Harmonica wizard Norton Buffalo can recollect a leaner time when his record collection had been whittled down to only the bare essentials: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's South Side Band. Butterfield and Musselwhite will probably be forever linked as the two most interesting, and arguably the most important, products of the "white blues movement" of the mid- to late '60s -- not only because they were near the forefront chronologically, but because they each stand out as being especially faithful to the style. Each certainly earned the respect of his legendary mentors. No less than the late Big Joe Williams said, "Charlie Musselwhite is one of the greatest living harp players of country blues. He is right up there with Sonny Boy Williamson, and he's been my harp player ever since Sonny Boy got killed."
It's interesting that Williams specifies "country" blues, because, even though he made his mark leading electric bands in Chicago and San Francisco, Musselwhite began playing blues with people he'd read about in Samuel Charters' Country Blues -- Memphis greats like Furry Lewis, Will Shade, and Gus Cannon. It was these rural roots that set him apart from Butterfield, and decades later Musselwhite began incorporating his first instrument, guitar.
Born in Kosciusko, MS, in 1944, Musselwhite's family moved north to Memphis, where he went to high school. Musselwhite migrated north in search of the near-mythical $3.00-an-hour job (the same lure that set innumerable youngsters on the same route), and became a familiar face at blues haunts like Pepper's, Turner's, and Theresa's, sitting in with and sometimes playing alongside harmonica lords such as Little Walter, Shakey Horton, Good Rockin' Charles, Carey Bell, Big John Wrencher, and even Sonny Boy Williamson. Before recording his first album, Musselwhite appeared on LPs by Tracy Nelson and John Hammond and dueted (as Memphis Charlie) with Shakey Horton on Vanguard's Chicago/The Blues/Today series.
When his aforementioned debut LP became a standard on San Francisco's underground radio, Musselwhite played the Fillmore Auditorium and never returned to the Windy City. Leading bands that featured greats like guitarists Harvey Mandel, Freddie Roulette, Luther Tucker, Louis Myers, Robben Ford, Fenton Robinson, and Junior Watson, Musselwhite played steadily in Bay Area bars and mounted somewhat low-profile national tours. It wasn't until the late '80s, when he conquered a career-long drinking problem, that Musselwhite began touring worldwide to rave notices. He became busier than ever and continued releasing records to critical acclaim. His two releases on Virgin, Rough News in 1997 and Continental Drifter in 2000, found Musselwhite mixing elements of jazz, gospel, Tex-Mex, and acoustic Delta blues. After signing with Telarc Blues in 2002, he continued exploring his musical roots by releasing One Night in America. The disc exposed Musselwhite's interest in country music with a cover version of the Johnny Cash classic "Big River," and featured guest appearances by Kelly Willis and Marty Stuart. Sanctuary, released in 2004, was Musselwhite's first record for Real World. ~ Dan Forte & Al Campbell, All Music Guide (from mp3.com)
As kings of the club circuit, the Ying Yang Twins have ridden their zany, cartoonish personas, witty lyrics and Grade-A production to the top of the charts. The Atlanta-based duo of Kaine and D-Roc released in 2003 it's acclaimed third album, the platinum "Me & My Brother", which spawned the hits "Salt Shaker," feat. Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz and "Whats Happnin!," feat. Trick Daddy.
Even though the Ying Yang Twins exploded in 2003, the pair already had two hit albums (2000’s Thug Walkin and 2002’s Alley: The Return of the Ying Yang Twins) and a string of hit radio and club singles ("Whistle While You Twurk", "Ying Yang In This Thang", "Say I Yi Yi" and "By Myself") to their credit. The instant success of both "Whistle While You Twurk" and "Ying Yang In This Thang" made Ying Yang Twins immediate players in the hip-hop field. Subsequent hits, "Say I Yi Yi" and "By Myself" established Kaine and D-Roc as hip-hop’s premier party-starters and earned them guest spots on albums from from Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz and Kizzy Rock.
