I really don't think there should be an apostrophe in this band's name, but that's how I see it presented more often than not.
They are from NYC. They probably had a following based on tapes prior to the first album; I recall a famous song "BBQ" that became a live favorite. They self-identify as nerd-core rap and even have a song called "Riot Nerrd" on their first (and best) album, 1998's Supermercado! I saw them in 1998 at the Capitol Ballroom in DC with a girl from NY who vaguely knew them. They put on a great show and were super friendly and inspiring chatting with us at the merch table afterwards. They didn't make much of a splash after that; they were one of many unfortunate victims of their label Capricon folding. Their most recent and last album came out in 2003, but their most recently brief reunion tour was in 2012.
"2 Skinnee J's performed at Woodstock '99 and later criticized the event".[2]
I think it's weird that they have a song on one of their two later albums that makes fun of metal-rap, but they kinda are that; in fact they played on a cruise with 311. Trying not to hold that against them. It's mostly good stuff that is far better than most rap-rock. Positive vibes and interesting instrumentation help.
Here's the first song from their debut album. Good opening track, nice political allegory, and a very 90s video:
The feminist in me wanted to hate this band more than I did, but really I could hardly stop laughing.
However, I must say there are far too many 2 Live Crew albums and they continue well past their prime. It's a bit of a one-trick pony. It's a very dirty pony, and they ride that dirty pony all the way to 1998 before fizzing out in a blur of solo projects and line-up changes. In their defense, those handful of late albums are certainly made tolerable by their consistency, but they are definitely not in the same vein as their classic work. And their work is classic. I must admit to shouting some of these lines in a schoolyard in 1980-something- without having any idea what I was saying.
The whole thing reeks of Florida, but I learned they only relocated there from LA because their first single was doing well in Miami clubs!
After the success of some early singles, As Nasty As They Wanna Be (1989) will always be a classic hip-hop record, and perhaps it earns that honor. It does not seem like anybody was this filthy before with literally every song being explicitly vulgar and pornographic. Of course they are also heroes for taking their obscenity lawsuit all the way to the Supreme Court. Record stores were being busted in Florida for selling the album. At the trial Henry Louise Gates Jr. testified in their defense that their entertainment was rooted in African-American folklore and traditions. They won and celebrated on their next album Banned in The USA, the title track of which effectively samples Bruce Sprinsteen, where they gloat hilariously and patriotically- turning their shenanigans into something larger. They also bolstered our rights to fair use in parody, after getting sued by [the people who owned the copyrights of] Roy Orbison and winning again. A surprise standout in their catalog was the live album that comes out right after those two breakthrough albums. It shows a band at the top of their game absolutely owning a crowd, that hilariously chants back all the dirty lines with astonishing enthusiasm. All the current hits are performed ably and some of the older tracks are teased. There is some of the usual nastiness, but I could not abide by the part where they bring girls up on stage and boo fat girls and stuff. Of all the nasty things they talk about doing to and with women (it sounds mutually pleasurable?), for me that moment on the otherwise excellent live album went too far and made me question the innocuousness of everything else.
Perhaps, remember them, if nothing else, for this awesome party song from the Firday soundtrack, which despite it's vulgarity is really just a watered-down version of their early-career libido:
I bet a lot of people who never even heard "Me So Horny" love the heck out of that song. Note also the Jimmy Smith sample.
It is nothing if not offensively crass - mission accomplished. I'm sorry, but is there a member of this band called "The Chinaman"?! It's not clear to me if he's actually of Asian descent or what. He also had a solo career (as did most of these guys) as Fresh Kid Ice. He also wrote a book:
Maybe I'm not trying hard enough, but information seems scant on this act. They are early techno.
I heard them on XL Record's CD The First Chapter, which came out in 1990. So...they are British?
Weirdly, in the streaming library the song from that compilation does not appear, and their only 2 EPs are confusingly from 2011 and 2016. The streaming library is weird sometimes.
Was this techno as briefly ubiquitous as we remember? Maybe this song sounds familiar or maybe we are just remembering the songs it samples*:
They are not to be confused with 2 Unlimited - although that mistake could easily be made.
Kinda crazy band name that has never been adequately explained to me, but this is wonderful bubble-gum pop group from New Jersey. (The one guy still sells pianos at his showroom in the suburbs.) As a few bonus tracks on some recent remasters make clear, despite originally disbanding in 1970s these guys continue to pump it out on the oldies circuit, and I'm OK with that. At least there are some of the original members still involved. Unexpectedly, they put out a Christmas album in 2007! "Simon Says" seems like such a ridiculous idea for a song, but its infectious melody was stuck in my head all day. "Goody Goody Gumdrops" is great too, but I'm a sucker for a songs about candy. Still, the less said about "Indian Giver" the better. It did sell a million copies though. They don't have much of a discography but a few gold records on the pop charts of the 60s makes them a worthwhile footnote to pop rock history. Surely The Ramones heard this at least once.
Yet, good for them for not being afraid to STILL play "Indian Giver"
And here they are lip-syncing on TV in 1968 with their other #1 hit. Way to mine the juvenilia
* Note- they do NOT play "Yummy Yummy Yummy" - that's the Ohio Players. But file them under the same bubble-gum pop rock of the 1960s.
What I learned from re-listening to 16 Horsepower and researching them online is that we are meant to take it all literally. Lead singer and founder David Eugene Edwards, from Colorado, is not messing around. His dad was a preacher and he apparently kicked several people out of the band for deviating from his stringent religious views. That makes the whole thing a little harder to swallow, but this band (especially Sackcloth and Ashes, their second and best album) was a huge influence on me in college when I was in an alt-country band. I loved the mix of the evilness that was previously associated with metal and the acoustic/country music that I had previously been leery of. Plus the instrumentation is super-interesting, with wheezy squeeze boxes and other rare acoustic instruments, but that sound does get a bit redundant. They got more folksy as they went, but then they broke up. They haven't done anything in a while, but they are now distributed by Alternative Tentacles - so you know it's good. This is still the best song, but I had not seen the video until this moment:
I don't usually listen to much contemporary R&B, so it was difficult to get through the eight or so albums by these guys. I was not impressed. OK, decent harmonizing, but the lyrics reminded me of a high school boy trying to write a valentine - extremely unoriginal. They are from Atlanta. "Peaches and Cream" was a mild hit that is mildly tolerable. However, they did win a Grammy because they are the voices on that song that Puffy did when Biggie died. So they were all over the place in 1997, which is how they ended up in my library. Eventually they split up for solo projects, but occasionally they got back together. They look like this:
The first pleasant surprise! If Juvenile and Hot Boys are the second-wave of bounce-rap (they are; we all know DJ Jubilee started it) then this guy represents the third wave. The whole time I was thinking he sounded like Juvy, and then he name drops him in a song.
100s only put out one album, 2013's Ice Cold Perm. However, since then he's returned under the name Kossisko. He's from Berkeley. Great beats. I love the song with Chippy Nonstop, "Bout That Life," not to be confused with the Rick Ross song of the same name. Looking forward to hearing the rest of this guy's stuff when I get to K.
