# DJ Wally Sparks on When Rap Had Regional Identity, The Rise of Southern Singles, Bone Thugs Underrated? | 02.17

An episode of [The Right Time with Bomani Jones](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/982639043), 17 Feb 2026, 1 h 05 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/370fc844-36bd-4f61-8b8f-b4bb010de39a/c56277f6-18da-49bf-87b3-b4bb0116c770/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=919a7cbe-003c-4146-b592-b4bb010de3a5

In this episode of The Right Time, Bomani Jones and DJ Wally Sparks break down why 1996 was one of the greatest singles years in hip-hop history. From UGK, Twista, and DJ Screw to Camp Lo, Bone Thugs, and Busta Rhymes, they explore how regional rap scenes, Rap City, and the role of DJs shaped an era before streaming changed everything. It’s a deep dive into the songs, the culture, and the moment when hip-hop still belonged to the cities that made it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time.
[0:07] Speaker 2: A wave original. My name is Beaumontie Jones. Thanks for
[0:11] Speaker 2: listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us
[0:13] Speaker 2: on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us
[0:17] Speaker 2: five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined
[0:19] Speaker 2: to believe you are a hater. It is Time Machine Tuesday.
[0:23] Speaker 2: We have got our second installment on our series on
[0:26] Speaker 2: the year 1996 in hip hop. My man Jason England
[0:30] Speaker 2: joined us for episode one. He'll be back with two
[0:33] Speaker 2: more episodes. We got six on the books so far.
[0:35] Speaker 2: If we think of more, we may do more. But
[0:37] Speaker 2: join me for the other half of it. Check my
[0:39] Speaker 2: man out. Check him out on Twitch, twitch.tv slash DJ
[0:42] Speaker 2: Wally Sparks. He is, in fact, my favorite DJ, as
[0:45] Speaker 2: the shirt may indicate. Wally Sparks from Atlanta, well, from Chattanooga,
[0:49] Speaker 2: coming to us live from Atlanta.
[0:51] Speaker 1: What's going on, brother?
[0:52] Speaker 3: What's happening? What's going on, bro?
[0:55] Speaker 2: So first of all, I want to make sure everybody
[0:56] Speaker 2: knows this. Wally's been a member of this community now, shit, man,
[1:00] Speaker 2: it's about 15 years. We go back to Morning Jones time.
[1:03] Speaker 2: Wally was Big Crit's Turrent DJ. You can catch him
[1:07] Speaker 2: all over social, whatever it is. One of the most,
[1:10] Speaker 2: first of all, cold-ass DJ, but also one of the
[1:12] Speaker 2: most knowledgeable people that I know when it comes to music,
[1:14] Speaker 2: big picture and small, how it works in actual application,
[1:18] Speaker 2: big theory type stuff, all of that. So I'm glad
[1:21] Speaker 2: that we got this opportunity to jump on here.
[1:23] Speaker 3: Man, I'm happy to be here, bro.
[1:24] Speaker 4: I mean, you know, this is a The first time
[1:27] Speaker 4: we get to do this in this kind of setting.
[1:29] Speaker 3: But, you know, me and you, we talk about music
[1:32] Speaker 3: like this all the time, bro. Yeah, right, right.
[1:34] Speaker 2: Let's say, like, normally one big conclave once a year.
[1:37] Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying? Yeah.
[1:38] Speaker 1: Post up and go through it. So, no, this is
[1:40] Speaker 1: going to be good.
[1:41] Speaker 2: And this episode I've been looking forward to because I
[1:46] Speaker 2: think there are three years in particular that when people
[1:49] Speaker 2: talk about, like, great years in the history of rap.
[1:51] Speaker 2: The three that typically jump out are 88, 94, and 96.
[1:57] Speaker 2: There are others certainly, like in doing this, what I
[2:00] Speaker 2: realized was 95 and 97 really underrated because 96 is
[2:04] Speaker 2: in the middle and 94 is on the front end, right?
[2:06] Speaker 2: But when we do that, we typically think about it
[2:10] Speaker 2: in terms of albums and you can go through and
[2:13] Speaker 2: run through all the great albums that came out. 88,
[2:14] Speaker 2: you talk about Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold
[2:16] Speaker 2: Us Back, Straight Outta Compton, Great Adventures of Slick Rick,
[2:19] Speaker 2: you know, more than you can get to, but that's
[2:20] Speaker 2: the way that we typically do it there. 94, you
[2:23] Speaker 2: talk about Illmatic, you talk about Ready to Die, you
[2:25] Speaker 2: talk about The Diary, you talk about There's a Dark Side,
[2:27] Speaker 2: you got.
[2:27] Speaker 1: All those to run through.
[2:28] Speaker 2: 96, it's a zillion of them that we're going to
[2:30] Speaker 2: get to in later episodes, but what is often lost
[2:33] Speaker 2: when we do this is, 96 was a year for
[2:37] Speaker 2: bomb singles. And very often singles from people whose albums
[2:42] Speaker 2: we're not going to talk about that much in the series.
[2:44] Speaker 3: Right.
[2:45] Speaker 2: So there's going to be some overlap in that, certainly.
[2:47] Speaker 2: But when I went through 96 and I started like
[2:49] Speaker 2: you typically would, I started going through the albums and
[2:52] Speaker 2: then I was going through the albums and being like, OK,
[2:54] Speaker 2: I didn't love this album, but this one got a
[2:55] Speaker 2: jam on it. Oh, this one got a jam on it.
[2:58] Speaker 2: And you still work in the trade. You still in
[3:00] Speaker 2: the trenches. You actually still know who the young people are. Um,
[3:03] Speaker 2: but you tell me if I'm wrong here, I feel like,
[3:06] Speaker 2: and this is not like, uh, it was better in
[3:08] Speaker 2: my day thing. This is really more of a kind
[3:10] Speaker 2: of structural assessment of the game that the role of
[3:14] Speaker 2: a single is completely different, right? Like we're going to
[3:17] Speaker 2: talk about people that only got one song that you've
[3:18] Speaker 2: ever heard of. And I don't think anybody could really
[3:20] Speaker 2: break through with just one song like that anymore.
[3:23] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[3:23] Speaker 4: So singles back in, in those days and like the
[3:28] Speaker 4: mid nineties in particular, they were kind.
[3:31] Speaker 3: Of utilized as a tool to sell an album. You
[3:34] Speaker 3: know what I'm saying?
[3:35] Speaker 4: Like an album wasn't going to, I might not even
[3:37] Speaker 4: get made if the single wasn't, didn't perform the way
[3:40] Speaker 4: it needed to. So in effect, the way that singles were,
[3:46] Speaker 4: you know, utilized as sort of a tool back then
[3:50] Speaker 4: is completely different from how it is now. Like now
[3:53] Speaker 4: artists can throw 10 songs, just 10, just random songs
[3:59] Speaker 4: on the internet.
[4:01] Speaker 3: Until something sticks. You know what I'm saying? And that
[4:03] Speaker 3: wasn't the case.
[4:04] Speaker 4: I mean, you know, and the way music is made, uh,
[4:07] Speaker 4: now versus then, uh, the, uh, the consumption, the time
[4:12] Speaker 4: and effort that it took to make records and actually
[4:14] Speaker 4: put them out back then versus the, the speed and, uh,
[4:19] Speaker 4: ease of, of how it can be done now is
[4:23] Speaker 4: completely different. So yeah, I mean, singles don't even really
[4:26] Speaker 4: function in the way that they used to now, uh,
[4:30] Speaker 4: you know, a single was, was meant to be a
[4:33] Speaker 4: sort of a introduction and, and singles back then, bro,
[4:39] Speaker 4: you had, that had to be your best song. Your, your,
[4:42] Speaker 4: your best foot had to come forward. Nowadays, you can
[4:44] Speaker 4: just make you, you could make a song today, say,
[4:47] Speaker 4: my name is Bo money and I like to rap
[4:49] Speaker 4: and put it on the internet and somebody might like it.
[4:53] Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
[4:54] Speaker 4: And you can, and you can, and in effect, you know,
[4:58] Speaker 4: use that to become a recording artist. And that's just,
[5:00] Speaker 4: you know, that wasn't the case back then. You know,
[5:02] Speaker 4: it was, it was a completely different ballgame back then.
[5:04] Speaker 2: And it was a different presence and role of various
[5:07] Speaker 2: levels of gatekeeping. And in this case, I mean, gatekeeping
[5:09] Speaker 2: in a very positive way, right? The radio had not
[5:13] Speaker 2: yet be fallen under the control totally of the record
[5:17] Speaker 2: labels and the companies that rate, like it was not,
[5:20] Speaker 2: pay on has always been in effect in some level
[5:23] Speaker 2: in radio, but it was, What it is now and
[5:26] Speaker 2: what it has been really for, I would argue, the
[5:28] Speaker 2: last 15 to 20 years, it was not there.
[5:30] Speaker 1: The DJ's role was.
[5:33] Speaker 2: To reinforce the single and the role of radio as
[5:37] Speaker 2: a platform also became a reinforcement of a single, which
[5:41] Speaker 2: then became something that people generally shared.
[5:44] Speaker 1: And this is a very important point.
[5:46] Speaker 2: It wasn't required to jump off immediately and everywhere immediately.
[5:51] Speaker 2: You had a slow bird of how things went. You
[5:54] Speaker 2: had things that some of them went national. Some of
[5:57] Speaker 2: them didn't, right? But it could be a big enough
[5:59] Speaker 2: hit in one place that it might turn up in
[6:01] Speaker 2: a DJ set at a club somewhere else.
[6:03] Speaker 1: And you're like, oh, snap, what's this?
[6:05] Speaker 2: Also, an entity that I don't think we talk about
[6:07] Speaker 2: nearly enough, which is BET's Rap City. We talk a
[6:11] Speaker 2: lot about the history of Yo! MTV Raps, but BET
[6:14] Speaker 2: Rap City is, was every day and became a radio
[6:18] Speaker 2: station of sorts with all the stuff that quite honestly
[6:20] Speaker 2: you couldn't even necessarily hear on the radio but reinforced
[6:24] Speaker 2: the singles as they were coming.
[6:25] Speaker 4: Out yeah i mean the way the way rap city
[6:28] Speaker 4: was moving back then it kind of even forced mtv
[6:30] Speaker 4: to start doing a daily rap show because you know
[6:32] Speaker 4: you know we had you on tv raps the saturday
[6:35] Speaker 4: uh you know uh you know, a show for lack
[6:39] Speaker 4: of a better term, but then all of a sudden
[6:41] Speaker 4: we had UNTV raps today, you know what I mean?
[6:44] Speaker 3: And I think because a.
[6:46] Speaker 4: Rap city was, uh, they were sort of ahead of, uh,
[6:51] Speaker 4: ahead of the curve and giving a national spotlight to
[6:55] Speaker 4: things that were outside of the, the, uh, typical New York, LA, uh, based, uh,
[7:00] Speaker 4: hip hop music. So, uh, you know, that kind of
[7:04] Speaker 4: in effect forced the rest of the country to wake
[7:07] Speaker 4: up to what was going on.
[7:08] Speaker 3: Like, and they, they, they being.
[7:11] Speaker 4: BET were sort of acting like tastemakers and, you know, like, Hey,
[7:16] Speaker 4: we've gone to these places. And, you know, BET, BET,
[7:20] Speaker 4: especially back then when it was based in D.C., was
[7:22] Speaker 4: like very, very heavily entrenched into like HBCU culture.
[7:26] Speaker 2: Right.
