Professor Griff Vs. Cult Jam

Today's record - or in this case, cassingle; but there is a 12" version, too - is "Jail Sale," by Professor Griff from 1991.  It's the lead single off his second album on Luke Records, Kao's II Wiz *7* Dome.  I've always been a fan of Griff as a rapper ever since he was under-utilized in PE.  Chuck had his distinctive, booming vocal tone, and of course Flav was doing whatever it is that he does.  And that combo obviously worked like gangbusters, but sometimes I felt the need for just a regular voice in the mix.  So when they'd briefly slip him onto "Night Of the Living Bassheads" or something, he sounded really dope to me.  Then, when his first album came out, he stepped aside so much for his Last Asiatic Disciples that it felt like the label was signing him for the controversy and association with PE, but were concerned rapping wasn't really his strong suit.  So it was really satisfying when he finally came back with a proper solo album, and nailed it on this single.

"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.

Father's Deadly Venom

Another new year and time again to cover another exciting point in Father MC's career... but are there any left?  Man, you're ding-dong right there are!!  And today we're going to take it back to 1995, when he was simply going by Father and his Uptown days were a couple years behind him.  This is when he released those weird, dueling Sexual Playground/ This Is 4 the Players albums on different independent labels.  So this was easily the most high profile thing he did at that time: producing, writing and featuring on N-Tyce's single "Sure Ya Right."

So, a quick run-down of N-Tyce's career: she started out as MC Spice, dissing The Real Roxanne in 1989.  Then she changed her name to N-Tyce and released a series of singles on Wild Pitch Records, starting with the tight "Black To the Point" in 1990.  Unfortunately, after that, she softened up.  I remember thinking her single "Walk a Little Closer" sounded like a Monie Love crossover record minus the accent.  She got some attention in 1993 though with an early Wu-Tang collaboration on her single "Hush Hush Tip" which was produced by 4th Disciple, written by RZA and had Method Man on the hook just when everybody was super excited to hear anything from the Wu.

Then this single with Father was her final one for Wild Pitch.  The back cover promised an upcoming album called Single File, but that never came out.  But it turned out she was just transitioning to another phase in her career, because she parlayed that RZA connection into a full on membership to Deadly Venoms, the official Wu-Tang girl group, which struggled to really take off, but released some interesting things throughout the latter half of the 90s.  Nick Wiz later dropped a bunch of unreleased recordings with her from the early 90s.

Unfortunately, this record is still in her soft phase.  Father has looped up "Outstanding" after only a million other rappers had used it: Blvd Mosse, Alliance, Rich Nice, Rob Base, Ice Cube, Paris...  Look, I like that sample, but by the time Shaquille O'Neal had put out his "Outstanding," I don't think you could argue that it wasn't thoroughly played out.  Still, Father's like Rodney O & Joe Cooley, in that they're clearly lovers of the great soul records and love to keep making records out of the classics.  You can't be mad at it; they never fail to sound good even if they're not breaking any new ground.

So yeah, Father does the hook on here, like Meth did on "Hush Hush Tip," but in this case he also drops his own verse, "it's time to ease up, squeeze up, get my game on.  Ain't nothing wrong if we get it on."  And maybe that's the only reason he gets a writing credit on this, but I suspect he had a hand or more in N-Tyce's lyrics, too.  Partially, because they're just his type of bragging/ relationship raps, and because she drops a pretty pointed Father MC reference, "you want a one nite stand (nahh, baby)?"  And his own line about "I've been watching you" is surely a nod to his single with Lady Kazan, so that seems to be his overarching concept here.  Although some of the subject matter, like "I be the chick known to cheat," is also a callback to N-Tyce's own earlier material (that's what "Hush Hush Tip"'s all about).

Perhaps because that "Outstanding" loop was so old hat, this single includes a couple of remixes.  There are instrumentals, an accapella and a shorter radio edit, but then two proper remixes with all new instrumentals.  The L.E.S. mix, produced by Queens' DJ L.E.S., is a cool, darker track that harkens more towards her Deadly Venoms sound.  But unfortunately it totally clashes with the pop dating raps N-Tyce is trading with Father, so it really doesn't fit.  They also include the instrumental, so that's a nice little secret to keep in your crates if you're a DJ.  But as a version of "Sure Ya Right," it kinda blows.

Then there's the Eclipse Mix by, obviously, DJ Eclipse, and he shows he understands the nature of the project, delivery a more poppy, smooth track with a slick bassline and some catchy little horns.  Still, the original is better.  There's a reason Father sticks to the tried and true.  Eclipse tries to create something new, but it's hard to compete with giants.  So A-side wins here.  But, frankly, it's not all that in any variation.  N-Tyce was easily at her best when she wasn't writing for the mainstream R&B crowd, and I'm sorry to say it as a lifelong fan of his, but teaming up with Father was probably a mistake.  If she had shown some of that Deadly Venom flavor here, Single File probably would have turned up in stores nationwide.  But oh well, this was still an interesting and pretty high profile project for Father at the time.