Qwest (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.
While I was never steeped in the lore of Saafir and hadn't listened to his records until very recently, I have been aware of him since 1994. He made a guest appearance on the Casual record Fear Itself. I always dug his verse, even though it was a little weird, but never really looked into him much after that. I was completely unaware that this guest spot launched a beef that ended up as one of the more famous rap battles of all time. I have since listened to it, and while it's clear to me that Casual is miles ahead, Saafir certainly has skill.
Saafir's debut album doesn't necessarily sound like a Hieroglyphics album, but you can definitely tell that Saafir's crew, Hobo Junction, was heading down a similar path. There are innovative beats and samples throughout the album and when combined with Saafir's erratic, but very distinct flow, it does create moments of magic.
I could probably do with the record being a little shorter. As a double LP it starts to feel a little bloated towards the end, but there are more than enough standout tracks to make this one worth adding to the collection.
Saafir - Boxcar Sessions (YouTube Music full album playlist):
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kePE6XRKGBeMlA5YRUjvFJfAPSkQ4DF_A
No comments:
Post a Comment