DIAMOND D - Stunts, Blunts and Hip Hop - 1992 - Re-released Album review

DIAMOND D: Stunts, Blunts and Hip-Hop (1992) (2006 Re-release) Album review
BOMBTRACKS: Best Kept Secret/ Sally Got A One Track Mind/ I'm Outta Here/ Check One, Two/ Freestyle
SOUNDBITE: Became a slave to material things/ And now you're snacking on four chicken wings/
RATING: 4/5
When I say that Diamond D is a hip-hop heavyweight I'm not just talking about his generous frame. One of the elder statesmen of hip-hop - the last time he created a (sizeable) blip on my fly radar it was in his 2002 collaboration The Omen with Aim. On this, the self-professed 'overweight brother' delivered an appropriately lordly rhyme about how much sexual attention he still got from 'chicks' and how he deserved a suitable amount of genuflection from the younger generation of hip-hoppers - I believe the recommended course of action was kneeling in the street. Unfortunately, this would play havoc with my joints, but respect is certainly due to a man who DJ'd for Jazzy Jay back in the day, produced for people like KRS-One, Mos Def and the Pharcyde as well as rapping and producing his own stuff like Stunts, Blunts and Hip Hop. Though arguably not quite as famous as say Native Tongues crews like Black Sheep, Brand Nubian and Tribe Called Quest (who owe certain production credits to Diamond D) this LP is as classic as any of their efforts. At times it's a chunkier, less jazzy sound than those bands already mentioned and has something in common with the sound and production of Del Tha Funkee Homosapien's 1993 LP No Need for Alarm, though D tends to make highly effective use of very short three, two or even one note samples to bowel loosening effect for example the brass on Best Kept Secret or the bass sax on Step To Me. There are one or two tracks that haven't dated well. Confused might (according to the sleevenotes) have given "club DJs...dancefloor satisfaction" in 1992 but the only way the word 'satisfaction' will be associated with it these days is after skipping ahead to avoid hearing the hideous early 90s female harmony that sounds straight off some 90s chart hit by Snap. Next track Pass Dat Sh*t isn't much better. The scales tip completely the other way however when you listen to something like I'm Outta Here - the best track on the LP for my money. A simple but threatening synth stabs over an equally simple but ominous bassline and a spare uptempo heavy break while the man relates a humour-tinged tale of having to bale out of progressively more dodgy situations.../Feet don't fail me now/. This track performs the trick of not just being classic golden age hip-hop but also sounding fresh by today's standards - as does his tale of a ho'Sally Got A One Track Mind with its elastic bass sound. In fact, far from having cobwebs on it, some of the stuff on this 15 year old record will show up the cobwebs on stuff less than half its age.