Elektra (1994)
Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.
I have a complicated relationship with Everything is Everything. I've never been one of those who thought the group was useless after Grand Puba left, but it's impossible to overstate how large he loomed over their first album. The other thing is that Everything Is Everything is home of what is probably my favorite Brand Nubian song, "Word is Bond." Ever since I saw the video for the first time in 1994 the rhyme "I push the Cadillac DeVille and still we real / I drive a garbage truck / and not give a" really hit me as being particularly clever. Not just because they don't actually say "fuck" but still make you say it to yourself in your head, but I also dig the imagery of Brand Nubian driving around in a garbage truck.
The problem is that after "Word Is Bond," which is the first track on the album, the rest of Everything Is Everything just pales in comparison. In general the rest of the production is too slow with far too much reliance on sappy R&B style beats. Lyrically, Lord Jamar and Sadat X still have the goods, but it's a real chore to get through 2 LPs of, frankly, boring beats.
Still, "Word Is Bond" is so good that I did need to get this LP in the collection. Combine with the groups first two albums, and that's really all I need from the Brand Nubian discography (Plus the first Grand Puba solo record). While Puba eventually rejoined the group and they released some other records over the years, nothing ever really piqued my interest. Like so much of the hip hop I love, 1994 seemed to be the last year that Brand Nubian was able to produce anything that really caught my ear.
Brand Nubian - Everything Is Everything (YouTube Music full album playlist):
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