Music Dude presents: My hiphop session with Chuck Chillout

In early July the DC area had a couple crazy storms pass through. The type of storms that knock trees down. The type of storms that I'll laugh at, after experiencing some of these stupid Florida hurricanes. Anyway, the area of Silver Spring that Chuck and G lived in would always experience power outages. I mean, whole swaths of 16th Street and Georgia Ave would be pitch black. Crazy! Nuts.

Well, on this day, the storm swooped through around 4p and the power was gone by 5p. It took them a ridiculous 14 hours to get us power again. So we were sitting in darkness for the whole evening. Instead of heading to a coffee shop or going to a bar, we decided to try to stay put and hope that PEPCO wasn't as inept as they seem. By about 7 or 8p, Chuck had resorted to his ADD antics. G and I had popped a bottle of rum and we were posted on the couch, layin back, listenin to Murda Muzik (Mobb Deep), just maxin', kickin' it. Charles couldn't take the inactivity, so he was pacing around the couch and coffee table while he preached about the dopeness of Prodigy and many other things. Then, the next thing you know, he headed to the bathroom and came back minutes later, with toilet tissue wrapped around his knuckles, hoping it rsembled gauze wrapped around boxers' fists when they spar. Soon thereafter he was bobbing, weaving and punching my garment box like he was traing for a Vegas title fight. You couldn't see much, just his stout silouhette. But we could hear everything: the squeaking hardwood floor, the pap-pap of his toilet-tissued fist hitting the box, his grunts. It was one of the most comical and surreal moments of my stay with Chuck and G. Downright classic.

Soon, though, his tissue began to unravel and perhaps he became winded so he took a seat to catch his breath and repair his Charmin gloves. At some points, Black Moon entered the conversation and since we weren't doing anything, I asked Chuck, "Give me you're five favorite Boot Camp Cliq tracks of all time."

"Five! Come on man! How am I gonna narrow it down to five? That's impossible."
"Yo, you just gotta be real gangsta with it and make some executive decisions, naa mean?! Give em to me. Top 5. No long deliberations, right here, off the cuff. Let's go!"
"Aight! Let's do it!"

We didn't go to bed until 5am that night. I was 90 minutes late for work the next day, too.

I'm including Charles' top 5 lists he hit me with that night, along with my thoughts on each.

Chuck, feel free to defend yourself. And anyone else, by all means, commenst are welcomed. Also, remember: these are his favorite, not necessarily what he thinks were the best.

BOOTCAMP CLIQUE
For those of you that don't know, the Boot Camp Cliq was compised of Black Moon, Heltah Skeltah, Smif-n-Wesson and OGC (Original Gun Clappaz). They were a crew of emcees that, at their heights, some say rivaled Wu Tang as the illest possee of hiphop niggas in the mid-90s. I was always a Wu-Tang dude. In fact, as much as I loved Boot Camp, there was never any real basis for a competition with the Wu, because the Wu were much better than them, to me. But there were plenty of my contemporaries that felt otherwise. Coincidentally, Chuck and Tony (two Boot Camp dude) and I went to Tryst on my last night in DC and we discussed the merits of this battle between the Wu and Boot Camp. Anyways, here was Chuck's top 5 favoirtes, off the cuff.

1. Black Moon - How Many Emcees Must Get Dissed
Off "Enta Da Stage" an album dropped in '93. The album is a classic among the classics and '93 is one of the three landmark years for hiphop ('88, '93, '98). We were freshman when Enta Da Stage dropped, but How Many Emcees actually dropped in the summer going into our freshman year. In fact, Who Got the Props, off that same album, dropped in the winter of our 8th grade year. That's just how it went for some acts back then.
I can't argue with this pick. Wu Tang's 'Proteck Ya Kneck" video dropped that same summer, but there were many that felt thi more. The beat was ominous with the horror flick loop and the baseline was probably the most gangsta I had ever heard. It mirrored the way Buckshot Shorty strolled through Brooklyn in his Stan Smith addidas in the video. It was also a new flow for Buckshot, totally different than the Onyx-like approach he had on 'Who Got the Props'. But this wasn;t my favorite Cliq track. My favorite is the 'Sh*t Iz Real' remix from '96 "Diggin in the Vaults". Even back then, you could tell that my musical ear was heavily influenced on the jazz music I grew up on and the 'Sh*t Iz Real' track had this willowy sax loop and this airy string motif...spectacular stuff. To this day, it splits my head wide-open when I hear it. I played it for Chuck later that night and he smuiled this sly grin and said, "Yo, I'm startin to rethink my No. 1."

