Heading into 1993, early New Orleans Bounce had somewhat skirted around drug culture, aside from the occasional mention of selling crack, being affiliated with those who sold it, or deriding those foolish enough to smoke it. True, Mr. Juvey had closed out his 1992 debut “Bounce for the Juvenile” pledging allegiance to the cannabis sativa. [...] ...
The late 80’s saw the emergence of women adding their voices to the testosterone-flooded wave of hip hop, and they did so in ways sassy and sexual, inflammatory and intellectual, chill and ILL. From Roxanne Shante and MC Lyte to Queen Latifah and Yo-Yo, the sistas were stepping up with their uniquely empowering stories of [...] ...
By late ’92, Bounce was coming into its own, finding a space on New Orleans radio, blaring from cars, from project porches, and certainly in the clubs which had created the style from jump. There were still only a handful of Bounce songs and artists, but boy, did we love them. DJs spun them religiously [...] ...
So far, I’ve been listing these songs in pretty close to chronological order, and we’ve nearly made it through 1992’s birthing of the Bounce. We still have to get into the all-important 1993 and the rise of Cash Money Records. But I’m jumping out of order today and taking you to ‘94. Because today, you [...] ...
In 1992, West Bank New Orleans outfit Mobo Records released Hard As Tha Fuck, the debut album from the Ruthless Juveniles. These cats were on some straight up gangsta, rob-you-then-kill-you-then-deface-your-corpse-then-make-a-song-about-it, damned near horrorcore shit. (In fact, their DJ, who went by the name Death, went on to release a straight up horrorcore album called Possessed [...] ...
“We gon put one on the right / One on the left / And check it out, we gonna / GO OFF, GO OFF!” Black Menace was a New Orleans gangsta rap duo consisting of J-Dawg (formerly JMC) and The Threat. Their style was heavily influenced by the likes of NWA and you could see [...] ...
“Everybody runnin’ ‘round town bitin’ Tucker rap / Awright, awright, awright, awright, awright / They just don’t know that I am the real / Brotha, the Brotha Brotha, the Brotha Brotha / So when I come on your set, it’s best for you to / Boot up, trick! Boot up, trick, trick! / When I [...] ...
It was 1992 and DJ Jimi was on the rise with regional distribution for his debut album It’s Jimi on the strength of his wildly popular single “Where They At (The Original)”. But one of the best songs on that album (and certainly the most lyrically interesting) was by a teenaged upstart from the Magnolia [...] ...
#BounceForWhat #30DaysOfBounce Day 4: “Where They At (The Original)” by DJ Jimi. “We gon’ start this shit off right / We got DJ Jimi in the house tonight . .” In the last edition of #30DaysOfBounce, we left a New Orleans fully under the spell of MC T Tucker and DJ Irv’s smash hit “Where [...] ...
#BounceForWhat #30DaysOfBounce Day 3: “Where Dey At” by MC T Tucker & DJ Irv. In 1992, the clubs and streets of an unsuspecting New Orleans were asked a very simple question which they would answer forever after with their bodies: “WHERE DEY AT, WHERE DEY AT, WHERE DEY AT?!” It all started out at a [...] ...