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Blackwards, Roll.

Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts
edited April 2008 in Strut Central
SUCH a good record.My shit: "In The Ways Of The Scales". One of the hardest beats out back then.
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  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    SUCH a good record.



    My shit: "In The Ways Of The Scales". One of the hardest beats out back then.

    My Shit - Verbs Of Power......

    "Production of a White Kryptonite....."

    I always have trouble placin this classic in my collection. Does it go in my 80's crate or does it go w/ my Native Toungue crate, cause Brother J went to school w/ Baby Bam & Q-Tip.

    Brother J > all the Native Tounge MCs
  • HamHam 872 Posts
    Tribal Jam is one of my favourite songs from that era. perfect.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    My shit: "In The Ways Of The Scales". One of the hardest beats out back then.

    No doubt. But The Furious 5 flipped it first.
  • DJ_EnkiDJ_Enki 6,475 Posts
    SUCH a good record.



    My shit: "In The Ways Of The Scales". One of the hardest beats out back then.

    Massive cosignature. I absolutely fuck[/b]ing love this record. And I do think people get caught up in the image of the group and overlook just how ill of an MC Brother J was/is. The way he rides the beat on "Verbal Milk" is perfection.
  • BurnsBurns 2,227 Posts
  • JacobWizzleJacobWizzle 1,003 Posts
    SUCH a good record.



    My shit: "In The Ways Of The Scales". One of the hardest beats out back then.

    My Shit - Verbs Of Power......


    Man Verbs of Power and In the Ways of the Scales were the SHIT. i pretty much liked the whole album though. In Seattle, that tape was super big with all the gang members I went to school, to the point of kids in history class reading out loud like Professor X. I always thought the DJ was real dope too. Obviously Brother J was cold.
  • djdazedjdaze 3,099 Posts
    SUCH a good record.



    My shit: "In The Ways Of The Scales". One of the hardest beats out back then.

    this explains so much

    b/w

    Egyptian fantasies exposed
  • edpowersedpowers 4,437 Posts
    Top 10 easy
  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    It just can't be said enough how much In the Ways of the Scales is the jam.
  • LuckLoopLuckLoop 103 Posts
    havent put this on for a loooong time. maybe im going back to it.

    Brother J is really one of my favorite rappers. the dark sun riders joint was also good, very mid-nineties sounding though.

    i also ride for their new album "Return From Mecca" its got some filler but on an album with 21 tracks this is to be expected



    and he had a feature on that Dwight Trible album that was just bonkers.
  • Controller_7Controller_7 4,052 Posts
  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts


    Brother J is really one of my favorite rappers. the dark sun riders joint was also good, very mid-nineties sounding though.


    As well as appreciation for Blackwards, cosign on the Dark Sun Riders being an under appreciated nineties gem - Ultraman has posted on this board a few times recently.
  • m_dejeanm_dejean Quadratisch. Praktisch. Gut. 2,946 Posts
    I always thought the DJ was real dope too.

    Sugar Shaft, yeah. The DJ track ("Shaft's Big Score") was one of my favorite jams on that LP. Didn't he die some years ago?

    I remember when I first heard "Raise The Flag" on the radio. Brother J was nasty on the mic. His voice was so distinct and authorative.

    I need to pull the Dark Sun Riders LP off the shelf. Haven't listened to that in many years. I actually can't recall it at all.
  • cpeetzcpeetz 2,112 Posts
    I wonder how many times I heard somebody say, "SISSY" all deep and booming
    that year.






    I wonder if Barack was bumpin some X-Clan in 1990?
    Will they try to "Swift Boat" him with some shit like this?
    I can see it now "Well Barry and me used ride around town listening Public Enemy,
    X-Clan, Ice Cube..."
  • roistoroisto 881 Posts
    Co-sign. Brother J is one of my favorite rappers ever. His voice is dope, too.
  • djkingottodjkingotto 1,704 Posts
    this is easily a top 10 greatest rap album. too bad it came out during a time when labels weren't really putting out vinyl, like they did in the 80s or the mid-late 90s... i used to rewind "verbs of power" over and over until i said the ryhmes all the way without effing up. anyone know what record they sampled?
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    too bad it came out during a time when labels weren't really putting out vinyl, like they did in the 80s or the mid-late 90s...

