Pudgee Tha Phat Bastard - Give 'Em The Finger

Rarebreed (2025, Reissue)

On Wednesdays, 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.

Give 'Em The Finger is one of those records that I've been after for quite a while.  It's another one of those albums I stumbled across on a 'forgotten hip hop of the 90s' type list.  When it was originally released, it came out on a no artwork, promo LP.  I'm not a huge fan of those, but sometimes that's the only way you can get something on vinyl.  I just could never find a good deal on a copy.  Luckily we finally get a reissue.

Rarebreed, who reissued the Saafir record last year, are back with a full artwork, remastered version of Pudgee Tha Phat Bastard's debut album.  I was surprised it wasn't a double LP like most of the better hip hop reissues of late.  But while there are 14 tracks on here, the whole album is only 15 minutes long, so it's not an egregious amount of music to try to fit on a single disc.

As far as the music goes, it's a ver solid Golden Era record.  It originally came out in 1993, though the production doesn't feel like what was cutting edge in '93.  The bulk of the album was produced by Trackmasters, who worked with Chubb Rock and The A.T.E.E.M. record I wrote about a couple weeks ago.  These songs have a similar feel in that they maybe sound a little more like they could have come out in 1991 or early '92.  I know that probably seems silly when you read it, but you can't forget how quickly the sound of hip hop was changing and growing during that time period.  Still, I love many albums from 91 and 92 just as much as anything from 93 or 94, so it's kind of splitting hairs.  

No matter the year, Give 'Em The Finger is still a great listen.  Pudgee reminds me a bit of K-Solo and he sounds good throughout the record.  He even holds is own on a track with Kool G Rap, and there are plenty of MCs in that era that weren't able to do that.  This is worth giving a listen to if it floated under your radar.

Pudgee Tha Phat Bastard - Give 'Em The Finger:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mYKSZb30ykNkD6nl72wREuLDr9Ty1QEqY