Happy 20th Anniversary Salute: Deltron 3030

                                                                    

What's good peoples?! This next twentieth anniversary salute goes out to one of the most unique and original concept albums in all of music, not just hip-hop, but music overall.  When sci-fi meets opera and hip-hop in a triple threat match, this is the album you'll come out with.  Much like the much heralded Dr. Octagon or A Prince Amongst Thieves before it, this album is a virtual movie.  An album that belongs in the realm of old Star Trek easily.  The production, the feel, the aura and the concept as a whole went way beyond the realms of what traditional hip-hop should've been.  Much like the aforementioned efforts, this album was recognized as one of the most innovative and brilliant albums ever delivered, and has since become a cult classic.  Ladies and gentlemen, this is west coast emcee Del The Funky Homosapian and producer Dan The Automator as Deltron 3030 and their self titled album. 

Dan The Automator had been known up to now for his work with the aforementioned Dr. Octagonecologyst, as well as his collaborative project with the legendary Prince Paul, Handsome Boy Modeling School, and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.  Obviously, his name was in tight circles.  Plus later collaborations with Gorillaz would further raise his stock within music.  As for Del, the famed cousin of Ice Cube was known especially for his first two very impressive albums, I Wish My Brother George Was Here and No Need For Alarm, which produced cuts like "Mista Dobalina", "Boo Boo Heads", "Catch A Bad One", "Sleeping On My Couch", and others.  He also delivered a year 2000 release entitled Both Sides Of The Brain, which itself was a pretty good release.  These two together, along with DJ Kid Koala, comprised a group of forward thinkers to create quite the musical and conceptual experience. 

Del plays Deltron, a mech soldier that resides in a world where evil soldiers are out to eliminate human rights, but also want to kill hip-hop as well.  Deltron is pretty jaded and disillusioned, but is out on a mission and ultimately becomes hip-hop's champion and saves the world as well.  The intricate and detailed nature of this story reads like an audio comic book.  Del completely hooks you in to his mission as he presents to us how serious his calling is.  Automator presents him with such a haunting yet engaging soundtrack for Del to have.  Cuts like "Mastermind", "Positive Contact", "Time Keeps On Slipping", and "Battlesong" are very clever and intriguing cuts that display the nature of Deltron's complex yet essential battles.  Also, guests such as the esteemed MC Paul Barman, Prince Paul, Brad Roberts, Mr. Lif, and Sean Lennon all assist in this masterwork as very necessary characters that either help or try to hinder Deltron's progress.  The slick part comes at the album's very end as the song "Memory Loss" throws in a bit of "Catch A Bad One", presumably to help Deltron remember Del somewhere in there. 

What Deltron 3030 managed to pull off was an album that was among the most unconventional rap albums to ever exist, but also a way to show that, if done right, sci-fi rap can be cool.  If Kool Keith as Dr. Octagon didn't show that, this album definitely does.  This has been considered an "Alternative Rap" classic, along with the likes of all the aforementioned along with Madvillainy, The Unseen, Endtroducing, Black Up, and One Word Extinguisher.  They delivered a sequel to the debut entitled Event 2.  Although it was definitely a great sophomoric effort, it would be unfair to compare it to the unmistakable genius of the first effort.  Del, Automater, and Koala presented an epic release that showed thinking outside the box and presenting an album for a specific type of audience can resonate into an album for the ages.  We toast our glasses in salute to this unforgettable album.  Until next time!

Happy 20th Anniversary: The Big Picture

                                                    

                                                            

What's good my folks?!  Hope everyone is straying safe during these unsure times.  It's definitely trying times, but we will get through this like we do everything else, regardless of who our leadership (I use that term loosely) is.  With that being said, let's continue the twentieth anniversary salutes with an album that has been considered among the most underrated albums of the current century.  This was an album from an artist who had among the wittiest punchlines in all of hip-hop.  A lyrical wizard, this Harlem native first blessed our ears with his superb writing ability on his debut, Lifestylez Uv Tha Poor & Dangerous.  It featured heaters such as the Kid Capri-assisted "Put It On", "No Endz, No Skinz,", "Fed Up With The Bullshit", and "MVP" (although quite honestly the remix was the better version).  The talent displayed within thast album was definitely impressive and showed what type of beast he could be on the mic.  Unfortunately, tragedy occurred when he was murdered for mistaken identity in February of '99 in his own city of Harlem.  While the hip-hop world was shaken from the loss of a potential star in the game, he left behind a slew of cuts promising to satisfy the taste buds of his fans plus attract new ones as well. With the help of his business partner from his label, Flamboyant Entertainment, the album that dropped was a collection of some of the best work one could ask for from an emcee of his caliber.  It showed a glimpse into how bananas this young Harlem upstart was and the star he was about to be.  We salute the late, great Big L and his final full-length album, The Big Picture.

The majority of this album was leftover cuts and B-sides, although known mixtape singles were here a lot as well.  Known cuts such as the searing "Ebonics (Criminal Slang)", "The Enemy", and "Size 'Em Up" helped to propel the album from outside NYC, as most of the rest of the nation hadn't heard these dumb dope cuts.  Same with joints like "Casualties Of A Dice Game" and "The Heist".  What was perhaps the best example of his lyrical swordsmanship was his surprising, yet impressive, collaboration with another late hip-hop icon, 2Pac, on "Deadly Combination".  Although there's no definitive story about how the track came together or if they were actually in the studio together, it's still a very strong cut.  Not to mention, the ferocious "'98 Freestyle", in which he blisters the mic, and spits frequently rewindable lines like : "Get mad hoes, ask Beavis, I get nothin, but head (Butthead)".  The commercial single from the album came in the form of the Miss Jones/A.G./Stan Spit-assisted single, "Holdin' It Down",   Over a knocking Pete Rock production, Big L stings and delivers with lines like: "L is rap's most livest cat/I'm making stacks while you asking people 'Do u want fries with that'".  Clearly, dude had a way with the pen game. Plus an incredible Premo-crafted cut with the legendary Big Daddy Kane, "Platinum Plus" made this album that much hotter.

Rumors of him being courted to sign with Roc-A-Fella at the time were heating up, as one could only imagine how crazy his stature would've been as part of the legendary Roc.  Although we will never know, L was definitely an emcee's emcee.  He knew the art of the quotable and the rewindable bars.  Other posthumous efforts such as the acclaimed Return of the Devil's Son, 139 & Lennox, and The Danger Zone all show how ridiculous of an emcee he was and the potential he had to be one of the top stars in the game.  With The Big Picture, this should've been the launching pad for his quest for stardom.  He had all the capabilities for that to happen.  While it's been over two decades since his death, his legacy of being one of the most promising emcees of his generation remains.  Harlem can forever be proud of Lamaont "Big L" Coleman.  Lift your glasses and salute Big L and The Big Picture.