[7:27] Speaker 4: And as you know, most HBCUs are concentrated in the
[7:30] Speaker 4: southeastern part of the United States.
[7:32] Speaker 1: Right.
[7:33] Speaker 4: So BET would, you know, send people out to all these,
[7:37] Speaker 4: you know, these schools and they would hear these records
[7:40] Speaker 4: that are going crazy in, you know, Atlanta and Alabama
[7:45] Speaker 4: and Mississippi. that no one's ever heard of, but all,
[7:49] Speaker 4: all of these, all of these kids know, know these records.
[7:52] Speaker 4: They know these songs word for word, and they clearly are,
[7:56] Speaker 4: are effective in there.
[7:57] Speaker 3: That something, something, there's something to it.
[8:00] Speaker 4: So we're going to go back and we're going to
[8:02] Speaker 4: tell the world, Hey, this is what's going on for
[8:04] Speaker 4: the rest.
[8:05] Speaker 3: Of the country.
[8:06] Speaker 4: And, and that, that was a way for, to, to
[8:10] Speaker 4: make singles, you know, be stronger, you know, and, uh
[8:18] Speaker 4: yeah man it's just uh it was a a good
[8:22] Speaker 4: time to be you know a music fan and just
[8:27] Speaker 4: regional music is just was it was it was way
[8:29] Speaker 4: different back then than it is now.
[8:31] Speaker 2: Yeah i was gonna say it was this is kind
[8:34] Speaker 2: of a sweet spot here because it's really right before
[8:37] Speaker 2: the idea of like going national, I feel like 97,
[8:42] Speaker 2: 98 is when this really starts, like what your potential
[8:46] Speaker 2: was for getting large. Not like, obviously, Hammer had sold
[8:48] Speaker 2: a gazillion records already, right? Dre and other, it's not
[8:51] Speaker 2: that people had not sold records, but it was still
[8:53] Speaker 2: a regional game by and large, right? Like now- Where
[8:56] Speaker 2: you're from doesn't mean anything at all, I don't think,
[8:59] Speaker 2: in terms of where.
[9:00] Speaker 1: Your music is going or whatever else. It didn't require it.
[9:02] Speaker 2: People were still products of scenes, right? Like, this is
[9:05] Speaker 2: what we're doing over here. This is what the stuff
[9:07] Speaker 2: sounds like. And you would know about stuff because your
[9:10] Speaker 2: cousin from wherever happened to come back with something, right?
[9:14] Speaker 2: Or BET, which kind of nationalized the platform in a
[9:16] Speaker 2: lot of ways.
[9:17] Speaker 3: Like, I'm from Houston.
[9:18] Speaker 1: Why would I ever hear a Mobb Deep record?
[9:20] Speaker 3: Why?
[9:20] Speaker 1: Where I was.
[9:21] Speaker 5: Right, right.
[9:21] Speaker 1: Who's doing this? Who's doing this? And then on the
[9:24] Speaker 1: other side, why do you know anything?
[9:26] Speaker 2: Like, the Ghetto Boys got nationally famous because they became controversial, right?
[9:30] Speaker 2: And then they became a thing that, you know, that
[9:32] Speaker 2: everybody knew. But otherwise, why would you know who these
[9:35] Speaker 2: people were, right?
[9:36] Speaker 1: There was no reason.
[9:37] Speaker 2: Like, Scarface was a really big deal among people who knew, but...
[9:41] Speaker 2: But still, he belonged to us still. And I think
[9:44] Speaker 2: that it was something dope about the fact that in
[9:45] Speaker 2: all these places, there were still very distinct, different sounds
[9:49] Speaker 2: that existed, not just for regions, not just for states, cities,
[9:53] Speaker 2: even neighborhoods.
[9:54] Speaker 1: Like Houston, by.
[9:55] Speaker 2: The time you get to the end of the decade,
[9:56] Speaker 2: the North Side and the South Side have their own
[9:57] Speaker 2: sounds and scenes, right? And they get national as it goes.
[10:01] Speaker 2: And so that's the environment that we're describing here.
[10:04] Speaker 3: And you know what's another thing about that?
[10:07] Speaker 4: The artists themselves did not want to do anything outside
[10:10] Speaker 4: of the scene that they were in.
[10:12] Speaker 2: Yes.
[10:12] Speaker 4: You know what I mean? That's the thing. Those artists
[10:17] Speaker 4: that were making all this music typically didn't have any
[10:20] Speaker 4: desires to be, I mean, sure, you know, everybody wants to,
[10:24] Speaker 4: you know, be famous.
[10:25] Speaker 3: Everybody wants to rule the world, as Tears for Fears
[10:27] Speaker 3: would say.
[10:28] Speaker 4: But, you know, a guy that's making bass music wants
[10:33] Speaker 4: to make music for the people that like bass music.
[10:37] Speaker 3: And if it goes national, great. But if it don't,
[10:40] Speaker 3: I'm fine. You know what I mean?
[10:42] Speaker 4: And that is a complete difference about the way things
[10:45] Speaker 4: were in back then in the mid-90s versus how they
[10:49] Speaker 4: are now.
[10:50] Speaker 1: Yeah, and so with that as the backdrop, it was
[10:54] Speaker 1: a lot.
[10:54] Speaker 2: Of cold ass songs that came out in 1996, right?
[10:58] Speaker 1: And it was interesting because when I did this, I
[11:01] Speaker 1: hadn't thought about this.
[11:02] Speaker 2: You started like actually DJing in 97, but like, you know,
[11:06] Speaker 2: just also... being a DJ was not quite what it
[11:09] Speaker 2: is right now. I'm just going to be a DJ
[11:12] Speaker 2: and see how it goes. It's not really the, you
[11:14] Speaker 2: had to, you had to make a significant, multiple significant
[11:18] Speaker 2: capital investments.
[11:19] Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
[11:21] Speaker 4: Heavy equipment investments. The real investment was time. That was
[11:25] Speaker 4: the real investment. Cause one, you gotta, you gotta save,
[11:30] Speaker 4: you gotta do something to save money, to get the gear.
[11:33] Speaker 4: You gotta get the gear. You gotta learn the gear.
[11:36] Speaker 4: And if the only thing you can do, the only
[11:38] Speaker 4: thing you can do, the only way you can use
[11:40] Speaker 4: the gear, pardon me, is to go buy a bunch
[11:42] Speaker 4: of vinyl. So you got to go shop for a
[11:45] Speaker 4: bunch of vinyl. And then you got to, you know,
[11:48] Speaker 4: you got to, you got to learn the music. And
[11:50] Speaker 4: it was, it was a, it was a, it was
[11:52] Speaker 4: a full on investment. Like back then, if you wanted to,
[11:54] Speaker 4: there was no, there was no like, you know, Hey,
[11:57] Speaker 4: you know what? I think I want to DJ. It
[11:58] Speaker 4: looks cool on TikTok. So I'm just going to go
[12:00] Speaker 4: buy me a $ 300 controller and find somebody to give
[12:03] Speaker 4: me a hard drive full of music.
[12:04] Speaker 3: And I'm a DJ. No, sir.
[12:06] Speaker 4: That was not the case in 1997. If that was
[12:10] Speaker 4: something that you really wanted to do, you had to
[12:12] Speaker 4: be like, I really, really, really want to do this
[12:16] Speaker 4: because this is going to take a serious, serious commitment,
[12:21] Speaker 4: especially back then, man. There were multiple steps that needed
[12:25] Speaker 4: to happen in order for you to even become a hobbyist,
[12:29] Speaker 4: not even just a professional.
[12:30] Speaker 3: You know what I mean? Right. You had to really
[12:33] Speaker 3: want to do it.
[12:34] Speaker 2: Now, I'm curious, because you were in Chattanooga, and I
[12:36] Speaker 2: am curious as to what sounds and scenes were getting
[12:41] Speaker 2: to you. Because I feel like in Houston, a lot
[12:45] Speaker 2: of Louisiana stuff would get to us.
[12:48] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[12:49] Speaker 2: A bit of, there's always been an interesting Houston-Memphis interplay
[12:52] Speaker 2: there in terms of stuff.
[12:53] Speaker 3: That got there.
[12:54] Speaker 2: But like, I guess I'm asking in the context of
[12:56] Speaker 2: beyond what was on big national radio that everybody would hear. Like,
[13:00] Speaker 2: Chattanooga seems like the sort of place that would get
[13:02] Speaker 2: a lot. Like, my boy makes a point about Memphis.
[13:05] Speaker 2: Not Memphis, about Jackson. That Jackson is maybe like the
[13:07] Speaker 2: one place in the South that got a piece of everything.
[13:11] Speaker 2: Because it was so centrally located that they got a
[13:13] Speaker 2: bit of everything. Chattanooga feels like heavy Atlanta, heavy Memphis.
[13:18] Speaker 4: Yeah, that's pretty much, those are the two main ones.
[13:20] Speaker 4: But we got a little piece of everything too. But
[13:24] Speaker 4: the direct influence just by via geography was Atlanta. We had,
[13:29] Speaker 4: because Atlanta's about 88 miles away from Chattanooga. Chattanooga's right
[13:33] Speaker 4: on the Georgia line, the Tennessee-Georgia line. But Memphis, because
[13:39] Speaker 4: was a really, really heavy influence on what music came
[13:43] Speaker 4: through Chattanooga because of.
[13:48] Speaker 3: A few things there was a.
[13:51] Speaker 4: There was a a pipeline of of kids uh in
[13:55] Speaker 4: chattanooga that got sent to job core and job core
[13:58] Speaker 4: was in memphis and they would they would go to
[14:00] Speaker 4: job core and they would bring back the the dj
[14:04] Speaker 4: squeaky the the skinny pimp the the early early ball
[14:07] Speaker 4: and g you know the the scott face al capone
[14:10] Speaker 4: all that kind of stuff they bring all that stuff
[14:11] Speaker 4: back and then you know we had uh people in Atlanta,
[14:15] Speaker 4: the people that were actually making that music when they were,
[14:17] Speaker 4: you know, making their rounds, trying to go promote, they
[14:19] Speaker 4: would always come to, uh, Chattanooga to promote their, uh,
[14:23] Speaker 4: promote their music. And, uh, one that we had a
[14:27] Speaker 4: record store that I actually used to work in, uh,
[14:29] Speaker 4: a place called cats music. They were one of the, uh,
[14:32] Speaker 4: they were one of, uh, three, uh, independent music retailers
[14:38] Speaker 4: that had deals with these two distributors, Selecto Hits and SMD,
[14:43] Speaker 4: Southern Music Distribution. Almost every independent album from the South
[14:47] Speaker 4: that came out from the 90s up until maybe into
[14:51] Speaker 4: the early to mid-2000s was either distributed by Selecto Hits
[14:55] Speaker 4: or Southern Music Distribution.
[14:57] Speaker 3: I'm talking about all of them.
[14:58] Speaker 4: All that music was always coming into Chattanooga because all
[15:03] Speaker 4: those people were trying to sell it outside of their, uh, their, uh,
[15:07] Speaker 4: whatever their locale was. So, and then, uh, the Florida stuff,
[15:14] Speaker 4: a lot of, a lot of that would creep into
[15:16] Speaker 4: Chattanooga too. Like, you know, um, especially when, uh, the
[15:20] Speaker 4: base scene, um, base, I mean like car base. So like, uh,
[15:26] Speaker 4: the DJ Magic mics and the MC80s and all that
[15:29] Speaker 4: kind of stuff, that stuff would find its way to
[15:30] Speaker 4: Shadow No. 2.
[15:32] Speaker 3: Gotcha.
