Natural Resource "Negro League Baseball" (1996)
OK, we're going to go all-out, definitive indie classic on this one. This record and Company Flow's "Eight Steps to Perfection" twelve were the records that put me on the road that ended at "fuck the majors!"(in one of my rare interview opportunities - with E-Swift and Tash of the Alkaholiks - my enthusiasm for indies made E-Swift defensively assert that he would never give props to someone "just cause they were indie"...yeah, I was far gone).
Back to Natural Resource, and the crew that gave the world Jean Grae. This first twelve features three cuts, "Negro League Baseball", "They Lied", and "Bum Deal" (I won't count the interlude "Say What"). I've always thought the consensus has been "Negro League" is the classic here, so I'll state it like it's fact. Each member of the crew drops a verse (that's What? What?...er, Jean Grae...sandwiched in the middle), before the metaphor is spelled out. Eventually.
Baseball was never for blacks. (What?)
It used to be a pasttime for whites. (That's true.)
Now it has mad Puerto Ricans. (Uh oh)
But that's not the point of the song. (A-ight)
The point of this song, and I make it mad simple, when I be flippin' this script:
Is that the industry is all over the mound, pitchin', but nobody's makin' any hits.
Baseball is not just a sport
It's the verbal/mental/physical/spiritual/emotional level that we are on
It's about time that all you devils was gone...
There's a casual sense of humor in this song that was almost revolutionary to me. Pair that with the marketing that accompanied it (including the 12" label, as seen above), and it gave you the sense that this crew might be living next door...this really is our music, not some executive's. Yeah, KRS-1 had been making that argument for years, but this was something palpable. Feel free to call this out as an overrated piece of shit if you disagree...
Oh, "Bum Deal" and "They Lied" are cool, too. Also includes instrumentals for "Negro League" and "They Lied".
Back to Natural Resource, and the crew that gave the world Jean Grae. This first twelve features three cuts, "Negro League Baseball", "They Lied", and "Bum Deal" (I won't count the interlude "Say What"). I've always thought the consensus has been "Negro League" is the classic here, so I'll state it like it's fact. Each member of the crew drops a verse (that's What? What?...er, Jean Grae...sandwiched in the middle), before the metaphor is spelled out. Eventually.
Baseball was never for blacks. (What?)
It used to be a pasttime for whites. (That's true.)
Now it has mad Puerto Ricans. (Uh oh)
But that's not the point of the song. (A-ight)
The point of this song, and I make it mad simple, when I be flippin' this script:
Is that the industry is all over the mound, pitchin', but nobody's makin' any hits.
Baseball is not just a sport
It's the verbal/mental/physical/spiritual/emotional level that we are on
It's about time that all you devils was gone...
There's a casual sense of humor in this song that was almost revolutionary to me. Pair that with the marketing that accompanied it (including the 12" label, as seen above), and it gave you the sense that this crew might be living next door...this really is our music, not some executive's. Yeah, KRS-1 had been making that argument for years, but this was something palpable. Feel free to call this out as an overrated piece of shit if you disagree...
Oh, "Bum Deal" and "They Lied" are cool, too. Also includes instrumentals for "Negro League" and "They Lied".
posted by djespionage at 2:06 AM
3 Comments:
dope
lovin' the music these days, corky
This used to be my jam waaaaaaaaaay back when. Damn, just seeing this takes me back to when indie hip-hop actually stuck to its ground. Props for this...
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