Serch's MySpace Blog from 01/01/2009 - Serch mentions 3rd Bass a few times:Peace:
As always I hope this blog finds you in good health and spirits. Lets start off 09 with some tributes to the best of the best. This year marks the 20th anniversary of 3rd Bass seminal debut album "The Cactus". I find it hard to believe that my first album came out 20 years ago. Many of you just know me from TV and that's kosher but my first love is being an emcee. I still write rhymes all the time and every now and then I will drop a 16 on someone's mixtape (shout out to J-Ice in Poland and my man in Germany who will be getting that 16 soon). 3rd Bass was originally called 3 The Hard Way which is why in songs like Words of Wizdom on the album it says "this time there was three, 1,2,3, the hard way". We had to change the name at the very last minute because the label could not get the clearance for the name with Universal Pictures who put out the cult classic movie. There is a skit in the album, just before Gas Face where we are talking to Russell Simmons about the new name, and we are going over some names and he finally thinks that 3rd Bass is dope, well my friend that was the actual conversation. Pete taped that conversation on purpose with the concealed microphone so we could put whatever Russell said on the album. Many of my friends who called or text me a Happy New Year also wished me a happy anniversary on the debut album. That led me to this…
So how do you figure out the top 20 albums of all time? What is the barometer for it, the litmus test, if you will? First off, the album had to change your life (Remember when music did that?) It had to change the way you thought about things, how you crafted your ideas and even your ideals, It had to be a mind-blowing experience and be able to do that with out the use (and sometime with the use) of any type of drugs. You got the same rush listening to it when you were sober as when you were other-than-sober. Another criteria is it had to have an impact on those not so close to the culture, the general audience who don't read liner notes and don't care who got a shout out, but just want to be entertained by someone making great music. These listeners are just as important as the "Heads" because there is more of them, then of us, the "Heads". We can be a true fan and tell people you were up on it way before the first album came out (How many were up on Eminem when he did "Bad vs. Ugly with Royce the 5'9 on Game records, see what I mean?) But when a great album comes out it should be truly appreciated by all, even those who are corny in our very judgmental eyes. Last it has to have stood the test of time. Classic albums not only break the rules when they come out, but they continue to makes us laugh, think, dance, years after their original sales date. A classic still sells better than some artists of today and that makes them a classic as well. So , sorry many of you Lil Wayne fans, but you will have to wait ten years to see if the "Carter" albums are still banging 10 years from now, and I will be more than happy to add him or any other album who beats father time into the top twenty.
This list is an organic one and will change, cause you need to continue to seek out great music and be moved by artists. Mine has been pretty stagnant for a long time and there will be many of you that scratch your heads, are angered, are ENRAGED, by my picks but this is my list not yours, and as always I am looking forward to seeing and reflecting on your list as well.
Top 20 albums of all time.
1-A Tribe Call Quest-Low End Theory. I still blast this album to this day. It is perfect in balance as far as rhymes, beats, melodies, chorus, it is just amazing body of work
2-NAS-Illmatic-I still get goose bumps when I hear "New York State of Mind". The young Nasir made ten perfect joints, no more, no less and left you begging, and I mean the streets were BEGGGING for more. That my name is on that album makes me so proud, almost as much as the birth of my own children.
3-Main Source-Breaking Atoms. If you are unfortunate to have not heard this classic then you need to go to Amazon or iTunes or CD Baby or, whoa, your local record store LOL, and cop this gem. "A friendly Game of baseball", "Live at the BBQ", "Snake eye's", "Looking At the Front Door" all are just great songs that the Large Professor and Paul C (RIP) crafted. Still gets love to this day
4-Eric B and Rakim- Paid in Full: Many of you outside New York cannot really comprehend what this album meant to Hip Hop. Eric B and Rakim set the standard for beats, rhymes, style, manner of speak, flows, hood credibility, just everything street. So many hits off that album that Wade Boggs would be jealous
5-Public Enemy-It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back- PE is the greatest at making your mind work so hard to appreciate what Chuck D said, that many people around the world learned how to speak English of this album. I was so blessed to have toured with PE when this was out and the response they got on the street from all people was as close to Beatlemania as I have ever seen. "Black Steel In The Hour of Chaos" is still on full frontal smash in my mind's eye
6-Dr. Dre-The Chronic-What can I say about this album that has not been said already. Every song on this album, every skit on this album, has made its impact on pop culture. I don't think there is a single artists making music today that was not influenced creatively by this album.
