CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Strictly Business v. Street Gospel

[Precedent]

Captain: Patman360

Strictly Business by EPMD

v.

Captain: Skinny

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Street Gospel by Suga Free

[junodog4]

EPMD... My childhood could barely handle it.
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Finnegan was super bad-ass.

[Skinny]

I'm very pleasantly surprised to see the relatively unknown Street Gospel holding its own against the behemoth that is Strictly Business; I feared when I saw the draw that this would be a whitewash, the more well-known of the two bound to batter my beloved little pimp rap pick. I certainly wouldn't begrudge EPMD a win here, but I do much prefer Suga Free and DJ Quik's funky masterpiece.

Perhaps my biggest fear here was that people would find it hard to sympathise with Suga Free as a character and as a lyricist (as far as I'm aware, he was genuinely a pimp). But, as a rapper, he is surely one of the most underrated of all-time, a sort of proto-Katt Williams character with a highly distinctive voice and flow. Stylistically he is probably closest to fellow Californian rapper E-40, displaying a similar disregard for usual hip-hop rules regarding rhythm and cadence, but managing to make (what by most standards would be) far too many syllables fit surprisingly naturally into his rhymes. He's as smooth as his perm, and as sharp as his expensively manicured nails. And he manages the pull of that rarest of tricks - being an objectively terrible person, yet at the same time an undeniably loveable one. Of course, this alone isn't enough to make a great album. There's a reason this album stands head and shoulders above all others released under Suga Free's name, and that reason is the majestic DJ Quik, the greatest hip-hop producer to ever hail from the West Coast (please do take the time to check out this brief guide to some of Quik's best beats and songs from over the years). Quik has an innate, unteachable sense of funk, and his lush, luxurious beats are the perfect foil for Suga Free's unpredictable rhyme patterns and tales of mistreating hoes that are made to seem almost quaint in these more-than-capable hands.

The silky flute that leads into 'On My Way' is pure opulence, and displays Quik's almost telepathic understanding of what Suga Free needs to thrive, plating this particular mission-statement in shining gold leaf, making the boasts that you'll never catch Free "walkin' a tight rope, saying 'she loves me, she loves me not'" feel all-too-believable, perhaps even oddly enviable to us plain Jane lames listening at home. 'Why You Bullshittin'?' is built on a hard-as-fuck sitar riff; the use of a long-forgotten Loose Ends sample on 'Doe Doe and a Skunk' is inspired (and helps to carve out one of the all-time weed-smoking anthems); 'Don't No Suckaz Live Here' is a P-funk homage that goes above and beyond Dre's snaking synth lines by actually sounding like it could be a lost classic from the Mothership Connection era; Quik's regular session partner (and mentor) Robert 'Fonksta' Bacon laces 'Tip Toe' and its reprise with a dirty guitar line worthy of a prime-era Prince tune; 'If U Stay Ready' totally preempts that delicious, early-2000s R'n'B sound that gave the likes of Ashanti those undeniable summer anthems; 'Dip Da' would have made DeBarge or Alexander O'Neal proud; and I haven't actually mentioned the drums, which may be Quik's biggest strength - the best persuasion of their greatness I can offer is just to implore you to go and listen to them.

And this is before the rash of Katt Williams-esque punchlines: "she used to work down at the sperm bank, until she got fired for drinking on the job"; "baby only wears panties so she can keep her ankles warm"; "she'll tell a lie, I'll tell a lie, then we'll sit there with a straight face and compliment each other on one another's lie"; "right before I go, please donate my brain to Captain Save-a-Ho"; "don't get it twisted baby, I love you too, but when that rent and that car note come what's love gonna do?". Yeah, he's a misogynist shitbag with zero regard for women, but he still remains likeable in spite of this. And perhaps that's because he's just one of the most personal, believable rappers I've ever heard. At one point he mentions he's a Capricorn. At another time he just lists off like two dozen of his friends and associates, not at the end of a song as a series of shout-outs, but during an actual verse, as though that list of random names you won't recognise are valid lyrics. In a rare moment of vulnerability, he mentions that he was never called back for job interviews. Is this some sort of excuse for his actions? Hell no, but it certainly helps flesh out his picture in way that most rappers can only dream of doing. And then, of course, there's the pièce de résistance, 'I Wanna Go Home (The County Jail Song)' - instead of another lush Quik beat, Suga Free takes it back to the old school, rapping over the beat of a domino hitting a tabletop, just as rappers used to do whilst locked up (you can catch footage of him doing something similar in 1995, back when his name was Royal Roc, here, and it's amazing). His plea to his mother is the most touching moment on the album ("mama, I ain't really happy here, I really, really wanna come home, if it wasn't for you and my sister, I'd be straight all alone"), and it shows that underneath his smooth, perfectly permed exterior, and ridiculously decadent funk beats, there's just another young black male who was let down by the system.

So yeah, this album is one of contradictions, a horribly misogynist attitude laid over unbelievably smooth beats, a genuinely awful person who you somehow still want to chill out and smoke weed and crack jokes with. It won't be for everyone, but Street Gospel is a masterpiece of West Coast hip-hop, and one of my favourite albums of all-time. Nobody ever did it quite like Suga Free and DJ Quik.
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2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.

[RepoMan]

Yeah, I know an album is really, really goos when it's totally not my style - as Street gospel is clearly not - but yet I still find it quite enjoyable. It definitely reminded me a lot of Parliament when I was listening to it which was also a band that took me a while to get into & whom now I love (thanks to a lot of teasing from friends).

Thanks for yet another amazing write-up, Skinny. I really appreciate them. Always makes the re-listens more enjoyable since its gives me a little guide of what to be looking for in this unfamiliar terrain.

But, I'm easily voting for Strictly Business. One of the few hip hop albums that - if I figure out how to write about hip hop - I'd love to have in my overall chart (along with Mobb Deep's Hell on Earth). Amazing how it doesn't sound dated at all when many of its contemporaries do.

Strictly Business

[Silver]

Goin Strictly Business. Street Gospel sounded fantastic production wise and Suga Free had really impressive flow and all, but I did have some trouble getting into the album, and Strictly Business really is just fantastic boom bap.

[drakonium]

Street Gospel, pretty easily.

[WindowAbove]

Strictly Business was more appealing and interesting to me.

[Skinny]

[Precedent]

Strictly Business

[Precedent]

To advance in this tournament, you need to have sugar.

15-7

Strictly Business advances.