So, about a month ago Sam sat me down and told me to listen to a song, promising me that I would recognize the sample used in it. Sadly, this is a game we spring on one another all too often. I eagerly took a seat and began to listen to this song. Within the first 10 seconds I recognized the unmistakable sample that is used in the legendary People Under The Stairs song, Acid Raindrops. He told me the group was called InI, so I booked it home and got to searching. By the time I found it was about 2AM and I was getting ready to hit the sack, and there were two album options to download. Not knowing which one was the right one, I clicked both links and passed out. The next day I woke up to realize that only one of the albums had been InI, and the other was some artist called Deda. After listening to the first few tracks it was obvious that downloading this album was the best mistake I had ever made. The dude sounded like a young Biggie Smalls rapping over fresh jazz beats! Turns out that back in the early 90's our good friend Pete Rock decided to try out some producing and in the meantime help some rising hip hop artists get their names heard, and so: Deda, InI, Meccalicious, and YG'z (not to be confused with Young Gunz, who also go by YG'z) were born and, very shortly after, died. Unfortunately, the record companies didn't take, and all four groups were dropped from their record labels, never to be heard from again. My recommendation would be to go check all 4 out, because they're definitely worth listening to, and you can find most of their songs on youtube. Unfortunately I have yet to find the full ablums of YG'z and Meccalicious, and therefor can't give a review as of yet, but they will surely be posted here when discovered. So for now, here's Deda and InI:
Deda -The Original Baby Pa (1995)
This album is interesting to me. Being a huge fan of Biggie's rapping style, as well as absolutely loving jazz samples in hip hop, you'd think this album would receive a higher score than I gave it, but such is not quite the case. While the album holds together quite nicely as a whole, I never found myself being blown away by any one particular track, which is something that I look for in an album. Deda has an incredible voice, well thought out rhymes, and smooth beats, however his songs all seem very similar to one another. Because of this, the beats start to sound unoriginal and straightforward, and the same can be said for Deda's rhymes. That aside, it is still a phenomenal album to put on as any sort of background music, or if you wanna just bump and don't have a particular song in mind.
Overall: 7.8
Choice Song(s): Press Rewind
Similar Artists: Notorious B.I.G., Surreal & The Sound Providers
InI - Center of Attention (1995)
Phenomenal hip hop album, through and through. Unlike The Original Baby Pa, this album has too many good, original sounding songs, which made it very difficult to pick out favorites. This is not an album I would put on as background music, because when I put this album on I completely tune into it. Hell, I'm having a difficult time focusing on this review at the moment. InI finds the careful balance between using primarily jazz samples in their beats and still having songs that stand out from one another. I would recommend this album to anyone who loves hip hop, as well as anyone who has yet to realize that they love hip hop.
Overall: 9.0 (first impression)
Choice Song(s): What You Say, KrossRoads, Props
Similar Artists: Surreal & The Sound Providers, Y Society
