Kool Moe Dee's Lost LL Diss

After his long run with Jive, and his brief but prolific stint with Wrap/Ichiban (two albums in the same year ain't bad), Kool Moe Dee came out with one last record. "Love Love" came out on Spoiled Brat Records, a label best known for putting out some spotty Kool Keith records before people realized just how bad he was falling off. They also put out obscure comeback releases by Father MC, Three X Dope, and the Krown Rulers. I mean, any label that spells the artist's name wrong (see the pic) pretty much speaks for itself.

But "Love Love" is actually pretty ok. Despite what its title suggests, it's no love song; just straight, hardcore freestyle rhymes mixed with a little Stop the Violence message. He uses a lot of fast, playful short rhymes to showcase his skills. You won't be blown away or anything, but it's enough to remind you why he was such a highly respected lyricist back in the day. This song's like a cross between "Death Blow" and "New Rap Language," though not quite as good as either of those: "mad heads want that rah-rah, but uh-uh; I'm like the papa - The Idi Amin Dada, cut ears off with the mic; I'll kill rah rah with la-la, like Fugees did 'Fugee-La,' that rah rah I can't feel ya, so I will be like 'see ya!' My ether makes me the born king so I will be the impeccable rhyme speaker, drop missles like heat seekers." The beat is also no doubt meant to be reminiscent of his James Brown-heavy LL diss, with a similar drum track a simple bassline and a sample which is basically exactly the same as the signature "Death Blow" horn stabs, but played on a keyboard (I'm guessing).

Did I mention LL dissing? Yeah... the real reason most of you will probably want to seek this out is the b-side. It's got a 70's Cold Crush-style hook and an old school, hardcore beat. And he sounds angry: "to me the microphone is like a razor blade in prison." The first verse is kind of a generic battle rhyme, but verse two starts with an LL quote, "What the uh? I thought I conquered the world! Crushed Moe Dee, Hammer and Ice-T;" and it's on from there:

"Who the hell you crush? What?
You can't touch the god.
Come on, let's keep it real; You know I crushed ya, Todd.
You're trying to hit the new heads with hip-hop fallacies;
But in reality, you wouldn't battle me.
The stage was set, the money was up,
I placed my money and said 'what?'
And like a bee-otch, we watched the girlie come up out ya;
Heads know about ya, old heads can vouch for
The facts of your fiction ciphered in your diction;
You're just talking shit like a jaded politician.
Say you're rippin', ain't nothin' different;
You want the whippin'? I'll step in the house where ya livin',
And do it on TV, so people can see me,
Wreck you in your own house - make it easy.
While you're frontin', you don't want none;
You never had a battle;
Your mic is like a rattle.
Your style is goo goo gah gah,
But you know you do nada;
You talk it like it's rah rah,
But we know you're pooh nah nah.
Fourteen shots to the dome?
You'll get your spot blown;
I'm talking after dark where it's not shown.
I'm talkin' rhyme time on straight up prime time,
Where men do battles on mics in places that you can't find!"

...And he keeps going, ripping LL 'till the end of the song.

Spoiled Brat records had some very limited, unusual distribution, so they can be pretty hard to track down. But fortunately, not a lot of heads know about this one - or were checking for Moe Dee during that era - so the few that are out there are usually pretty inexpensive. Get it cheap while you can.

Oh, and by the way, Kool Moe Dee is apparently working on a comeback album called Return of the King on Platinum Diamond Records. You can hear tracks off of it on his myspace page. Of course, it says it will be out on 2007... so that might be the only way you'll get to hear it. The production kinda sucks anyway.

Tags: Kool Moe Dee