Masta Ace Albums (4)
What The Critics Say
After a six-year period of disillusionment with the rap game, one-time Juice Crew member Masta Ace returned with this supposed sayonara album that reads like a bittersweet memoir. Though Ace had been active in the underground scene since the release of 1995's Sittin' on Chrome, appearing on a number of singles and contributing memorable verses to various collaborations, the artist's disdain for the industry and disgust with his contemporaries kept him out of the studio for lengthy recording sessions. Feeling that rap's heyday had passed with the deaths of rappers like 2Pac and Biggie, and seeing a media- and market-influenced, watered-down product, Disposable Arts broods with anger, cynicism, and satire for the modern rapper bent purely on trend capitalizing. The paradox here is that Ace himself seems to seek and feels worthy of the same multimillion that he accuses his contemporaries of securing through less-than-artistic means. The burden of underground respect that nets only underground sales seems to be the primary source of Ace's frustration. While smacking of classic player-hate, Ace's response for the Cash Money Millionaires and Roc-A-Fellas of hip-hop is: "the rap game's a book and I read mad chapters/and if you ask me, it ain't enough Madd Rappers." Ace enlists a healthy balance of true schoolers (King T and Greg Nice) and eccentric up-and-comers (Punch, Words, and the delightfully weird MC Paul Barman) for the project. Musically, the album offers anything but the disposable; highlights include the eerie narrative "Take a Walk," the fierce dis record "Acknowledge," and the ingenious "Alphabet Soup," where Ace runs through the alphabet with some witty old-school rhymes. More four-alarm flames light up "Something's Wrong," the psychedelic "Dear Diary," and the thumping homage to the West Coast, "P.T.A.." A knockout punchliner with an airtight flow and delivery, Ace, in the face of everything he hates about hip-hop, turns in his most expansively satisfying work. With 24 strong tracks and only faint signs of misstep, Disposable Arts is tightly wrought thematically, musically, and lyrically, not to mention one heck of a parting shot. Most hip-hop albums of the modern era are lucky to cover even one of these areas. ~ M.F. DiBella, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
In the five years that passed between his debut, Take a Look Around, and his third full-length, Sittin' on Chrome, Brooklyn rapper Masta Ace's sound changed a lot. Angrier lyrics were already starting to show up on his sophomore release, SlaughtaHouse, but it was nothing in comparison to Sittin' on Chrome. Not that the themes are fueled by testosterone and rage here (and not that they were on SlaughtaHouse, either, though there was a great deal more vitriol), but the overall feel of the album -- which has by now moved past the boom bap old-school beats into fuller, gloomier production that more aptly represents the mid-'90s East Coast sound -- is much darker, with slower, heavier songs that ponder life in the ghetto. But the record's not an attack on the system that has caused the poor conditions of inner-city existence; rather, it's more of a collection of sketches that show it in its entirety, both the good and the bad. The whole Masta Ace Incorporated crew (Lord Digga, Leschea, and Paula Perry) is present here and does a good job -- along with Ace, of course, whose flow and lyrics combine to show him off at his best -- at adding depth and realism to the album's 16 cuts, interludes and all. It's a formula that clearly works well: Sittin' on Chrome boasted the MC's most popular songs, "Born to Roll" (which was also included as a bonus track on SlaughtaHouse), "The I.N.C. Ride," and the title track itself, but the other material -- "Eastbound," "People in My Hood" -- is equally as interesting, and makes the record a very worthwhile addition to a rap collection. ~ Marisa Brown, All Music Guide
'SlaughtaHouse'
Release Date 1/1/1993
Tracks 15
Label Delicious Vinyl
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Five years after making his name as a member in Marley Marl's legendary Juice Crew (he was one of the featured MCs on the classic 1988 posse cut "The Symphony" from Marl's In Control, Vol. 1) and three years after recording his buoyant, artistically on-point (though commercially stillborn) debut album, Take a Look Around, with its memorable hit "Me and the Biz," battle-scarred Brooklyn underground star Masta Ace returned for his second album with a newly tweaked name and his own supporting crew (Masta Ace Inc.), a new sound and sharply honed style, and a cynical new outlook on the entire rap game. In fact, a disgusted new outlook might be a more appropriate characterization, as a controlled abhorrence oozes from every pore of SlaughtaHouse, lashing out not only at easy outside targets (bigoted police, for instance) but also at those shady characters inside the "SlaughtaHouse" whose violence is enacted physically (Ace himself places the part of a mugger on "Who U Jackin?") rather than lyrically, bringing the entire community down in the process. A loose concept album, it is at once an intense exposé and a roughneck paean to the hip-hop lifestyle that broke new ground by merging the grimy lyrical sensibility, scalpel-precise technique, and kitchen-sink beats of East Coast rap with the funk-dripping, anchor-thick low end of West Coast producers. The classic "Jeep Ass Niguh" was one of the quintessential cruising singles of the summer of 1993. Its unlisted remix, "Born to Roll," with its subsonic gangsta bass, is an equally thumping highlight and (with its sample borrowed from N.W.A's "Real Niggas Don't Die") can be seen as the most explicit bridge between East and West. But other hectic, relentless tracks like "The Big East," "Rollin' wit UmDada," and "Saturday Nite Live" are just as excellent, and Ace's crew -- particularly Bluez Brothers Lord Digga and Witchdoc -- really shines. ~ Stanton Swihart, All Music Guide