[15:33] Speaker 1: And Atlanta, they listen to everything.
[15:35] Speaker 2: I think that's a very difficult thing to explain to
[15:37] Speaker 2: people that it is, especially considering it's such like, it's
[15:41] Speaker 2: its own hub or whatever, but like, I think in
[15:43] Speaker 2: part because of the location of the colleges. Everything makes
[15:47] Speaker 2: a run through Atlanta. I got to Atlanta in 97,
[15:49] Speaker 2: and that had to be a hard place to DJ, man,
[15:51] Speaker 2: because you got to have a little of everything prepared.
[15:54] Speaker 1: Where my people from Colorado at?
[15:56] Speaker 2: I mean, they weren't going that specific, but you needed
[15:59] Speaker 2: to make sure that you was hollering at everybody, and
[16:01] Speaker 2: all these cats were starting to move to Atlanta now,
[16:04] Speaker 2: like the actual factual rappers, right? That's where it's going,
[16:07] Speaker 2: and I want to start kind of talking about that
[16:11] Speaker 2: Atlanta area in this, and There were so many songs
[16:14] Speaker 2: I remember getting to Atlanta in like 97 and being like,
[16:17] Speaker 2: oh man. there's a lot of one-off just fun at
[16:21] Speaker 2: the party songs that I had never given a whole
[16:23] Speaker 2: lot of thought to, but I feel like 96 in
[16:25] Speaker 2: some ways is kind of the end of the era
[16:27] Speaker 2: where like various base scenes just kind of existed by themselves.
[16:31] Speaker 2: There was no expectation that anybody had to be a
[16:33] Speaker 2: great rapper, but like, as you and I were going
[16:35] Speaker 2: through and listening songs from this time, like Freak Nasty
[16:38] Speaker 2: to dip, that was the jail, right? Like, like that
[16:41] Speaker 2: was the thing. That was the thing in Houston too.
[16:43] Speaker 2: But like, You don't really have songs like that quite
[16:46] Speaker 2: pop up that much after this, but it's a significant
[16:49] Speaker 2: part of the fabric of the year 1996.
[16:51] Speaker 3: Yeah, man. Records like that and records.
[16:56] Speaker 4: That was the year that the first So So Def
[16:58] Speaker 4: Bass All-Stars compilation came out. I know we'll talk about
[17:01] Speaker 4: albums later on, but one of the big records from
[17:04] Speaker 4: that compilation was a free kid by this dude named
[17:07] Speaker 4: Lathan who kind of got pigeonholed into a bass artist.
[17:11] Speaker 3: He kind of wanted to be... He was... really a
[17:15] Speaker 3: neo-soul artist. Oh, I did not know that.
[17:19] Speaker 4: For a long time, he kind of resisted the Freaky
[17:23] Speaker 4: record because the record got so big and people just
[17:25] Speaker 4: kind of typecast him as a bass artist and he
[17:28] Speaker 4: was not. His album's actually pretty good if you ever
[17:31] Speaker 4: get a chance. I mean, it's going to be hard
[17:32] Speaker 4: to find, but it wasn't that bad. Anyway, the bass
[17:36] Speaker 4: music of that time, it was a time period where
[17:40] Speaker 4: those records still meant something. but, and they, and, and,
[17:45] Speaker 4: and they serve, they serve the purpose, you know, they, they,
[17:47] Speaker 4: you know, that, that is party music and it's intended
[17:51] Speaker 4: to be party too.
[17:52] Speaker 3: And it still, it still serves its primary purpose like that.
[17:56] Speaker 4: But it was also, it was also kind of transitioning
[18:00] Speaker 4: out because, you know, by this time, Freaknik had kind
[18:04] Speaker 4: of changed.
[18:05] Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
[18:07] Speaker 4: And the, the music that was a Freaknik was that
[18:10] Speaker 4: type of the, you know, the, the bass booty shake
[18:14] Speaker 4: type joints, you know, the 130 BPM records or whatever.
[18:20] Speaker 4: And as Freak Nick was changing, that music started, started
[18:25] Speaker 4: to kind of fade out. And then there was like a,
[18:28] Speaker 4: there was a, I think, I graduated high school in
[18:33] Speaker 4: 96 and a big transition from that time from like the,
[18:38] Speaker 4: you know, the dip and, you know, uh, Daisy Dukes
[18:41] Speaker 4: and all those records from that era. There was, this
[18:44] Speaker 4: is when little John first kind of came into, uh,
[18:47] Speaker 4: you know, his first like record as a, as a
[18:49] Speaker 4: solo act. Well, I mean, it was, um, it was
[18:54] Speaker 4: who you with came out in 96 and that was
[18:57] Speaker 4: like a sort of like a disruptor. Cause it, it's, it,
[19:01] Speaker 4: it did what bass records already had done. It served
[19:04] Speaker 4: the purpose of cranking the party up. But it was
[19:07] Speaker 4: not a bass record by any means. It was way slower,
[19:11] Speaker 4: but it still was fast enough to be danceable.
[19:13] Speaker 1: Memphis has entered the chat.
[19:17] Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying?
[19:20] Speaker 3: It kind of held the same energy.
[19:24] Speaker 4: It had the same energy as the dip, but it
[19:27] Speaker 4: also had the same energy as to the club up.
[19:29] Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
[19:30] Speaker 4: And it was like this whole, this like hodge, this hybrid,
[19:32] Speaker 4: this hodgepodge of these, you know, completely different types of music,
[19:38] Speaker 4: like conversion into this one thing. And the, the, the
[19:42] Speaker 4: little John version of Kronk music kind of started right there.
[19:46] Speaker 4: It was kind of like the foundation of it. I
[19:49] Speaker 4: actually got this, I got the cassette single.
[19:53] Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
[19:54] Speaker 2: Yeah, and I just want to run through some of
[19:55] Speaker 2: the songs that fit this description, like just kind of
[19:58] Speaker 2: in this zone, right?
[20:00] Speaker 1: From 96. 96. Freak Nasty to Dip came out in 96.
[20:03] Speaker 1: Latham Freakin' came out in 96.
[20:04] Speaker 2: Scarred by Luke comes out in 96. The introduction to
[20:09] Speaker 2: Trick Daddy, which honestly took me years to recognize that
[20:12] Speaker 2: that is what had happened there. Quad City DJs, Come On,
[20:15] Speaker 2: Ride the Train came out that year. Now look, They
[20:19] Speaker 2: not all my favorite songs, but I do know that
[20:21] Speaker 2: once I started going to parties where they was playing them,
[20:23] Speaker 2: I started to appreciate them in.
[20:24] Speaker 3: A slightly different way.
[20:27] Speaker 2: No, but like the song that exists strictly for the
[20:30] Speaker 2: party really phases out as we get to the end
[20:33] Speaker 2: of the 90s, right? You didn't even have to stay
[20:36] Speaker 2: in the South to talk about things that fit this description.
[20:39] Speaker 2: DJ Kool, let me clear my throat. I feel like
[20:42] Speaker 2: I heard it every party that I have ever been to.
[20:44] Speaker 2: And by the way, I guess. Like, if that's what
[20:47] Speaker 2: we're doing, cool.
[20:49] Speaker 1: Throw it up there. But it goes and it works
[20:52] Speaker 1: every time.
[20:53] Speaker 2: I can only put it in your mouth, which I
[20:55] Speaker 2: don't think is necessarily in the same category, but.
[20:58] Speaker 1: It kind of is.
[21:00] Speaker 3: Yeah, because you rarely hear that record outside of a party.
[21:03] Speaker 2: Right.
[21:04] Speaker 4: Ain't nobody jamming that. You know what I'm saying? Like,
[21:07] Speaker 4: you're going to be riding around talking about, you know,
[21:09] Speaker 4: put it in my mouth. I don't know about that.
[21:11] Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
[21:12] Speaker 4: But if you hear it in a, you know, you
[21:14] Speaker 4: hear it through some loud ass speakers in a club
[21:16] Speaker 4: and see what the women doing, you'd be like, okay,
[21:19] Speaker 4: all right. I can accept it in this scenario.
[21:23] Speaker 3: Hold on now.
[21:24] Speaker 2: Not simply what they doing. The beauty of that song
[21:27] Speaker 2: is it smokes them out. there are songs that come
[21:30] Speaker 2: out every now and then that smoke them out, right? Like,
[21:34] Speaker 2: you don't really know what time it is. You don't
[21:36] Speaker 2: know what she about. And if you pay enough attention,
[21:38] Speaker 2: it's going to smoke them out. It is not simply
[21:41] Speaker 2: with that song about if they getting down with it, dancing.
[21:44] Speaker 1: It's about, is that girl's part your part?
[21:48] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[21:49] Speaker 1: And if it is, she's been smoked out.
[21:52] Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah.
[21:54] Speaker 3: We done learned something about you.
[21:56] Speaker 2: Yep. Yep. But I can't think of one time in
[21:58] Speaker 2: my life that I've heard that song anywhere other than
[22:01] Speaker 2: the club. And every time, it's wild because it's like,
[22:05] Speaker 2: he sound like he sound. It's not like this is
[22:08] Speaker 2: some super duper like danceable beat, whatever it is, but
[22:12] Speaker 2: it existed strictly for the club.
[22:14] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[22:16] Speaker 4: I low-key think that record, I think DJs just kind
[22:18] Speaker 4: of started playing it. I don't know this to be
[22:21] Speaker 4: a fact, but I just think DJs just started playing
[22:23] Speaker 4: that record because it was so outrageous.
[22:25] Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
[22:27] Speaker 2: And.
[22:28] Speaker 4: and then it kind of took a life of his own,
[22:30] Speaker 4: you know, because as you just, as you just, you know,
[22:33] Speaker 4: mentioned that record should not work in the club, but
[22:38] Speaker 4: it does, you know, but, but, but who knows, man, like,
[22:42] Speaker 4: you know, it's, it's, it's everything about that record and
[22:46] Speaker 4: what you would think a club record would be is
[22:49] Speaker 4: completely different. You know, it's a old soul sample. The
[22:52] Speaker 4: drums are a rim shots. You know what I'm saying?
[22:56] Speaker 4: It's this dude gargling on a song. You know what
[23:01] Speaker 4: I'm saying? And there's a woman singing for, you know,
[23:06] Speaker 4: a whole verse about, you know, what she's singing about.
[23:09] Speaker 4: And then, you know, it seems like that song should
[23:13] Speaker 4: not work, but man. Does it work like a charm?
[23:16] Speaker 3: Like a charm. Like a charm.
[23:18] Speaker 2: And I think when I ran through that list, I
[23:20] Speaker 2: may have skipped it, but the Ghost Town DJs by
[23:22] Speaker 2: Boo came out that year too. And that, the internet
[23:25] Speaker 2: gave that a resurgence. It feels like six or seven
[23:28] Speaker 2: years ago.
[23:28] Speaker 3: But I remember when that came.
[23:30] Speaker 1: Out, I was like, ooh, this is perfect.
[23:32] Speaker 5: Yeah.
[23:33] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[23:33] Speaker 4: That's one of the ones where you hear it, you
[23:35] Speaker 4: immediately know, like, this record is going to be around forever.
[23:39] Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying? As soon as you hear it, like,
[23:42] Speaker 4: this record is never going away. And that's just like
[23:45] Speaker 4: one of those perfect storms where, you know, it was,
[23:48] Speaker 4: it was an immediate feeling. I remember, I remember the
[23:51] Speaker 4: first time I heard that song, I was like, yep, this, this,
[23:55] Speaker 4: this record is going to be a gigantic smash. And it,
[23:59] Speaker 4: it was, and it wasn't like, cause it eventually became
[24:02] Speaker 4: like a big record and it got a lot of
[24:03] Speaker 4: love of nationally via radio. But that record was around.