Atlanta's party rap duo Ying Yang Twins scored a hit with the single "Whistle While You Twurk," which received nationwide airplay on urban and crossover radio stations. Their full-length debut album, Thug Walkin', appeared later in 2000. Alley...Return of the Ying Yang Twins from 2002 sold well down South but it was the duo's 2003 team-up with Lil Jon -- "the king of crunk" -- that brought them nationwide success. The party anthem "Salt Shaker" was a massive club and radio hit and soon had the TVT label chasing the duo to sign. They did, and their first album for the label, Me & My Brother, yielded two more crunk hits -- "What's Happnin!" and "Naggin'." The same year the duo appeared on Britney Spears' album In the Zone and her television special of the same name. In 2004, TVT released the remix-filled My Brother & Me with a bonus DVD of the group's videos. USA (United State of Atlanta) appeared in the summer of 2005 as its single "Wait (The Whisper Song)" was dominating urban radio. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide (from mp3.com)
As an underappreciated cult artist, Esham's harsh hardcore rap thrived in this hometown of Detroit, MI, for years before an ensemble of artists with a similar style began crossing over into the mainstream in the late '90s. Long before rock acts such as Limp Bizkit began rapping, long before rappers such as Kid Rock began rocking, Esham was integrating a rock influence into his rap in the early '90s, crafting a unique style of self-declared "acid rap." In fact, this term is rather fitting, given Esham's taste for hallucinogenic rhymes revolving around paranoia, death, drugs, sex, and downright evil -- an extremely decadent synthesis of all things nightmarish. Beyond his knack for rock-influence beats and exploitative-themed rhymes, Esham also proved himself to be a prolific artist, releasing over an album a year after debuting with his first album in 1990 at the tender age of 13. Yet despite his impressive credentials, by the end of the '90s, the Detroit rapper still hadn't extended his reach beyond his cult following, unlike other Detroit artists such as Eminem, Kid Rock, and ICP, and other similar rap groups such as Three 6 Mafia and Brotha Lynch Hung.
As a youth, Esham (born Rashaam Smith) divided his time between New York and Detroit, spending summers with his grandmother in the hip-hop mecca participating in that culture's mid- to late-'80s boom, while spending the remainder of the year with his mother in the depressed, post-industrial, musical melting pot of East Detroit. Given his participation in New York's burgeoning late-'80s rap movement during his summers, it wasn't that out of the ordinary that he was writing his own rhymes by the time he was ten. Yet the fact that he self-released his debut album, Boomin' Words From Hell, three years later in 1990 while a high school freshman was definitely out of the ordinary. With his older brother handling the business side of the music, including the birth of Esham's own label, Reel Life Productions, the rapper concentrated on his rhymes. Furthermore, he also happened to produce every beat on his first album in addition to busting every rhyme, a truly remarkable accomplishment given his young age, especially considering the album's still-impressive quality.
After Boomin' Words From Hell, Esham churned out two quick four-song EPs, Homey Don't Play That and Erotic Poetry, before returning in 1992 with an ambitious double album that found him furthering his descent into decadence. Titled Judgment Day and released in two separately sold volumes, the album showed the artist having evolved also in terms of rapping and production (using a broad palette of rock samples ranging from Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" to Black Flag's "Rise Above"), in addition to his more horrifying subject matter. Furthermore, Esham also debuted his group project, NATAS (supposedly an acronym for Nation Ahead of Time and Space, rather than "Satan" spelled backwards as many presume). Also featuring fellow Detroit rappers Mastamind and TNT, NATAS' debut album, Life After Death, was nearly as hardcore as Esham's solo material, though a bit more pornographic. In late 1992 came the Hellterskkkellter EP, which foreshadowed Esham's next album, 1993's KKKill the Fetus. That year also saw the release of the second NATAS album, Blaz4me, followed by the Maggot Brain Theory EP and Closed Casket, both released in 1994, and another NATAS album in 1995, Doubelievengod.
