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17 years ago today history was made in Hip Hop.
I can still remember being at the mall with my dad, who by this time realized I was a full blown hip hop head. The new Big Pun album, 'Capitol Punishment' Sat in the Top 20 section of the record store. If my memory serves me correct it was #3, but that wasn't important. I was in 7th grade with no source of income, I had to figuire out a way to get my pops to buy this **** for me.
After some magical negotiation, I folded the old guy, and my day was made. I didn't even care about eating, I just wanted that album. His verse on The Beatnuts, "Off The Books" made me an instant fan. I had been hearing "I'm Not A Player" on Rap City since the previous winter. His 2nd single "Still Not A Player" featuring R&B star (at the time) Joe ended up being a play on songs each of them had previously recorded, wound up being a huge hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #5. It was an anthem and kept the spotlight on the Bronx. (Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz scored a top 10 single with "Deja Vu" earlier in the year).
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1998 had debuts from Lauryn Hill, DMX, Noreaga, Cam'ron, Black Star, & Canibus amongst others. 'Capital Punishment' holds its own with not only those but with classic material made by legends in that calendar year. He even earned a Grammy nomination, though he would later to lose to Jay Z's Hard Knock Life.
Creatively speaking, the album has traditional east coast dark production on records like the opener "Beware" which featured an all so appropriate Mobb Deep sample. Pun effortlessly bobs and weaves over what sounds like a sample from the closing scene of a horror film. He goes back and forth with Black Thought (of The Roots) over a Rockwilder produced track that has hints of west coast hip hop to off set the unmistakabley east coast cuts of the hook.
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He reaches his lyrical pinnacle on "Dream Shatterer" which to this day still stands as one of the best displays of internal rhyme and pure lyricism in the history of hip hop. "You Aint A Killer" is hard enough to make you reconsider. It's just ABSOLUTE street ****, the piano riff is sinister, the hook infectious. He invites the (unknown at the time) Terror Squad along for the ride for "Glamour Life" which sounds, and tastes liken the South Bronx. It's like walking down Southern Boulevard on a 80 degree summer night. It's the best displays of the true skill of the entire Terror Squad, and I'm about 90% Fat Joe did not write his verse because it's really good.
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He collaborates with everyone from Wyclef on "Carribean Connection" and in typical Pun fashion it's absolutely effortless. Miss Jones of Hot 97 and AZ's "Sugar Hill" fame sings the hook to the closest thing to love/relationship song, where Pun discusses a break up and ponders reconciliation with a former lover. Busta Rhymes makes an appearance as well, screaming on what used to be my least favorite song on the album, but even the track ("Parental Advisory") is still REALLY dope and in the years since has grown on me, love it now. Longtime collaborator Fat Joe appears on "Deep Cover 98", a remake of sorts to the the classic Snoop and Dre track. Snoop makes a cameo in the video, and Pun drops some of his best bars, I mean "dead in the middle of Little Italy"? Tounge twisters for days.
View media item 1511485
The second crew song is the RZA producers, Inspektah Deck and Prodigy assisted "Tres Leches"(Triboro Trilogy). It's aggressive, lyrically flawless and just so damn grimey, this is could've been on 'The Infamous' or '36 Chambers' and fit in perfectly, and if that wasn't enough it features a Rakim sample in the midst of some excellent DJ cuts and scratches. Noreaga, contributes a hook on one my favorite songs on the album, "You Came Up" which is exactly what it title says, it's Pun's reflection on his rise from an unknown hanging out on the block, to becoming the FIRST platinum Latin artist as he predicts in the the first verse of the track.
Overall Capital Punishment has aged beautifully, it still sounds fresh enough to not sound dated, but at the same time has the vintage OLD New York grittyness to it. Over the top imagery of mid 90s east coast street rap, it features all sides to Pun, his humor, his street persona, his ultra intricate lyricism, and his well polished artistry and marketability. This will always be remembered as one of the strongest debuts in Hip hop both musically and lyrically. It's a full body of work.
"Cause Latin goin platinum was destined to come.."
View media item 1511486
17 years ago today history was made in Hip Hop.
