When I wrote Oxford Collapse on the off chance they might be interested in contributing to I Used to Love H.E.R., a series in which artists/bloggers/writers discuss their most essential or favorite hip-hop albums, I heard back within an hour from singer/guitarist Mike Pace: “I can speak on behalf of the band when I say we are obsessed with Ice Cube circa ’88-’93, and a tour doesn’t go by when we don’t listen to “Death Certificate” in its entirety (usually multiple times).”

Pace’s entry is the 29th in the series.

• Oxford Collapse | Please Visit Your National Parks

Ice Cube
Death Certificate (Priority Records, 1991)
I bought Ice Cube’s Death Certificate on cd sometime in 1993, about a year after it came out. I had the day off from school, and I rode my mountain bike to LaserLand, the preeminent cd/laserdisc superstore in Syosset, Long Island. The album was already notorious – a parental advisory sticker clearly branded in the corner of the cover art only hinted at the maelstrom of controversy contained within – and my 14-year old adolescent self had absolutely no problem getting the long-box off the rack and paying for it with my allowance, while the bored clerk behind the counter nary looked in this brotha’s direction.

I rode home with the LaserLand bag on my handlebars, most likely farting out of excitement. I was already in love with the radio-friendly cassingle for Steady Mobbin b/w Us, (I’m almost positive that I first heard Steady Mobbin on Yo! MTV Raps!) and I couldn’t wait to go home and pore over the other 18 tracks, memorize their lyrics, and giddily spew Ice Cube’s homespun epithets at my buddies. To paraphrase another Ice of the era, the tension was mounting, on with the body-counting!

A few school friends rode over to my house to hang out, and we did what any normal group of 7th graders hip to hip-hop in the early 90s would do: we took all the pillows and cushions in the house and made a big pile in our finished basement, popped the cd into my Discman that was hooked up to some $5 speakers from 1974 that I bought at a garage sale, pressed play, and had a big ol’ pillow fight.

After that initial listening session, the album quickly became one of my favorites. I didn’t know anything about production techniques but I could tell some crazy shit was going on behind the scenes. I was blown away by the dense layering of samples, sound effects, and skits that permeated the record from beginning to end (no doubt tricks Cube & Co. previously learned from working with the Bomb Squad on AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, I’d later learn). Death Certificate sounded so full; bursting at the seams with the coarsest, crudest, most colorful, studied language, and augmented with the boldest, brightest, and deepest musical flourishes I’d ever heard on a rap album. It also helped that the majority of the 20 tracks were heapin’ with hooks, both musical and lyrical.

At the time, I was disappointed by the album version of Steady Mobbin’, as the radio edit was still etched in my memory. I had nothing at all against cursing (at 14 years old, I was cussing like a sailor at recess), but all the “bitches” Cube employed just seemed less musical than the linguistically-neutered version I was familiar with. I learned to live with it, but to this day I still swear by the radio edit of Mobbin’, and by that I mean I scream “fuckballs shitass!” every time I hear it.

Those lyrics overall, man … fucking A! For years I thought that he was saying, “a massive gale, crack a sail,” in A Bird in the Hand, which is some real Herman Melville-type shit (turns out the actual lyric is “of Massengill or whatever the hell crackers sell in their neighborhood,” which is equally, if not more, brilliant). Tons of “potent quotables” abound on Death Certificate:

“Went to mom’s house and dropped a load in the bathroom.”
“rather have an AK than a fucking canine.”
“When I was young I used to hang with the seventh graders, little bad motherfucker playing Space Invaders.”
“Or should I just wait for help from Bush or Jesse Jackson, and Operation PUSH? If you ask me the whole thing needs a douche.”

Cube managed to capture everything: the good, the bad, the mundane, the highs, the lows, the in-betweens, the personal and the political. For all his bravado, he wasn’t afraid to tell you that he’d drive to his mother’s house to destroy her bathroom. He’d later boast that his “jimmy ran deep, so deep put her ass to sleep,” but here he’d admit to putting “the rubber on the wrong way” when he lost his virginity. He’d beat you damn like it ain’t nothing one minute and then find himself lying helpless on the hospital waiting room floor literally dying to see a doctor the next.

I don’t listen to nearly as much hip-hop as I did when I was in my mid-teens, but Death Certificate is one of the few rap records that I can listen to, enjoy, and quote from beginning to end. An Oxford Collapse tour hasn’t gone by without at least one spinning of that album. “CubeSpeak” has found its way into the band’s lexicon; we named a song For the Khakis and the Sweatshirts after a line in My Summer Vacation. If we blow past a cop car and it doesn’t budge, someone will inevitably say “didn’t even look in the brotha’s direction.” (yeah, that one’s from The Predator, an amazing record in its own right). Whatsamatta you BURNIN’? is also a hit.

“WHOO?”
“Eat a dick straight up!”
“Fuck Pac-Tel, move to Sky Pager.”
“…he’s a goner, black.”

The list goes on. We’ve eaten at M&M Soul Food in Inglewood, the mom n’ pop chicken shack that Cube recommended to us in Steady Mobbin’. We’ve got the bootleg t-shirt of the month, with “You Can’t Touch This” on the front. And in the end, while I hope to live long and prosper, I’ve got absolutely no regrets about signing my Death Certificate at such a tender age.

