“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 it in their lyrics which centered around being G’s, clockin’ G’s, and G-in’ freaks (with hints of black militancy mixed in).

What Black Menace wasn’t was a Bounce group, but since Bounce was what New Orleans radio had come to be focused on in 1992, they did release this one track to get some airplay. You’ll notice that aside from the standard Bounce ingredients of sampling “Drag Rap (Triggerman)” by the Show Boys and “Ain’t You Fresh Co” by Fresh Co & Miz, the song doesn’t follow the Bounce mold of calling out dances, citing sexual conquests, or repping wards (though their EP cut “Hollygrove Dat 17th”, the first recorded appearance of their future labelmate Fiend, clearly attests to their ward pride). Rather, the Menaces retained their regular gangsta style over a Bounce beat.

“If you ain’t down with the trigger play, I suggest you never test me /
And if you ever do, then yo, it’s best you wear a vest, G /
Before I let you leave, I’m loadin’ slugs in your skullcap /
A motherf*ckin’ Menace with the gat; you know the time, black . .”
- JMC aka J-Dawg of Black Menace, “Going Off” (radio version)

“Now welcome to the funeral where everybody’s doomed to go /
Ain’t no telling how, when, or where; it might be soon, ya know /
If you’re kinda wondering what happened to the witness /
It’s self-explanatory; he knew too much of my business /
(And what happened?) I went off . .”
- Threat of Black Menace from “Going Off” (radio version)

You’ll also notice that for the first and last verses, Threat and JMC are rapping different lyrics at the same time through opposite speakers (which is why they start the song by announcing “we gonna put one on the right and one on the left.”) This nifty little studio trick was repeated on the EP version, which had entirely different lyrics. As a high school freshman, I found this compellingly inventive, but looking back now I see it as kind of a weird gimmick which just makes it harder to make out either MC’s lyrics clearly.

Anyway, “Going Off” was produced by Leroy Edwards aka “DJ Precise” who also produced most of Black Menace’s debut EP Ghetoasnigga. Precise had been part of a producer/rapper collective called Full Pack who had a local hit called “Give You What You Want” (including a rather funny line about “Get-It-Girl hair all in your face”). Precise left Full Pack to do his own thing, which is why the later Full Pack Bounce single “Giddyup” had the lyric: “We done dropped Precise; now we down with Lo-Key.” Precise would go on to co-found local label Big Boy Records, which would provide a label home for not only Black Menace but also PNC (Partners-N-Crime), Sporty T, Silky Slim, G-Slimm, Ghetto Twinz, Insane, Fiend, and Mystikal.

Tomorrow’s edition of #BounceForWhat #30DaysOfBounce will feature another group which, like Black Menace, was primarily gangsta but did release one Bounce song. And oh, what a Bounce song it was: one of my very favorites to this day.

Next up: “I’m from dat Boot and I ain’t ‘fraid ta shoot!”