Although there are more underground hits on
Schoolly D's self-titled debut, his sophomore effort is a better album thanks to higher production values and more direct songs. The song lengths are generally shorter, making for a full-length with greater impact, and DJ Code Money has bought a better drum machine and discovered the joy of dropping quirky samples from cartoons on top of loops off funk records. "We Get Ill" and "Dedication to All B-Boys" are hard anthem highlights, while the underground favorite "Saturday Night" was the kind of sleazy tale of misogyny that put
Schoolly in hot water with many critics and community leaders. It didn't help that his delivery had become much colder, sounding a lot less like the ghetto vaudevillian persona on his debut and more like the musclebound menace to society now found in hip-hop history books. Capping off what is otherwise the most representative early
Schoolly D release is an odd number that points to his future in soundtracks. "It's Krack" features
Schoolly mumbling gibberish in the background as spacy synths and strange scratches create an eerie soundscape. Originally released on
Schoolly's own label, the tracks from
Saturday Night! The Album received wider exposure when the young Rykodisc label released The Adventures of Schoolly D compilation, combining all the tracks here with his self-titled debut. [
Saturday Night! was also released with bonus tracks.] ~ David Jeffries