• Ice Cube | Steady Mobbin’ (album version)
• Ice Cube | Steady Mobbin’ (clean version/radio edit)

I knew when I purchased the Gangsta Rap Coloring Book that I had to have its creator, Anthony “Aye Jay!” Morano, take part in this series. His is the 28th installment for I Used to Love H.E.R., a series in which artists/bloggers/writers discuss their most essential or favorite hip-hop albums (read intro).

THIS MACHINE KILLS PACIFISTS
By aye jay!

In these bloggish times we live in, you can find a plethora of lists by A to Z list internet celebs waxing poetic about the records they love and would take to a desert island, as if you could pack to be stranded on a desert island? I never got that. I know that you know that I know Raising Hell and It Takes A Nation of Millions are essential listening. I wanted to expand horizons, and maybe put you up on some records I love, but you may not have heard. In my opinion, all of these are up to snuff, but check your political correctness at the door, cause some are potentially offensive.

Willie D, Controversy
The Houston TX based Geto Boy’s first solo album is the illest Rap record of all time? Quite possibly. It’s all here: Drugs. Sex. Murder. How can something Wrong be oh-so right? For example: the song I Need Some Pussy has the P word repeated 17 times in the first chorus alone! As a bonus, the Geto Boy’s LP cut Do It Like A G.O. is on here too! On Kinky Motherfucker, Willie tells us all about, you guessed it, how he’s a kinky motherfucker. Welfare Bitches tackles the serious social problem of welfare abuse by bitches, and the crown jewel: the song Bald Head Hoes. I consider BHH to be THE definitive song about bald headed groupies, but D doesn’t just point out the problems, he offers solutions: “I’m proposing a bill/ to Capitol Hill/ to kill/ all baldhead women at will.” Willie D for Senator!

Suga Free, Street Gospel
Pomona-bred permed pimp Suga Free teams up with producer DJ Quik and makes a masterpiece. While his punchline filled fast rap is akin to E-40 Fonzerellli, theres so much more going on here. I hafta shout out J-Zone for putting me up on this record. He once said that I’d Rather Give You My Bitch was the best rap song of all time, and after repeat listenings, it’s hard to disagree. Sex and humor have long been linked, but not so much in the rap music, but Free’s pimp tales make panties drop “just to warm her ankles” and you also get some great cameo raps by Quik and Hi-c, who I love. If your’re still doubtful, just check Why U Bullshittin? And understand that the line “Perm silkier than Charolette’s web/ waves deeper than Redondo Beach” is worth price of admnission alone!

• Suga Free | Why U Bullshittin?

Dr. Dre, Rodium mixtape series
From 1986 to 1990, well after NWA’s ascent to rap royalty, the good Doctor made 4-track mixtapes to sell at the Rodium Swap meet in Compton. If you don’t know what a tape is, I can’t help you, but make sure you Google it after reading this to completion. These tapes had ill song selection, the hits of the day, custom raps by the NWA crew, innovative mixes and mind blowing megamixes that put the Stars on 45 to shame. Humor too! In the beginning of the You got ganked tape, Dre claims there’s no music on the tape, and you got duped. After a few silent seconds, he says “nawwww, we just booolshittin.” But booolshit this stuff is not. The only problem is how great these tapes are and how few people have heard them. Get your internet rap nerd on and find 86 in the mix, Criminal, and especially Raw, which starts with a custom intro from JJ Fad and leads into MC Ren channeling Chuck D over the Bring the Noise beat!

[STREAM]: Audio via YouTube of the Rodium mixtapes (as stated, highly recommended!)

The Click, Down and Dirty (self released version)
Because E-40, B Legit, D Shot, and Suga Tee hath sprinkled the nation, i understand folks know about the Click. They did put V-Town on the map and all, but lets get into the wayback machine for a sec. After self releasing Down and Dirty, and selling mad copies outta the trunk, they signed to Jive Records, but a funny thing happened between the DIY tape and Jive CD: sample clearance issues. It’s unfortunate that the version America heard was all changed around. A song was dropped, snippets were reversed or changed all together. The result is a slightly different record, leaving the superior version to live on bootleg dubbed cassettes passed from person to person like folk tale or spinning yarn. For bonus points, also look for the Lets Side EP, which also stands the test of time.

Ego Trip Presents: The Big Playback
One could argue that I shouldn’t list a compilation here, but my argument is this: why go through the hassle of finding classic cuts yourself when you have rap scholars (Mao, YN, Sacha J, GA and BR) to do so for you? From the groundbreaking magazine of the same name, to TV specials, and reality television forays the ET crew do it well, a la LL, and continue to innovate. As the story goes, after the magazine folded, the crew makes The Book of Rap Lists (aka the best book of all time b/k/a the rap bible) then teams with Rawkus Records to produce a soundtrack to said best book of all time. From MC Shan and Marly Marl to the pre-Adrock stylings of Beat bop, The Big Playback is a primer for those ignorant to rap history, so pull up a desk younguns, and take notes. Make sure to cop this on vinyl (google it) just to see the full spendor of Brent Rollin’s amazing cover art in full 12” x 12” glory. Es muy bueno!

• Marley Marl (feat. MC Shan) | Marley Marl Scratch

(If anyone can help with mp3s, holler … thanks!)