Smoothe Da Hustler - Once Upon a Time in America

It’s no secret that I love hardcore east coast Hip-Hop and when it comes to east coast hardcore, it doesn’t get much better than the mid-90’s.  We can argue about who set it off, but between 1994 and like, 1997, New York made a play for the title of Gangsta Capital of the USA, with LA firmly in its cross hairs.  The beats were heavy and dark; the lyrics raw, uncompromising, and often downright disturbing.   Right in the middle of this realness was a Brownsville, Brooklyn MC named Smoothe Da Hustler.  He only had one album to his name, and while other mid-90’s one-disc wonders like Smif ‘N’ Wessun get namechecked more often, Smoothe definitely made his presence felt.  Ask any hardcore Hip-Hop head about Smoothe and they’ll be happy to let you know what’s up.

Chances are, they’ll start the lecture with “Broken Language.”  In 1995, Smoothe pressed up an independent single called, not surprisingly, “Hustlin’.”  While it’s a strong track, sporting the kind of laid-back beat that Jay-Z used to fuck with, it was the B-side that would go on to etch Smoothe’s name on the NY hardcore wall of fame.  “Broken Language,” produced by Smoothe’s longtime homie D.R. Period, is quintessential east coast grimyness.  The beat is a straight-up cipher-starting headbanger, but it’s the lyrical choices of Smoothe and his brother Trigga tha Gambler that make the song what it is.  With the exception of a couple lines, the song is a series of titles that Smoothe and Trigga would use to describe themselves.  Trigga calls himself, “the body polluter/the gat shooter/the Brownsville wild Brooklyn trooper/the cock-d mountain mover” while Smoothe lays claim to, “the glock cocker, the block locker, the rock chopper, the shot popper, the jock cock-blocker.“  The terse, lyrical jabs come furious, with Trigga and Smoothe working off each other like the illest freestyle session ever.  In short, the shit’s a classic.

It was the success of this single, bolstered by numerous mixtape appearances, that got Smoothe signed to Profile.  Once Upon a Time in America was produced almost entirely by D.R Period (with Kenny Dee checking in on “Glocks on Cock”) and features a number of great appearances by Trigga as well as singer/rapper DV Alias Khrist.  Lyrically, this album is hard to fuck with.   The subject matter is strictly Bucktown thugness–burners, rock-slingin’, Henny, etc, and while it lacks the unsettling imagery of Mobb Deep, Smoothe’s nimble, rapid-fire rhymes and unapologetic, autobiographical stories always keep things interesting.  One notable song is “Food for Thoughts,” where Smoothe asks a long series of salient ‘why?’ questions almost a decade before Jadakiss would hit the airwaves with his own song, “Why?”

Aside from Smoothe’s fine performances, Trigga (who is the Rampage to Smoothe’s Busta Rhymes) acquits himself nicely not only on “Broken Language” but also the gritty “Murdafest,” and the highly dope “My Brother My Ace.”  Khrist (who would be the Lord Have Mercy in my Flipmode Squad analogy) shines on “Dollar Bill,” bringing a compelling rhyme style that’s half-sung, half-rapped.

The production, on the other hand, is a mixed bag.  D.R. Period is best when he’s sticking to heavy head-knocking flavor like “Broken Language,” the string-laden “Murdafest,” and the stark, eerie “My Brother, My Ace.”  He also flips a nice, soundtrack-y horn loop on the slow-burner “Fuck Whatcha Heard.”  On the down side, he has a bad habit of recycling drums, using the same characteristic snare on at least three tracks, which is not a good look.  Also, there are a lot of bad keyboard patches that should never have come near a grimy underground album like this.  The corny fake-horns of “Never Die Alone” are annoying, as is “Only Human,” a cut dripping with bad, 80’s keyboard sounds that undermine Smoothe’s tight rhymes at every turn.  The watered-down G-funk of “Dedication” ends the album on an unfortunate cheesy note, while “Hustler’s Theme” features the wackest interpolation of “Freddie’s Dead” ever in a Hip-Hop song.  None of the above songs are helped by the tepid R&B vocals featured on all of them.  I’m not sure where D.R. was going with these beats, but they took up valuable space on what should and could have been Smoothe’s answer to Mobb Deep’s The Infamous… Smoothe was never destined for the mainstream, so it was foolish to mar his debut effort with so many lame crossover attempts.

Despite being hampered by some weak production, Once Upon a Time… is still filled with quality and serves as a great snapshot of the rugged, mid-90’s New York streets.  People who are looking for the lyrical heat will find much to love here.  Smoothe’s a rhyme animal and not even flaccid keyboard beats can take that away.

DOWNLOAD: Smoothe Da Hustler - Broken Language Smoothe Da Hustler - My Brother My Ace

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DOWNLOAD: Blaq Poet & DJ Premier - Ain’t Nuttin’ Changed

Ain’t Nuttin’ Changed video:

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DOWNLOAD: Twit Uno - Music for the Pipe Two

Bonus! An ethereal video for the FEX track “Barfuss” that plays perfectly alongside Twit Uno’s mix.

FEX - Barfuss Video (fan-submitted):

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He’s the prototypical bitter underground artist, but a b-boy to the death, which gives him a certain credibility not many indie kids can claim. Plus, at 32, he’s hardly a kid anymore, and knows that if it talks like a pimp and walks with a limp, it’s probably on some bullshit.

“A lot of cats promise - they say [a] promise is comfort to a fool. I’m not a fool, and I’m not comfortable with someone promising me they’re going to do this or do that.” Basically, Kanzulu’s not having it. It’s his way or no way, and you either respect that or risk getting knocked the fuck out.

