Verb, Luke and Devastator X's Secret Garden

Okay, you've just seen my Verb interview preview, and the full text piece is coming up. And I know Verb's catalog may seem small, though if you look through my past coverage of him you'll see I've been unveiling rare and hidden songs by him for a while. But there's still more generally unknown, obscure Verb cuts to be discovered that I thought I'd take this opportunity to point out. Several are tucked away on Luke's Greatest Hits album from 1996 on Lil Joe Records, one of the earliest releases from that label after they bought up Luke Records' back catalog.

I never picked this up back in the day because I already had his albums (plus it's not like I was ever a huge Luke fan). And the cover pretty strongly suggests that it just groups together songs from his three previous albums. But look at that blurb in the lower right hand corner: "Features 4 New Remixes and 4 New Songs Previously Not Released." That's the interesting stuff. And once I found out it included a heavy dose of Verb, I ordered it online.

Greatest Hits opens with a Special Edit of his biggest hit, "It's Your Birthday." Fortunately, this isn't counted as one of the four exclusive remixes, because it just the same album version minus the annoying intro where Luke sings "Happy Birthday" acapella. This is probably just a way to cheap out and save on publishing, since the "Happy Birthday" song is famously not in the public domain (Lil' Joe would continue to use this shorter edit on their future compilations and reissues); but frankly I'm happy to see it go anyway. It's just like a shitty, irritating skit tacked onto the front of the song.

The other non-new tracks are basically four of his singles up to the point of this album: "Breakdown," "I Wanna Rock" "Where Them Ho's At," and "Work It Out," plus the random In the Nude album track "Whatever." That's it; everything else on this album is new. Shit, if I'd realized that, I would've bought this album back when it came out.

So, let's look at the remixes now. All four remixes were made in 1996 by Mr. Mixx. That's a pretty big win - Mixx's production was definitely the biggest loss Luke Records suffered in the early 90s. Hearing him back on Luke's material now is pretty sweet, although I'm not sure he really put his all into these four mixes.

First up is "Dr. Dre Is a BXXXh AXX." You're probably thinking, wow, I've never heard of that song before! But it's really just a retitled "Cowards In Compton." Well, I mean, it's not just a retitling; it's an all new remix by Mr. Mixx, which is pretty interesting. He slows it down a bit and gives it a pretty minimal instrumental, with just a P-Funk noise sample and a very g-funky bassline and keys. They also add a new chorus with someone saying, "Dr. Dre is a bitch ass nigga... Suge Knight is a bitch ass nigga" in a deep, pitched down voice. It's... okay. The way it's kind of stripped down with the "Atomic Dog" effects is a good idea and should work on paper, but it feels under-cooked. I feel like if Mixx had spent another week toying with this, it could've been really dope; but as it is, it doesn't work. But it is at least cool to hear a song with Luke's real MCs (JT Money and Clayvoisie) on this album instead of just his generic shout and call party jams.

And that quality carries over to the next Mixx remix, "Head, Head and More Head (Pt. 1)," featuring KT Money and Jiggie Gee. It has kind of a similar remix style as "Dr. Dre," with a new bassline, and syrupy keys. The bassline is funkier here, though, and it's all a lot more upbeat and catchy, thanks in large part to the nature of the oiginal song. Still, it feels like Mixx is hung up on keeping up with the times and learning new production styles, as opposed to his earlier 80s work, which he was a deft master at.

The other two of Mixx's mixes are "Come On," another of his shout and call singles, and "The Hop," a random Freak for Life album track, also in the shout and call style. These aren't in the same style, and feel more like genuine alternate takes of these songs. Like, these could easily have been on the 12"s.

Finally, we cone the new songs. All four are produced by Devastator X (who'd worked with Luke even before the Luke/Lil Joe split on an earlier single edit of "I Wanna Rock"), and three of which feature Verb. The first is "Welcome To Club Hell," a busy, hyper track full of sirens and samples, cuts by Devastator and Kool Dee Jay Flex, and Verb doing some fresh fast raps to keep the pace."Dance" is similar, though a little less hectic, and also features Devastator on the mic. He's chiefly a producer, but has rapped on his own records and with MC ADE. He's fun and has an engaging voice, but he sounds a little too old school on these more modern tracks - a little fish out of water.

Anyway, these songs are barely Luke songs; I strongly suspect he never actually had a hand in creating any of them. They basically just sample his voice for hooks and background. That's probably more of a pro than a con; but I think we'd be even better off if they were allowed to drop the pretense of these being Luke songs and just making the best songs they could on their own. But... I guess you can't be mad at a Luke Greatest Hits album holding to every song at least being Luke-related.

So the last two songs are "Bounce/ Rock the Beat," which again features the pair of them and has X more adeptly kicking a fast, modern flow. I think his vocals may've been artificially sped up a bit, but still. The other song, then, is "Lipstick On My DXXk," a Devastator X solo cut, though it actually has the most Luke samples on it and sounds the most like an actual Luke song. It's kinda funny that you can actually make whole Luke songs without Luke's actual involvement. It's just a formula anyone could assemble with the right studio equipment.

Overall, this album is a pretty boring listen with way too much shout and call junk. I mean, it beats the average Luke album in that it's not full of long skits, tedious talking "songs" and other album filler he always padded his album with. And the shout and call songs work instrumentally, as their great showcases for his various producers to make rich and lively megamixes. I mean, listen to "I Wanna Rock" and block out Luke and his frat boys blurting out "doo doo brown" constantly, and it's actually a fantastic hip-hop instrumental mix that just needs a little extra scratching or actual verses to fill in the gaps. But Luke isn't a DJ or a rapper, so he could never hold a whole album, even his greatest hits.