[24:07] Speaker 4: It took, it took a while for it to break nationally, but,
[24:10] Speaker 4: but where, where it, came where.
[24:13] Speaker 3: You know, where it started, it was immediate.
[24:16] Speaker 4: You know, as soon as people heard it, they was like, oh,
[24:19] Speaker 4: I remember one of my cousins, first time she heard it,
[24:23] Speaker 4: she was like, oh, this is my new favorite song.
[24:25] Speaker 3: Like, immediately. You know what I'm saying?
[24:28] Speaker 2: And also, talking about the South stuff, separate from club
[24:32] Speaker 2: stuff also, this is when the South, like, people still
[24:36] Speaker 2: hadn't got wise.
[24:38] Speaker 1: They had gotten wise to a couple of camps, right?
[24:41] Speaker 2: Like people were obviously very aware of what Rap-A-Lot was
[24:44] Speaker 2: talking about. People had become aware of the Dungeon family.
[24:49] Speaker 2: But by and large, though, the South was still kind
[24:51] Speaker 2: of an untapped situation and still really did not have any, like,
[24:57] Speaker 2: grand ambitions for national stardom. That was not in the cards.
[25:02] Speaker 2: It was serve the audience that you have, right? We
[25:05] Speaker 2: make these songs for each other. They don't even respect
[25:07] Speaker 2: us like that.
[25:08] Speaker 3: No way.
[25:08] Speaker 2: 96 is the year. And like, look, like Elevators comes
[25:12] Speaker 2: out that year. And I think we'll talk more about
[25:13] Speaker 2: that when we get to Outkast, right? So like there
[25:15] Speaker 2: was a, it was a wide range of what the
[25:17] Speaker 2: South was bringing, but that's also the year that when
[25:20] Speaker 2: you get out here, you getting stuff like Mystical's Here
[25:23] Speaker 2: I Go, Tila's Shown Up. 8-Ball to MJG, Space Age pimping, right? UNLV,
[25:32] Speaker 2: drag them in the river. That's the cash money breakout
[25:37] Speaker 2: for us before it gets to everywhere else. We're going
[25:44] Speaker 2: to do an episode later about what the South was
[25:46] Speaker 2: becoming in an album standpoint. But it feels like as
[25:49] Speaker 2: not just little different dots on the map, like truly regionally,
[25:54] Speaker 2: the South was really, really starting to take shape and
[25:57] Speaker 2: form when we get to 96.
[25:58] Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I agree. It was definitely like a
[26:03] Speaker 4: foundational time. And to your point where a lot of
[26:08] Speaker 4: these recording artists were super serving their audience and weren't
[26:11] Speaker 4: really particularly keen on trying to make things that were
[26:16] Speaker 4: going to break out nationally. I think that is a lesson,
[26:22] Speaker 4: like a foundational lesson in marketing.
[26:24] Speaker 3: Like, bro, find the people that fuck with you and
[26:29] Speaker 3: give them what they want.
[26:30] Speaker 4: And you will have long-time support. That's the key to longevity, man.
[26:37] Speaker 4: You find out what, you know, they buying what you're selling.
[26:42] Speaker 4: Keep selling it, Jack.
[26:44] Speaker 2: So this is a run, like 96, we'll talk later
[26:47] Speaker 2: about Riding Dirty when that comes out, but that's like
[26:49] Speaker 2: album three of UGK, super serving the audience they have.
[26:53] Speaker 2: That being the big example, obviously, that jumps out to people.
[26:57] Speaker 2: Master P, he turned a West Coast operation into a
[27:01] Speaker 2: down South operation.
[27:02] Speaker 3: Yes, he did.
[27:03] Speaker 1: In terms of singles in 96 that I think are.
[27:05] Speaker 2: Important, break them off something that's so important, because look,
[27:07] Speaker 2: Bout It, Bout It, I don't know what it was
[27:09] Speaker 2: for everybody else in the world, but Bout It, Bout It,
[27:12] Speaker 2: the world was one way, and then Bout It, Bout
[27:15] Speaker 2: It came out, and then the.
[27:17] Speaker 1: World was a different way, right?
[27:19] Speaker 2: Like, we never heard anything that sounded like, that was the, yo,
[27:22] Speaker 2: have you heard this song?
[27:24] Speaker 1: Like, it was like people trying to- It was that beat.
[27:26] Speaker 2: Yeah, like, it wasn't as completely different as like Bombs
[27:30] Speaker 2: Over Baghdad was, where I spent days trying to figure
[27:32] Speaker 2: that out.
[27:32] Speaker 1: But that beat and it starts immediately like.
[27:35] Speaker 2: There's no build up into it that synthesizer goes right
[27:37] Speaker 2: off the top and you're like yo what's going on
[27:40] Speaker 2: but I didn't give no thought to whether or not
[27:42] Speaker 2: those people were making any more music like that was
[27:44] Speaker 2: right right like that wasn't they didn't make me want
[27:47] Speaker 2: to hear more it was just like wow what an
[27:50] Speaker 2: amazing song they have Ice Cream Man album which I
[27:53] Speaker 2: don't fuck with but it has Break Em Off something
[27:56] Speaker 2: which I.
[27:56] Speaker 4: Do fuck with heavily that's a great record that's one
[28:01] Speaker 4: That's one of Pimp C and Bum B's best verses.
[28:05] Speaker 4: It's probably P's best verse too, actually. You know what
[28:08] Speaker 4: I'm saying? Just from P as a rapper. Think what
[28:12] Speaker 4: you will of him as a rapper and people have thoughts.
[28:17] Speaker 4: But as far as him actually rhyming on a song,
[28:22] Speaker 4: that's probably one of his best performances as a rapper.
[28:25] Speaker 4: That song is a damn near perfect song, bro.
[28:28] Speaker 2: It's a.
[28:31] Speaker 4: And again, that's one of those songs that when you
[28:34] Speaker 4: hear it, you understand it immediately.
[28:37] Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
[28:38] Speaker 4: So it was, it's, it's, it's great to, it's, it's,
[28:41] Speaker 4: it's one of those things that stands out even now, like, uh,
[28:44] Speaker 4: you know, 30 years later, uh, when I, when I'm
[28:49] Speaker 4: out and I'm, I'm in front of people, you know,
[28:51] Speaker 4: from my era or that are familiar with, uh, with,
[28:54] Speaker 4: you know, that time period, when I play that song,
[28:58] Speaker 4: the reaction is same.
[29:01] Speaker 3: As it was way back when.
[29:03] Speaker 4: As soon as you hear that bass line, everybody's.
[29:08] Speaker 3: Like, hell yeah.
[29:10] Speaker 4: And then when P come in, everybody knows Hustler, Baller, Gangsta, Catfiller,
[29:16] Speaker 4: who I be.
[29:19] Speaker 3: And everybody knows who he is.
[29:22] Speaker 2: And also, it is important to note that Ice Cream
[29:25] Speaker 2: Man comes out three months before Riding Dirty comes out.
[29:30] Speaker 3: The reason I think break them off. So it might've
[29:32] Speaker 3: been a ride dirty throwaway.
[29:34] Speaker 1: It would shock me.
[29:35] Speaker 4: You know, you know, p i mean uh pmc produced
[29:38] Speaker 4: uh break them off something yeah.
[29:40] Speaker 2: The reason i and it does not fit on ride
[29:42] Speaker 2: dirty nah it's true right like there's not there is
[29:45] Speaker 2: not yeah there's not a space on it but the
[29:47] Speaker 2: reason i bring that up is And again, we'll talk
[29:50] Speaker 2: more as this goes on, but we did our episode,
[29:53] Speaker 2: 96 is the year of Tupac. Tupac was the MVP
[29:56] Speaker 2: of 1996. But if we treated this like football, you
[30:01] Speaker 2: got the MVP, you got the offensive player of the year.
[30:03] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[30:04] Speaker 1: I feel like Black Thought and.
[30:06] Speaker 2: Bum B were in a serious battle. At the very least,
[30:10] Speaker 2: Bum B came in. Bum B wasn't the most improved
[30:13] Speaker 2: player of that year. And that verse right there was
[30:16] Speaker 2: the first sign that, oh, this is going to be better.
[30:19] Speaker 1: This is going to be something different. Because, you know,
[30:21] Speaker 1: that's how these G's be. We three, me, C, and.
[30:24] Speaker 2: Master P sipping all genie kiwi. Which, by the way,
[30:27] Speaker 2: sounds disgusting.
[30:31] Speaker 3: Jenny Kiwi, that might not be what you want, brother.
[30:34] Speaker 1: He ripped that verse.
[30:37] Speaker 2: Everybody has an iconic verse for who they were in
[30:40] Speaker 2: the game and in the space. A.K.A.
[30:42] Speaker 1: Hit the wall, told the stuff out the fucking bed. Okay.
[30:46] Speaker 3: That man said, tomorrow I got caught, I ain't gonna go. Like,
[30:51] Speaker 3: what you talking about, brother?
[30:53] Speaker 1: Coming off the rim, let me sit this shit straight.
[30:56] Speaker 1: Let me lay down the rules.
[30:58] Speaker 2: If that bitch is talking shit, then that bitch gonna
[31:00] Speaker 2: have to snooze.
[31:04] Speaker 3: Boy, you can't beat that with a bat, man. I'm
[31:05] Speaker 3: telling you. That's what I'm saying.
[31:07] Speaker 1: So this is like, a song like that just drops.
[31:09] Speaker 2: And the thing about that is, nobody was really playing
[31:12] Speaker 2: the masterpiece stuff on the radio, right?
[31:14] Speaker 3: No, no.
[31:15] Speaker 1: You see the videos, right? But it built and it
[31:18] Speaker 1: got around.
[31:19] Speaker 2: And I think that where you would hear something like
[31:22] Speaker 2: that on the radio is where some dude got a
[31:24] Speaker 2: show Saturday night from 10 to 11. And he'd be like, yo,
[31:29] Speaker 2: he'd be over there playing some jams. I check him
[31:31] Speaker 2: out when I'm on my way to work or whatever.
[31:33] Speaker 2: Like you had these different avenues of, you had fewer avenues,
[31:38] Speaker 2: but also more avenues for finding stuff because since it
[31:40] Speaker 2: was fewer, it was navigable and you didn't just get overwhelmed.
[31:44] Speaker 1: By what all the stuff was.
[31:45] Speaker 2: But like all these songs that we talked about here
[31:47] Speaker 2: popped in different places, but we all got them somehow.
[31:51] Speaker 4: That's the, that's the thing of the cool thing about
[31:53] Speaker 4: retail back then, because.
[31:56] Speaker 3: Even if you didn't know it, it was in the store.
[31:59] Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying? Everything was in the store.
[32:03] Speaker 4: Which I think, you know, back then, the music buying
[32:06] Speaker 4: public were better music fans because they had access to
[32:11] Speaker 4: all of this stuff. And there was one place where
[32:15] Speaker 4: you could go find it all. Whether your bag was,
[32:19] Speaker 4: you know, the roots of Das FX or Mobb Deep
[32:22] Speaker 4: or who have you, or if it was, you know,
[32:24] Speaker 4: Spice One, Richie Rich, or if it was Masterpin, UGK.
[32:27] Speaker 3: They were all in the same place.
[32:29] Speaker 4: And you could go, you were more willing to and
[32:35] Speaker 4: had more access to explore what was going on.
[32:38] Speaker 1: There's a dude behind the counter.
