Like i told yall before 1994 was start of the marriage between me & hip-hop 4 life! And this man played a origin part of that happening. Now i cant remember if it was on Rap City, Yo! MTV Raps, the radio or a friend of mine' s mixtape but it was anyone of those that i 1st heard "Flava In Ya Ear"! I cant explain the feelin I felt over me when I 1st heard that beat man, its hard to put it in words. The beat 1st of all is so simple but it knocks! I thought at that time in '94 that was the all-time best beat in hip-hip history, i didnt think it could get any better than that (as we all know this was only the tip of the iceberg). I cant tell yall how many times I jammed this song in a row, it was too many times to count back then.
Now it started to get real when the remix to that record came out! I saw that video for the 1st time on BET and i was entranced and mesmerized! Entranced by the way the video looked... it was black & white!! But it was ill tho, it had the dope slow motion effects and all that and thats all because of legendary director Hype Williams. And I was mesmerized by that fine ass girl that was dancin next to Puff, and Puff always cracks me up in that scene cause of the way he was lookin at her then looks at the camera! Thats part always cracks me up, thats when I knew then that Puff is fool! To me that is one of the illest remixes ever made cause everybody brought their a-game to the track! Biggie ripped it, Mack did his thing, Rampage killed it (and i had idea who the nigga was), now LL shocked me wit his verse cause i didnt know he could go there like that but he did and Busta introduced to himself to everybody that he could do his thing solo wise!
So when Mack dropped his second single "Makin Moves Wit Puff" i was sold! Now many people kinda was like who dis nigga dressed in Versace dancin all in the video? Thats when i knew then that Puff was guy who didnt take himself seriously, he was willing to go out there do what he needed to get his label off the ground and jumpin. Me personally i miss that Puff but that person is long gone. But i loved this track and the video, i used to rock this joint hard! By the time Mack unloaded the 3rd single "Get Down" he had hip-hop by its ears at that time man. Easy Mo Bee provided this man with a certain sound that was just hard, and this song was just that....hard! The video was real nice for this as well with the ill slow motion effects brought to u by Hype! These tracks & videos is part of hip-hop history right there and set up Craig Mack for the ultimate debut anticipation for his LP to drop!
Back in '94 I was in the 7th grade and I wasnt buying albums yet, I was still recording songs on the radio onto tapes. So any LP that came out around that time i was borrowing from friends so i can listen to it and recorded what i liked. So when a friend of mine let me borrow the LP i couldnt wait to listen to it when i got home. And what i heard was a very nice & solid LP. "Funk Wit Da Style" was real dope, it has a ill sample in it that i like alot and it knocks. And my other joint on there was "When God Comes", man i love the horn sample in this one. I must have put this joint on repeat many times. But this song may have caused controversey between him and the label and most imporatntly Biggie. Ill get into that later. But this LP to me is pretty nice and it brings me back to great memories i had in '94 when this dropped.
But the questions i have is why this man faded out so quickly? So many rumors and stories are out there. Like why did he leave the label in '95? I heard that he left because Puff was so focused on Biggie and not him anymore that he packed up and left. But recently i heard from a source that on that track "When God Comes" he sent some shots at Biggie & Puff on what they believed in and what they were doing. I heard it was this song that put him on the outs wit the label and Puff booted him. Did Biggie & Mack really get along? I thought they did cause they was always freestyling together back in the early Bad Boy days and BIG was on Flava In ya Ear remix. But i have a interview featuring Biggie back in '96, and the interviewer asked him "Whats up wit Craig mack, yall still mess wit him?" Biggie said "Naw man, we dont fuck wit dat dude, we dont mess wit him." The interviewer said "But u was on the remix tho?" Biggie responded "I did that as a favor for Puff." So i was blown away by that, i think there's more to that story tho. The other rumor/ fact i heard was that after he dropped from Bad Boy it was hard for him to get another deal cause he being blackballed by other labels by Puff's doing. And it was Eric B. who helped him get a deal so he can put out his 2nd LP which came out in '97. But Eric B. said after he did that for him their relationship soured over somethin. So all & all there is alot of mystery of why Craig Mack didnt blow up the way he supposed to. The stardom he had was very short lived and its kinda messed up. But i tell u what, when i tried to grow my fro i wanted it to look like his! He had the illest 'fro back then!
I give this LP a 3.5 - 4 start rating, so whats ur thoughts on this LP?
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