    HUH? I dont remember there being a wax drought in 1990. Is the wax low count?
    I dont recall this being scarce at all.

    B/W

    This is one album that doesnt get played during the "So-Called Golden Age" DJ sets for Becky & Chad to lipsync. And this was all over the radio in '90, right along all the hits. Ralph McDaniels played all their video w/ all the affiliates.
    Queen Mother Rage,Isis - who still looks cute, and Professor X solo joint.

    Wasnt there supposed to be a Sugar Shaft solo album?
  • DJ_EnkiDJ_Enki 6,475 Posts
    This is one album that doesnt get played during the "So-Called Golden Age" DJ sets for Becky & Chad to lipsync.

    It definitely gets played by me on the regular. But no, Becky & Chad aren't too with it. Not that that dissuades me from playing it anyway.
  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts
    Yeah then he died
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    This is one album that doesnt get played during the "So-Called Golden Age" DJ sets for Becky & Chad to lipsync.

    It definitely gets played by me on the regular. But no, Becky & Chad aren't too with it. Not that that dissuades me from playing it anyway.

    No doubt. i used to rock it when i spun, but as time passes, this isnt held up that same way as all the other hits that it ran w/. X-Clan was popular.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Yeah then he died

    I think he was reported to have Sickle Cell even when they were poppin'.
  • DJ_EnkiDJ_Enki 6,475 Posts
    This is one album that doesnt get played during the "So-Called Golden Age" DJ sets for Becky & Chad to lipsync.

    It definitely gets played by me on the regular. But no, Becky & Chad aren't too with it. Not that that dissuades me from playing it anyway.

    No doubt. i used to rock it when i spun, but as time passes, this isnt held up that same way as all the other hits that it ran w/. X-Clan was popular.

    Very true. Though in a way, I'm kind of glad--I wouldn't want X-Clan joints joining "The Choice Is Yours" on the "Ugh, I'm so sick of that song, I never want to hear it again!" list.

    Does anybody else remember the Fly Girls dancing to "Funkin' Lesson" on In Living Color?
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    This is one album that doesnt get played during the "So-Called Golden Age" DJ sets for Becky & Chad to lipsync.

    It definitely gets played by me on the regular. But no, Becky & Chad aren't too with it. Not that that dissuades me from playing it anyway.

    No doubt. i used to rock it when i spun, but as time passes, this isnt held up that same way as all the other hits that it ran w/. X-Clan was popular.

    Very true. Though in a way, I'm kind of glad--I wouldn't want X-Clan joints joining "The Choice Is Yours" on the "Ugh, I'm so sick of that song, I never want to hear it again!" list.


    w/ A Key....
  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts
    The thing is, with a lot of other groups the messages, references, in-jokes, and metaphors flew over the head of your average suburban white listener. I think even Upski wrote about it in "We Use Words Like Mackadocious" where he talks about kids on the hood of their parents' volvo singing the words to "Soul By The Pound", oblivious to the meaning. X-Clan's style was a lot harder to squeeze into a tame, cartoonish box like ATCQ or De La Soul... or a straight party vibe like Black Sheep.
  • djkingottodjkingotto 1,704 Posts
    too bad it came out during a time when labels weren't really putting out vinyl, like they did in the 80s or the mid-late 90s...

    HUH? I dont remember there being a wax drought in 1990. Is the wax low count?
    I dont recall this being scarce at all.

    word? not so much for singles but albums for sure. remember krs at the beginning of sex and violence, "we're djs, we need vinyl! you're killin the djs!" a lot of stuff that came out between maybe 89 and 93 didn't get on wax until it was reissued or came out in really low numbers. i'm sure NY had a much larger market for this but in seattle, those years were tough. a lot of the albums i have from those years were promo only vinyl.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    too bad it came out during a time when labels weren't really putting out vinyl, like they did in the 80s or the mid-late 90s...

    HUH? I dont remember there being a wax drought in 1990. Is the wax low count?
    I dont recall this being scarce at all.

    word? not so much for singles but albums for sure. remember krs at the beginning of sex and violence, "we're djs, we need vinyl! you're killin the djs!" a lot of stuff that came out between maybe 89 and 93 didn't get on wax until it was reissued or came out in really low numbers. i'm sure NY had a much larger market for this but in seattle, those years were tough. a lot of the albums i have from those years were promo only vinyl.

