We had the EP released beforehand but this was a departure even for that. So dense, muddy sometimes, so many samples that I could not identify - and so different than Licensed to Ill.
But in those days your BOUGHT the record so even if the first few listens were not to your liking you listened to it many more times - because it cost REAL money.
Real talk though - P.E. RULED that summer, and De La ruled the fall (I came late to it.)
Madonna really doesn't like the song "Material Girl"
The Red Hot Chili Peppers don't like "One hot minute" too much (the now-gone guitarist Josh pushed them play songs off of it for a minute after its first go round when it was released)
Billy Paul has a lot of extreme feelings about the song "Am I Black enough for you?" but that may be about what it did to his career (as opposed to the song itself(?)
from wikipedia:
Paul reflected: "Well you know... For a long time I was angry about it, I had a bit of a letdown. Now the song is ahead of its time. I feel as though I let the song down when I went into my darkness. I feel like I abandoned the song. And I'm still going to get to the bottom of 'Am I Black Enough'."
Kevin Toney, the keyboardist of The BlackByrds, tells of how he and the band really didn't think "Walking in Rhythm" was all that as compared to their other songs ("it wasn't a hip song")
18. "Yea BMS is def my favorite too." In response to Reply # 17
I love 3 Ft and .. is Dead, but I always prefer trimming the fat over bloated, 20+ track albums (I know many of the 1st two albums' tracks were skits but still ..)
And I'd like to see the interview OKdamn is talking about for sure. That's an interesting quote.
25. "RE: Yea BMS is def my favorite too." In response to Reply # 18
>I love 3 Ft and .. is Dead, but I always prefer trimming the >fat over bloated, 20+ track albums (I know many of the 1st two >albums' tracks were skits but still ..) > >And I'd like to see the interview OKdamn is talking about for >sure. That's an interesting quote.
I'll try to find it..it was around the time of AOI 1..maybe XXL
10. "Redman & Dare iz a Darkside" In response to Reply # 5
He was in a dark place while he was making the album and apparently hasn't performed many of the songs since...
"I was doing a lot of drugs on Dare Iz A Darkside. I have chicks that come up to me and say, 'Yo, Dare Iz A Darkside is my favorite fuckin' album, ever.' I swear, I have not played Dare Iz A Darkside damn near since I did it. Seriously! I was so lost, I was so fucked up during that album"
14. "Yea he has. And it would be one thing if the album was "bad"." In response to Reply # 13
It wasn't. It was just such a deviation that folks, even his fans, weren't ready for it. And understandably so, to some degree.
But as time went on a lot of folks, and specifically/most importantly his core fans, started to understand it better and praise it for its fearlessness and risks. So while I can understand him wanting to "come back to earth" and refer to EC as an artistic phase, for lack of a better way to phrase it .. I've never understood why he's consistently distanced himself from it as a work of art. It's almost like he was listening to the feedback of the wrong fans.
I wish he'd embrace it for the artistic statement that it was and is, flaws and all. In a lot of ways he was ahead of his time and could even probably take some credit for a lot of the high quality weirdness that was to come in hip-hop.
But instead he barely acknowledges it, it seems. Which sucks, but I do suspect that it may relate in some ways to the fact that the album came out when he was full-on with Erykah. In other words maybe his admonishment of the album is less about the art and more about a period in his personal life he'd rather forget. And to be clear that's no shade @ Erykah. I just think that maybe their broken engagement had an impact on him, to the extent that he'd rather forget that whole period of his life both personally and artistically. Especially since I think a lot of what he was doing artistically was seemingly being influenced and encouraged by her.
That's my armchair psychoanalysis, anyway. lol
>I find that disappointing...it's one of my favorite albums >ever. >Plus, after that, his music got so...safe. >(UMC was weird, but not in a good way.)
20. "I listened to it all the way through a few months again ago..." In response to Reply # 14
I felt like it should’ve gotten a lot of praise for influencing albums like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as opposed to Kanye always getting the praise for being innovative.
EC really seemed to set the bar for albums like those. Some could say Stankonia maybe did it first because I always felt EC was Common’s attempt of a Stankonia but that was just my guess.