[32:40] Speaker 3: He'd be like, yo, how's this one?
[32:41] Speaker 1: He'd be like, yo, you should check it out.
[32:42] Speaker 3: Tastemakers, bro. They don't exist anymore.
[32:45] Speaker 1: Curators and gatekeepers were important.
[32:48] Speaker 2: And I get why people don't like the idea of
[32:51] Speaker 2: the gatekeeper because it's associated with somebody trying to keep
[32:54] Speaker 2: you out.
[32:55] Speaker 3: Right. But no, no, no.
[32:57] Speaker 1: Somebody needs to. There's a reason why you got a gate.
[33:00] Speaker 3: Right?
[33:01] Speaker 1: No matter who you are.
[33:02] Speaker 2: There's a reason why we have it, Gates. There's a
[33:03] Speaker 2: reason why we have this curation. But look, we got
[33:05] Speaker 2: a lot more we're going to get to. More from
[33:06] Speaker 2: the best singles of 1996 with DJ Wiley Sparks coming
[33:09] Speaker 2: up next.
[33:11] Speaker 1: Want to know why.
[33:11] Speaker 2: Betting the winter games on FanDuel makes sense? From game
[33:16] Speaker 2: lines to medal counts to finding your angle on the
[33:18] Speaker 2: events you care about most, FanDuel gives you more ways
[33:22] Speaker 2: to stay connected to the action. The winter games are on,
[33:26] Speaker 2: and there's no better way to follow them than with
[33:28] Speaker 2: a bet on FanDuel. Curling matches that start slow and
[33:32] Speaker 2: somehow get tense fast. Speed skating decided by inches. Hockey
[33:36] Speaker 2: games that feel different from the opening face-off. And so
[33:40] Speaker 2: much more.
[33:41] Speaker 1: FanDuel. Play your game.
[33:43] Speaker 5: 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in
[33:46] Speaker 5: affiliation with Kansas Star Casino. Or 18 plus and present
[33:49] Speaker 5: in D.C., Kansas, Wyoming. Opt-in requirement. Awards are non-withdrawable, restrictions apply,
[33:54] Speaker 5: including bonus and token expiration, leg requirements, and max wager amount.
[33:58] Speaker 5: See terms at sportsduel.fanduel.com. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit
[34:04] Speaker 5: rg-help for. com. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat
[34:13] Speaker 5: in Connecticut. Visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit
[34:18] Speaker 5: gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327- 5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts
[34:25] Speaker 5: or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York.
[34:33] Speaker 2: All right, we are back with DJ Wiley Sparks talking
[34:35] Speaker 2: about the singles in 1996. I realized that I skipped
[34:38] Speaker 2: over a very, very important single from the year 1996
[34:41] Speaker 2: from the South.
[34:43] Speaker 3: Forgive me, Houston.
[34:44] Speaker 2: That is the year that Pimp the Pin, DJ Screw,
[34:46] Speaker 2: and Lil' Kiki comes out.
[34:48] Speaker 1: And that is.
[34:50] Speaker 2: Look, my mind's playing tricks on me is the best
[34:52] Speaker 2: song that ever came out of Houston.
[34:54] Speaker 3: Full stop.
[34:54] Speaker 2: Like we don't there's no it's kind of like when
[34:56] Speaker 2: they when they have the Hall of Fame arguments that
[34:58] Speaker 2: I go Drew Brees. OK, we don't need to waste
[35:00] Speaker 2: our time talking about that one.
[35:02] Speaker 3: Right.
[35:02] Speaker 2: Like, OK, that was set. But I would argue that's
[35:08] Speaker 2: what's the name? Jermaine Dupri once argued that the that.
[35:11] Speaker 2: the most foundational of the Houston screw records was the
[35:14] Speaker 2: June 27 freestyle.
[35:15] Speaker 3: No, no, no. I disagree. It's this one.
[35:17] Speaker 2: It pimped the pin is to me. That's the one
[35:20] Speaker 2: everybody knows the words to. That's the one that immediately starts.
[35:23] Speaker 3: It goes.
[35:23] Speaker 1: And that's that guy, the first legitimate screw single to me.
[35:28] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[35:29] Speaker 4: That, that, you know, from, from that era, like the, the,
[35:33] Speaker 4: the actual screwed up click, you know, as a, as a,
[35:37] Speaker 4: you know, that was an actual song. I just, not
[35:39] Speaker 4: just the, you know, a bunch of guys freestyling and
[35:41] Speaker 4: screws basing me while he's playing whatever instrumental he was playing.
[35:44] Speaker 5: Right.
[35:44] Speaker 3: You know?
[35:45] Speaker 4: Um, and not to say that, that those were those,
[35:47] Speaker 4: those songs aren't great, but they are. Uh, but pimp
[35:51] Speaker 4: the pin was like, all right, we making records now.
[35:56] Speaker 5: Yes.
[35:56] Speaker 3: I'm saying we make it, we make it legitimate songs.
[35:59] Speaker 1: Like, and this dude can rap.
[36:01] Speaker 3: Yep. Yeah, man. A lot of people, man.
[36:04] Speaker 4: Kiki is a very underrated of, you know, underrated. I mean,
[36:10] Speaker 4: he gets he gets the respect that he gets and
[36:13] Speaker 4: where he's from in Houston.
[36:14] Speaker 3: But I think.
[36:16] Speaker 4: I think in large part, Kiki is a lot more
[36:18] Speaker 4: influential than people may realize.
[36:21] Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that.
[36:23] Speaker 2: The I think the influence of Houston rap like pre-04,
[36:26] Speaker 2: 04 was the year that like everything got a little
[36:29] Speaker 2: bit different. But the influence of Houston rap kind of
[36:31] Speaker 2: goes in a radius of sorts. And if you did
[36:34] Speaker 2: not get in that geographical radius, you probably weren't going
[36:37] Speaker 2: to pick that up again. The Houston Memphis back and
[36:39] Speaker 2: forth is something that to be studied.
[36:42] Speaker 4: Man, you know who Kiki kind of reminds me of
[36:44] Speaker 4: in a analogous way to an athlete? Kind of like
[36:49] Speaker 4: Rod Strickland, where everybody knows that this dude is super nice.
[36:54] Speaker 3: But for some reason, the rest of the people don't know.
[36:57] Speaker 2: But it's kind of like if Rod Strickland just only
[37:00] Speaker 2: played playground ball.
[37:01] Speaker 3: There you go.
[37:03] Speaker 1: Like, Houston is a world in and of itself.
[37:05] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[37:06] Speaker 1: Like, what is outside?
[37:08] Speaker 2: Look, it's the people that can't give you nothing outside
[37:10] Speaker 2: the loop. It's the people that can't give you nothing outside.
[37:12] Speaker 1: The beltway, right?
[37:13] Speaker 2: Like, it is an insular, self-contained world. And that whole world,
[37:18] Speaker 2: all those cats that blew up in 04 were all like, yeah,
[37:20] Speaker 2: but we coming back to Houston. Like, you want to
[37:24] Speaker 2: put this album out for me nationally, for real?
[37:27] Speaker 3: That's fine.
[37:28] Speaker 1: But I do this here.
[37:30] Speaker 4: Yeah, to your point of the Memphis similarities, man, you know,
[37:36] Speaker 4: you got a guy like Tommy Wright III, for example.
[37:39] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[37:39] Speaker 4: You know, where Tommy Wright III, he's had large-scale influence
[37:45] Speaker 4: on culture over time, but Tommy.
[37:48] Speaker 3: Wright III made music for people in Memphis.
[37:53] Speaker 1: Yes.
[37:54] Speaker 3: That was it. You know what I mean? So, but yeah,
[37:58] Speaker 3: you know, and.
[38:00] Speaker 4: It's, it's just back to the back to what we
[38:02] Speaker 4: were speaking about earlier about, uh, the, the, the staunch
[38:06] Speaker 4: regionality of, about how things were back then, you know, everyone,
[38:11] Speaker 4: everyone had their identity and they were comfortable in the
[38:15] Speaker 4: identity that they, you know, were in, you know, we,
[38:18] Speaker 4: we do this, we do this, we do this for
[38:21] Speaker 4: these people. That's just the shame that, uh, you know,
[38:26] Speaker 4: music has, I don't want to say regressed because I
[38:29] Speaker 4: don't think it has regressed. I just, you know, it's
[38:32] Speaker 4: a music evolvement, a kind of, you know, push that
[38:37] Speaker 4: kind of originality to the side.
[38:39] Speaker 1: It's just, music is better when it's regional.
[38:42] Speaker 3: I 100% agree.
[38:43] Speaker 2: There's just like everybody chasing the same thing takes away.
[38:46] Speaker 2: There's less innovation when that happens, right? It's like, it's
[38:50] Speaker 2: like everybody know the answers to the test. And so
[38:53] Speaker 2: they try to write to the answers to the test.
[38:55] Speaker 2: And it's a little, when you play a regional game,
[38:57] Speaker 2: it goes a little different. Now, something else that happened
[38:59] Speaker 2: in 96 that is interesting is Chicago enters the chat.
[39:03] Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, Pope Pimp.
[39:04] Speaker 2: And we get two all-timers in 96 out of Chicago, right?
[39:08] Speaker 1: I'd say one is better than the other, but both
[39:10] Speaker 1: is a lot of fun.
[39:11] Speaker 2: The one that is better than the other is do
[39:13] Speaker 2: or die Pope Pimp because tongue twister had existed.
[39:16] Speaker 1: Prior to this and people were aware of him.
[39:18] Speaker 3: I like that move.
[39:20] Speaker 2: It's like, not like that. And like, we had heard Bone.
[39:23] Speaker 2: This was not that. Like, Bone is kind of singing,
[39:27] Speaker 2: kind of rapping. You know, it's like, it's a melodic.
[39:29] Speaker 1: This dude was rapping.
[39:31] Speaker 3: I had never heard nobody rap like that before. Like, rapping, rapping.
[39:35] Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
[39:37] Speaker 4: So, but yeah, man, that song, that song, bro, when
[39:41] Speaker 4: it hit, man, and that was a song like others, that,
[39:50] Speaker 4: you know, came into where I was in Tennessee and
[39:53] Speaker 4: like literally was the biggest record of the time where
[39:56] Speaker 4: I was at, you know? And, and I think, I
[39:59] Speaker 4: think because of the, the sound, the, uh, you know,
[40:03] Speaker 4: we had by this time, you know, we had been
[40:06] Speaker 4: fully ingratiated into the, the UGK, uh, a ball, the MJG,
[40:11] Speaker 4: you know, syrupy, you know, pimped out type vibe or whatever.
[40:15] Speaker 4: So the way pole pimp sounded, was already a little
[40:19] Speaker 4: familiar to, you know, people like me.
[40:23] Speaker 3: Uh, but, and even, even, even, uh.
[40:26] Speaker 4: The dungeon family stuff to, to a certain extent, they
[40:28] Speaker 4: had like, you know, uh, all that live instrumentation, like real,
[40:31] Speaker 4: like somebody actually playing a bass, you know what I'm saying?
[40:34] Speaker 3: Uh, on, on this.
[40:35] Speaker 4: And it sounds like someone's actually, you know, sitting behind
[40:38] Speaker 4: a kid playing drums. But when Popeye came out and
[40:42] Speaker 4: it sounded the way it sounded and Twista is clearly
[40:47] Speaker 4: the highlight of that song with that incredible, incredible verse.
[40:51] Speaker 5: Yes.
[40:51] Speaker 3: But the other two dudes weren't no slouches either, man.
