I got
home very tired last night and didn’t have it in me to review my album. That’s
OK because the extra day I spent listening to it made me appreciate it more.
Disc 1155 is… No More Mr. Nice Guy
Artist: Gang
Starr
Year of Release: 1989
What’s up with the Cover? Two super cool dudes wearing
clothes that are no longer super cool. The “white out” background is similarly
of its time.
How I Came To Know It: I was just digging through Gang
Starr’s discography and found this early gem. Like most other Gang Starr I’ve
heard, I liked it.
How It Stacks Up: I have six Gang Starr albums, which is all of
them. Of the six, “No More Mr. Nice Guy” comes in 4th.
Ratings: 3 stars
Gang Starr’s first album is raw and uneven, but
laced with plenty of tracks that hint at greatness to come. This album is just
a cool beat, a couple of well-placed samples and Guru droppin’ rhymes. It isn’t
the sheer brilliance of 1991’s “Step in the Arena” but it has plenty to
recommend it.
Best of these is “Manifest,” a classic rap song from the golden age of rap - a time
when rappers rapped about rappin’. Guru’s flow is back on the beat but still
maintain a groovy energy, combining rapid-fire MF Doom style rhyme density with
basic couplets that gives the song structure. The groove has a heavy jazz feel,
which is an influence felt throughout the record.
If anything there is too much jazz, particularly “Jazz Music” which is an homage to the
history of the style. Despite many attempted visits to the altar of jazz, I can
never bring myself to worship there, so while I like the isolated samples on the
record, I can’t pick up what they’re putting down on “Jazz Music.”
When they’re not rappin’ about rappin’, Gang Starr
spends their time providing positive messages like staying positive (“Positivity”) and how your actions impact
others (“Cause and Effect”). It is a
minor miracle that it doesn’t come off as an after-school special, or public
service announcement. Instead, these positive songs inspire some of the better
rhymes on the record.
This call to live a mindful life is the progenitor
of a lot of today’s socially conscious rap and despite the sometimes obvious
messages, it remains heartfelt and real. More impressive is that Gang Starr can
deliver the message without ever resorting to politics. These are universal
messages about how to treat your fellow man, not surface-level complaints about
politics of the day. As a result, thirty years later the songs are still fresh.
The beats are fresh as well, with some solid
scratching from DJ Premier. On “DJ Premier
in Deep Concentration” it feels like he’s just showing off, but you are too
busy appreciating the skill to mind.
Rap was so pure in the day, and the samples employed
were always repurposed in a way that made it into new art. The sample laws of
the early nineties did a big disservice to rap, but in 1989 early adopters like
Gang Starr were free to try whatever would work. They respected the privilege and
the result is some very cool sample layers mixing funk and jazz into something
new. On top of it all, Guru drops his rhymes, unhurried and confident flow. That
flow has more than a few imperfect rhymes and there were times it made me
cringe, but for the most part Guru’s skillful delivery makes it work.
My biggest complaint with this record is it is too
long. It features 14 songs, but two are remixes (“Positivity” and “Manifest”)
and neither is necessary. The remix of “Manifest”
is particularly disappointing, because it pushes the vocals to the back of the
mix, making your ear strain to hear it. These early beats can’t carry all that
extra load, and it just felt like Guru was rapping through a tin can attached
to a string.
There are a few other songs I could live without as
well, but overall “No More Mr. Nice Guy” is a classic of early rap music. It
isn’t the best record of its time, but it is worth your time if you like this
era of the art form.
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