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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 thirty 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.
As I mentioned when I wrote about the first Alkaholiks' record, 21 & Over, I hadn't listened to them back in the 90s when they were first coming up. They flew under my radar and it wasn't until many years later that I took a chance on them. After really enjoying their debut, I decided to hunt down their second LP that originally came out in 1995. As frequent readers of this nonsense may remember, 1995 is typically where hip hop fell off a cliff for me. 1994 is the definitive end of my golden era.
That said, for a 1995 release this is pretty solid stuff. I don't think Coast II Coast is anywhere near as good as Tha Alkaholiks' debut was, but in comparison to most releases of 1995 it's a good listen. As with most hip hop after 1994, the main issue I have with the record is the beats. They just are not as innovative as what was being done on 21 & Over and they feel slower. The upside of that is that the slower beats seem to give the Liks a little more room to grow as lyricists.
I think the rhyming is much improved on this outing. Before, they were totally fine - I can't say anything negative about any of those songs. That said, the growth to this second album is considerable with more complicated rhyme structures and just what feels like a lot more words per minute. If the beats were a little bit more in line with the sort of thing I like better, this would be a killer record. With how it stands, it's still good and a fun listen, but I like 12 & Over better.
Tha Alkaholiks – Coast II Coast:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lTxSE3V0satyB2fWTe_9AZ3UoreZdJbbo
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lTxSE3V0satyB2fWTe_9AZ3UoreZdJbbo
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