“I act a nut,” he admits. “I shouldn’t be acting a nut as a thirty-two-year-old, but that’s the thing - I’m not out there like that, so I don’t give a fuck what anybody thinks. It’s not an ego thing.

“It’s just sometimes there’s some sheisty shit going on, and that’s when I have to check them with the crazy, violent-style shit - the b-boy shit.”

Kankick is a product of the Ox - the 805 - and home to some of the best of the West Coast underground - high school ace boon Madlib, DJs Babu and Romes, MED/Medaphoar, and Madlib’s younger brother, Michael “Oh No” Jackson. Says Kanzulu: “Oh No, back in the day, made a whole gangster group up - the LBGs - ‘Low Budget Gangsters.’ The beats on that back then would knock niggas out of the box on their funny shit now.

“We don’t have much to do in Oxnard, so I guess we just channel our energy into something that really makes us move and makes us breathe and live hip-hop culture. I’m not in it to make money and rape it. I’m trying to keep it around to where people don’t start thinking it’s a fad again.”

It was after linking with Madlib when Kankick began to get serious about the beats. “Niggas have been doing it hardcore since the high school era,” he explains. “It was in high school when I knew Madlib was going to do the do. You should have heard the shit he was doing back then with minimal equipment. When that nigga finally got some equipment, it was over.

“One of the first beats that I ever did, it was on his machine. Just because we’re far away, we’re not too far away.”

This is love, because there’s a pretty wide gap between the two on the Underground Hip-Hop Production Tastemaker Popularity Meter. Madlib is underground but clearly out there - in more than one sense of the word - while Kankick, in comparison, remains in the basement. It’s not his moms’ basement, but it’s a basement nonetheless, and despite capably producing at the level of a Madlib or a 9th Wonder, or even a good number of mainstream beatmakers, he’s a cellar dweller because he’s as stubborn as an Ox.

“It’s not easy for me to go up to Babs or Madlib like, ‘I got some heat,’” Hughes explains. “I don’t do that - I never go up to any of my peoples. I don’t shop music, which is kind of the difference with me. I need money and the exposure and the whole nine, but I think my shit is a little too out there for some heads and I’m not going to simplify it. If niggas would just trust me - trust me with what I do on some other shit - then they’ll know that I can go there, but I’m not going to go there just to make money or soften it up just to get some credibility. “If cats would just realize that I could make them a whole heap of money without me being exploited, but they don’t want to do that. I’m exploited, and if I’m exploited, I’m going to let it be known. They want to make a whole heap of money by exploiting artists, but I’ll just stay in the cut. Niggas that know me know I’m not with that exploitation shit.”

Out of all the more slavish aspects of hip-hop culture, Industry Rule #4080 - “record company people are shady…” - can be the most damning. It’s actually 4,080 different rules of music business hustles combined into one. Kankick has seen many of his crew become successful despite the obstacles, and knows that he could be out there just as big, yet he remains intent on repping the underground as hard as he can - as hard as his life in hip-hop will let him. There are also many less deserving individuals who have accomplished more with less talent, which only adds to the burden.

“I’m not down and out,” he says, “but when you’re a real b-boy, there’s ’sufferation.’ I suffer because the music isn’t pure out there. I don’t know how niggas can create with all this bullshit out here. I don’t make a hundred beats like Oh No and those cats - I can’t do it. You give me a big-ass budget, though, and you never know. I just might be able to.”

Kankick is just as real in his production as he is in statements on his motivation and approach to the game. He’s refreshingly candid about his experiences, and while the average ear may sense a Madlib-Stones Throw Records influence, Kan knows that his primary influence reaches far beyond his peers.

“I don’t want to hear niggas saying I sound like that man [J Dilla], or I sound like Madlib,” he fumes, speaking on his longtime homey and Madlib’s Stones Throw collaborator, the late J Dilla. “I read message boards. ‘Kankick’s shit sounds Stones Throw-ish.’ Stones Throw is Ox City!

“I had to go off on Planet Asia once - nigga tried to compare me to Dilla. I guess it’s a compliment, but it’s like he was saying I was biting. I don’t want to hear that I sound like somebody, because I don’t want niggas coming around me telling me that niggas are trying to sound like me!”

Even compliments are met with a bit of derision, but it’s always honest, and in today’s urban music climate, honesty and creativity in production are becoming harder and harder to find. The majority of producers prefer to let their music speak for them, but Kanzulu is comfortable communicating with both his mouth and his beats, as his Seeing Spirits beat CD proves.

You can almost hear the dust in his crates on each track, an off-kilter mix of laid-back, southwest Cali swing, gritty, head-nodding skins, and cheap, dollar-bin simplicity. At the album’s conclusion, when he slows down a speedy Goodfellas moment to near-incomprehension and flips it over some Sly and hand drums, one really starts to wonder what they’re putting in the water in Oxnard - and where one might be able to find a cup or two. Of course, the underground just don’t stop for hoes, so Kankrizzle grinds just as hard as his Stones Throw family, and is sitting on enough ammunition to outlast a few short-lived careers - a condition he steadfastly seeks to avoid for his own future. On deck for 2006 is the release of the Serious Business This beat CD and collaborations with God’s Gift, Roc C, and songstress Miki Vale, sister of Stones Throw crooner Dudley Perkins.

Beyond the production comes keeping it as gangster as a poor man can. “With everything that niggas have heard,” he explains, “I ain’t made much [money]. It’s not even really about that. That’s how it goes - I’m just living. I’m keeping it real hip-hop - b-boy, poverty. This shit isn’t glamorous.

“Time is a master, so I try and do as best as I can with the time I have. Everybody’s trying to compete with the charts. I’m only trying to compete with myself.”

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