With each album following the Judgment Day series, Esham's work had continued to evolve in terms of craft, with increasingly meticulous production and better rapping. More significant, though, was the changes that took place in the beats and in the subject matter. Where Esham's early albums were soundscapes pieced together from rock samples and some lo-fi drum machines and bass guitar, his albums began to take on a more conventional production feel, using less samples and more polished beats. In addition, his rhymes didn't get any less wicked -- still obsessed with decadence -- but they did become less juvenile and more creative. By the time Dead Flowerz was released in 1996, Esham did show a move away from exploitative subject matter, though -- a change that divided his cult audience. On the one hand, it made him more accessible, and many acknowledged the fact that his lyrics relied less on exploitative themes and more on creativity. Yet on the other hand, his diehard fans loathed the fact that Esham was slowly drifting towards conventional themes, even if his music was improving. The two 1997 releases -- Bruce Wayne 1987 and NATAS' Multikillionaire -- confirmed the trend, even if the albums had their share of disturbing moments.
When Mail Dominance came out in 1999, Esham was clearly a much different rapper than he had been years earlier when he championed everything controversial. This album found him tackling conventional themes and laying down fairly conventional beats (co-produced by Jade Scott [aka Santos]); yet it's important to keep in mind that Esham still gave his music a trademark twist and instilled his dark, angry attitude into music, proving that he didn't need to rely on exploitation any longer to impress listeners. His longtime friends had a hard time accepting this, but when he returned with NATAS' WWW.Com in 2000, it was clear that Esham's career was indeed moving to the next level. On this album, he emphasized live instrumentation in his beats, including a heavy use of bass guitars, which, of course, alluded to the rap-metal of acts such as Korn and a reinvigorated Kid Rock. It's also important to note that Esham signed a distribution deal with TVT for his Overcore label (formerly Reel Life) before releasing WWW.Com, a good business move that assuring quality distribution of his albums across America. To commemorate this new deal, Esham put together Bootleg: From the Lost Vault, Vol. 1, a compilation released in 2000 including a wide array of his early material along with a few new tracks for old fans. That same year, TVT distributed re-released versions of Detroit Dog Shit (another compilation originally released in 1997) and his other major solo albums.
Following Eminem's major breakthrough in 2000 and the successive hype surrounding D-12, Esham's profile suddenly rose, and he positioned himself for a breakthrough of his own in 2001. Just before releasing his long-awaited Tongues album, Overcore released Kool Keith's Spankmaster album, which featured considerable contributions by Esham. And with Keith also featured on Tongues, a new audience suddenly discovered the cultish Detroit rapper. Released in summer 2001, Tongues no doubt stood as Esham's most labored album to date, a 24-track epic featuring a broad range of production styles and quick segues from one song to the next, with few songs clocking over four minutes. In an effort to promote the album, the rapper embarked on the Warped tour that summer with Keith and made sure to stir up a feud with Eminem. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide (from mp3.com)
Tribe was one of the most popular bands in Boston in the late '80s and early '90s, but was never able to translate its local drawing power and multiple local awards into national success. The band was fronted by singer Janet LaValley, whose soaring voice and gothic queen looks (Siouxsie Sioux by way of Sandra Bullock won her a close local following and the Boston Phoenix award for Best Local Female Singer three straight years. Bassist Greg LoPiccolo, guitarist Eric Brosius, and keyboardist (and occasional lead vocalist) Terri Barous wrote songs which combined power chords with dark lyrics and thick, goth-influenced keyboard textures. Drummer David Penzo rounded out the group.
Tribe first became prominent in Boston when their 4-track demo for the song "Abort" was played regularly on local radio station WFNX. After three years of building a local following, two straight Boston Phoenix awards for Best Local band, and a self-released album, Here at the Home, Tribe finally attracted the attention of Warner Bros. and in 1991 released their major-label debut Abort. Abort repeated eight songs from the self-released album and added four more, but despite production by Gil Norton it was unable to make waves outside of New England. Penzo left the band after the recording of 1993's Sleeper, replaced by Boston session drummer Mike Levesque, but once again the band could not attain a national hit despite constant touring, and they broke up in 1994. Barous and Brosius married and began a career composing videogame soundtracks, while LaValley tried a brief and unsuccessful solo career. ~ Aaron Schatz, All Music Guide (from mp3.com)
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