[40:54] Speaker 3: They were fine. You know what I'm saying? And it
[40:56] Speaker 3: was like, bro, what is this?
[41:00] Speaker 4: You can actually rhyme this fast and still, you know,
[41:06] Speaker 4: have some kind of semblance of eloquence. It was amazing, man. And,
[41:11] Speaker 4: you know, the ultimate barometer is do a jam, and bro.
[41:15] Speaker 3: A jam. Like a motherfucker.
[41:17] Speaker 2: Hey, man, I went to Bub B's Night at the
[41:19] Speaker 2: Rodeo last year in Houston. They played that joint, and
[41:22] Speaker 2: it still went. I got a video of me rapping it, dog. Like,
[41:26] Speaker 2: it still went. The other Chicago song that came out,
[41:29] Speaker 2: Hey in the Middle of the Barn, came out that summer.
[41:33] Speaker 3: I got that cassette single, too. That's an all-time fun
[41:38] Speaker 3: reefer carol right there yeah man that what.
[41:43] Speaker 2: A what a slow down fucking down example they took
[41:46] Speaker 2: a fucking ballad slowed it down got this real interesting
[41:50] Speaker 2: drum pattern on it too that's just kind of like
[41:53] Speaker 2: hey in the middle of the board but it was
[41:59] Speaker 2: time to come back like we was losing in the
[42:01] Speaker 2: game it was time to get it cracking.
[42:05] Speaker 3: Yes did you know fab five freddie directed that video
[42:08] Speaker 3: I did not. I think they were signed to him.
[42:10] Speaker 3: I think they might have. That could be wrong. No, no.
[42:13] Speaker 2: I'm looking at it on the wiki right now. He's
[42:15] Speaker 2: the executive producer of that album.
[42:18] Speaker 3: I knew he was involved. You know what I'm saying?
[42:20] Speaker 5: Yeah.
[42:20] Speaker 3: I just didn't know at what capacity, which is crazy
[42:23] Speaker 3: to say. But, bro, that... How you feel today? Fine.
[42:30] Speaker 2: Blown and dandy. Yeah.
[42:33] Speaker 1: You know what, though? They were one of those groups.
[42:36] Speaker 2: I'm trying to think of another example that came to
[42:38] Speaker 2: me off the top of my head.
[42:39] Speaker 1: Where it's one dude that can really rap. And the
[42:42] Speaker 1: other dudes are just kind of like the Fugees.
[42:45] Speaker 3: The Fugee babies are like that too, kind of.
[42:48] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
[42:48] Speaker 2: There's one person that can really, really rap. Jim Crow
[42:51] Speaker 2: got the one dude that can really, really rap. And
[42:54] Speaker 2: then the mother can't be on the beat.
[42:55] Speaker 1: And it's fine. You know, it'll work.
[42:57] Speaker 3: It'll do.
[42:58] Speaker 2: But the dude that did the last verse over here
[42:59] Speaker 2: in the middle of the bar was rapping his ass off.
[43:02] Speaker 3: He was going crazy. You know what I'm saying? He
[43:04] Speaker 3: was definitely going crazy.
[43:06] Speaker 2: And we had not heard Chicago not a rap city
[43:09] Speaker 2: like that.
[43:09] Speaker 1: I mean, eventually, obviously, it became one.
[43:12] Speaker 4: Yeah, because people might push back and say, oh, a
[43:15] Speaker 4: comment was there, but people didn't necessarily.
[43:17] Speaker 1: But he stood out exactly for that reason.
[43:19] Speaker 3: He was the one.
[43:20] Speaker 4: I mean, they didn't really associate him as a Chicago rapper.
[43:23] Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying? Especially in the 90s, I
[43:27] Speaker 4: think people viewed him as not a New York rapper,
[43:31] Speaker 4: but a hip-hop guy.
[43:33] Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
[43:36] Speaker 4: And the do or die and Crucial Conflict, I think
[43:39] Speaker 4: that might have been more in line with what, you know,
[43:42] Speaker 4: Chicago actually, you know, I don't want to say actually was, but.
[43:45] Speaker 3: No, no, no, no.
[43:48] Speaker 2: Sonically, like, I think it would be fair to raise
[43:50] Speaker 2: the question as to whether or not they were more
[43:52] Speaker 2: representative of what the scene was at the time. And look,
[43:55] Speaker 2: Common had no ID beat, so it's not like he
[43:57] Speaker 2: was getting a producer that was not from Chicago, right?
[44:00] Speaker 3: They were just making the music they was making, you
[44:02] Speaker 3: know what I mean?
[44:03] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but the music they were making was... It
[44:06] Speaker 2: was in line with a different sound than these other
[44:09] Speaker 2: cats who... Look, man, people tell you this. Everybody from Chicago,
[44:13] Speaker 2: from Mississippi was something that.
[44:14] Speaker 1: Didn't... It feels.
[44:15] Speaker 2: It doesn't feel the same now as it did then,
[44:17] Speaker 2: but they hadn't been gone from Mississippi for long. It's Chicago,
[44:21] Speaker 2: and the song is called Hey in the Middle of
[44:24] Speaker 2: the Barn.
[44:25] Speaker 1: They in a barn. It's Chicago.
[44:29] Speaker 2: Like, that's what a lot of us really learned.
[44:33] Speaker 1: Like, oh, this is what Chicago is about.
[44:34] Speaker 2: Because at that time, when a new city would pop
[44:37] Speaker 2: on the scene for the rest of us, like, oh,
[44:38] Speaker 2: so that's what they do over there.
[44:40] Speaker 1: Why would we know, right?
[44:41] Speaker 2: Like, we were learning the map all at one time
[44:45] Speaker 2: when they came out. And so, yeah, when those dudes
[44:46] Speaker 2: came around, it was more like, my brother rode with
[44:51] Speaker 2: a bunch of dudes from Chicago in college because he
[44:53] Speaker 2: went to Southern in Baton Rouge. And a lot of
[44:55] Speaker 2: people moved to Chicago and then they send their kids
[44:57] Speaker 2: back to go to Southern, right? Common sounded like the
[45:00] Speaker 2: music that my brother listened to, but the other dudes
[45:03] Speaker 2: that dropped felt like the cats that he was introducing
[45:06] Speaker 2: me to. Yeah.
[45:07] Speaker 3: That were from Chicago. Yeah. I can see that. That
[45:11] Speaker 3: definitely tracks.
[45:13] Speaker 1: Now, East Coast Single World was really good.
[45:17] Speaker 3: Interesting, right? It was all.
[45:19] Speaker 2: So, one thing I think about it, and I think
[45:22] Speaker 2: that we focus it on jams right now.
[45:25] Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
[45:26] Speaker 2: Right? But 96, and it's something I'm going to talk
[45:30] Speaker 2: to Jason about a little more, is there was less
[45:33] Speaker 2: of an expectation in the construction of an album or
[45:35] Speaker 2: the decision to put an album out or sell it
[45:37] Speaker 2: or whatever it was that you had to have, like
[45:40] Speaker 2: you wanted a single, but it didn't have to be
[45:42] Speaker 2: like a club single, right? It didn't have to have,
[45:44] Speaker 2: it didn't have to be something that had some measure
[45:47] Speaker 2: that had like pop expectations, but there would always be
[45:51] Speaker 2: some dudes that was grimy as fuck, but also like,
[45:54] Speaker 2: understood this and had a hold of it, or it
[45:56] Speaker 2: would be something that jumped off and it was just
[45:59] Speaker 2: so jamming that you just had to be like, this
[46:01] Speaker 2: is what it is.
[46:02] Speaker 1: So like for me, I don't know.
[46:06] Speaker 2: If 96 had a better single than Lucchini by Kev Lowe.
[46:11] Speaker 1: I keep trying to.
[46:12] Speaker 2: It's hard for me to come up with songs that
[46:14] Speaker 2: are better than Lucchini. People be like, I don't understand
[46:17] Speaker 2: what they talking about. No, you don't know what they saying.
[46:20] Speaker 2: You know what they talking about.
[46:21] Speaker 3: You know what they talking about.
[46:23] Speaker 1: The vibes are through the roof.
[46:26] Speaker 4: Bro, I remember exactly where I was when I first
[46:32] Speaker 4: heard that song.
[46:33] Speaker 5: Uh.
[46:34] Speaker 4: So I told you I graduated in 96 and I
[46:37] Speaker 4: was in my first semester of college.
[46:41] Speaker 3: So the year was still 96.
[46:43] Speaker 4: But my freshman year of 97 at Lane College, we
[46:46] Speaker 4: had like a common area that had like a TV
[46:49] Speaker 4: on the cart.
[46:49] Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
[46:50] Speaker 4: Where, you know, they would play. We pretty much kept
[46:54] Speaker 4: it on BET all day. And I was coming back
[46:58] Speaker 4: from class or whatever, and the TV was just on.
[47:02] Speaker 4: And I was getting ready to walk back to my dorm.
[47:07] Speaker 4: And I walked past, and I heard that Dynasty sample,
[47:11] Speaker 4: them horns.
[47:12] Speaker 3: I said, what is that? Do you know what I'm saying?
[47:21] Speaker 4: And then I looked, and I was already familiar with
[47:24] Speaker 4: Camp Lowe because of Cooley High previously, the single prior
[47:28] Speaker 4: to Luchini. And I had already been blown away by that.
[47:33] Speaker 4: The same thing you said, no one understood what was
[47:35] Speaker 4: going on, but you kind of knew. The same thing
[47:37] Speaker 4: could apply to Cooley High. And that was another crazy beat.
[47:41] Speaker 4: It was a crazy beat. Shout out to Ski Beast, man. Yeah,
[47:45] Speaker 4: he did that. He did the whole album, actually. But
[47:48] Speaker 4: those two, man. But Luchini, bro.
[47:51] Speaker 3: Bro.
[47:53] Speaker 4: By the way, it's maybe only two rap songs in
[47:59] Speaker 4: my lifetime that I have been completely knocked over and
[48:04] Speaker 4: blown away by.
[48:05] Speaker 3: Luchini's one. Bombs Over Baghdad is dope.
[48:08] Speaker 2: Yep. By the way, the wiki says that this came
[48:10] Speaker 2: out January 21st, 1997, which sounds like 1996 to me.
[48:14] Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
[48:17] Speaker 1: Close enough.
[48:17] Speaker 4: The video was being played in 96.
[48:19] Speaker 1: That's all I needed right there. Like, that's what we got.
[48:22] Speaker 1: We got the vibes.
[48:23] Speaker 2: That is the, I could go on this forever, but
[48:25] Speaker 2: that is the coolest sounding album I feel like that
[48:27] Speaker 2: anybody's ever put out. Like, it is such a vibe.
[48:31] Speaker 2: And I don't even talk like that. It is all
[48:34] Speaker 2: of that. Like that is that it.
[48:36] Speaker 1: Was, by the way, a group that didn't put out
[48:37] Speaker 1: another record for like 10 years. Like this could just happen.
[48:40] Speaker 2: A group like this could have an album or have
[48:42] Speaker 2: a sound and it drops.
[48:44] Speaker 1: And I don't feel like, like it wasn't like it
[48:46] Speaker 1: was dominating on the radio.
[48:48] Speaker 3: No, but we all knew it. In music beds.
[48:51] Speaker 4: Like when, you know, when the, the radio DJ needed to,
[48:55] Speaker 4: you know, to talk about the weather or whatever. I
[48:58] Speaker 4: used to hear, I used to hear that beat. and
[49:01] Speaker 4: be like, bro, man, y'all should play the song.
[49:05] Speaker 3: Yes.