2. Black Moon - I Got Cha Opin (Remix)
This is off the "Diggin in the Vaults" album, too. But the video came out the winter of our freshamn, smack in the middle of what, to me, was the greatest era of hiphop music. Back then, a song like this was incredible, but frequent. We got incredible songs all the time back then.

3. Black Moon - Buck 'Em Down (Remix)
Once again, it was released on the "Vaults" album, but we heard it much sooner. A great song, but nowhere near in my Top 5. In fact, I'm partial to the original.

4. Smif-N-Wessun - Sound Bwoy Bureill
Smif-n-Wess loved to add Carribean influences into their music and this was the first we saw of that.
"Boom bye-bye to them batti boy head" that's how the G'd it.
It was off of 95's "Da Shinin", their first release and another classic album out of the Clique camp. MY favorite Smif-n-Wess, however, was 'Bucktown', the first single off the album. Wrekonize and PNC are also higher on my list.

5. Heltah Skeltah - Undastand
I quoted a Rocness Monsta line on my Senior page of my year book,

Undastand
To be the man aint even the plan
But stand in my way and get crushed undastand

That was my thinking back then. I wasn;t trying to be mega-rich or super-famous as I embarked on post-high school life. But, I did have goals...and no one was gonnaget in between me and those goals.

This track was off of their 96 album 'Nocturnal'. Back then, Roc was one of my five favorite emcees. And, although I loved this track, "Operation Lockdown" was my favorite off the album.

Honerable MentionBoot Camp Cliq- Headz Ain't Redee
Off the 96 "Vaults" album, of which Charles seemed attached. This was one of the classic crew cuts. Right up there with "Triumph", "Protect Ya Kneck", that calssic Juice Crew Cut and "Self Destruction". probably would've made my top 5.
Note: Sean Price has a new banger out. I heard it on XM radio (which will get it's own upcoming blog). Anyways, the Ruc jumpoff is vicious...check it.

September '93 - June '94
Back in these days, I wouldn't class albums into years, moreso school years and summers. hat's how we'd remember things. Did it drop in the Summer going into our Senior year or while were Juniors? I grew up w/ some true-blue music cats. Not all of them had the most wide-ranging interests, but the musics they did like, primarily hiphop, they loved hard. It was truly our soundtracks. For instance, I know that the "Bucktown" video dropped in the Spring of my Sophomore year because I was walking back from the Masten Boys Club w/ my nigga Nisan and it was snowing...only it was these huge, incredibly picturesque flakes where you could actually recognize the shape of each flake. We all know that flakes are usually bigger in warmer weather and this snowfall was peculiar because it was about 45 degrees outside. Anyway, guess what video was on Rap City the second we hit Ni's crib? Yep.

Back to Chuck's list though. Our freshman year of high school was probably the greatest year for hiphop releases. Wu, Black Moon, Tribe, Nas, KRS, Jeru, Souls fo Mischief -- and many more -- dropped albums that year. And each album I just named you was a classic. That's nuts! Right off the dome I spit out SEVEN classic albums that dropped in a 9-month span. Novemeber 93 alone can blast most years out the water when it comes to classic releases. Those were indeed the days.

Now, as the night wore on I began to see that Chuck was enthralled with singles, which is somewhat weird for dudes like us. Sometimes, dudes in my camp would almost say that the single was the worse song on the album as a knee-jerk reaction. That was a way of letting everyone know that you'd thoroughly checked the album...you weren't just some surface listener that heard a couple songs on the radio or saw a couple videos. And usually, it was the right thinking. It's rare that my favorite song on an album is the single. That'd be a dissapointment. But Charles was going hard with singles, so we were disagreeing often.

1. Nas - It Aint Hard to Tell
There's no way in H E L L that this is my favorite song of this period. The greatest nine-month span of all-time and this is the favorite? Wow. I can name at least 6 tracks off Illmatic that I loved more, especially "Represent", "Life's a B*tch" and "The World Is Yours". Don't get me wrong, this is a classic song, but Illmatic was full of classic trax. In fact, it is probably one of the 10 greatest debut albums (in importance and substance) of our generations musical lifetime, 1990-2000. This was the most important selection of the night -- the favorite track of this period -- and I think Chuck picked his shakiest selection. I actually groaned when he put this on. Also remember that Chuck would play his list starting with No. 5 and ending with No. 1. So by this time he had dropped five radio/video singles on me in a row and I was just kinda stunned. Maybe it was the rum...but...

