CD Odyssey Disc 1812: Big Daddy Kane

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

CD Odyssey Disc 1620: Big Daddy Kane

Happy Valentine’s Day! With our wedding anniversary so close to Valentine’s Day, this is one Sheila and I tend to downplay, but I can’t help but think happy thoughts about having found (as one of my friends from work c) “my human.” Thanks for giving me this wonderful life with you, darling!

Disc 1620 is…It’s a Big Daddy Thing

Artist: Big Daddy Kane

Year of Release: 1989

What’s up with the Cover?  Big Daddy hosts a pool party. There does not appear to be a pool (the guests are all sitting on the back of his limousine) but everyone’s in a bathing suit, so that’s my assumption.

Kane is shirtless and showing off a gold chain so thick it’s likely to give him back trouble in later years. Big Daddy often eschews a shirt, going with robes, togas, or - as is the case here - nothing at all. It’s a big daddy thing.

How I Came To Know It: Checking out old school rappers led me naturally to Kane, and once I fell for his debut album, “Long Live the Kane” (reviewed back at Disc 1108) it was an easy descent into all his awesome stuff. “It’s a Big Daddy Thing” is just part of that journey, which continues to this day.

How It Stacks Up: I have four Big Daddy Kane albums, twice as many as when I reviewed “Long Live the Kane” and I’m still growing the collection. Of the four I have, “It’s a Big Daddy Thing” comes in at a tie for #1, but since I don’t believe in ties, I’ll reluctantly put it in at #2.

Rating: 4 stars

Big Daddy Kane is considered part of the “golden age of hip hop”. This expression feels like it is pandering; a sort of “look what the old fellers used to do.” But it isn’t just that the celebrated rhyme concentration of someone like MF Doom wouldn’t exist without predecessors like Kane. It is more than that. This isn’t just musical history – this is some dope-ass, furious spitting as good as anything before or since.

Kane doesn’t get the same cred as some other early rap artists, but in terms of the sheer saturation of language few have ever done it so good. And fortunately, this being 1989, and one of the big topics to rap about is how well one raps, we have Kane proving it in his own words. Consider this little quatrain of pain from “Mortal Combat”:

“I seize and freeze MCs with these degrees
Put me to my knees, or at ease, chill'd please
I break it down, to bring on the next act
Rappers are so full of shit, they need ex-lax”

Now multiply the awesomeness of that by 10, and that’s what it’s like when Kane is delivering it out loud.

Kane is not alone in his brilliance, and the record features a laundry list of first-rate producers and DJs, including Marly Marl and Mister Cee among others. Kane produces half the tracks on the record on his own, and he is a natural. The samples on this record have a natural funk that makes this record not only a grab-bag of verbal delight, but a great party record as well.

This could be a dope bass line on “Smooth Operator” or a sampled horn riff on “Calling Mr. Welfare” but the choices are universally well chosen to bring the funk.

My biggest beef with this record is that it is too long. At 17 tracks and 76 minutes it is just too much – but what would I cut? Everywhere I turn there are incredible flows, rhymes, and samples. This record is saturated in excellence. What should go?

OK, one song can go. “To Be Your Man” tries to channel LL Cool J’s sensual slow jam, but it comes across as schmaltz, not sex. The chorus is an annoying earworm and the production includes a sample that sounds like a dental drill which, based on the number of times it recurs, was designed to annoy me.

However, this is the only song that annoyed me. The other 16 are various shades of great. I did not tire of this record once, and my only frustration is that I must reluctantly put it away and move on to my next random review.

Best tracks: Another Victory, Mortal Combat, Smooth Operator, Calling Mr. Welfare, Wrath of Kane (Live), I Get the Job Done, Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy, The House that Cee Built, Warm It Up Kane

CD Odyssey Disc 1108: Big Daddy Kane

Hard to put into words how I feel right now. Let’s go with…not good. A hard day of work? No problem. A bad spell of weather or a lingering cough? I can handle that. Hell – I even had a chuckle over a cancelled holiday last weekend.

But the one thing I cannot abide is anything that messes with my ability to listen to music. My MP3 player (Sony Walkman) got a bit of water on it on my walk home and now it has decided to permanently be “on hold”. As in – it doesn’t work. So in the likely even that I can’t get it fixed I’m going to have to get another one, and it wasn’t cheap.

I’m trying to see the positive – like how my costs per use on this device are already pretty amazing – but it is ringing hollow.

Alright – here’s a music review. I’ll write another one as soon as I have a way to listen to music. Grrr….

Disc 1108 is… Long Live the Kane

Artist: Big Daddy Kane

Year of Release: 1988

What’s up with the Cover? It’s good to be king.

How I Came To Know It: I kept seeing references to Big Daddy Kane when I was looking into other rappers. He would often be cited as an early influence for a lot of artists so eventually I decided to check him out myself. This was his first album so this is where I started.

How It Stacks Up:  I have two Big Daddy Kane albums, this one and 1990’s “Taste of Chocolate”. I am on the lookout for “It’s a Big Daddy Thing” but so far it has eluded me. Of the two I do have, “Long Live the Kane” is my favourite.

Ratings: 4 stars

I love the golden age of rap – back when raps were about showcasing the craft – just a man on a mic, a funky beat and a well-placed sample or two.

Big Daddy Kane is one of the early masters of the art form, and 30 years after its release “Long Live the Kane” is still fresh and powerful. He hits hard with an easy flow and solid rhymes that know how to land a clever resolution at just the right time. Sure there are dated references to Atari and VCR’s, but that just adds to the charm when raps are this good.

Kane’s is style is reminiscent of Rakim with a front-of –the-beat frantic pace that is fast as hell, but never rushed. He’s not as good as Rakim (no one is) but he puts himself in the conversation. His raps are lush with internal rhyme and metaphor that extends across several bars before resolving.

The samples are well chosen and are worked into the songs in a way that makes you see both the original song and the new beat in a new way. Modern samples are so often about stealing a hook. In Kane’s day they were repurposed to underscore a song’s theme (either directly or by reference to the song’s original subject matter) and were only a part of something new.

Kane gets this, mixing Staples Singers’ “I’ll Take You There” chorus with an equally compelling group of backup singers belting out “Big Daddy!”  The mix is so subtle that when one vocal is happening your ear is listening for the other, creating an echo chamber of groove in your head.

The album starts with incredible pace, as “Long Live the Kane” “Raw (Remix)” and “Set It Off” are all rap classics – or should be. He loses momentum on “The Day You’re Mine”, however, which reminded me of an LL Cool J love groove, but lacking the sexy romantic quality that Cool J manages.

The album features a lot of shout-outs, where Kane gives love to all his peers and idols. This is a rap tradition that I like, although on “Long Live the Kane” there might be one too many references. I guess Kane had a lot of friends – he is certainly well loved by those who came after.

As for me, I discovered Big Daddy Kane pretty damn late indeed, but I’m glad I did. I’ve got two of his albums already, and I’m on the lookout for more, “Long Live the Kane” is the record that got it all started; his first, and still one of his best.

Best tracks: Long Live the Kane, Raw (Remix), Set It Off, Ain’t No Half-Steppin’, I’ll Take You There