I can still remember being at the mall with my dad, who by this time realized I was a full blown hip hop head. The new Big Pun album, 'Capitol Punishment' Sat in the Top 20 section of the record store. If my memory serves me correct it was #3, but that wasn't important. I was in 7th grade with no source of income, I had to figuire out a way to get my pops to buy this **** for me.
After some magical negotiation, I folded the old guy, and my day was made. I didn't even care about eating, I just wanted that album. His verse on The Beatnuts, "Off The Books" made me an instant fan. I had been hearing "I'm Not A Player" on Rap City since the previous winter. His 2nd single "Still Not A Player" featuring R&B star (at the time) Joe ended up being a play on songs each of them had previously recorded, wound up being a huge hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #5. It was an anthem and kept the spotlight on the Bronx. (Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz scored a top 10 single with "Deja Vu" earlier in the year).
View media item 1511481
1998 had debuts from Lauryn Hill, DMX, Noreaga, Cam'ron, Black Star, & Canibus amongst others. 'Capital Punishment' holds its own with not only those but with classic material made by legends in that calendar year. He even earned a Grammy nomination, though he would later to lose to Jay Z's Hard Knock Life.
Creatively speaking, the album has traditional east coast dark production on records like the opener "Beware" which featured an all so appropriate Mobb Deep sample. Pun effortlessly bobs and weaves over what sounds like a sample from the closing scene of a horror film. He goes back and forth with Black Thought (of The Roots) over a Rockwilder produced track that has hints of west coast hip hop to off set the unmistakabley east coast cuts of the hook.
View media item 1511483
He reaches his lyrical pinnacle on "Dream Shatterer" which to this day still stands as one of the best displays of internal rhyme and pure lyricism in the history of hip hop. "You Aint A Killer" is hard enough to make you reconsider. It's just ABSOLUTE street ****, the piano riff is sinister, the hook infectious. He invites the (unknown at the time) Terror Squad along for the ride for "Glamour Life" which sounds, and tastes liken the South Bronx. It's like walking down Southern Boulevard on a 80 degree summer night. It's the best displays of the true skill of the entire Terror Squad, and I'm about 90% Fat Joe did not write his verse because it's really good.
View media item 1511484
He collaborates with everyone from Wyclef on "Carribean Connection" and in typical Pun fashion it's absolutely effortless. Miss Jones of Hot 97 and AZ's "Sugar Hill" fame sings the hook to the closest thing to love/relationship song, where Pun discusses a break up and ponders reconciliation with a former lover. Busta Rhymes makes an appearance as well, screaming on what used to be my least favorite song on the album, but even the track ("Parental Advisory") is still REALLY dope and in the years since has grown on me, love it now. Longtime collaborator Fat Joe appears on "Deep Cover 98", a remake of sorts to the the classic Snoop and Dre track. Snoop makes a cameo in the video, and Pun drops some of his best bars, I mean "dead in the middle of Little Italy"? Tounge twisters for days.
View media item 1511485
The second crew song is the RZA producers, Inspektah Deck and Prodigy assisted "Tres Leches"(Triboro Trilogy). It's aggressive, lyrically flawless and just so damn grimey, this is could've been on 'The Infamous' or '36 Chambers' and fit in perfectly, and if that wasn't enough it features a Rakim sample in the midst of some excellent DJ cuts and scratches. Noreaga, contributes a hook on one my favorite songs on the album, "You Came Up" which is exactly what it title says, it's Pun's reflection on his rise from an unknown hanging out on the block, to becoming the FIRST platinum Latin artist as he predicts in the the first verse of the track.
Overall Capital Punishment has aged beautifully, it still sounds fresh enough to not sound dated, but at the same time has the vintage OLD New York grittyness to it. Over the top imagery of mid 90s east coast street rap, it features all sides to Pun, his humor, his street persona, his ultra intricate lyricism, and his well polished artistry and marketability. This will always be remembered as one of the strongest debuts in Hip hop both musically and lyrically. It's a full body of work.
"Cause Latin goin platinum was destined to come.."
View media item 1511486
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