “nostalgia rap” (read: bad “underground” late-nineties to early-oughts message rap… the message more often than not being I like Hiero more than you do) I remembered the fundamental importance of an impeccable flow and a surprising rhyme (ironically, I think that was the era when I attended more freestyle battles than any other. Woe the hypocrisy of youth!).
“Live at the Barbeque” (1991, wild pitch records), is a good reminder of why rap rocks for rap’s sake. It’s an exemplar of the hard-hitting rhyme-driven emcee-showcase style of song structure. While the production is certainly on point and subtly integrates different elements, and no hip hop fan can really argue against the hook (“it’s like that y’all, that y’all, that y’all, that y’all, that y’all, (etc.) and that’s allllllll!”), the verses are the important part.
In the first verse Nasty Nas debuts on wax. It’s a shocking and truly historical debut. While his cadence is still immature, it is clear that he has a natural talent and it isn’t hard to see how his impressive flow developed from here. Given the nature of the track, the verse is pretty much a stream-of-consciousness rant about how awesome Nasty Nas is – and he proves it with jaw-dropping rhymes: “verbal assassin, my architect pleases/ when I was 12 I went to hell for snuffin’ Jesus” or “slammin’ emcees on cement/ ‘cuz verbally, I’m iller than an AIDS patient.”
Joe Fatal features in the second verse, which, while brief, allows him the opportunity to play with some flow tricks, mixing it up among some surprisingly on-topic rhymes. The flow is really impressive considering that he’s not primarily an emcee. Pay attention when he “gets up on the scene and redeem” and “raps on off breaks.” Akinyele gets his debut in the third verse, also showing off an impressive command of rhythm while defending himself against haters in clever rhymes: “it doesn’t take Keenan Ivory Wayans to know that I’ma/ get you sucka if you bite like a piranha.” Large Professor takes the fourth verse to show us that even though his abilities as a producer are legendary, he can of course tear shit up verbally as well. And, clearly, he’s a pimp. “why’s my name the Large Professor? Because I milked your cow, in other words I hit your heifer.”
“Live at the Barbeque” is, when it comes down to it, a traditional posse cut that is probably most notable for the names featured, serving as a a debut for not one, but two rappers who would go on to impressive solo careers, not to mention Joe Fatal and Large Professor. It stands the test of time for more than historical value, though: the smoothly integrated production, the on-point flow from everyone involved, and, of course, hilarious rhymes make it indispensable. And my favorite old-school hip hop song this week.
if you don’t know, now you know…
The original Main Source (K-Cut and Sir Scratch from Toronto along with Large Professor) released one album before Large Professor left to embark on one of hip hop’s very impressive careers. A second album under the name Main Source was from K-Cut and Sir Scratch along with the addition of Mikey D. http://www.myspace.com/mainsource1
Nasty Nas is a rebel to America.
Akinyele is a solo rapper from Queens who talks about sex a lot (if you don’t know “Put it in Your Mouth” well… go look it up). http://akinyele.com/
Joe Fatal has pretty much been a jack-of-all-trades in the hip hop world. Since I don’t personally know much beyond his name, peep this interview for enlightenment. Pretty hilarious and interesting. http://www.unkut.com/2007/01/besk-kept-secret-joe-fatal-interview-part-1/
Unkut’s got another interesting tidbit about “Live at the Barbeque” here: http://www.unkut.com/2004/12/live-at-the-bbq-the-missing-link/
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