Craft (2018, Reissue)
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'm pretty sure the very first time I heard Masta Ace was on the Brand New Heavies' Heavy Rhyme Experience album. I really liked his track, but didn't persue anything else of his until he started to show up on Yo MTV Raps. At some point in 1993 they started playing the video for "Jeep Ass N***h." I loved the rolling bass line that I felt had some similarities with Tribe Called Quest style production, but combined it with a much harder hitting lyrical style. I bought the cassette single of that with also included the song "Saturday Night Live." Those two songs led me to picking up the whole album. His appearance on the further solidified my need to get it.
For whatever reason, I didn't listen to it much back then. The two songs from the single always shone the brightest to me and the album as a whole just kind of got lost in the deluge of unbelievably great hip hop records that came out in 1993. It was much later that I revisited the album and really started to appreciate what a great album it is from start to finish.
In particular, the production is just so good with killer beats on almost every track. I've listened intently to the album that came out before Slaughtahouse (1990's Atake A Look Around, which is quite good) and to the record that came out right after (1995's Sittin' On Chrome, which I do not like at all), but neither can hold a candle to Slaughtahouse. Masta Ace also turns the best lyrical performance of his career, hitting it out of the park every single time he picks up the microphone.
I really think this is a forgotten classic of the era. I'm really happy that someone released it not too long ago though I am somewhat surprised by that. I'm hopeful that with hindsight more might give this album a chance. 1993 had so many incredible hip hop records, this is one of them that deserves another listen.
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