Newark Denominated Clik

A long time ago, I did a video about an important underground Jersey single by the Newark Anonymous Clik.  They're best known for Outsidaz affiliation, with AzIzz and the legendary Slang Ton as featured members.  Some of the other guys in their crew made names for themselves on the solo tip, i.e. Omega and Supreme C.  But here's a lesser known single by a lesser known NAC member, U'Seff Majjid, which definitely deserves a little more attention.  Released in 1999, this came out on Landlord Entertainment, the only other record they put out besides the Clik's.

For whatever reason, before I heard this record, I'd gotten the impression it was some sort of pop jazz infusion thing or something.  And that "featuring Incogneto" was some kind of sax player.  But nah, I don't even remember where I got that notion from, but it's way of base.  This actually a fairly rough and very dirty record.  Yeah, of course with "dance floor" in the title, it's on the club tip.  But Majjid is still coming with a skills-forward flow.  It's basically a shamelessly explicit sex record, produced by the one and only King Shameek.  Like, think of something The Terror Squad would put out; it fits in that sort of thin vein between the streets and radio.  And Incogneto is actually a female MC, there to throw every sex reference back in Majjid's face, only to double down on it.

"Down at the chateau, shakin' my ass like a rattle.
I love it in public spots; it gets me hot.
(You lickin' my cock?)  Only if you lickin' my twat!
And my clique robbin' while the crowd's heads bobbin'.
Gettin' ya nob slobbed? My nigga is out robbin',
Mad as fuck 'cause he couldn't get in the club,
Thinkin' of partyin' while I'm on the dance floor fuckin' the thugs."

But don't get me wrong; it probably sounds like I'm really impressed with this track, but not really.  Like I said, it feels like generic Terror Squad to me, not one of Big Pun's lyrical masterpieces, but just one of those records a couple of the junior members would do together.  It's passable, but the reason I felt this record is worth looking at today is definitely the B-side.

"Gunz and Ammo" is the 90's hardcore kinda joint fans of the NAC would be looking for.  The A-side was just an attempt at a little crossover buzz, and the B-side is the real.  Still produced by Shameek, this one just has Majjid going off.  He's definitely no Slang Ton in terms of clever wordplay, but he has his moments here, "somebody should speak to y'all before you be speakin' to God."  The beat's a little flat, and the hook is stiff, so this isn't like a hit-worthy underground track, but we're on the right track.

Because there's one more song to go.  The labeling makes it look like it's a remix of "Gunz and Ammo," but it's actually an entirely different song called "Newark Killa'z," which is definitely the best of the three.  It's spelled out as the "Raw Anthem Mix w/ Love," but it's not like there are other mixes that've been released anywhere else.  Love I guess is just the guy speaking on the intro, because the song is just Majjid going hard solo, and this time the track is (produced by Heavilee Armed, a low-key street alias of The Hollywood Impact).  Who knew he could make a rugged, ominous beat like this - it thumps - and Maj really impresses here, finally proving how worthy he is of standing alongside his better known Clik members.  This would've drawn attention on mixtapes back in the day, but I don't think many DJs ever heard it.  It's for sure the song to cop this 12" for, and it can usually be found super cheap.  NJ aficionados shouldn't sleep.  It comes in a sticker cover, and we get dirty, clean, instrumental and acapella versions of both "Sex" and "Guns," though just the one version of "Killa'z."  Googling around, there seems to be a CD version, too, with an identical track-listing; but why wouldn't you choose the vinyl?

The Divine Beings are Winner!

On Three Times Dope's somewhat maligned second album, they flipped a killer sample from a Curtis Mayfield/ Impressions classic called "We're a Winner."  It's just one of those loops, with a perfectly subtle bassline playing underneath a completely catchy guitar, horn and... xylophone(??) riff.  You know, just one of those loops that blows your mind and makes you want to hear it over and over again.  But lyrically, though EST is of course a great MC, it's kind of a flat narrative rap about relationships.  Not exactly the kind of hyped up, skill flexing flow you want to accompany such a fresh, high energy break.  So I was excited two years later when Ali Dee, the white kid from The Next School who became one of The Bomb Squad, wound up using it for his lead solo single, "Who's da Flava."  He's on a higher energy tongue-flipping freestyle flow like you'd hope for, and it's got a pretty funky scratch breakdown.

Let's face it, though, Dee's a bit corny.  So I was excited to buy the cassingle, but once I really dug into it, it fell a little short.  I still played it a bunch (it helped that he had G Rap drop a guest verse on the B-side), but it could never really hit the spot.  Someone still needed to come around and really rock the track right.  And that's when the Divine Beings came out.

The Divine Beings are the two people you see on that picture cover up there: The Wizard (the dude on the right) and Da Gr81 (the girl on the left).  They were a duo out of Philly who dropped their first indie 12" in 1992.  I never discovered that record until many years later, though, thanks to the internet.  I, like most of us, first encountered them when they were briefly signed to a major and came out with this "Funky Ultimatum" single on Warner Bros' Reprise Records in 1993.

There's actually a step in between their first single and their Reprise single, but again, I didn't know about it at the time.  They first released this 12" on Kwame's label, 4x4 Records.  Then Reprise picked it up to give it broader, nationwide distribution.  The 4x4 had an exclusive B-side called "Sounds of Hip-Hop," but this one had a cool picture cover and more mixes of the title track.  And the title track was the one I was amped for anyway, because that's the one over "We're a Winner," with the best MCing to date.

The Wizard, who co-produced this with Kwame, does the majority of the rhyming, and I believe, the cuts.  He's on a fun, tongue-twisting freestyle tip very much in the same vein as Ali Dee.  But apart from a few limp, dated punchlines ("we make more noise than Bugle Boys"), he's just a little nicer on the mic, and definitely less corny.  Then, to really sell this song, Gr81 comes in and kills it with a smooth if not downright sultry, jazzy vibe.  Think of Jean Grae on those Herbalizer records, when she was still known as What? What?.  Just a short verse but it's niiiice.

At least on the Extended Version.  The Single and Radio Edits, also on this 12", and even the one they had the video for, actually cuts out Gr8's verse.  It's just like when they cut Ice Cube out of "Express Yourself" - The song still works without it, but seriously why??  Anyway you cut it, though, this is one must-have single, and thankfully their easiest to find cheap, because of Reprise.

Unfortunately, though, it wasn't the break-out success it should've been, and Reprise dropped the Beings.  Gr81 wound up appearing on Kwame's last album.  In fact, I asked about her in my interview with him, and this is what he said: "Oh, the GR81. She was an artist outta Philly that I was trying to develop. She was dope. I was working with this AIDS awareness repertoire group that I did some appearances with and music for. And she was one of the kids in the group. Well, she wasn’t a kid, but she was one of the people in the group. I thought she was kinda hot, so I said come on this album and let’s do a duet. That’s how that one happened." And that's about all we got from the Divine Beings... until Dope Folks released a bunch of tracks from their shelved album on vinyl a couple years ago.  Kwame's on the intro and one of the tracks features an early appearance by Black Thought.  All the Divine Beings stuff was dope, and it's a real shame they're still barely recognized to this day.  They're certainly the best to ever rock this "Winner" loop.