2. Wu Tang Clan - Proteck ya Neck
He went with the first single off the 36 Chambers, an album that probably F'd me up more than any other. I was a Wu-Tang fool for about 5 years. I wore Wu-Wear. When people would hear me rhyme they would say I sound like U-God on "Chestboxing" or Deck on "Guillotine". This is THAT album for me. With that said, "Protect Ya Kneck". I can't roll with that. Yes, it was the one track that featured all nine emcees...and Yes, it was an all-out massacre. But once again, I can drop 5-6 trax that I loved more, especially "Shame on a Nigga", "Cream", "Clan in the Front"and "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuttin to F Wit".

Ending this list with "It Aint Hard" and "Protect" were bittersweet. Sweet to hear these nostalgic songs, but bitter because I was expecting to get my head bashed in, but I really only got my jaw broken.

3. Gangstar - Mass Appeal
Monster track and just stupid, dumb,. despicable beat by DJ Premier. In fact, I spit a rhyme over this Primo track for my cousins mix-tape and dumbed out on it. It was one of my own favorite freestyles. A classic beat. and a glimpse into the better rhymes Guru was gonna start kicking.
Once again, it was the first single and video off the album and not necessarily the dopest. My pesonal favorites were "Code of the Streets" and "Tonz of Gunz". But I can't argue with this selection as Chuck's favorite off the album. But I don't think I wouldve included any track off this album in my Top 5 for this period.

4. A Tribe Called Quest - Award Tour
Perhaps the worse "frist single" choice of the night. Only because, unlike the other singles, it wasnt exactly a classic song. And let's not even go through this album and start choosing songs I love much more -- "Sucka Niggas", "Electric Relaxation", "Lyrics to Go"...to tell you the truth, no album captured that gray sky, Buffalo winter, insulated feel better than this album that winter. I mean, "Electric Relaxation"? "Award Tour", albeit an excellent song, was a puzzling, almost dissapointing choice.

5. Boogiemonsters - Recognized Thresholds of Negative Stress
Now THIS was a selection. This is what I was expecting all along. Either hit me with the bangers or throw me for some loops with some trax I had straight up forgotten abiout. I hadn't heard this Boogiemonsters joint in over 10 years. Chuck had me buggin off this one and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Honerable MentionTha Alkaholiks - Only When I'm Drunk
What I loved about the Alkaholics back then is that they were some West Coast niggas with an East Coast sensibility and East Coast flow. They really ripped it on this track, too. Plus this track held other significance since Chuck and Tony used to get drunk off Old English 40s in the auditorium back then. It was a surreal sight...these little kids, barely teens, twisted during the school day, smelling like malt liquor. We kicked it about this the other day, how they're parents handled the situation. Me? I'd have blown a gasket if I found out my 13, 14-year-old kid was getting toasted during school. There parents played iot differently. And I guess it worked. They both graduated from an Honors high school, went to HU and now they're some young, successful, quality black men on the road to making it happen.

My Top 5 from 09/93-06/94
1. Wu Tang - "Wu Tang Clan Aint Nuttin to F Wit"
2. Nas - "Represent"
3. Mobb Deep - "An Eye for an Eye"
4. Tribe - "Sucka Niggas"
5. Black Moon - "I Got Cha Open (Remix)"

July '94 - August '95
This goes from the Summer going into our Sophomore year all the way through the Summer going into our Junior year (I say our meaning me and Chuck's...but obviously I had other dudes in various grades experiencing the music with me at the same time). A crazy period, because we kept getting hit in the head...even after the breakneck craziness of the previous school year. Also, by the time I came back to school as a Sophomore and linked up w/ my man Tony, I was a full-fledge maniac on the mic. My mic name was Vinny Dinero and his was Fella Miks. They were our Gambino names. Where did we get the idea for Gambino names? read along...

1. The Notorious B.I.G. - Unbelievable
Primo and Biggie at their apex...so that's a dangerous combination. Definitely my favorite track off the album -- Biggie's Ready to Die, his first album and a hiphop classic -- just don't know if it was my favorite of that peiod...but one of the few trax that Chuck and I agreed on even, even if we disagreed if it was No. 1.