7-3rd Bass-The Cactus Album- Well, its my list so why not me? I will tell you this, to keep it 100 with you all, I have not listened to that album in its entirety in almost 15 years. I just pulled it out of the far corner of my CD closet and put it in and I heard an emcee, well two emcee's, who were rhyming for the pure love of it. We were not trying to make fans, Pete and I were trying to out rhyme each other. It was competitive, it was fierce rivalry and the result is what Rolling Stone calls " Hip Hop's most unappreciated album" I don't think so I think my next pick is….
8-O.C.-Word…Life-This artists signed to Wild Pitch records in 1994 came out of the Organized Confusion camp and a big record back in the early 90's called "Fudge Pudge". This body of work is so undervalued and under appreciated because of the label it was on and the promotion that was done, that only a select few got to hear it. O.C. had an impact on Hip Hop in New York during the height of the Nas/Biggie era that went beyond fame. He was truly your favorite emcee's emcee and this album should now get the shine it deserves. A lot of your favorite artists out of the Tri-State owe their flows to O.C. "No Main Topic", "Born to Live", "Time's Up" are standouts to this classic album.
9-B.I.G.-Ready To Die-If you were a head in NY and did not know every word to this and Illmatic then your ghetto pass was revoked. Nothing you can say but only can wish that BIG was still hear (and will be on January 16th when his film "Notorious" comes out) to see his impact on all of us.
10-WuTang Klan-Enter The 36 Chambers-Another album that changes Hip Hop permanently. This band of brothers from Shaolin (That's Staten Island) took what was indie and made in major. The Rza took all that he learned from being an artist on Tommy Boy and with the help of some of his dude's from the block went indie and put out "Protect Your Neck" including what was unheard of at the time, a music video, that was so raw and rough that it changed the way videos were even shot. Their album is nothing but classic beats and melodies over some of the most grimy, filthy, beats ever produced.
11-Boogie Down Productions-Criminal Minded-I cannot tell you the impact this album and Scott La Rock (RIP) had on my life. I was down with BDP and was around Scott a lot. They were major stars without a major label. This album is so gutter and sparse that is begs for a remix, but a young KRS ONE and Scott, with the help of D-Nice and others changed the whole beef game and battle mode and took it to new heights. There were two stations in NY playing Hip Hop back then, one was 98.7 Kiss FM and the other was 107.5 WBLS. It was known and clear the Kiss was a BDP station with Red Alert and the WBLS was a Queens station with MC Shan and Marley Marl. The city was actually divided by radio stations. It was crazy. I remember seeing KRS perform 'The South Bronx" for the first time at a club called Union Square, and by the time the chorus of the song came on everyone in the club, no matter where you were from were automatically from the Bronx. It changed my life
12-Jay Z-Reasonable Doubt-Young H.O. at his early and some feel, his best. When Jay put this album out he was turned down by every label, finally finding a home on Freeze records. In the streets Jigga was hot though and had Mary J Blidge on his album which for an indie artist at the time was huge. Every song on this record made people start to change their style and how they made music. Every crew now had to have a hot female in it like Foxy, or have beats by Ski, or have a Mercedes for a street vehicle (Yes their street team van was a MB 320, all white with the Roc-a-Fella logo on the hood). Jay became a major force in not only music but his influence on culture started here as well.