22. "Yea for sure. Comm/the Soulquarians were inspired by 'kast ..." In response to Reply # 20
... and others, I don't doubt that at all.
And I agree that Comm deserves more credit for influencing those that came after him. But it def doesn't help that he himself barely even talks about this album anymore. He could benefit from some self promotion on some "I went there first, in fucking 2002 ..." lol.
>I felt like it should’ve gotten a lot of praise for >influencing albums like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as >opposed to Kanye always getting the praise for being >innovative. > >EC really seemed to set the bar for albums like those. Some >could say Stankonia maybe did it first because I always felt >EC was Common’s attempt of a Stankonia but that was just my >guess.
28. "I agree with all of that." In response to Reply # 14
The Erykah thing is a good point. I guess I forget to think of things that way...for example, my favorite Redman album is Darkside (this is a theme with me...haha), but Red himself doesn't like the album because he was in such a dark place while recording it. If it were me, I'd feel like "that was a rough time...but check out what came out of it!!" But I gotta respect where these guys are coming from too, though (if Common's situation fits that description). btw, I ain't gon lie...I LOVE To Pimp a Butterfly, and while it's not the same album as EC by any means, and it even could be a Lupe situation -- where Kendrick doesn't even really enjoy listening to the kinds of artists who paved the way for him (its possible, since he said in an interview that he knew nothing about jazz before Terrace Martin put him on), I kinda see TPaB as EC's descendent, sonically. And when other people LOVE TPaB, but are really dismissive of EC, they get the side eye from me.
15. "Beck dislikes his hits (Loser & Where It's At)" In response to Reply # 0 Fri Mar-27-20 10:04 AM by OKdamn
Oasis hates Wonderwall Ghostface once said that Ironman is in the wrong order Prince rarely performed songs from Purple Rain until a few years before he died George Clinton said Electric Spanking wasn't the double lp he envisioned (which would of had an early version of Atomic Dog) Janet disowned her first two albums before Control The Temptations felt like Normal Whitfield over-produced their music during their time with him Rolling Stones said Jimmy Miller wasn't functioning correctly during Exile - Goat Head Soup
24. "RE: where are you getting these hate vibes from? not that article" In response to Reply # 19 Sat Mar-28-20 12:56 AM by OKdamn
In the Beastie Boys book they go into it... Without giving it all away, they had a rough time recording it and mixing it and thought it came out shitty compared to the original demos from the Dust Brothers' apartment. Mike D especially doesn't care for it. Adrock says it takes him back to a bad period in his life where he was struggling with substance abuse.
On top of that, nobody thought it was great (except us weirdos) when it was released and they got laughed at and written off as has beens.
I think it's a masterpiece and according to them it's the album they get the most street love for.
26. "nah, I read the book i don't know how you came up with these conclusions" In response to Reply # 24
>In the Beastie Boys book they go into it... >Without giving it all away, they had a rough time recording it >and mixing it and thought it came out shitty compared to the >original demos from the Dust Brothers' apartment. Mike D >especially doesn't care for it. Adrock says it takes him back >to a bad period in his life where he was struggling with >substance abuse. > >On top of that, nobody thought it was great (except us >weirdos) when it was released and they got laughed at and >written off as has beens. > >I think it's a masterpiece and according to them it's the >album they get the most street love for.
that doesn't mean they hate the album. In fact when they did their live book shows the segments dealing with pauls boutique they talk about how much fun they had making the album, hanging out, doing the L.A. thing.
what you're talking about is the actual sound they were disappointed in. Mike D. talks about struggling to get that original sound not hating the album.
Also Adrock doesn't talk about ever having substance abuse problems in the book or ever.
27. "K I just made it all up" In response to Reply # 26 Sat Mar-28-20 12:05 PM by OKdamn
You got me. I'm holding the fkn book in my hand right now. Everything I said is said in one way or another between page 266 and 280 and no I'm not gonna type the exact quotes out.
You're right. Mike D never actually says I hate it. He just thinks it came out shitty and has never listened to it. My bad. Imo Mike D is sort of a dick about alot of things. He said What Goes Around is a dud, which is his opinion. He's wrong but that's his opinion.
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