[49:06] Speaker 1: Oh, so good.
[49:07] Speaker 2: Also interesting of that year. I was talking about grimy
[49:10] Speaker 2: dudes with a knack for the singles.
[49:13] Speaker 1: The Lost Boys.
[49:14] Speaker 2: Two of them singles came out in 95, but Music
[49:17] Speaker 2: Makes Me High and Rene came out in 96. I
[49:19] Speaker 2: promise you, every Lost Boys song that I liked, Beats
[49:23] Speaker 2: for the East is the only one that did not
[49:25] Speaker 2: become a single. Otherwise, you'd turn on a Lost Boys
[49:27] Speaker 2: album and be like, nah, this ain't it. But it
[49:29] Speaker 2: got them four songs that was hitting on the radio.
[49:31] Speaker 3: Yeah, man.
[49:32] Speaker 4: Shout out to Easy Mo B, because he got them right.
[49:35] Speaker 4: That's what I'm saying. He got them all the way right.
[49:39] Speaker 4: You know, Rene was super crazy.
[49:43] Speaker 3: You know what I mean? Yeah.
[49:46] Speaker 4: But that music makes me high with them crazy hard drums.
[49:53] Speaker 4: That record almost sounds like West Coast-ish a little. You know,
[49:58] Speaker 4: it gives me a West Coast vibe when I hear it.
[50:01] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[50:01] Speaker 3: Just the way the movement of the drums are going.
[50:04] Speaker 3: I'm like, bro.
[50:06] Speaker 4: It, it, it definitely, it, it, it makes me feel something.
[50:10] Speaker 4: I don't know if the, you know, it definitely makes
[50:12] Speaker 4: me feel something when I hear it, but.
[50:14] Speaker 2: It is a preposterous story, by the way, it is a,
[50:17] Speaker 2: he is a, uh, it's the voice all star. Um, if, if,
[50:22] Speaker 2: if there has ever been one like Renee, you just need, don't,
[50:24] Speaker 2: don't think about it too much. Like you start following
[50:27] Speaker 2: along with the studio. You just be like, so why
[50:29] Speaker 2: did she get shot?
[50:30] Speaker 3: Right.
[50:31] Speaker 1: Like, like, like, like, was it a mass shoot? Did
[50:34] Speaker 1: somebody shoot up the whole, the whole law school?
[50:36] Speaker 4: Bro, you know what I appreciate about that song is Mr. Cheek's,
[50:42] Speaker 4: you know, commitment to making sure we understood what he said.
[50:46] Speaker 2: Yes.
[50:46] Speaker 3: She went to law school. And she studied law.
[50:49] Speaker 1: She studied law.
[50:51] Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying? She studied law.
[50:53] Speaker 1: Hey, man, let me tell you this.
[50:55] Speaker 2: I know the homie Dottie listened to this joint when
[50:59] Speaker 2: he called up. Did you hear the show we had
[51:01] Speaker 2: when Sadat called up and talked about how he was
[51:02] Speaker 2: dating Regina.
[51:03] Speaker 1: Hall back in the day?
[51:04] Speaker 3: Oh, man. What an incredible story.
[51:06] Speaker 2: Yeah, but so, like, I think Regina Hall was at
[51:09] Speaker 2: NYU at the time, and I feel like Renee is
[51:11] Speaker 2: an archetype that these rappers knew, which is she's up
[51:15] Speaker 2: here living very professionally in New York City, and then
[51:17] Speaker 2: the real was pulled up, and now she kicking with us. Mm-hmm.
[51:22] Speaker 3: That story doesn't tell... Tell all the time. Man, who
[51:26] Speaker 3: you telling?
[51:29] Speaker 2: Also that year, you and I talked about this as
[51:32] Speaker 2: we were getting ready for the show, and we ain't gonna,
[51:34] Speaker 2: you know, we gonna miss a couple.
[51:35] Speaker 3: It happens.
[51:37] Speaker 2: But Shaquille O'Neal had a really dope single in 1996.
[51:42] Speaker 3: Yeah, with the Notorious B.I.G.
[51:43] Speaker 1: Biggie on it. UK Stop the Raid was monster.
[51:49] Speaker 4: In the grand contest thing, how ridiculous does that sound?
[51:53] Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying? It happened, and it was awesome.
[51:57] Speaker 1: By the way, that's his third album. I know. The
[52:00] Speaker 1: first two went platinum.
[52:01] Speaker 5: Yeah.
[52:02] Speaker 3: Shaq has a.
[52:05] Speaker 4: Shaq had a better rap career than a lot of rappers.
[52:09] Speaker 1: And they were real albums.
[52:11] Speaker 4: He wasn't faking at all. You know what I'm saying?
[52:14] Speaker 4: He was completely serious.
[52:17] Speaker 2: They were real, actual, factual albums. I was also thinking
[52:22] Speaker 2: about this in terms of talking about singles. I meant
[52:24] Speaker 2: to bring this up in the middle of the barn.
[52:26] Speaker 2: My homeboy John, rest in peace. His argument was, Hey
[52:30] Speaker 2: in the Middle of a Barn became a hit because
[52:32] Speaker 2: we got tired of which the song that probably by
[52:36] Speaker 2: number was the biggest song of 1996.
[52:41] Speaker 1: The Bone Thugs Crossroads remix.
[52:43] Speaker 4: I'm going to say remix because a lot of people
[52:46] Speaker 4: don't realize that the version that we all know, a
[52:49] Speaker 4: lot of people don't realize that was a remix.
[52:51] Speaker 1: So there's Crossroads which is on East 1999 Eternal and
[52:53] Speaker 1: there's The Crossroads, which.
[52:58] Speaker 2: Is the bone, bone, bone, bone, bone. Yeah, I miss
[53:02] Speaker 2: my Uncle Charles. It's that joint. The original Crossroads, that
[53:08] Speaker 2: was dedicated to their friend named Wally.
[53:11] Speaker 3: Oh, damn right.
[53:12] Speaker 1: Even though you gone.
[53:13] Speaker 2: First of all, what a ridiculous way to pay tribute
[53:15] Speaker 2: to your man. Even though you, oh no, it's right.
[53:17] Speaker 2: Even though you gone, you still got love from bone.
[53:20] Speaker 2: I was thinking he was like, even though you gone,
[53:21] Speaker 2: you still got love for bone, which would be rather presumptuous.
[53:25] Speaker 3: Yes, it would be. You still love us though, don't you?
[53:31] Speaker 1: That shit was everywhere. Them funeral dirges, man, they did numbers.
[53:36] Speaker 3: That was a smash.
[53:40] Speaker 4: Speaking of records that started one way and ended up
[53:46] Speaker 4: another way, that's a glowing example of a record that
[53:51] Speaker 4: started out as just a remix to an album cut
[53:55] Speaker 4: because You know, they had their unfortunate passing of their
[53:59] Speaker 4: uncle and their mentor, Eazy-E.
[54:01] Speaker 3: You know what I mean? And that record just, it
[54:05] Speaker 3: just took off, bro. Just took off out of nowhere.
[54:08] Speaker 2: Did you see that video of Klay Thompson rapping with
[54:11] Speaker 2: Megan Thee Stallion? Oh, had Bone perform for him? Yeah,
[54:15] Speaker 2: booked Bone for his birthday because he loved Bone. Man,
[54:17] Speaker 2: what a life he's living.
[54:19] Speaker 1: Oh, dog.
[54:20] Speaker 3: What a life he's living, Jack.
[54:22] Speaker 2: And you see, he didn't go to the game on
[54:24] Speaker 2: the day after. Just like, I don't know why he
[54:27] Speaker 2: go to none of them games.
[54:30] Speaker 4: We got, what, four championships? You know, he got super
[54:34] Speaker 4: maxed out.
[54:35] Speaker 2: I remember the last time I was in love on
[54:37] Speaker 2: that level, and it was hard to go to work, boy.
[54:40] Speaker 1: Hard, hard to go to work.
[54:42] Speaker 2: What was so funny about that to me is Klay
[54:44] Speaker 2: Thompson from Newport Beach, wherever you're from in Orange County.
[54:47] Speaker 2: And I feel like if Bone was your favorite group
[54:49] Speaker 2: like that, you could have either turned into that or
[54:52] Speaker 2: you could have been hanging with the whiteboards and black
[54:54] Speaker 2: fingernail polish. Like that lane is the same. It's black goth,
[55:01] Speaker 2: highly dramatic music. Like that's where they were. And they
[55:05] Speaker 2: were really big deals.
[55:06] Speaker 1: And they were a.
[55:07] Speaker 2: Very controversial topic at the time. in terms of how
[55:11] Speaker 2: good they were, how hip-hop they were, so forth and
[55:14] Speaker 2: so on. I did not love them, but I think
[55:17] Speaker 2: historically speaking, it's unquestionable that they are underrated.
[55:21] Speaker 3: They might be the most underrated rap group of all time.
[55:24] Speaker 5: Right.
[55:24] Speaker 3: And it doesn't matter how.
[55:25] Speaker 1: You feel about the music. The influence was indisputable.
[55:28] Speaker 3: Yep. Indisputable.
[55:31] Speaker 4: And they put numbers on the board, bro. They got
[55:34] Speaker 4: the numbers to back it up.
[55:35] Speaker 3: They did. They put numbers on the board. Huge numbers.
[55:41] Speaker 2: I want to get to a couple more things before
[55:42] Speaker 2: we get out of here. One, as we were compiling
[55:44] Speaker 2: the list of this, we both put down a couple
[55:47] Speaker 2: of the Busta Rhymes singles. And Busta Rhymes, to me,
[55:50] Speaker 2: I argue Busta Rhymes is maybe the best rapper without
[55:54] Speaker 2: a classic album.
[55:55] Speaker 3: Right?
[55:56] Speaker 2: Like, you can have your favorite Busta Rhymes album. Like,
[55:58] Speaker 2: for me, it's Extinction Level Event. But if I'm being
[56:00] Speaker 2: honest with myself.
[56:02] Speaker 1: this close. Not quite, right? He's got it like, Big Bang,
[56:06] Speaker 1: this close. Not quite.
[56:08] Speaker 2: But what he did, though, in 96 was he became
[56:11] Speaker 2: a video superstar.
[56:12] Speaker 3: Yep. Right?
[56:13] Speaker 2: Like, those, the influence of Busta Rhymes was with the visuals. Like, woo-ha,
[56:17] Speaker 2: I got you all in check. It's a cool song.
[56:20] Speaker 2: It's a great video that just changed everything.
[56:24] Speaker 3: Amazing. Like, the visual component.
[56:30] Speaker 4: Is another thing of that was sort of driving singles, uh,
[56:35] Speaker 4: that you don't, you don't do, you don't get, uh,
[56:38] Speaker 4: with music and today's thing, you know, like today's music,
[56:42] Speaker 4: you rarely see, uh, if it's a video of somebody
[56:44] Speaker 4: that shot it with a handheld, you know, whatever camera
[56:47] Speaker 4: they got, or maybe shot it on iPhone, you know,
[56:50] Speaker 4: but back then, like visually, the way you presented a single, was,
[56:56] Speaker 4: especially if you were going to be operating on the
[56:57] Speaker 4: level that, say, Busta Rhymes was, where they kind of
[57:00] Speaker 4: knew what they had with him immediately, because Busta Rhymes
[57:03] Speaker 4: was a star from the minute he showed.
[57:04] Speaker 3: Up, right?
