LP Thoughts: CRU- Da Dirty 30 (1997)

1997 was a year full goodies known & unknown. And this group was a unknown to many even me. But a couple of years ago as my Stretch & Bobbito collection grew, i realized that these cats a had a joint that was gettin play on their show around '95-'96. It was called "Rhythm Blunt Cru Comin Atcha Door" (i think thats the name of it), and it was a dope underground joint. But who knew that they would be known beyond that with a serious following behind them.

I 1st heard of this group back in '97 when the single "Just Another Case" came out and i saw the vid for it on Rap City. The beat caught me right away! I was hooked immediately! Those guitar licks were very infectious! I remember i was tryin hard to get that song and at that time the only way to get even a snippet of it was on the intro of Foxy Brown 1st LP Ill Na Na. That intro featured a lot upcoming acts on Violator and a snippet of that record is on it. Thats all i had at that time, cause no mixtapes was making their way down to El Paso! I bought the single to this track immediately once it was available and i rocked it to death! Plus i was happy that on the single it had the version wit Slick Rick on it! Now if u notice the vid, these cats a had a huge following behind them! In the vid u had Dj Enuff, Funkmaster Flex & Fatman Scoop in it! Thats damn near the whole Hot 97 staff co-signing u! And u know in the mid 90s Hot 97 was breakin alot of records that people never heard before and had another one wit this. Plus if u look closely my man Black Rob was in the spot wit the CRU t-shirt wrapped around his head, and people at that time didnt know who Black Rob was at that time. I dont think Puff's LP dropped yet so people wouldnt even have recognized him in the vid.

Now i didnt even listen to this LP until years later after it came out cause like i said before, back then i wasnt buying albums only singles. And when i heard it was very pleased with the LP, its a shame u didnt hear anything else from them since but they left they mark wit what they had. U got to love the joint "Live At The Tunnel" feat. the Lox. That beat is crazy hot and its about the legendary NYC club itself. This track was a club banger and a mixtape banger as well. Then u got my other 2 favorites " Pronto" & "Bubblin". These 2 joints here are stone cold real classic hip-hop right here, i can jam them all day!

To me Def Jam had a gem wit this group, its shame that didnt do more wit them considering the following they had. I give this LP a 3.5 to almost a 4 but not quite. Very solid production and 30 tracks isnt bad either. Dont sleep on '97 yall, many many great hip-hop joints came out that year im tellin u dont sleep!

So whats yall LP Thoughts on this?