Who’s Got The Juice?
Eric B. & Rakim “Juice (Know The Ledge)”
Big Daddy Kane “Nuff’ Respect”
Way back when, there was a time when the best hip hop samplers came in the form of movie soundtracks. Sure, there were some bum tracks–in particular, R&B tracks to go with love scenes could be tireless when they weren’t awesome–but you have a couple stone-cold classics like New Jack City, Juice, I think even Menace II Society. Ricochet had a hot title track and of course Snoop Dogg’s debut for most of us was teaming up with Dr. Dre for the title track to Deep Cover.
I could argue that artist recruitment back then for this kind of project was based more on aesthetics than marketing, but that might be another example of a bygone era’s rosy sheen in the eyes of an old fart.
But back to 1991’s Juice soundtrack, a find on a recent trip to Amoeba. I’m gonna call this the last gasp of hip hop’s Golden Age, something sorta close to me olde heart. Here you have two amazing tracks by the era’s Kings of New York, Kane and Rakim, just before they would both release the weakest albums of their careers, with tracks by members the era’s most revolutionary production team, the Bomb Squad (Public Enemy’s silent partners).
“Juice (Know The Ledge),” the movie’s theme, rides a tight one-bar drum loop and ominous jazz bass sample, as Rakim flips ferocious verses, part plot summary–really and already kind of pat stuff for the urban drama genre–and part expertly-rendered braggodocio. What’s pretty amazing about this track is that as much as R tears it up on the verse, you find yrself anxious for him to come around to the “let’s see if I know the ledge” refrain and segue to Eric B.’s turntable wizardry on the chorus.
Big Daddy Kane’s “Nuff’ Respect” ups the ante for the kind of dark, brutal, claustrophobic funk we came to love on P.E.’s work. I don’t know if the points get too expensive nowadays when sampling James Brown and his proteges, but the incredible catchiness of the “hey-hey” chant that punctuates each bar of this song makes me want to mount a Bring Back Bobby Byrd campaign.
Kane has the advantage over R, given the freedom to drop a straight-up boast rap. Once you get past the misplaced apostrophe in the title (there, I’ve satisfied my smitty OCD), you have the man in top form, doing what he does best. OK, I have some reservations about the “yr found on a woman/and my penis goes in you” diss, but there’s half a dozen other money lines, spit at hyperspeed.
