As Remembered By Music Dude: The Score, The Fugees: Two seminal artists that emceed/sung/produced and Pras (poor Pras)...that was The Fugees. Kinda like hip-hop’s first super group, in that there was nothing they could not accomplish musically. There was no genre they couldn’t do well, because, as a collective, they didn’t really have any holes. So they gave the world this album as their sophomore effort.
Blunted on Reality, the Fugees’ 1994 debut, wasn’t exactly some obscure indie project that only a few music-worms know about. “Nappy Heads” and especially “Vocab” were in heavy video rotation and got a fair amount of radio play…but…The Score?…18 million worldwide. Put that into perspective.
In Nine-Six, if you heard that Enya sample at the beginning of “Ready Or Not”, most likely, you did that thing where you took your left hand and cupped your forehead, then raised your right arm, with an open palm and swayed a little bit. You know..that thing Mary J used to do. Or if “Killing Me Softly” popped up on Video Vibrations, you probably said, “Yo, this is my joint!”, turned up the TV volume and wished you were in that buck wild theater, too. Even parents dug this album, with all the old-soul hooks.
The Score was Nine-Six.
As Remembered By Music Dude: All Eyez On Me, Tupac: Nas’ It Was Written and Jay’s Reasonable Doubt dropped this year. That makes 1996 one of the most important years in music history, as far as The 'Cologists are concerned. But more than anything, ‘96 was marked by this growing feud between Bad Boy and Death Row, that morphed into a battle between NYC and LA, that morphed into a battle between the East Coast and the West Coast, that morphed into an issue that polarized hop fans no matter where we lived.
There are singular songs that soundtrack this phantom-feud: “New York, New York”, “LA, LA”, “Who Shot Ya”, “Hit Em Up”, etc. But this album is the East vs. West soundtrack. Funny thing is that Pac didn’t have beef with a whole Coast. That just sounds silly. In fact, Method Man and Redman appeared on “Got My Mind Made Up”. But since Pac was so California and so thug on this album and because he was so vocal in his disdain for Bad Boy, All Eyez On Me has a tone and spirit that shouts a raucous California battle-cry.
And the music? “Ambitionz of a Ridah” might be THE thug anthem -- not of '96, but of all-time...wait…maybe it’s “Picture Me Rollin”...see what I'm talkin' about? Back in ‘96, a crazy mofo like Pac was so charismatic and unpredictable that you watched his every move. So, yes, all eyez were on him. But his music was so compelling—those Daz and Dre beats and that guttural voice and MLK flow—that most teens and young-adults hung onto his every word. In ‘96, his music was on all ears, too.
As Remembered By Music Dude: Reasonable Doubt, Jay-Z: Wow. Let‘s talk about Soundtracks, fam.
Although Jay dropped in June, the “Dead Presidents” video dropped earlier that winter and I remember looking at Jay in a different light than the rapid-tongue pyrotechnic dude that flipped it on Original Flava’s “Can I Get Open” a few years earlier. But when I heard “Aint No Nigga” on college radio that Sunday in the spring -- it was a wrap. WBNY always had the underground cuts that didn’t get played on mainstream radio and they ALWAYS had that hot newness. So when that familiar EPMD bass line dropped and Jay came in rhyming over it…bananas!
Back then I wasn’t a Nas-dude -- I was a Wu-dude. So Nas’ It Was Written was slept on by yours truly. Not in a “I don’t like that album” way, rather, in a “looking back, I didn’t realize how landmark, great and evolutionary that album was” kinda way. So, when Nas drops July 4th week and Jay drops the very next Tuesday, it was no wonder that Reasonable Doubt had my deck on lock. When I drove places with my siblings, it was Reasonable Doubt. Females always gravitated toward Jay’s swagger, moreso than Nas’ depth. So it happened that throwing on Jay appeased my sisters and me -- even my little brothers -- since it was accessible, plus a bona fide classic among the classics.
Then I visited my cousins in NYC that summer and no less than five Jay tracks were in heavy rotation on Hot 97. In ‘96, Hot 97 was still a hip-hop treasure. True kats, like, Pete Rock and Marley Marl had shows. Evil Dee had a show. Flex was a bomb-dropping bastion of unreleased newness. That was one raw station. And, there I was, in NYC, walking round Brooklyn and driving through Manhattan and Reasonable Doubt was the backdrop throughout the whole trip.
I would have never guessed that I was witnessing a legend at his peak. I just knew that the music sounded so good, I wanted it pumping in my ears every moment I was awake.
