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“BB Queen”-Bahamadia (2000, GoodVibe/Atomic Pop)

Bahamadia is one of the illest when it comes to lyrics, period! If you need more proof, which you more than likely will due to it’s highly “slept on” status, peep her 1996 debut “Kollage”. In what was nearly 4 years between the release of her first effort and this sophomore EP “BB Queen”, Bahamadia remained strictly “underground” status. This EP, comprised of five uncluttered, melodic tracks courtesy of Chops, Soul Fingers and Dwele, truly showcased the formidable writing skills of this Philadelphia high priestess.

For starters, sample a few choice lines from “Special Forces”, which also featured Planet Asia, Rasco and Chops with cuts from DJ Revolution: “Liftin’ up my left titty to ya’ll token chicks/You ain’t really hot, you just image and politics/We prototype/Ya’ll duplicates of male affiliates, soudin’ the silliest/Doin’ renditions of hits like Al Yankovic”. The lyrical barrage doesn’t cease there, on “Commonwealth (Cheap Chicks)” a track about “thrify” women who still wanna’ “show-off”, Bahamadia flows over a “Vibrant Thing”-esque drum pattern as she spits the following heat rocks: “Here go a special acknowledgment for those who care to listen/And talk of women who penny-pinchin’, my welfare recipients/Sistren, low-budget kinda sorta’ who get their shoppin’ on at Walmart and Dollar Stores”. So if her lyrics were so tight, why did Bahamadia spend over four years scrapping by on guest appearances with drum-n-bass maestro Roni Size while doing overseas shows for Rawkus? In the immortal words of Guru, “It’s mostly tha’ voice”.

Although ‘Dia varied her flow from a rapid-fire assault (see: “Special Forces”, Commonwealth” and “Pep Talk”) to a thoughtful stream of consciousness (“One-4-Teen” f. Slum Village and “Beatiful Things”), her signature monotone was often hard to decipher. Of course, Bahamaia should never change her God-given vocal tones. But, the production of her vocals, which often lacked clarity, is a whole notha’ matter. And as pleasant as they may be, the beats on “BB Queen” didn’t help Bahamadia’s cause much either. Not the type of album that you’d blast out of your ride while cruisin’ on a warm Saturday evening. Still, if you want to make the extra effort to decipher exactly what Bahamadia is spittin’, “BB Queen” won’t dissapoint despite the collection’s glaring shortcomings.

“Power Of The Dollar”-50 Cent (2000-ish’) Unreleased

Nearly a decade ago, when the now “larger-than-life” 50 Cent uttered the words “Nobody likes me, but that’s okay/ ‘Cause I don’t like ya’ll anyway” he wasn’t lyin’. Even after catching crazy flack over his controversial first single “How To Rob”, 50 still continues to say whatever he feels, no matter the consequences or who gets their panties in a bundle. And even though his highly anticipated debut “Power Of The Dollar” never received a proper release many heads could argue that it may have very well been 50′s best piece of work.

On the highly unsociable “Power Of The Dollar” the Queens native went right for the jugular: “No more freestyles and verses killin’ Sticky and Ja (rule)/ I’m movin’ on now, got bigger fish to fry/ You gonna’ talk about your chips ’til we run in your cib/ Then you gon’ ask dumb questions like, can I live?/ Look, if I shoot you, I’m famous/ If you shoot me, you’re brainless/ You said it yourself/ I’m slick enough to twist your lines and send ‘em back to you”. Also, 50 took a moment to reflect on the infamous incident that occurred while he was recording at the Hit Factory recording studio: “Ni*ga’ come 15 ni*gas, 10 knives/ I leave with 4 stitches/ That ain’t assault/ That’s an insult.”

But all beef and name-callin’ aside, most of 50′s debut proved that he was on the right path to becoming a decent songwriter (which has since declined). His tendency to sound like other emcees on “Power Of The Dollar”, namely Mase and Jay-Z, is an obvious hindrance to the album’s replay value. However, the beats on this debut were pretty damn solid, thanks to a production line-up that consisted of the TrackMasterz, Rich Nice, L.E.S. (who should just change his name to “Life’s A Bitch”), Erick Sermon and DJ Scratch. All in all, an impressive debut that’s pretty funny to listen to nowadays when you consider just how marketable this cat has become (did anyone else see Forbes’ list of top grossing rappers for the year? Whaaaat!!! Are you kiddin’ me???). The “Power Of The Dollar” indeed. However, a more appropriate title for 50′s debut may have been “Who Knew?”.

