"Jail Sale" is a pretty killer record about the prison industrial complex: "Brothers watch ya back; I'm tellin' ya, they after ya. They sayin' you steal, but who stole you from Africa? ...Justice has never been definable. A brother with a mind will be locked up for simple technicalities. Legality's one thing, justice is another; conflicts and complications always bar a brother. Captivation, a lack of patience in relations to the Nubian nation; it's time for black legislation. I'm locked but they still call me free; I got twenty-five to life for being a brother simply living life realistically." Produced by Griff and his Soul Society, it's got that busy PE-inspired production style where a bunch of samples are mashed together, though that deep bassline is apparently being played live by someone named James Magnolia. They're also constantly scratching up the phrase "call the cops," which was a recurring motif that ran through the whole album.
Famously, you can always get up Griff for a few of the things he says. On this record he says "90% of the prison population is black," something he also ran in giant letters across the screen in the music video. And that wasn't true then or now. I believe that's what the kids today would call a "vibes-based metric." The real numbers seem to be more like 46% in 1991 and 33% now. So he's way off there. But he's also right in the most crucial sense that 46, and even 33, percent represents a significant over-representation of African Americans relative to the US population, pointing to a serious anti-black bias in our criminal justice system, which is the whole damn point.
Anyway, the B-side is actually what got me thinking about this single again in the first place. If you follow me on Twitter and/ or Bluesky, you know I recently watched Logic's debut film, Paradise Records. And there's a scene where - actually 60-70% of the movie is - him and his buddy talking about he yearns to say "the N word" despite only being half-black, or as he puts it "incognegro." When his buddy asks him what the heck that means, he's like, "it's actually this phrase I coined for a nigga who looks white." And I was like you coined? That's actually a whole-ass Professor Griff song! Googling it, I see it's also the title of a DC Comics' graphic novel and a Ludacris album. But Griff came first, and that's where I remember it from. Although he actually spells it "In Cog Negrow," because in the 90s, the whole PE crew steered hard into titling everything in leetspeak (Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age, Disturb N tha Peace, etc).
The term meant pretty much the same thing back then as it does now, but Griff gives it a much more negative connotation: "ask a brother if his color's of pure mix, he's quick to explain how he's black but born mixed. 'Free Mandela' you yelled on the street blocks, fake ass faggot sportin' apartheid Reebox. God will take the head of an Oreo. Y'all snakes in black hidin' incognegro." So it's tempting to joke about how we shouldn't leave Logic and Griff alone in a room together, but I think it's clear Griff is speaking about being impure on an ideological level, while Logic just means his literal ancestry. Though Griff's still talking pretty wild on this one, don't get me wrong. I don't defend everything the man says.
Anyway, "In Cog Negrow"'s kind of a slow track with a catchy but over familiar "Jungle Boogie" loop that ultimately makes it feel more like disposable album filler compared to "Jail Sale." That makes the other B-side so much more interesting.
Actually, my copy you see above is the basic cassingle, but the maxi-single version, plus the 12" and CDS include an exclusive non-album B-side: the "Jail Sale (Dance Mix)" by Felix Sama! Yeah, "Jail Sale" is just about the last song you'd expect to get an up-tempo dance extension, but here it is. Lyrically, Griff is still going off on the "justified genocide," and he even ads some additional adlibs at the end, concluding with, "I want you all to know, the biggest jail cell is America, the United Snakes of America." But now it's set to the instrumental of "Let the Beat Hit Em" by Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam. It's got a cool "Looking At the Front Door" vibe, because both of those records use the same sample, but Cult Jam and Sama's usage is more on the club tip. And maybe that's why this exists. I'm sure Luke Records had a ton of connections with Miami DJs and promoters; I can just imagine them begging, "come on, Griff, we've gotta give these guys something they can play!"
But I love the fact that this doesn't compromise by cutting out any of verses or anything. I would've loved hearing them drop that "handcuffs could never contain!" vocal sample in a nightclub in the '90s. Obviously, I love the strictly hardcore, dirty street level shit, but there can be a real magic when raw Hip-Hip vocals are merged with poppier rap music. You know, you've got Griff going off, "spendin' time writing appeals ain't nothing but pen strokes, and boot lickin' niggas are immitatin' white folks" over these MTV keyboards. It's like when Lakim Shabazz made a house song or Yah Yah recorded with those 5th Lmnt dudes.
It's worth noting that the promo version of the 12" also has an exclusive dub and an additional radio edit of the Dance Mix, which edits it down by about two minutes, which is actually probably the ideal length, since the full length version is content to let the beat ride for some pretty long, boring stretches. On the other hand, it edits out the small number of curse words from Griff's lyrics, so that's annoying. It also censors the non-dance version. And only the retail version (plus, as you can see above, the tape) come in the picture cover. So it's a bit of a trade off.
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