I spent longer than usual typing up these typically easy yearly best posts for 1993, trying to encapsulate the year in hip hop and write a clever narrative about the burgeoning creativity in both mainstream and underground, the east coast vs. west coast in terms of quality (have we ever seen another year so split down the middle? Even the dirty south starting to come into its own this year) and hardcore vs. bohemia trends. But in the words of Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, I think I ran my jibs enough. Frankly, 93 was just a dope year for hip hop no matter how you spin it. A classic here, a backpacker gem there, undeniable single over there. The goofy name of this blog derives from a 93 album (hint: it’s not the Wu-Tang one). The fact that my number one and number two choices were released on the same day is unfathomable. And yet 94 somehow managed to top 93 in number of classics. More on that later.
My selection of Midnight Marauders as number one here is somewhat arbitrary. I felt bad for snubbing the Tribe in 91, plus the Wu would be back on top in 95, and 06, and 09. Okay, so Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is undeniable, no arguments here, but Midnight Marauders goes down a bit easier. The beats here are pristine funk and jazz flavored boom bap, perfect for relaxing or partying to, while RZA’s grungy, lo-fi drums on the Wu’s debut are better suited for the gym or a dusty basement. Rappers Q-Tip and Phife Dawg are also more accessible and comfortable sounding together, while the 9 man Wu roster scramble to stand out while not getting the opportunity to expand their personas as they would on their solo joints. And I’ve never cared for the Wu’s abrasive cover art, (those white masks are kinda whack, sorry), while the Tribe’s artwork is all time classic. For those uninitiated, it contains headshots of a who’s-who in hip hop in 93, all with headphones on apparently listening to the very album they are featured on the cover of. There are three different versions of the cover with all different people. And than there’s that lady in the foreground, who also narrates the album. Perfection!
Midnight Marauders is simply one of the easiest albums to listen to. It’s the first album I would recommend to hip hop virgins unexposed to pre 97 stuff. As I alluded to earlier, the production is flawless and unlike anything else in hip hop to that point. I hear traces of it in Brand Nubian’s One For All, perhaps the Jungle Brothers’ Done By the Forces of Nature. But those influences are topped here. The looped up guitar on Award Tour, the horns on Steve Biko (Stir it Up), the live guitar playing from Raphael Saadiq on Midnight (which recalls a certain Untitled [How Does it Feel], nearly a decade later) to the chopped up Rakim sample laced perfectly with the drums on We Can Get Down- it’s all fun and accessible, making the album a huge commercial success as well as a critical one. If you can’t get down with the Tribe’s sound on here, you won’t have much luck with pretty much any of the Native Tongues albums that preceded it.
The rapping is also an improvement from the Tribe’s past efforts, especially from Phife Dawg who embraces his goofball punchline rapper image and gets serious (8 Million Stories) at the same time. He has some of the best quotables of all time on this album, from this gem on the mouth watering posse cut Keep It Rollin’- “People love the Dawg like the kids love Barney/ I love you, you love me/ The shorty Phife Dawg is your favorite MC” and his cheeky shout out to EPMD, who he claims is his favorite rap group in the world (but his favorite solo rapper would be him, if he ever went solo). He is the ideal foil to the somewhat self serious Q-Tip, who only enters conscious mode once on this album (his solo joint Sucka Nigga, which is poignant enough). He’s mostly having fun on this album too, though, while staying true to his bohemia roots (“Street poetry is my everyday/ But yo I gotta stop when you trot my way” from Electric Relaxation). Not to mention he has one of the most distinctive voices in all of hip hop, making every word he says carry new meaning.
The playlist is littered with hip hop classics, rowdy anthems and laid back jazz tinged boom bap. There were a couple of difficult cuts, from Lords Of The Underground, Onyx, Spice 1 and Cypress Hill, but overall this is the tightest playlist yet. Björk and R. Kelly are the non hip hop selections, and Big Time Sensuality from the former is one of my most played songs from this year. I don’t understand how people prefer the remix to the sugary house bounce of the original (this is one of the most addictive beats Björk has ever sung over). There’s also the underrated Bullies Of The Block from the ahead-of-their-time Freestyle Fellowship. This opening track to their sophomore album is one of the best musical bloodrushes in a year full of muscular raps. I can even overlook the cringe inducing homophobia on Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down for that awesome hook.
1993 Playlist
Björk- Big Time Sensuality (Album version)
Black Moon- Son Get Wrec
Brand Nubian- Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down
Digable Planets- Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)
De La Soul- I Am I Be
Freestyle Fellowship- Bullies Of The Block
KRS-One- Outta Here
Naughty By Nature- Hip Hop Hooray
R. Kelly- Your Body’s Callin’
Snoop Doggy Dogg featuring Nate Dogg, Kurupt & Warren G- Ain’t No Fun (If The Homies Can’t Have None)
Souls Of Mischief- 93 ‘Till Infinity
A Tribe Called Quest- We Can Get Down
A Tribe Called Quest- Electric Relaxation
Wu-Tang Clan- Protect Ya Neck
Wu-Tang Clan- C.R.E.A.M.
Enter The Screen 