This is a revamped version of
Grip It! On That Other Level, an album released earlier in the year on Rap-A-Lot.
Rick Rubin stepped in, signed the group to Def American, and proceeded to tweak some of the tracks; some other tracks were simply lifted from
Grip It!, while a couple went so far as to have new vocals recorded. This works like a charm -- the album is expertly sequenced, and some songs seem to have twice the impact of their original incarnations. "Mind of a Lunatic" is one such song, and it's one of the primary tracks that caused the Def American-affiliated Geffen to pull the plug on distribution. A horror fantasy of grim, graphic proportions, it's a gangster flick and a psychological thriller rolled into the form of a song. One of its cleanest lines is as follows: "She begged me not to kill her, I gave her a rose -- then slit her throat and watched her shake 'til her eyes closed." The rest of the album helped draw the lyrical blueprint that countless groups either mimicked or borrowed from, from the yuks served up by
Bushwick in "Size Ain't Shit" to the ridiculously misogynistic rhymes in "Gangster of Love," which are delivered over the guitar lick from
Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama." You can also either blame them or thank them for the endless flurry of Scarface samples that have littered/adorned so many hip-hop records. ~ Andy Kellman