13-NWA-Straight Outta Compton-West Coast fully represented. This was one of the first albums to really impact outside LA. Ren, Yella, Cube, Dre, Eazy, were one of the most perfect groups ever in Hip Hop. "Express Yourself", "Straight outta Compton", to just name a few were amazing to hear and feel and it was one of the first times that a kid from NY wanted to live somewhere else and was able to within the grooves of a song.
14-OutKast-Ataliens-Many of you will say Southernplayalisticcadillacmusic is better but this album took these dudes to the super star level. So many great songs on this album and made people change the way they spoke (Who was saying YEAH-ER before you heard them say it).
15-RUN DMC-Tougher Than Leather- They are the reason the music gets made and played on a global level. Damn near every cut on this album your can recite word-for-word.
16-Beastie Boys-License to Ill- This record was different, bizarre, funky, original, raunchy, beautiful, disturbing, ill, and just great. They gave the Frat Boys an anthem album to get drunk on and gave the suburbs a hip hop group they could relate to. They opened the doors for me and many other rap groups and the album is still one of the top selling records every year, selling more than 200,000 copies every year to this day.
17-Kanye West-College Drop out. It is amazing what a car crash can do. This Chi emcee and far from shy emcee made an album that was so clear and focused that you could just see the impact that Jay had on him all those years he was in the studio producing songs for him. He is a true genius and with all his faults and flaws, he allows you through his music to be a part of his growth and maturity. He gives you himself on every cut and it shows.
18-Common-Be-I have been a fan of his since "Can I Borrow a Dollar" and there have been many great Common album's like "Water For Chocolate" and "Resurection" but this body of work is really him coming out of a small shell and being the true representer of great artistry. I think it might also be a fair statement to make that he might be the last of the great emcee's. It so not important to be an emcee anymore and he is that. Though he took a more polished and pop approach to his last album, "Be" is glossy but not flossy. It is pure and whimsical and important to listen to. I know that this is something I am going to listen to for a very long time
19-Eminem-The Slim Shady LP- I have said before that I am not a fan of Em's beat choices, but you cannot front on the impact this album had on the face of hip hop culture. It is not Em's fault that he is white and good looking, he rhymes for the guys at the Hip Hop Shop on 7 mile and he rhymes to release an anger that so many connected with. He showed us that there is more than project living in hip hop, that there are white people who live in trailer parks who are really on their grind and made you look into those parks to find this young hungry emcee ready to get a load of his chest with the help of Dr Dre. Marshall Mathers matter to all those prior who had no voice. He might be a lot of things today: A brand name, a satellite radio station, a clothing line, a record label, an executive, an actor, but this album his was just one emcee from the D and we are all changed by his step off his trailer park steps.
20-Slick Rick-The Adventure's of Slick Rick-My last choice should have been number one to me. Rick voice and flow was the reason I started to rhyme in the first place. So many of his songs changed my view of how to make music. "Children's Story" is one of the great story rhymes ever written, "The Ruler's Back", "The Moment I feared" are some standouts to this incredible listen and he made you want to talk with an accent and buy a furry Kangol. I was blessed to be in his presence when many of these songs were first being crafted back in high school. It made me write differently and look at the world differently. I saw my future in his rhymes and knew that if I kept writing I would be there with Rick to tour and travel and I worked my ass off to do so. I can honestly say that if it were not for Slick Rick, there would be no MC Serch.
Again this list has not changed much in the last 20 years. Many of you have had major changes in your life to albums that have come out in the late 90's, early 2000. Again this is my list and these are the albums that changed my life. You can agree or disagree; it is no matter to me what your opinion is. What now matters to me is your list. Please not only make a list of albums but also take the time to tell us why they changed your life, what makes them so important. This way I will want to listen to it and see if I feel what you feel.
Happy New Year
PS: I would like to start a campaign for fans of 3rd Bass to write to Def Jam and tell them how much they would want a digitally re-mastered version of "The Cactus EL/P". I think it is time for us to come back out, don't you? Please write them a letter and let them know that you would support this project if it were to come out this year. You can write Def Jam by going to their website,
www.defjam.comLove is Love
Serch