    I feel u. I can imagine what Seattle was like. But in NYC i was able to cop/see a gang of even the bigger named West Coast albums....CMW.ATL.QUIK.etcbut yeah iwas in NYC.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    The thing is, with a lot of other groups the messages, references, in-jokes, and metaphors flew over the head of your average suburban white listener. I think even Upski wrote about it in "We Use Words Like Mackadocious" where he talks about kids on the hood of their parents' volvo singing the words to "Soul By The Pound", oblivious to the meaning. X-Clan's style was a lot harder to squeeze into a tame, cartoonish box like ATCQ or De La Soul... or a straight party vibe like Black Sheep.

    w/ a Key


    Walkin through the streets with a great war cry
    Had enough and not another one dies
    Nine to the rescue, run the path
    Down to the mortals, and lead the wrath
    (?) what we talk is with the squealing of pigs
    "Them niggaz don't have permits and them takin the bridge"
    What can you do, what can you say?
    Life in the zero, the game we play
    Fist up to get down, always ready to step
    And if they hit me with that stick yo man I'll break your beck
    I'll walk with the lions, stalk with the elephant
    Pivot like gorilla, pigs become irrelevant
    And you persist with legalities
    I resist and rebel cause I'm reality
    And while I'm boomin this, I'm not a Humanist
    I'm just a pro-black nigga and I'm doin this
    And don't you try to prove, that you can make a move
    Because I'm outraged devil, it's a different groove
    And if you come again, this shit'll never end
    And we will fight through time through the very end
    You get my point son? You get my point dad?
    I'm goin back to your caves and I'm quite bad
    I do a war dance, and cause a avalanche
    And do the great pimp strut cause I'm a black man!

  • DJ_EnkiDJ_Enki 6,475 Posts
    The thing is, with a lot of other groups the messages, references, in-jokes, and metaphors flew over the head of your average suburban white listener. I think even Upski wrote about it in "We Use Words Like Mackadocious" where he talks about kids on the hood of their parents' volvo singing the words to "Soul By The Pound", oblivious to the meaning. X-Clan's style was a lot harder to squeeze into a tame, cartoonish box like ATCQ or De La Soul... or a straight party vibe like Black Sheep.



    Excellent point here. I suppose one could box up and dismiss X-Clan as "those weird, septum-pierced, back-to-Egypt guys," but really, you pretty much had to take them straight-up, and either you were with that or you weren't. They didn't have a nice, friendly, easily accessible single to smooth the edges.

    But one of the things I always appreciated about the group was its complexity; I liked that I sometimes had to work at getting everything Brother J was saying, that he would make some references I couldn't immediately grasp. (And I think he took things even further in that vein on the Xodus album, which I also think is an amazing album even though a lot of folks are pretty down on it. "Ooh Baby" anyone?)
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    The thing is, with a lot of other groups the messages, references, in-jokes, and metaphors flew over the head of your average suburban white listener. I think even Upski wrote about it in "We Use Words Like Mackadocious" where he talks about kids on the hood of their parents' volvo singing the words to "Soul By The Pound", oblivious to the meaning. X-Clan's style was a lot harder to squeeze into a tame, cartoonish box like ATCQ or De La Soul... or a straight party vibe like Black Sheep.



    Excellent point here. I suppose one could box up and dismiss X-Clan as "those weird, septum-pierced, back-to-Egypt guys," but really, you pretty much had to take them straight-up, and either you were with that or you weren't. They didn't have a nice, friendly, easily accessible single to smooth the edges.

    Heed The Word Of a Brother is a accessible as u can get. A Zapp sample already made classic by EPMD?(That was still gettin burn in the streets).The rest of the album consists of mad pedestrian samples -

    Big Beat,Impeach The President,Atomic Dog,Pleasure Of Love,Knee Deep,and whatever that sample is from Microphone Fiend. Its not some super deep sample record, dudes pretty much jacked RECENTLY made Classic and added their own flavor.
    Yes all that shit was spoke in heavy code but the music was mad pedestian..IMO.
  • HAZHAZ 3,376 Posts
    I had a great email exchange with Prof X for a number of months before his passing which was deleted by hotmail. Boo. X-Clan was dope. This thread has got me thinking that I should finally digitize & upload the instrumentals of "To the East..."

    peace

    h
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