Eric Sermon feat. Keith Murray “Hostile” No Pressure Def Jam 1993

During this time of year, when the temperatures begin to slide closer to freezing and daylight gets progressively shorter, I tend to gravitate toward the more rugged, bare-bones style of hip hop production best exhibited by Buckwild, Da Beatminerz, the DITC crew, and of course, Erick Sermon.  The latter’s post-EMPD debut, No Pressure (1993), has been a recent rediscovery for me, a record I hadn’t heard since my early high school years when it initially dropped.  Sermon tends to get overlooked on most Favorite ‘90s Producers lists, which is understandable given the rather thin spectrum of his working methods: sampling “The Payback” for the umpteenth time, adding a chunky Skull Snaps drum loop, a dollop of sub-filtered bass, and a dash of melody from a Zapp or Parliament record, then repeat as necessary.  In short, he really only did one thing but damned if he didn’t do it well, and his work on the first three Redman records, Keith Murray’s first two joints, and his own solo ventures during the mid-‘90s holds up quite impressively when viewed as a whole.  Look closer and the monotony begins to grow tedious, but the unintentional hilarity of Sermon’s lyrics and delivery often makes up for it.  Case in point: “Hostile,” from his debut, which is most notable for introducing the world to an 18 year-old kid from Brentwood, Long Island, named Keith Murray.

I’ve been playing this song once a day for the past week and each time I find something else to love about it.  The first impression one might get is that “Hostile” sounds like it was recorded in an abandoned warehouse somewhere along the East River.  There isn’t a shred of melodic content to latch onto, just a thumping drum pattern and a subterranean bassline that threatens to drown everything out at any moment.  Some dude named Jeff Stewart acts as MC for a lyrical showcase of sorts featuring Sermon and Murray, introducing Sermon by his half-dozen aliases, from the Funk Lord to his preferred secondary nomenclature, The Green-Eyed Bandit.  The E-Double spits a typical 20 bars full of his trademarked braggadocio, complete with phrases that sound great but don’t make a whole lot of sense upon closer inspection (“swinging more shit than Tarzan”).  Murray’s verse, which he amusingly opens with “Keif Murree!” is animated to the point of theatricality, his excessively-delayed vocal ricocheting off the walls and wildly varying in pitch.  He avoids the downbeat on nearly every line, invents words like “beautifullest” and “illiotic,” and threatens to “break out” his “‘get busy’ tools.”  Classic, head-nodding stuff that could have only come out in 1993.

“Hostile” – Eric Sermon feat. Keith Murray 3:38 (No Pressure, Def Jam 2008)

My mentioning of AZ’s Doe or Die (1995) a few weeks ago when presenting a handful of hip hop-related conversation-enders sparked a recent reawakening of my appreciation for the album, despite its front-loaded nature and hit-or-miss production.  Today I thought I’d tackle one of Pete Rock’s two productions on the record, the Nas-assisted “Gimme Yours,” whose remix was also released as a second single (and produced by the Soul Brother).  I haven’t dissected a beat in quite some time and could always use more entries in the Pete Rock Appreciation Society – shout to Dan Love.

Lyrically, “Gimme Yours” hardly deviates from the street-Mafioso content that defines Doe or Die, or as our narrator succinctly puts it, “rolling trees, stacking Gs.” Nas makes his first of two appearances on the record (the second being the DR Period-helmed “Mo Money, Mo Murder, Mo Homicide”), though he eschews dropping a verse here for merely singing the hook with a blunted, half-conscious inflection.  Pete, following the release of his second full-length with CL Smooth and who was likely working on the Deda and InI records at the time, contributed a track that was typical of his production style then, namely lush, almost saccharine soul samples floating atop rugged drum loops, with little of the chopping and arranging of micro-snippets that would dominate his work toward at the end of the decade.

For “Gimme Yours” Pete resurrects an old Minnie Riperton single, 1980’s “Here We Go,” released just after her death and featuring a posthumously-recorded vocal from Peabo Bryson.  Pete focuses on the four bars of melodic content from 0:21 to 0:33 on the original, where Minnie’s first verse begins and the drums drop out to reveal a harp and synthesizer.  Wisely (given the general public’s familiarity with Riperton’s unique voice), the producer extracts the music between her vocals, most notably a descending arpeggio from the harp at the conclusion of the fourth bar in the original.  Perhaps realizing its sonic prominence, Pete then inserts the arpeggio in the first bar of the loop, and its diminished harmonic color contrasts nicely with the warmth of the Abmaj7 chord.  The E natural and G flat from the arpeggio appear again in the second bar to add some flavor to the harmonically-ambiguous Bb chord, a dreamlike effect that’s heightened by the fluttering Cm7 chord that concludes the loop.  The buzz of the synthesizer is faintly detectable in the mix, though its role seems to enhance rather than complement the harp.  I’m not familiar enough with the logistics of the harp to know for sure whether or not this passage is actually playable, but to these ears it’s some aural candy that’s hard to resist, and the track’s three-minute runtime is all-too-brief because of it.

“Here We Go” – Minnie Riperton feat. Peabo Bryson 4:04 (Love Lives Forever, Capitol 1980)

“Gimme Yours” – AZ feat. Nas 3:08 (Doe or Die, EMI 1995)

I stopped reviewing mixtapes on this site a long time ago for two primary reasons: my Inbox is already cluttered with enough PR bullshit on a daily basis, and why compete with the best in the business?  That being said, it would be near impossible for me to let Zilla Rocca’s new disc, Bring Me the Head of Zilla Rocca (2008), slip under the radar, even if it is, technically, a ‘mixtape’ that he’s offering for free over at his site Clap Cowards.

Even if 2008 wasn’t one of the more miserable years for hip hop in recent memory, this would still be one of the best things I’ve heard all year.  Take notes, aspiring MCs, as Bring Me the Head is exactly how a mixtape should be constructed: superb beat selection, impeccable pacing, solid guest spots that are kept to a minimum, and Zilla’s pen remains as sharp as ever.  It’s a rare occurrence indeed when I’m left wanting more after 22 tracks in 67 minutes.  Any critic will have reservations about plugging their friends’ music fairly in a public setting such as this, but honestly, when the material is this good, those qualms all but dissipate entirely.  And again, it’s free, so why not grab yourself a copy?

“All Feast No Famine” – Zilla Rocca feat. ASK? & MAGr 3:18 (Bring Me the Head of Zilla Rocca, Beat Garden 2008)