“Hempstead High”-A+ (1998, Kedar Universal)

With his sophomore effort, “Hempstead High”, A+ set out to prove that he was no Chi-Ali type, one hit wonder type of rapper. The kid who was formerly on his way to being a “thug ’til some girl showed him love” appeared to be headed for superstardom after his very solid debut, “The Latch-Key Child”. A+ possessed a simple, yet tight flow that….. when paired with good enough production earned him a few hits (along with the help of AZ, Mobb Deep, etc.). I can recall the first single from “Hempstead..” being “Enjoy Yourself”, a track that nearly turned Beethoven’s 5th Symphony into an all-out disco/very danceable track. Also, attempted a clever play on the Ed OG & Da Bulldogs classic, “I Gotta’ Have It”, A+ spit some nice lyrics. Nice enough to make you wonder if these lyrics were indeed written by a sixteen year old.

Being released on Kedar/Universal, “Hempstead…” featured prominent label-mates such as Canibus, Erykah Badu, Mr. Cheeks and even MJG. The aforementioned Mr. Cheeks delivered the chorus on the poppy/club jam “Up Top New York” which gave A+ a chance to shine even though he was “….too young to sip alcohol at the bar”. Other notable tracks included the street-inspired “Parkside Gardens” and the Chico Debarge (yeah, remember him?) assisted “It’s On You”. However, the album did lose a bit of steam with collabos that seemed to serve no purpose like “Staggering & Stuttering” (f. Psycho Drama?!?) and “What Da Deal” featuring Mase’s one-time croony Pierre Cardan. It’s tough to determine if “Hempstead High” packed more “bump” than “junk”, but one thing’s for sure….A+ most definitely took a step in the wrong direction, especially when you consider the healthy performance he provided us with on his predecessor.

“Keep It Movin”-Ill Al Skratch (1997, Mercury)

Artists like the Brooklyn-Uptown duo of Ill Al Skratch will never win any awards for lyrical insight, but at least their noteworthy smashes, “Where My Homiez” and “I’ll Take Her”, packed enough Easy Mo Bee funk and like-able hooks to remind us that unfortunately (in most instances) these kind of artists are what made the Hip Hop world go ’round.  However, the dislike for Ill & Al began to arise when the hook’s became monotonous on the group’s debut LP, but more like an “EP”, “Creep With Me”.  Is it just me or does it feel like every track title and hook had the word “homiez” incorporated somewhere within?  As subtle versions of their first single “Where My Homiez” where re-upped and presented as “full” songs our adoration of this duo quickly began to where thin, despite the catchiness of “Homiez” and the Brian McKnight featured follow-up, “I’ll Take Her”. Thankfully, the duo’s follow-up “Keep It Movin” aimed to deliver something more….original, although Hip Hop purists may have questioned what exactly that was in this instance. Could it have been Group Home’s Melachi the Nutrcracker’s freestyle intro? Or maybe even the over-used “Enter The Dragon” sample (used by both tha Liks and Scarface) for “Me And The Click”? Or perhaps it may have been the syrupy, sing-songy hooks that appeared on much of the LP’s tracks?

While “Keep It Movin” suffered from questionable song placement, the LP actually had it’s moments. Despite it’s uncreative sample selection, “Me And The Click” benefited from a strong chemistry between Ill Al Skratch and guest emcee, Nice & Smooth’s Greg Nice. The melodic grooves of “Dance With Me” and the lame-duck titled “Get Your Swerve On” (Stuart Scott would be so proud!) provided pretty dope background music, while “Get Down” was fairly decent due to Big Ill’s knocks on “imposters” and cats rockin’ “Khakis and tennis shoes”. Predictable? Yes, “Keep It Movin” was absent of any depth whatsoever. And even though the harmless production and catchy hooks may have been part of their initial charm, it would also be Ill & Al’s downfall. By comparison, the crew had a track that appeared on the New Jersey Drive O.S.T. titled “Don’t Shut Down On A Player”, thankfully they shut down themselves before anyone else could with a lackluster album like this.

