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Paperboy
The Nine Yards
1992, Paperboy was a true one-hit-wonder thanks to "Ditty," a song that is still undeniably catchy to this day. The problem is that - nostalgia for "Ditty" aside - the album sounds to horribly dated. And in a sense it was almost doomed to feel dated from the moment it was released. You see it was only two months later that Dr. Dre would release The Chronic and take this West Coast funk-sampling thing to its pinnacle. The brilliance of Dr. Dre's record and the immediate influence it would have on the landscape of mainstream hip hop - both from the Death Row camp and beyond - would basically make this more light-hearted take on the G-Funk sub-genre sound cloying. And while it's not fair to compare a record like this to something groundbreaking that hadn't even been released yet, it is fair to say that The Nine Yards does suffer from too much of the same. There's just nothing all that inspired here. The vocals are also mixed oddly low, making it even easier to not pay much attention to them. The songs are serviceable, but they're also lacking personality. This would have been fine as background music as a party, but outside of that stray single, nothing else will make you take notice nor stick in your brain after it's ended.
Questionmark Asylum
The Album
1995, An interesting story, this one. Questionmark Asylum were a group from Washington DC (the first hip hop group from DC signed to a major label perhaps) who spent much of their career struggling with label politics. The release of The Album itself was a victory, and much of the material here talks about the hardships they went through to see it exist. So perhaps it's no shock that the stress leading up to this would result in the crew imploding. Sadly the record made it to retail with a whimper and the group dissolved almost immediately. It's too bad, as there was quite a bit of charm to be found here. It's impossible to not compare QA to The Pharcyde - both in vocal timbres and in beat choice. But that's not a bad thing of course. Much of the material here is upbeat - even when dealing with darker issues - and the crew has an ear for the melodic - often choosing to half-sing their raps or stagger lines in a way that seems informed by bop. In fact "Get With You/I'd Rather Be With You" even goes so far as to incorporate a live band. Admittedly things feel slightly silly when travel into sex-rap territory on tracks like "Freakazoid" or "Sex On The Brain," and there's an awkward heavy-handedness to the safe sex warning on "Got Dem Joints," but for the most part the album is solid throughout. Their lone single "Hey Lookaway" is still a fun breezy party track, "Curse Of The Q" is a self-deprecating tale of label woes, and "You Don't Understand" is a great downer track with a brilliant use of Diana Ross' "Love Hangover." And interesting story, and a forgotten record worth checking out.
R.A. The Rugged Man
Legendary Classics Volume 1
2009, RA is a true rappers' rapper. He's been putting out singles, making cameos, and almost breaking out for nearly two decades. He's been signed to and dropped from more labels than you can imagine. In fact he had at least two major label debuts finished and ready to go years before he finally dropped an album on Nature Sounds in 2004. Legendary Classics is a nice archival release that serves as a primer to this story. It compiles tracks ranging from various one-off singles, collabs with other rappers, tracks from those unreleased albums and so on. It's a really good sampling of the underground career that happened before his proper debut - and as such the quality of the material will fluctuate, but it's almost always fascinating. Even if he hasn't yet found full control of his voice on underground favorite "Every Record Label Sucks D**k," its inclusion here is an important part of the story. What's really nice is the full package though. The liner notes include background about every song, and the bonus DVD includes a short interview with RA's dad, some live performances, interviews with RA about these songs, as well as a sampling of music videos.
Scratch
The Embodiment Of Instrumentation
2002, Scratch was a beat-boxing member of The Roots who joined up around the time of Illadelph Halflife. Much like the other beat-boxer in the group, Rahzel, at some point Scratch decided that he should make a solo album that was completely made using his vocals as instrumentation. And much like Rahzel's album, this one will basically just make you say "oh cool... there's no samples or instruments," but won't really stay with you beyond that. It's impressive, there's no doubt. Scratch is definitely talented. And the guest vocals (from The Roots crew and beyond) are all serviceable but nothing standout. Indeed this record is hip hop for sport. It's a project that exists more as a proof of concept than as a great album to listen to.
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