CEITEDMOFO
Banned
There’s a new Kool G Rap album due some time in the near future titled Return of the Don, featuring Sean Price, Raekwon and Saigon. Following on from the KRS-One LP ranking I thought I’d take a shot at ranking the discography of the greatest MC of all time.
Wanted: Dead or Alive
The definitive Kool G Rap experience, as Large Professor and G combined forces (‘overseen’ by Mr. Eric Barrier, natch) to deliver cutting-edge beats to match the state-of-the-art rapping on show. ‘Kool Is Back,’ ‘Bad To The Bone’ and ‘Death Wish’ are pure dynamite; ‘Talk Like Sex’ takes dirty rapp’s to the next stage of evolution (although it had the unfortunate side-effect of providing a blueprint for Necro’s entire career) and ‘Streets of New York’ is essentially the nineties answer to ‘The Message’ in all the right ways.
Live and Let Die
The pairing of Sir Jinx and G Rap is the most inspired piece of casting since Danny Aiello replaced Bob DeNiro as Sal in Do The Right Thing, since he was busy filming the wholly unnecessary remake of Cape Fear. The tape and CD versions had three early Trackmasterz tunes hurriedly tacked-on in an attempt to appease salty east coast rap fans, but they don’t gel with the flow of the rest of the album at all, making the original vinyl release the best way to experience KGR’s tales of mafia rip-offs, stick-ups on the iron horse and brutal beheadings of Mattel toys in retribution for coitus interruptus. The strength of Live and Let Die is the variety on offer, as it showcases the best of what the Kool Genius of Rap brings to the table – blistering wordplay, engaging narratives, over-the-top ultraviolence and a twisted sense of humour.
Road To The Riches
After the jaw-dropping opening salvo of the title track, ‘It’s A Demo’ and ‘Men At Work,’ the group’s debut takes a few strange turns with an unconvincing and completely out of character attempt at a ballad, a bizarre Gary Numan tribute and a b-side that never really takes off until ‘Poison’ arrives. This once again brings up the idea that I was discussing the other week, as to whether the strength of an album’s opening three songs can overshadow any other shortcomings the record might have. In that regard, Road To The Riches still qualifies as a classic based on the strength of how it begins, but drops it down a couple of spots when compared to G’s overall catalogue and fails to include early singles such as ‘Riker’s Island,’ ‘I’m Fly’ and ‘Rhyme Time.’
4,5,6
The highlights of this troubled project are incredible, with ‘Executioner Style,’ ‘Take ‘Em To War’ and the title track positively dripping with menace and atmosphere, but it’s not all clear sailing. The duet with Nas serves as a passing of the torch, but it wasn’t until the superior remixes from Salaam Remi and the Vinyl Reanimators that ‘Fast Life’ really hit it’s straps, while ‘Money On My Brain’ is weighed down by an overly familiar Herbie Hancock loop and the original mix of ‘It’s A Shame’ pales in comparison to the Dr. Butcher mix, leaving only nine new songs on offer.
Roots of Evil
Worth a look-in thanks to ‘One Dark Night,’ ‘Thugs Love Story’ and ‘Foul Cats,’ but suffers from an obsession with Scarface and Godfather scenarios.
Riches, Royalty and Respect
The highlight of this album is ‘AmeriKKKa’s Nightmare,’ which combines a great Alchemist beat with a Havoc feature. Not to say the rest of it isn’t worth a listen, as it’s got the best beats G has flexed over since 4,5,6 but G lacks that vocal urgency that made his earlier work so compelling.
Half A Klip
The story behind how this EP got made is a lot more entertaining than the finished product. I liked ‘Risin’ Up’ a lot though.
Click of Respect
This may have rated higher if the weed carriers hadn’t been involved. ‘Air You Out’ and ‘Blackin Out’ work though.
