Big 14 you know what the fu*k going on

Happy 25th Anniversary to Redman’s second studio album Dare Iz A Darkside, originally released November 22, 1994.

My favorite parts of the mid-’90s hip-hop documentary Rhyme Or Reason involve Reggie “Redman” Noble. All told, he appears on screen maybe a few minutes in total, mostly in the background. The best sequence shows him in action at the 1994 “Jack the Rapper” Music Convention in Orlando, Florida, promoting his sophomore album Dare Iz A Darkside.

Redman stands on the convention floor, furiously spitting rhymes from “Winicumuhround,” garnering attention from any and all who pass by. He a*serts his realness, roaring, “You don’t see me chilling up in my hotel room. I’m out here… and I’m Gold.” Later, during the closing credits, he proclaims, “Some of y’all do some dark sh*t you don’t want anybody to know about, but on my album, I’m doing it all! To journey through my sh*t, you’ll need flashlights!”

Writer Adario Strange also recalled this scene in his Fall 1994 cover story on Redman in The Source. Strange describes Redman standing a mere five inches from his face, whisper screaming about the potential visions of people who commit suicide by jumping off a building. So, suffice to say that during the build-up to the release of Dare Iz A Darkside, Redman was really on one.

Which makes sense when you consider the content of the album, released a quarter of a century ago, and the barely controlled mania that Redman uses to deliver the material. Maybe the mania is part of why, decades later, Redman seemingly holds it at a couple of arms length.

He has mostly excised Dare Iz A Darkside from his repertoire. He ranks it second to last in his discography and has said that he never plays songs from it at live shows. Though he acknowledges that he may not be judging it fairly (“It should be ranked a little higher,” he told HipHopDx.com, “I ain’t gonna lie”), at least part of his resistance to the album apparently comes from being in a dark place in his life when he recorded it.

“I was on the road, on tour at a real young age and then I did one album and blacked out on the album,” he explained to HipHopDx.com. “Lyrically blacked out, but I was just there. I don’t even remember how I got it done and what studio I did it in.”

Redman suggests that this drug-fueled haze a*sociated with that time of his life accounts for why he’s remained so hesitant to even revisit the album. He explains, “I was doing a lot of drugs on Dare Iz A Darkside … I swear, I have not played Dare Iz A Darkside damn near since I did it. Seriously! I was so lost, I was so fu*ked up during that album.”

Dare directly invokes Maggot Brain with its cover, which depicts Redman in a field, buried up to his neck in dirt, face constricted mid-shriek as he howls in anguish at the heavens. The recording process was seemingly fueled by massive amounts of illicit substances, including a whole lot of hallucinogens. As a result, Dare is Redman’s most underground and uncompromising album. Redman has never directly catered to a broad audience with his music, but here he singularly does not give a fu*k about appealing to the mainstream. The music and lyrics pulse with darkness and pain, layered in thick slabs of sludge-drenched funk.

I’m in the group of people who believe that Dare Iz A Darkside is Redman’s best album. And considering that Redman is one of my favorite artists of all time, that should tell you the rarified air that I hold this album. It is indeed bleak and disturbing, occasionally difficult and occasionally hilarious. And although Redman rarely actually addresses his mind state in his raps, it’s a nearly 70-minute view into the Funk Doctor Spock’s raw psyche.


Much like Whut? Thee Album’s framing device, Dare begins with Redman still committed to a mental institution, but this time the volume is turned ALL the way up. The disembodied voice of “Dr. Trevis” once again appears, booming, “I want you to take the funk where it has never gone! I want you to take this LP to where no other LP has risen!” Which begins this journey through the darkside for Redman and listeners.

Aptly, Dare’s dark heart can be found on tracks like “Journey Throo Da Dark Side,” a two-and-a-half minute swirl of whistles, scratches, water-like drops, and a deep, rumbling baseline. Redman jacks the brains of his listeners, taking them on a runaway train ride through his mind. He raps, “When I’m in this, the knotty-headed era causes terror / Y’all gimmick motherfu*kers better get y'all sh*t together.”

On Whut? Redman occasionally went off on random tangents during songs, from him “freaking it in Korean” on “Blow Your Mind,” to breaking into a purposely awful house song in the middle of “I’m a Bad.” On Dare, he gets even more bizarre on “Noorotic,” where he continues his madcap travels through his seemingly damaged brain, using “verbs and nouns that shatter walls of underground.” Producer Rockwilder warps a sample of Pleasure’s “Sassafras Girl” until it’s close to unrecognizable, adding in rumbling bass and eerie keyboards. On the mic, Redman is at his oft-kilter best, threatening to bite an adversary’s “whole n*pple off” and creating visions of toy factories churning out thousands of lookalike Funk Doc dolls.

Redman is joined by Def Squad crewmates Erick Sermon and Keith Murray on “Cosmic Slop,” a track that may share the title of Funkadelic’s most disturbing song and album, but is uniquely strange in its own way. The song sounds beamed in from an interstellar radio frequency, like a transmission of the illest alien disco track ever. Keys sinisterly pound away, backed by sounds of chirps, blips, snippets of Ohio Players’ “Funky Worm,” and other sounds of muted warfare. Redman gives another standout performance, boasting, “I'm spaced out, I lost my mind on Cloud 19 / Visine for eyes when I blow Alpines / Dial 9-0-0 for the hero of the weirdoes, I hope my brain don’t bust / Transform into a 7-11 Slurpie Slush.” Keith Murray matches Redman’s unhinged subject matter and delivery, rapping, “I orbits the solar system, listening / Guzzling, never sipping, or slipping and simping when the track is ripping / I gotcha brain cells bending and twisting / Man, listen, I give your whole crew an acid drenching.”