2. The Roots - The Lesson Pt. 1
Classic freestyle of what was, in esence, the Roots debut album, Do You Want More. Black Thought, the illest emcee of all-time, was a lunatic on this joint...but what always got everyone goin was Dice Raw's verse. I think it was because he was the same age as us and just as ill. Tony and I always thought we were the two dopest emcees, our age, in the world...but Dice was giving us a run for our money...at least freestyle-wise.
For what it's worth, this isn't in my top 3 off that album. No. 1 "Swept Away", No. 2 "Distortion of Static", No. 3 "Do You Want More". But, this might have been my favorite album of this period. The Purple Tape was obviously the best, but i think this was my favorite.

3. Raekwon - Rainy Dayz
Finally not a single. But perhaps the first album where a single wouldve been warranted. "Glaciers of Ice", "Criminology", "Incarcarated Scarfaces" -- all bangers. "Rainy Dayz" was hot, but its one of the few trax that I skip over on this album that is a Classic Among the Classics. This album is SO classic it's known simply as The Purple Tape by true hiphop headz. It's called that because niggas in the hood werent buyin CDs in 95, we still bought tapes..and Rae's tape was purple for some reason. If you had the Purple Tape (I had a dub), you were part of a fraternity.
This album was so influential on so many levels, but most importantly it spawned the whole "hiphop dudes acting like mafioso" craze. except they did dopely, whereas later reincarnations by lesser artists were contrived and pathetic. But this album dropped in the summer and had everyone's head messed up. Rae changed his name to Lex Diamonds, Ghost was now Tony Starks. Then I came to school as Vinny Dinero that September and linked up with Tony. That's how we used to do...i wouldnt see anyone from school during the Summer, so that first week we came back all we did was talk about the tapes that dropped that summer. This one, of course, was the most present on our minds.

4. Organized Konfusion - Stress
The one song that I made Chuck run from the top multiple times. And I apologized alot too. Apologized because I never gave OK the respect they deserved back then. That's the thing about 93-98 and especially 93-96, so many incredible joints used to drop all the time. so sometimes, you'd totally overlook or undermine an album that deserved your attention. This was one of them.
Plus, the way Pharoah Monch set off the second verse was downright captivating. He is perhaps the most daunting figure on the mic ever. So much weight, so much presence. He can come off deity-like at times. Because, not only was he a dope emcees, with a voice that could fill a solar system, but he was exceptionally intelligent...check how he comes in after the chorus:

Rarrrrrgh!
You will now consider me the apocalyptic one
After this rhyme, henceforth, there is none
NO more will exist,
when I emergeFrom the mist in whence I was born into, scorned

Need I go on?

Wouldn't have been in my top 5 favorite, but i think it was an excellent choice.

5. Keith Murray - The Most Beautifullest Thing in This World
This was a cool way to set off this period's list. A track I hadn't heard in a while and one that I truly loved. It was the title-track for Murray's debut album. I heard this on WBNY, the college radio station Buffalo. Every Sunday night they'd have a hiphop show. When they debuted this song I was in my room, listenin on my clock radio. I went bizerk. The E Sermon track was classic and this new dude Keith Murray had this wild, crazy rhyme style. Check how he sets it:

Y'all mythalogical niggaz is comical
The astronomical is comin through like the flu bombin you
And embalmin in your crew too
With the musical mystical magical, you know how I do
With word attack skills and vocabulary too
My rendition of this Edition is all brand New

Come on man!!! That sizzled my little 15-year-old brain at the time. I didn't necessarily wanna rhyme like that, but I definitely felt how he freaked it. Once again, this was Murray's first single and video, but I believe it was the hottest track off that album.

Honerable MentionJeru the Damaja - Come Clean
Another single from Chuck Chillout. This was off of Sun Always Rises in the East, Jeru's first album and a Classic Among the Classics. The title was so gangsta. It was basically saying, "East Coast is where the real emcees get down at". Me being an East Coast dude and generally disliking West Coast rap music, I loved dudes like Jeru, a brooklyn kat to the core.
"Come Clean" was a crazy debut. The video was grimy, real East Coast. Jeru had on his Brooklyn T-shirt. It was everything dudes in my camp loved. And Premier mixed in a loop that was supposed to resemble Chinese Torture water drops -- ingenious.
Still, i can rattle of three or four trax off this insane album (one of the 10 most well-produced hiphop albums ever) that i loved more. Especially "Static", "My Mind Spray", "D Original" and "Brookly Keeps on Takin It." In fact, "Static" may be my favorite song of this whole period.

Anyways, here's my Top from 07/94-08/95

1. Jeru the Damja - "Static"
2. Roots - "Swept Away"
3. Raekwon - "Guillotine"
4. Common - "I Used to Love Her"
5. Biggie - "Unbelievable"