Esham - Dead Flowerz

Dead Flowerz is probably my second favourite release behind Closed Casket (a close tie with KKKill The Fetus), which deals less with fantasy realms and rapping about the devil and focuses on the life of an inner city black man in the 90s, played up entirely with the excesses and absurdity of E’s “wicket shit” acid rap style. Drugs, guns and XXX girls is the order of the day, and whilst that might sound somewhat tedious, Esham’s flow, whilst not the most inventive, is positively infectious, matching the cheap 90s analogue vibes perfectly. If Poot Carr from The Wire recorded a rap record, I would expect it to sound like Dead Flowerz. 

Boasting a stunning production, which is a bit cleaner than previous records but still has that stank-ass bass and the distorted kicks. Stand out dimes include the opener "What", which follows perfectly into the legendary "You Better Ask Somebody". "Kill Or Be Killed", "Foodstamp", "Fried Chicken" and "Trick Wit Me" are all further examples of Esham's porno-drenched murdah style (maybe not as OTT as Necro's The Sexorsist but it is easy to make comparisons here). "Charlie Manson" is probably my favourite track, with the bass synth being one of the most stinking things I've ever come across in my entire life. 

It wasn't until a recent re-listen that I caught the bit about him smoking "dead flowers" that I realized what the title could mean. Very clever, Mr. Esham. 

PS - Try the LIW / Esham Dead Flowerz drinking game: every time he mentions or rhymes the phrase "drug related" you better take a swig, boy.

Insane Clown Posse - The Ringmaster

The Ringmaster has gotta be a contender for one of my favorite ICP records. It marks the point where the group really start to find their feet. As much as I love Carnival of Carnage, it is a bit sketchy and the quality of tracks here far surpasses anything off that album, not to mention the Beverly Kills EP. I also think it's one of the more under-rated jokers cards, if not the most under-rated of the whole bunch. The Ringmaster is definitely the underdog of the original set of Dark Carnival troublemakers.

There is also a level of "silliness" that is missing from later albums, and the song production has a much more regular hip-hop feel than the unique direction that the band would quickly cement as their own. Don't get me wrong, there are carnival vibes aplenty, but the overall sound is much dryer and songs about Detroit still number strong. "Murder Go Round" is a classic opener, and shortly afterward is the hat-trick of "Mr. Johnson's Head", "Southwest Song" and "Get Off Me, Dog!"; three of ICP's best cuts back to back, again followed by another banger, "Who Asked You?".

It kinda falls off a bit after that but "House Of Mirrors" and "Bugz On My Nugz" are absolutely amazing songs, especially the latter, which always has me in peals of laughter. The closing track, "The Ringmaster's Word" is a twisted work of sampling. I sometimes wish ICP had continued with this earlier sound, I guess if nothing else they might have a bit more credibility (as much as you can give a group like ICP, at least).

I've lost the disc on my physical copy of this so I don't get to hear it that often anymore, but it's always nice to come back to for a trip through that old-school Detroit smog.

Esham - Closed Casket

Closed Casket is surely the definitive Esham record – I love absolutely everything about it; the sound, the lyrics, the samples, even the artwork (for some reason). Closed Casket captures a slice of Detroit “suicidalist” lifestyle in the smog of the early 90s, during that perfect period when Esham was still dank as fuck but not dropping references to the man down below every 20 seconds. 

I tend to categorise Esham into two categories – a.) when he goes hard, and b.) when he goes silly. Closed Casket falls entirely into the first camp, and is nowhere near as wet as records such as Mail Dominance or that Gothom City nonsense. All the beats are bangers, the bass is spot on, rumbling nicely along for a fat backbone. The production is lightyears ahead of the previous record, KKKill The Fetus, but still retains that grime and almost, how can I put it, copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copied-cassette sound. 

This kinda gets lumped in with the horrorcore thing as Esham is associated with ICP and all that lot, but any fan of old school hip hop would do themselves a service by checking this out. 

Stand-out tracks: “The Wicketshit Will Never Die”, “My Homie Got Shot”, “Can’t Take It Wit Cha”, “Chatty Ass Nigga”, “Flatline”, “2 Dollahoe”, “I’ll Be Glad When You Dead”. 

Esham - KKKill The Fetus

I’ve really been digging Esham recently. Well, I’ve always loved this guy (one of the few positive things to come out of my teenage obsession with ICP) but I discovered that a whole bunch of his albums are streaming on Spotify, which is absolutely great news because a ton of his early works contained a pile of uncleared sampling and are therefore seemingly forever confined to the “out of print” section of music industry hell. Asides from downloading some awful torrent files or picking up an overpriced CD when it sprang up on eBay or Discogs, Youtube was the only way to really hear these old Esham gems. Until now.

