I've covered more than a few artists on these Flashback Fridays, but these guys are the first one-hit wonder I've ever covered. They were wildly popular with this one hit... and then they broke up in 1999. Why? What happened to them? Could we have used a little more Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz, especially in the aftermath of the deaths of two of the biggest rap stars of the 90's? Well, it's hard to judge if they could have followed up to their biggest hit, since, uh, they never did. But let's take a look at this song and see if these two guys had any merit.
So the video starts off with some dude who's waaay too excited to hear these guys. He's getting a stadium audience ready to hear "the national anthem of the world", aka this song, apparently. With a buildup like that, this song had better deliver.
The song starts off with a sample of Jerry Rivera's "Amores Como El Nuestro", which you might also have heard on "Hips Don't Lie". No fightin'. Indeed, there was no fighting over this sample, but stay tuned.
Actually, the song goes right into the problematic sample: that of Steely Dan's "Black Cow". I, uh, I had to look it up. If you had told me that they sampled the coin sound from Super Mario Bros.
...I wouldn't have believed you, but that is what I thought of when I heard it. Anyway, Steely Dan tuened out to be pretty steamed about the misappropriation of their song, so they sued for a six figure amount. I can only imagine that that incident soured the music business for the two rappers, and that could have been a contributing factor to their breakup. But misguided sample aside, how does the rest of the song fare?
New York to the heart, but got love for all
Lie and die in the fire, where I learned to ball
Uptown is the place where I lay my dome
On the streets of the Bronx where my family roam
Well... this is okay. Peter Gunz professing love for New York, his hometown. Not exactly breaking new ground, but nothing wrong with it, either.
Hoe damn it, we home, Peter got a nine millimeter
Playa haters can feel the flame from my heater
...Whoa. Okay. You're packing heat. Thanks for the warning.
Generally, this doesn't do anything that many rappers in that time haven't been doing. Hometown, money, violence, hoes. Then again, it's not offensively bad...
Niggaz in the Bronx call me Lex
Cause I push a Lex, and I rock a Rolex
And I lounge on Lex', and I love sex
...most of the time. But the problem is that doesn't do enough to stand out, especially during a time when rap was one of the most enduring, widespread genres in pop music. (Then again, neither did Puff Daddy in my opinion, but that's another post entirely.)
No, what this is is just... a mish-mash of common rap tropes. It started out as professing love for New York. If it had continued with that theme, then it might have its place in pop music. But other than the chorus, it's really all over the place. So no, I don't think that we needed a second album from these boys. Sorry guys. Mediocrity is as mediocrity does.
NOTE: Get ready for a revamp! My regular pop song reviews will be moved to Sunday, starting with April 5th. After that, be prepared for 7 days of music, coming from yours truly! That's right, I'll be posting daily, starting April 5th, with a new theme for each day of the week. Too much to handle? Stick with me the first week and we'll see how it goes. And feel free to start conversation and comment below! Seeya Sunday.
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