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.

Juice soundtrack at Newbury Comics.

Big Daddy Kane “Raw” (Remix)
Big Daddy Kane feat. Kool G. Rap “Raw” (Remix)

I’m feeling a little uninspired today, so we’re gonna go on a brief nostalgia trip. (Marley Marl’s House of Hits has been on heavy rotation in the car, for what it’s worth.)

Big Daddy Kane’s my favorite rapper of all-time, which sort of gives me away as an old fart with a Golden Age of Hip Hop fixation. His time in the sun was kind of brief by today’s standards–two and half classic albums followed by a precipitous falloff in the form of The Prince of Darkness, a wildly ill-conceived R&B effort that derailed his career. That lover-man persona was always his Achilles’ heel. Nonetheless, he’s being deservedly recognized today as a pioneer, innovator, legend.

“Raw,” a 1987 single and highlight of the following year’s debut LP Long Live the Kane, was Kane’s breakthrough. It propelled him out of Biz Markie’s shadow (stop laughing!) and to the forefront of NYC hip hop, which at the time seemed to account, more or less, for all of hip hop. The hot argument would become who’s the Best MC Ever: Kane or Rakim?

So two versions here, the remix that appeared on Long Live the Kane and a remake with new lyrics and a guest spot by Kool G Rap, a Brooklyn fellow traveler whose snarling proto-gangsta style allowed him to totally pull off a lisp, taken from a mixtape by contemporary Boston b-boy Edan.

The backing is a slamming Marley Marl track built from James Brown (and family) samples — the industry standard of the time. Onto this sturdy structure, Kane spills a bountiful love note to himself.

I’ve been marveling at the masterful interplay of sound, meaning and delivery. It’s not that they hadn’t invented choruses by then, it’s just that when you can turn a cutting, clever phrase every bar, there be the hooks. He dives into ego and comes up inspiring smiles, tripping from one allusive simile to the next, restlessly changing up the cadence of his flow again and again.

These aren’t, mind you, unique to BDK, it’s just that he set the high-water mark: precision of science, grace of art, but doesn’t forget that MC means “master of ceremonies,” which means there’s a party going on right here.

Long Live the Kane at Newbury Comics.
Fast Rap at UndergroundHipHop.com.