When it comes to head-flipping lyricists with a large dose of social consciousness of the very early 1990s era (born out of the school of artists like Big Daddy Kane just a couple of short years earlier), one name is all too often overlooked: Ed O.G.
Straight outta Roxbury, Boston, Ed O.G. and his sizeable fam Da Bulldogs were picked up by PWL Records America, the stateside offshoot of British pop music extraordinaire Pete Waterman, on which they released a trio of singles, as well as their debut album Life Of A Kid In The Ghetto.
Though almost universally acclaimed, the album failed to have much commercial impact on the national scene, and was instead rather confined to the Boston local scene in particular, with some steady love throughout the wider Northest area, which to this day still holds a sizeable proportion of Ed O.G & Da Bulldog’s fanbase to this day.
Spawning three well-received singles (”Be A Father To Your Child”, “I Got To Have It” and “Bug-A-Boo”), the album is pretty solid – in fact, near perfect – from end to end. Heavily interspersed with black-power propaganda, yet still remaining a healthy balance of tolerance and acceptance, as well as a number of more upbeat, goofy, fun tracks, Life Of A Kid In The Ghetto is self-explanatory in its title.
Though I appreciate the album in its entirety, there are a few tracks in particular that stand out for me, due to the increased emphasis on socially-relevant issues of the intense political arena that was America around the turn of the decade into the 1990s (check “Dedicated To The Right Wingers”, “Be A Father To Your Child” and “Life Of A Kid In The Ghetto”).
Ed O.G. went on to forge a moderately successful rap career (both with and without the assistance of Da Bulldogs), and remains on his game to this day, including the completion of a new album with fellow rap heavyweight Masta Ace.
Life Of A Kid In The Ghetto, however, remains out-of-print, so enjoy:
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ED O.G. & DA BULLDOGS – LIFE OF A KID IN THE GHETTO
No comments:
Post a Comment