Another family-themed album, as we go from the Handsome Family to Big Daddy Kane. Will the Secret Sisters be next? Mother Mother? How am I supposed to know – this happens randomly.
Disc 1812 is…Daddy’s Home
Artist: Big Daddy Kane
Year of Release: 1994
What’s up with the Cover? Big Daddy is up and enjoying a morning coffee, thinking about all the ladies he will bed, and all the emcees he will murder. That covers fuck and kill, but what about marry? We must assume Big Daddy is married to the music.
In other news, I am writing this review on Saturday morning in my bathrobe while having a coffee, so me and Big Daddy are wearing the same outfit and doing the same thing – just 30 years apart.
How I Came To Know It: As I’ve mentioned on previous reviews, I naturally found Big Daddy Kane through other rap artists based on references and reputation alone. “Daddy’s Home” was me drilling through his later catalogue, but I was already hooked.
How It Stacks Up: I have four Big Daddy Kane records and I’m on the hunt for a fifth. Of the four I have, “Daddy’s Home” comes in at #3.
Ratings: 4 stars
Long-time readers will know that I consider Rakim the greatest emcee of all time. I stand by that, but Big Daddy Kane is a very close second. While “Daddy’s Home” is a later entry in his studio albums, his excellence with both rhyme and flow are as strong as ever.
Writing Big Daddy Kane reviews difficult, mostly because I listen to albums while I write, and Kane is so good he is distracting. Here I am literally trying to string some words together for effect while there is some dude in my ears that is stringing words together in ways that are so intricate and engaging they brook no room for competition.
That’s fitting, since Kane is one of those old school rappers who spends a lot of his time talking about how he raps better than his competitors. There’s nothing better than a song claiming I rap better than you, which simultaneously proves its point while making it.
Kane can deliver that early rhyme at the end of the bar action (and does) or he can throw in a furious four or five internal rhymes into a single line. He can drop a reference that makes you smile and nod that no one thought of it before, and he can do it all going as fast and slow as the beat requires without ever missing the pocket. The whole while he enunciates as clear as day – take note modern mumble-rappers – it can be done.
There were countless moments time listening to this record I would smile at one of Kane’s turns of phrase and vow to quote it later in my review, but frankly there are so many my memory was quickly overwhelmed. Even when they come back to me, it wouldn’t do them justice because the flow of Kane’s delivery is half the magic, and without it the experience would be lost. Listening to Big Daddy Kane is about laying back and letting it happen to you. You aren’t able to keep up, but that’s OK, few can.
When Kane isn’t testifying about outrapping his competitors, his topics include sex, where he also brags about his prowess. In this case we have to take his word for it. He ventures into gangster/crime topics only in terms of opposing that kind of life. He’s from an older school where rap battles replaced street battles.
I like all the topics, but Kane is often his best self when he is sticking to the “I am the best at this” themes. It feels like in these moments he rises up to another level (“Let Yourself Go” and “That’s How I Did ‘Em” being two strong examples).
The record has the usual experience of the time with multiple guest rappers lending their talents, notably Big Scoob (who I think is next on my list for exploring) and an early guest appearance by Jay-Z (who appears here as J.Z.) two years before he released his first record. He only gets a few bars, but the talent is already evident. Is he as good as Big Daddy Kane? Hey, no shade on the indisputably great Jay-Z, but read the opening paragraph for the answer to that.
Best tracks: Daddy’s Home, Show and Prove, Lyrical Gymnastics, That’s How I Did ‘Em, Somebody’s Been Sleeping in My Bed, Let Yourself Go
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