The Giancana Story
I have three different versions of this album but don’t enjoy any of them. I also wrote a feature of the ill-fated story of it’s creation for Redbull Music Acadmemy back in 2015.
http://www.unkut.com/2017/03/ranking-kool-g-raps-albums/#more-11438
Wanted: Dead or Alive
The definitive Kool G Rap experience, as Large Professor and G combined forces (‘overseen’ by Mr. Eric Barrier, natch) to deliver cutting-edge beats to match the state-of-the-art rapping on show. ‘Kool Is Back,’ ‘Bad To The Bone’ and ‘Death Wish’ are pure dynamite; ‘Talk Like Sex’ takes dirty rapp’s to the next stage of evolution (although it had the unfortunate side-effect of providing a blueprint for Necro’s entire career) and ‘Streets of New York’ is essentially the nineties answer to ‘The Message’ in all the right ways.
Live and Let Die
The pairing of Sir Jinx and G Rap is the most inspired piece of casting since Danny Aiello replaced Bob DeNiro as Sal in Do The Right Thing, since he was busy filming the wholly unnecessary remake of Cape Fear. The tape and CD versions had three early Trackmasterz tunes hurriedly tacked-on in an attempt to appease salty east coast rap fans, but they don’t gel with the flow of the rest of the album at all, making the original vinyl release the best way to experience KGR’s tales of mafia rip-offs, stick-ups on the iron horse and brutal beheadings of Mattel toys in retribution for coitus interruptus. The strength of Live and Let Die is the variety on offer, as it showcases the best of what the Kool Genius of Rap brings to the table – blistering wordplay, engaging narratives, over-the-top ultraviolence and a twisted sense of humour.
Road To The Riches
After the jaw-dropping opening salvo of the title track, ‘It’s A Demo’ and ‘Men At Work,’ the group’s debut takes a few strange turns with an unconvincing and completely out of character attempt at a ballad, a bizarre Gary Numan tribute and a b-side that never really takes off until ‘Poison’ arrives. This once again brings up the idea that I was discussing the other week, as to whether the strength of an album’s opening three songs can overshadow any other shortcomings the record might have. In that regard, Road To The Riches still qualifies as a classic based on the strength of how it begins, but drops it down a couple of spots when compared to G’s overall catalogue and fails to include early singles such as ‘Riker’s Island,’ ‘I’m Fly’ and ‘Rhyme Time.’
4,5,6
The highlights of this troubled project are incredible, with ‘Executioner Style,’ ‘Take ‘Em To War’ and the title track positively dripping with menace and atmosphere, but it’s not all clear sailing. The duet with Nas serves as a passing of the torch, but it wasn’t until the superior remixes from Salaam Remi and the Vinyl Reanimators that ‘Fast Life’ really hit it’s straps, while ‘Money On My Brain’ is weighed down by an overly familiar Herbie Hancock loop and the original mix of ‘It’s A Shame’ pales in comparison to the Dr. Butcher mix, leaving only nine new songs on offer.
Roots of Evil
Worth a look-in thanks to ‘One Dark Night,’ ‘Thugs Love Story’ and ‘Foul Cats,’ but suffers from an obsession with Scarface and Godfather scenarios.
Riches, Royalty and Respect
The highlight of this album is ‘AmeriKKKa’s Nightmare,’ which combines a great Alchemist beat with a Havoc feature. Not to say the rest of it isn’t worth a listen, as it’s got the best beats G has flexed over since 4,5,6 but G lacks that vocal urgency that made his earlier work so compelling.
Half A Klip
The story behind how this EP got made is a lot more entertaining than the finished product. I liked ‘Risin’ Up’ a lot though.
Click of Respect
This may have rated higher if the weed carriers hadn’t been involved. ‘Air You Out’ and ‘Blackin Out’ work though.
The Giancana Story
I have three different versions of this album but don’t enjoy any of them. I also wrote a feature of the ill-fated story of it’s creation for Redbull Music Acadmemy back in 2015.
http://www.unkut.com/2017/03/ranking-kool-g-raps-albums/#more-11438