[57:05] Speaker 4: He was, you know, regardless, I have my own personal
[57:08] Speaker 4: feelings about Mr. Smith, but be that as it may,
[57:14] Speaker 4: Busta Rhymes has always been someone that once he shows up, yes,
[57:21] Speaker 4: the attention naturally gravitates right to him yes and the
[57:28] Speaker 4: the you you know being a being a visual star
[57:32] Speaker 4: uh in the era of singles was uh was uh
[57:36] Speaker 4: was a big thing for people like him you know
[57:38] Speaker 4: what i'm saying he was he was he was he
[57:40] Speaker 4: was definitely like the you know the standout uh rap
[57:44] Speaker 4: artist that you know i want.
[57:48] Speaker 3: To see him on television you know what i mean.
[57:51] Speaker 2: It's kind of a precursor to what missy elliott yes
[57:54] Speaker 2: he was became Right. You know, very simply working with, say,
[57:58] Speaker 2: people making production and stuff like that. But I guess
[58:01] Speaker 2: a multimedia star, I think, is the way that we
[58:05] Speaker 2: could describe it.
[58:06] Speaker 3: Speaking of Mr.
[58:06] Speaker 2: Smith, by the way, you know, we weren't really fucking
[58:09] Speaker 2: with him when he was doing this kind of stuff.
[58:12] Speaker 1: LL Cool J, he gave the world.
[58:14] Speaker 3: He gave the he. And it was comeback number two. Yeah,
[58:23] Speaker 3: because this is after 14 shots to the dome.
[58:25] Speaker 2: This is after 14 shots to the dome. And you
[58:27] Speaker 2: and I were also talking about this. We're like old
[58:30] Speaker 2: school Mr.
[58:31] Speaker 3: Smith.
[58:31] Speaker 1: I mean, old head LL Cool J.
[58:34] Speaker 2: He was 26, 27, or maybe 26, he's 28.
[58:37] Speaker 1: He was the old head. He's the old head. He
[58:43] Speaker 1: had already put up a whole career. Yeah, man. Like
[58:47] Speaker 1: nothing LL Cool J did.
[58:48] Speaker 3: A Hall of Fame career.
[58:49] Speaker 5: Right.
[58:50] Speaker 1: He does not have a classic record after 1990, right?
[58:52] Speaker 1: Mama said, knock you out.
[58:53] Speaker 3: He's got three of them.
[58:54] Speaker 2: He did nothing he did after 1990 matters, but he
[58:57] Speaker 2: actually consistently did things.
[59:00] Speaker 1: After 1990. But the Mr.
[59:02] Speaker 2: Smith album, you know, he's got I Shot You, right?
[59:05] Speaker 2: He would always pop back up and let you know
[59:07] Speaker 2: that he could still do the thing.
[59:09] Speaker 3: But he... I got it in the chamber, homie. Don't
[59:12] Speaker 3: play it.
[59:13] Speaker 4: Just because I've been working out all day thinking about her.
[59:16] Speaker 3: Don't think I got it back in the chamber, dog.
[59:21] Speaker 1: But he gave up on us.
[59:23] Speaker 2: He decided that we were not going to buy no records.
[59:26] Speaker 3: I figured we'd just want it.
[59:27] Speaker 1: He just did it all for them.
[59:29] Speaker 3: I've been working out all day thinking about you. That
[59:34] Speaker 3: is absurd.
[59:35] Speaker 2: Licking his lips with that one pant leg up.
[59:40] Speaker 1: You know what he is?
[59:42] Speaker 2: He's low-key what Drake was trying to pull off. Except
[59:46] Speaker 2: when it came time to do I Shot You, Drake
[59:49] Speaker 2: couldn't really give you that.
[59:51] Speaker 1: And also, he just wasn't LL Cool J.
[59:54] Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying? Uh-oh.
[59:57] Speaker 4: Man, speaking of visuals from that time, that man was
[1:00:00] Speaker 4: in these videos pouring chocolate syrup on people's knees.
[1:00:04] Speaker 3: It was ridiculous.
[1:00:05] Speaker 2: It was always so frustrating because it was like, partner.
[1:00:10] Speaker 1: You don't have to do this. Go look at Method Man.
[1:00:14] Speaker 1: He's the proof that you don't have to act like this.
[1:00:16] Speaker 1: All you got to do is pull up.
[1:00:19] Speaker 3: Yeah, be LL Cool J.
[1:00:20] Speaker 1: They are not... Like, right, you've already done the hard part.
[1:00:23] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[1:00:24] Speaker 1: Right, the hard part, just be LL Cool J.
[1:00:27] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[1:00:28] Speaker 1: You've already managed to pull that off, right? Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
[1:00:35] Speaker 3: That's too much, bro. Here he go. Here he go.
[1:00:39] Speaker 1: Nips all out and shit and just.
[1:00:41] Speaker 3: That's too much, dog.
[1:00:43] Speaker 2: Oh, man, like, it got to a place where you
[1:00:44] Speaker 2: couldn't even tell people you liked his music.
[1:00:47] Speaker 3: Yeah, because they look at you crazy. They like... Did
[1:00:49] Speaker 3: you jam LL Cool J?
[1:00:51] Speaker 1: You might as well just play actual slow jams.
[1:00:53] Speaker 3: How about that?
[1:00:55] Speaker 2: There was far more dignity in that sort of behavior
[1:00:59] Speaker 2: if that's where you wanted to go. But man, that's 96.
[1:01:04] Speaker 2: We got so much more than we could have gotten to.
[1:01:06] Speaker 2: We talked about Tee LaRae fans. When we get to
[1:01:09] Speaker 2: the albums, that's when we'll get deeper in some of these.
[1:01:11] Speaker 2: But Show Nuff, man, that was the one.
[1:01:15] Speaker 4: Man, shout out to Ricky Smiley for forever immortalizing that,
[1:01:18] Speaker 4: the intro, the baseline intro to that song and his
[1:01:22] Speaker 4: stand-up special. Because, man, that's one of them things. I
[1:01:27] Speaker 4: like a lot of these songs that we've spoken about today.
[1:01:30] Speaker 4: The reaction to when it starts is immediate.
[1:01:35] Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying?
[1:01:39] Speaker 3: Everybody going to be like.
[1:01:42] Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
[1:01:45] Speaker 4: It takes you to a place, man. It takes you
[1:01:47] Speaker 4: to a place. Shout out to Jazzy Faye on that beat.
[1:01:49] Speaker 2: Yeah, also, shout out to ghetto mafia straight from the deck,
[1:01:52] Speaker 2: which was a really big deal, but boy, that was
[1:01:55] Speaker 2: a what do you Atlanta people do? Like, that was
[1:02:01] Speaker 2: one of those like, what are you guys up to
[1:02:03] Speaker 2: down here?
[1:02:03] Speaker 4: Bro, you know, I can't recall who it was, but
[1:02:07] Speaker 4: it was somebody that you would associate with, well, like,
[1:02:14] Speaker 4: the whole Backpacker hip-hop. It was an artist from that.
[1:02:17] Speaker 4: It may have been, it was like a Pharaoh Munch type.
[1:02:19] Speaker 4: I can't recall who exactly it was. But they were
[1:02:23] Speaker 4: on an episode of Your Own TV Raps Today during
[1:02:26] Speaker 4: the interview portion.
[1:02:27] Speaker 3: They were being asked what they were listening to. And
[1:02:29] Speaker 3: they both said, bro, there's.
[1:02:31] Speaker 4: This record called Straight From The Deck by these cats
[1:02:35] Speaker 4: called Ghetto Bop.
[1:02:35] Speaker 3: It's the greatest thing I ever heard.
[1:02:37] Speaker 4: And that was like a signifier to me that, oh,
[1:02:41] Speaker 4: you know, what I think of them, they might not
[1:02:49] Speaker 4: be thinking the same of me.
[1:02:50] Speaker 3: They might actually like the stuff that we're doing down here.
[1:02:53] Speaker 3: I didn't think that... I was always the type of
[1:02:56] Speaker 3: fan that.
[1:02:58] Speaker 4: I'm a hip-hop fan, so I loved a bunch of
[1:03:00] Speaker 4: New York music, and especially the Backpack Tiger. I'm a
[1:03:03] Speaker 4: low-key backpacker nerd, to be honest with you. I like
[1:03:08] Speaker 4: all that stuff, but I used to think that they would...
[1:03:12] Speaker 4: no way they would like something like ghetto mafia. And
[1:03:14] Speaker 4: when I heard that person say that, I was like, oh,
[1:03:18] Speaker 4: it's okay to like everything. You know what I mean?
[1:03:21] Speaker 4: Because I was, you know, I was a young man
[1:03:22] Speaker 4: back then. I was, you know, fresh out of high
[1:03:24] Speaker 4: school or whatever. And I had my own preconceived notions.
[1:03:27] Speaker 1: About- Let me tell you, your preconceived notion was correct.
[1:03:31] Speaker 3: Came up, came down, stayed down, played around, amen, amen.
[1:03:36] Speaker 3: That's a good flow, though, man. You know what I'm saying?
[1:03:38] Speaker 2: Yeah, but I tell you, maybe I need to go back.
[1:03:41] Speaker 2: I heard that like three times when it came out.
[1:03:43] Speaker 3: It's super churchy.
[1:03:44] Speaker 2: Yeah, man, look, I heard that like three times when
[1:03:46] Speaker 2: it came out, and I was like, look, I don't
[1:03:47] Speaker 2: know what they're doing over there on the east side
[1:03:49] Speaker 2: of this city. These rappers I hear from the south
[1:03:52] Speaker 2: and the west, they're doing things. I don't know what's
[1:03:54] Speaker 2: going on over there in Decatur.
[1:03:55] Speaker 4: That's all just a blessed assurance in gangster form.
[1:03:59] Speaker 1: I tell you this, boy.
[1:04:00] Speaker 2: Them boys love beer from Decatur because the joint in
[1:04:03] Speaker 2: Decatur was the jail.
[1:04:04] Speaker 3: Yeah, 100%. Shout out to the east side.
[1:04:08] Speaker 1: Yeah, man.
[1:04:08] Speaker 3: Look, man.
[1:04:09] Speaker 1: It's DJ Wiley Sparks. Check him out.
[1:04:11] Speaker 2: Twitch.tv slash DJ Wiley Sparks.
[1:04:13] Speaker 1: Just look him up.
[1:04:14] Speaker 2: DJ Wiley Sparks. You can find his stuff. Whenever he
[1:04:17] Speaker 2: goes on Twitch, he's jamming. He do parties in Atlanta.
[1:04:20] Speaker 3: Whole nine.
[1:04:21] Speaker 1: Check it out.
[1:04:21] Speaker 2: And he'll be back with us as we continue this series.
[1:04:24] Speaker 1: My brother, I appreciate you.
[1:04:25] Speaker 4: Thank you for having me, bro. It's fun. I mean,
[1:04:27] Speaker 4: you know, like I said, we do this all the time.
[1:04:29] Speaker 4: But it's always fun for me.
[1:04:31] Speaker 3: Hey, man.
[1:04:31] Speaker 1: All good. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining
[1:04:33] Speaker 1: us here on The Right Time. We do this four
[1:04:35] Speaker 1: times a week. Ryan Brumley handling everything behind the scenes.
[1:04:39] Speaker 1: Thank you, sir.
[1:04:39] Speaker 2: Hit the voicemail line, 323-596-7767. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe, like,
[1:04:46] Speaker 2: rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only
[1:04:48] Speaker 2: give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are
[1:04:50] Speaker 2: a hater. We'll talk to you guys in a couple
[1:04:51] Speaker 2: of days.
[1:04:52] Speaker 1: Take it easy.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.