BUT, also like all his other albums, there are enough guest appearances and good producers working overtime to make the albums worth picking up for more serious fans who are willing to skip through 75% of the albums to find the exclusive highlights. Nothing here is as great as the highlights on his official albums were - the new stuff here is definitely the skimpy budget version of those. Mr. Mixx's remixes are alright, but disappointing enough for even Mixx fans to skip over, and the Devastator X and Verb songs are better, but again would've been better off without having to shoe-horn in Luke. This project definitely feels like what it is - a miserly money grab. But I think the new songs are worth it if you can get this cheap, which you definitely can. And it's hard not to want this alternate Dr. Dre diss, even when you know it's going to be underwhelming.

'Halls of Justice' You Call It

"The Verdict" is the second single off of Professor Griff's debut album, Pawns In the Game. This - along with the first single, the title track - is the best material he ever put out (and they had awesome videos as well). So get it.

Unlike his first single, this is a posse cut featuring his crew, then known as The Last Asiatic Disciples. If you hold a magnifying glass to the liner notes of his first album (at least the CD version, which is the one I'm working with), you'll see that the LAD consists of "SEAN PEACKOCK B.K.A. LIFE, THE IST DISCIPLE. SEAN SMITH B.K.A. PATRICK X, THE IIND DISCIPLE. JASON WICKS B.K.A. JXL, THE IIIRD DISCIPLE. ROBERT HARDING B.K.A. B-WYZE, THE IVTH DISCIPLE. THE DEMANDING JUSTICE, THE ESD 'OBIE'." And they all get a chance to shine on this one.

There's some interesting production personal involved here, as well. It's credited to Griff and Clay D (of "Dazzy Duke Down" and "That Booty In There" fame), with "Re-Education" (referring the remixing, I guess) credited to Griff, The 2 Live Crew's Mr. Mixx(!), Kerwin "Sleek" Young and Kavon Shaw (who would later go on to form The Soul Society with Griff and Tone Control). It adds up to the type of PE-inspired beat that Chuck & Flavor really should've stuck to themselves. When PE got too far out there and cartoony, Griff - the man Russell Simmons once called "a racist stage prop" - was doing beats and delivery styles straight out of the Nation of Millions playbook. Lyrically is where he tends to lose his audience, making extreme race-related claims and divisive religious references. But I don't think any of us who grew up listening to politically-charged rap music in the 90's would be strangers to that, anyway.

Now, you may notice the picture cover proudly proclaims there to be "NO EXPLICIT LYRICS CONTAINED" on this single - an interesting decision since, in 1990, an Explicit Lyrics stickers essentially meant 50% more sales. For "The Verdict" (the b-side, which I'll get to in a minute, didn't feature any language that needed to be removed in the first place), they redo the vocals with new lyrics to substitute the curses. For the most part, it works. Only one instance, where one of the LAD defiantly ends his verse, "I charge you with a count of bullshit, and 'Guilty' is the verdict!" becomes "I charge you on account of being a misfit." …Doesn't quite have the same impact. Or even really the same meaning if you think about it.

Much more importantly, though, this "Radio Edit" features two new verses, all new scratching, all kinds of shit that any fan of the album version will need to have in his collection. Here's a verse one of the LAD kicks that isn't on the LP:

"People of the jury seeking signs of the end,
Matthew: 24 reveals the who, what and when.
Many who were judged were the devil in actuality;
Tried and set free. Your irrationality's a technicality.
But we're free now;
'Cause when we speak the truth, we're merely prosecuted;
Where before, for tellin' the truth, a brother would be executed.
Yeah, I shot the sheriff... knew him by his six-pointed star.
He claimed to be chosen. The righteous: exactly what we are.
If you don't know the truth by now, then you will learn.
There will be no stone left unturned."

The b-side is the third best album cut, "Suzi Wants To Be a Rock Star." Really, if you get the first two singles, the album becomes more of a for-completists-only-type deal. This isn't up to "Pawns In the Game" or "The Verdict;" it's more of a fun song, with rocking heavy metal guitars and even some guy singing heavy metal style on the hook (no credits given say who that is). It's another posse cut, and the cheesy guitars mix with the underlying beat in an enjoyable way. If you can get over a song being "corny" (the ultimate condemnation for those who haven't realized that most of the rap music they take so seriously is actually at least as corny by grown-up standards), you'll dig this anti-drug song, albeit not in the same way as the a-side.

When I first flipped to this over to the b-side I thought, "what the heck? They left off a version," but it turns out the "Heckl-a-pella" version just refers to a very short collection of vocal samples which sounds more like the beginning of the next version. And that next version, "The Supreme Court Instrumental," is the reason tobuy this single. At it's core, it's the instrumental to "The Verdict" but then, throughout the song, the instrumental is flipped and changes to new breakbeats and horn samples. It's like The 45 King snuck into their studio late at night - dope stuff! The one drawback is that it's a little sparse... it's still essentially an instrumental largely meant to support complex lyrics. The change-ups help, but it could use a little more by way of vocal samples, lyrics or something. Really, they should've let Mr. Mixx tear it up on the tables. But that's about the only complaint you can have about it. In the final analysis, hip-hop beats just don't get much better.

So all told, in addition to "Suzi Wants To Be a Rock Star," you get five versions of "The Verdict:" the new "Radio Edit," the "Speech-A-Pella" (acappella of the new, "Radio Edit" version), LP Version (described in the liner notes as "Curseless At Its Best" - it's the album version with the curses just flipped in the traditional way), the teensy tiny "Heckl-A-Pella" (I don't care what they say, it's the intro to the next mix) and the extra funky "Supreme Court Instrumental." And with his decked out uniforms, the man knows how to make a nice picture cover. Not bad for something you can pick up in a dollar bin.

Tags: Professor Griff, Mr. Mixx