Redman occasionally crawls up from beneath to create more traditionally structured tracks. “Rockafella,” the album’s first single, is a hard-hitting lyrical exhibition and his dedication to his deceased friend of the same name. Redman again produces the track himself, adding elements from Leon Heywood’s “I Want To Get Freaky With You” and Parliament’s “Flashlight,” adding a heavy, muddy bassline. Lyrically, he spars with the best of them, rapping, “'Cause, it's that Funkadelic, hit you with the irrelevant elements / And it’s coming through your blocks. Can't you smell it, trick?”

“Can’t Wait,” the album’s second single, serves as a sequel of sorts to Whut?’s “Tonight’s Da Night,” featuring Redman getting as smooth and laidback as he ever would during this time period. The Funk Doc skates across the track, co-produced by him and Erick Sermon, riding a beat that uses the flutes and bassline from Bob James’ “Caribbean Nights” and incorporates vocals from the Mary Jane Girls’ “All Night Long.” Lyrically, it’s best known for Redman marveling at the cleverness of the line: “Switching up speed like Bruce Lee riding a Fuji in the movie.” For those who wondered, Lee rides a Fuji motorcycle in Game of death. There’s also the added meaning that while shooting the movie, Lee’s arms would move too fast to be caught on the Fuji film that they were using. This caused some f*ght scenes to be played during the movie at a reduced speed.
Other tracks on the album filter Redman’s essence through a much more grim lens. “A Million and One Buddah Spots” is the most apocalyptic ode to smoking herb that I can recall, while battle rap tracks like the aforementioned “Winicumuhround” (translation: “When I Come Around”) and “Wuditlooklike” shows that even in his demented state, Redman can still bang heads with the best.
Even amongst the abundant weirdness of the rest of Dare, “Green Island” stands out, as it’s an imaginative, nearly six-minute lyrical exhibition. It features the vocal talents of Redman and a brief a*sist from “Uncle Quilly,” Redman’s Funky Uncle who last appeared on Whut? Redman sprints across a sped-up sample of The Mauna Loa Islanders’ “The c*ckeyed Mayor of Kaunakakai,” delivering four tongue-twisting verses loaded with off-the-wall imagery and word play. Towards the end, Redman unleashes a storm of lyrics, rapping, “Ayo, chronic bubonic, the funky bionic you find it I'll have to rewind it / Where minds are blinded, ‘Time 4 Sum Aksion,’ so time to find it.”
Redman immediately changes gears next with the much too brief “Basically,” his haunting and deliberate meditation on how some artists choose to compromise their music. The track floats through the ether, as Redman ponders why fake emcees “try to use the underground to make a comeback.” Dare comes to a close with “We Run NY,” a raucous and chaotic tag-team lyrical brawl where “The Jimi Hendrix of Rap” is joined by his “sister” Hurricane G. The Brick City native stalks “through the sewer with manure on my socks,” trading lines with the Brooklyn-born Boriqua in their quest for domination of the greater NYC area.
I really do wish Redman had more favorable feelings towards Dare, as, in my opinion, it’s the pinnacle of all an all-around amazing career. But regardless of his feelings towards Dare, he used his experience recording it as his inspiration, where he symbolically pulled himself up from the underground to deliver Muddy Waters, probably the most universally beloved album of his career. That album is Redman’s personal favorite, and it’s an album that he’s spent over 20 years trying to recapture.
Rappers’ mind states evolve throughout their career. They often go to tough places while recording an album that can be arduous and psychically draining to revisit. So I can certainly understand Redman’s reticence to revisit Dare Iz A Darkside. But in the meantime, I personally enjoy it as my favorite emcee’s most challenging and musically rewarding work.

Philadelphia rap star AR-AB has learned his fate from a judge earlier this week. The judge has served AR-AB with 20 years plus for running a drug empire and blaming him for murders that happened. When sentencing AR-AB the judge gave a big thank you to VladTV for his interview which he says help them build their case against AR-AB. This should be a eye opener for rappers! Stop talking about what you are doing, the FEDs are watching your social media. Do not brag about crimes you are doing.

The Interview Judged thank VladTV for:

Damn shame Bump didn't get out the streets in time to blow. n*gga was on some real lofe story telling sh*t. Coulda been the 50 Cent of the Chi. Lyrically even nicer

n*gga was damn near the perfect rapper. Had a smooth a*s flow and delivery and all. To this day he just as nice too.

Danza puttin in WORK!!!!




















Mozzy been linking up with the Northwest often lately

That beat BANGS in the trunk!!!

















WestSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII DE!!!!!

Sounds like Diddy didn't get the memo that he was just the token Black. Still waiting for him to speak on reparations.

Someone get DJ Vlad on the line to make sense of all this. :

Never knew it was Willies' song.

"The mini doc for “Intimidated” is co-directed by Terrace Martin and Avo John Kambourian.

Check it out below."



 https://trackblasters.com .. ini-doc-video/

So what you dated Madonna and made a little drug money when it was easy to do

kid was a legend in the making with those melodies