“Malpractice”-Redman (2001, Def Jam)

In 2001, it had been nearly a decade since we first heard a young Reggie Noble “blow up the spot” on the EPMD classic, “Hardcore”.  Over those 10 years, along with Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Red became the poster boy for “wildness” in Hip Hop.  Of course, he also delivered classic albums such as “Whut? Thee Album”, “Dare Iz A Darkside” and “Muddy Waters”, all of which found themselves as major chapters in Hip Hop.  Yet even with seven albums (I count “Blackout” and “El Nino” as well) under his belt, even to this day, Red has his moments where he still sounds like the same cat who destroyed “Headbanger”.  Plain and simple Reggie Noble defines “rawness” at it’s finest.

Now, let’s git down ta’ bidness, “Malpractice” begins with “Diggy Doc”, which is essentially a trimmed-down remake of the D.O.C. classic “No One Can Do It Better”.  On this all-too-short cut, Reggie takes the you an a simile-driven ride, solidifying his master of the one-liner status.  Much like his prior releases, Red once again played “Slick Rick” with the continuation of his “Superman Lover” series on “Pt.V”.  However, this time around, Red hit the sky in search of a blonde haired, blue-eyed culprit who stole his “mojo”.  What puzzled me was the inclusion of the Redm…errr, Christina Aguillera hit “Let’s Get Dirty”, which made Red seem more “poppy” and mainstream, and they he went and made it the album’s first single? WTF?  Joints like the gothic, “Smash Sumthin” and “Enjoy Da Ride” or even the George Clinton featured “J.U.M.P.” would have all been better selections to introduce the album to the masses.  Though, at times, the album was extra heavy on the skits and gimmicky hooks (i.e, “Muh Fuka” and “Doggz”), “Malpractice” proved that Red still maintained his spot of one of Rap’s elite emcees. “Malpractice” though not stocked to the rim with overwhelming tracks, made Red a little more “radio-friendly” than he had been on his earlier releases.

“Disposable Arts”-Masta Ace (2001, Jcor)

As a card-carrying member of the elite Juice Crew, the late ’80′s All-Star line-up comprised of Biz Markie, Big Daddy Kane, Craig G and KoolG Rap, Ace didn’t quite receive all of the “shine” that many of the aforementioned emcees did over the years. Choosing rather to “fall back” from the limelite, Ace is better known as the underrated songwriter with the “off-beat, on-beat” flow that has released the creative masterpieces, “Take A Look Around”, “A Long Hot Summer”, “Slaughtahouse” and “Sittin’ On Chrome”. The same humor and story-structure applied on 2001′s “Disposable Arts” aka the only Ace album I’ve EVER slept-on.

With “Disposable..”, Ace shines on gems like the funky “P.T.A.”, where Ace takes a trip “back to Cali” to talk materialism with tha Liks J-Ro and Cali legend King-T, and “Unfriendly Game” which revisits the Main Source classic, “Just A Friendly Game Of Baseball”. Also noteworthy is “Dear Diary”, a track that I found to be very similar structure-wise to Eminem’s “Stan”. Much like Mr. Mathers, Ace doesn’t shy away from confrontation with the diss aimed at High & Mighty on “Acknowledge”. Much to Ace’s credit, “Disposable Arts” wasn’t a comeback album where the emcee spends much of his time on the album discussing his past accolades and accomplishments. With “Disposable..”, Ace came back with brand new bag of tricks and dope production such as the beats on the Greg Nice featured “Don’t Understand” and the street drama of “Take A Walk”. What truly makes this album so engaging is the well thought out skits and song sequencing, along with all the appearances from an abundance of “cast members” (ToneDeff, Young Zee, Jean Grae, Punchline, Wordsworth and even…Paul Barman?).  Plain and simple, “Disposable Arts” follows a long line of Ace classics that are truly originals.  Masta Ace a true underground legend, like Kane said “nuff respect due”!.