Not that there's a lot of information to be found; this is going to be a fairly shallow dive in that regard. The Red Guerillaz are from Brooklyn, obviously, and when their record dropped they were marketed as extended family of the Flipmode Squad camp, which would explain the LHM appearance. Honestly, most of what I've been able to glean about these guys just comes from having the record and a brief mention in his One Leg Up interview, where Digga explained he was an "honorary member" of the group. Unfortunately, he doesn't elaborate much, because the question wasn't really about them. So what can we tell from the record itself?
Well, first of all, it's obvious there are two MCs rapping on these songs besides Digga and Mercy, and there's their producer Steamrolla. This is his only record, so I'm assuming he was a member and not just someone who happened to produce their record. I'd say I'm surprised he didn't do more, because this again, this is a hot record, but apparently he's had trouble staying on the outside. He's back now, though, making beats and AI graphic design under the name Menace. And now, if we look at the writing credits and remove the three names we recognize, we can deduce that the two MCs real names are A. Rose and R. Antonine. That's about all I got about them (though I did check, and no, they're not in the list of names that went down in Menace's 2018 crack dealing ring), so let's talk about the music.
I like that this 12" comes with two approaches. The opening track is just a hardcore banger, playing up the homophone of guerillaz vs gorillas. "King Kong Niggaz" is just boasting how hard they are while working that gorilla metaphor: "cock back biscuits, murder off diskettes, something that you never forget like Joe Nam' in the '69 Jets. We the best, place ya bets, fuck the rest. If we ain't steamin' trees, we're beatin' on our chests through our vests; you can't test." But the best part is heralded by a vocal sample of Roddy McDowell in Conquest Of the Planet Of the Apes (that's Part 4 for you normies) teeing up Lord Have Mercy to drop one of the best appearances of his career. His deep, gritty voice is just perfect for this track, which is a sharp contrast between high strings and deep, thudding bass notes, not to mention this aggressive gorilla grunting, which I'm pretty sure he's done himself on another track.
So that's the crowd-pleasing introduction, then follows that up with some more serious social commentary. "Rosewood" is surely inspired by John Singleton's then recent 1997 film, though it actually opens with a vocal sample from Menace II Society. It has a more orchestral loop and makes a simple metaphor to compare modern day New York to the infamous massacre of the 1920s: "for this paper we thirst, and name brand labels printed on our shirts. Bitches in short skirts and niggas that don't wanna work. Life is full of hurt. If you ain't runnin' from the Ku Klux, niggas'll stick you for two bucks. In this land, nobody gives a fuck 'cause we killin' over paper, but in God we trust. And it makes no sense: the root of all evil gave birth to jealousy that has spread throughout my people, divided us in half, and now we not equals." Come on, how did we not get anymore records from these guys!?
If I was running one of those Hip-Hop Enterprises labels, I would reach out to Menace and see if he's got anymore unreleased Red Guerillaz recordings, or even any other vintage Brooklyn rappers he might've worked with. But at least we've got this one single. It comes in a sticker cover, and includes Dirty, Clean and Guerillamental versions of both songs.
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