I’m sure this sample-thievery will catch up with The Boogeyman sooner or later though (edit: Closed Casket, my favourite Esham record, has already disappeared off Spotify). KKKill The Fetus is a close second though, in degrees of “Tha Wicket Shit”. Perhaps unsurprisingly, KKKill The Fetus is a dark and somewhat vulgar hip hop record that gives off puzzling overtones of violence and misogyny. This is acid rap after all, but I fear sometimes Esham’s message is clouded in an attempt to be shocking and offensive; in his early work, at least. The title-track is a perfect example, what should indicate a full support of a woman’s choice to terminate or not becomes a hamfisted hatefuck of an attack against the black lower class, and seems almost to glorify or even revel in the actual process of killing a fetus. Granted, Esham can say what the fuck he likes – it’s his album – but I’m getting mixed messages here.

If you’ve not heard Esham before this older material can be pretty abrasive compared to most hip hop (and no, hipsters; not in the way that Death Grips does it). The entire ICP sound can be attributed to “Game Of Death”featuring Mastamind. To be honest, the similarities here are uncanny. “Game Of Death” could easily have been on one of the first ICP records. It’s easy to see how Esham has turned bitter towards the duo in recent years, as they basically built their success off of his and his peer’s backs.

Nevertheless, this is a pillar in the history of underground hip hop. Without this record there’d may well be no Eminem, and most definitely no Insane Clown Posse.

KKKlick the Button!

D12 - Fight Music

"Fight Music" is probably one of my favourite singles off the D12 album Devil's Night, as it incorporates a much harder edge to it. When I was a wee lad the rockier guitar parts of this track helped me get into D12, and whilst it turned out that a majority of their songs don't actually sound like this, it helped plant the seed, and after the strength of the "Purple Pills" (or "Hills", as I first heard it) single as well, really cemented my D12 fandom.

I don't wanna perpetuate a 12-year-old-white-girl stereotype, but Eminem's part of this track smokes all of the rest of the band's rhymes, hands down, although Bizarre's lines are pretty funny, and twisted, as per usual. The song also boasted a shit hot production style, the beats being similar to that of Eminem's own Marshall Mathers LP, which came out not long before this. 

You can pick this up for virtually next to nothing off websites such as Discogs, if you are somewhat into collecting this shit. You can also get the D12 album which this is off for pennies on the Amazon Marketplace.

Bizarre - Hannicap Circus

In my many years of D12 / Eminem fandom it never occurred to me that other members of the group might have solo projects. After giving myself the ultimate facepalm, I began hunting down those records. I started with Bizarre, who is by far my favourite member of D12. He's like the Frankie Boyle of rap music. A lot of rappers say shit that gets them shot; Bizarre is so offensive he goes beyond that and just confuses everyone so much that they don't know whether to laugh at him or pop a cap in his ass. (I mean this all in good humour guys...rappers please don't shoot me!)

Despite it's rather inviting title, Hannicap Circus is as nowhere near as offensive as I thought it would be. Sure, the underlying themes of worshipping ganja, taking pills, raping down syndrome girls and having HIV remain, but as a whole Hannicap Circus really didn't offend me. It seems to open up a bit harsh, but then it falls into all the usual ruts and themes of a solo rap record. There the song (or six) about weed, a song about fucking, about love, about someone close who has died, a parody ("Today Was A Bad Day", which is much better than the original-opposite Ice Cube idea) and one or two bangers to finish off with. There is even a song about missing his kids on tour, which for all the arse-rape and sexual innuendo that usually comes with Bizarre, is downright worrying.

To be fair, this is a good hip hop CD. I just know that Bizarre can do a whole lot better than telling me how fat and disgusting his bitch's ass is. Step it up a level, man!

D12 - Shit On You

I always have mixed feelings about D12: the potential with the group was absolutely fantastic; each artist is an excellent rapper in their own right, but if they work together as a group or not is something that has always bugged me. I guess it's the endless "it's Eminem's old band, innit" that pisses me off. The first record shared the load fairly but the second album parodied this yet lived up to it entirely; employing Mr. Mathers as the lead vocal in nearly every song, not to mention on nearly every bastard chorus. But I digress. This is about a single that was released around the time of the first record, and is actually pretty awesome.

The beat comes on like some pretty serious hip hop; a whole level of Immortal-Technique-ganna-fuck-shit-up vibe, but by the time Bizarre hits the mic and Em's chorus of shitting on your family comes in, the hardcore street-beat has lost all seriousness. The B side is the track "Under the Influence" which originally appeared on Eminem's second album, so it's kinda cool to have it here collected under the D12 name. This 12" is deffo for collectors / die-hards only, and offers no real merit to anyone who wasn't a DJ in 2002.