Chi ali has a hip hop story that is beyond belief ...."I was very upset that night. Thirty seconds, man, can change your whole life. And, you know, I'm paying for it."
Dude sure is. Chi currently serving a 14 year stretch for shooting his then girlfriends brother over some petty shit? But thats the pollitics out the way.
Whatever happened that night will never take away the pure gem of an album that a 14 year old produced!!! damn straight 14!!!
Every time i hear "maniac psycho" or "let the horns blow" i cant help but wonder just what went wrong with chi's career? I know i have a slight affection of both the beatnuts production skills and the whole native tongue clique but this really was to me a bonafied classic. I loved this album (can you tell?) but his decline happened way before the shooting incident so someone tell me what the fuck happened after this album came out. i know he popped up on dres's solo LP but thats about it?
The album came out with the first single "age aint nothin but a #" I wonder which dumb ass record label exec thought of using that track as the albums first single? i think they tried to get him as much commercial rep as they could which is a damn shame as the album was so much better than that track. So the single was only rescued by the fact "maniac psycho" was on the B side as that is the only reason to buy it!
But then came the next single...Let the horns blow/Funky Lemonade
Now this was much more like it. The "funky lemonade remix" is 5* classic shit! so well worth the download.
Next up came ...Roadrunner 12"
Roadrunner Puberty Mix
Another totaly on point remix this time coming from A tribe called quest
Then i come to a track not featured on the album and i cant remember for the life of me where i picked this up from. i am sure this was on a B side of a black sheep 12???
No Surrender, No Retreat
This track is just solid sickness and shows the signs of what the now older Chi ali had to offer but sadly thats all she wrote. The only details i could find on this track was here
But i am pretty sure it was available somewhere else but i aint flicking thorugh crates looking for something i probably wont find?
All in all though Chi Came through with his 1 and only Album and this is an absolute must to any collection if you can find it nowadays.
1 comment:
word Yeedo, Chi Ali was dope and it's tragic what went down with him, "No Surrender, No Retreat" was produced by DJ Premier and as far as I know was just a white label pressing.
Also a lot of people seem to forget that Chi was Just Jeff on De La Soul's 'Mack Daddy on The Left'
Chi had guest verses on Black Sheep's "Freak Ya'll" and Dres's solo album The Sureshot Redemption and the non album track "Only If You're Live" off the North South, East West 12".
Peace
Post a Comment