‘N-Effect

Description

‘N-Effect is a multi-artist hip-hop compilation released on Frontline Records in 1992, compiled by Jamie Lee Rake and edited by Ricky Thompson. Project coordinated by Michael Sean Black.

‘N-Effect

in-eefect noun, verb, adjective. An attitude, an approach, a lifestyle, a sonic attack. A description of P.I.D., Apocalypse, 12th Tribe, D-Boy, M.C. Ge Gee, M.C. RG, Washington, Jon Gibson with Hammer. [Note featured on the CD insert]

Though there were Gospel-expounding street poets who met with isolated pockets recording success before, the first venture into the new-fangled lyrical form from Frontline Records came from a direction that was unwittingly a model for many a mainstream hit throughout the next few years.

As a novel addition to his second Frontline album, Change Of Heart, urban gospel smoothie Jon Gibson hooked up with a rapping pal of his who had just begun to make some noise with a debut 12-inch single he was selling from his car trunk. Does the name Stanley Burrell strike a familiar chord, rap aficionados?

Perhaps not, but M.C. Hammer must, and his duet with buddy Gibson on “The Wall” is some of the cartoon rap hero’s best microphone flowing. Though Hammer has gone to heights of notoriety and sales unsurpassed by any other performer of his ilk, the spiritual content of his art has at times become dubiously muddied. “The Wall” presents Hammer with Gibson dropping some sharp lines as well – in spiritually consistent light.

Showing nothing but consistency was an individual who provided Christian rap with it’s first top 10 Christian hit. Born to Cookie Rodriguez, the first female graduate of Reverend Dave Wilkerson’s Teen Challenge drug rehabilitation program, D-Boy found a natural focus for his own ministry around the Street Church Academy, an inner-city Christian school founded by his folks not long after moving to Dallas. An outgrowth of both his M.C.ing and work around the Street Church was G.O.D.S. Posse (standing for Greater Opportunities Destroying Satan), begun as as fellowship group to accommodate the street gang members brought to Christ through his family’s efforts.

That first Christian radio Top 10’er, however, “Pick Yourself Up,” with deliciously soulful background vocals by Tim Miner wasn’t terribly representative of D-Boy’s artistic breadth. “G.O.D.S. Posse In Effect” is the hardest thing on his debut album, Plantin’ A Seed, and the direct point of connection between that first album and the startling depth of its sequel, The Lyrical Strength Of One Street Poet.

The centerpiece of Strength is “Cease For Peace,” a scenario chronicling the circumstances of urban gangsta-ism. Unfortunately, the tune’s ending gunshot would become a self-fulfilling prophecy, as not long before that second album’s release, D-Boy was slain by gunfire in front of his inner-city Dallas apartment. As his family has yet to make whatever verdict the police investigators might have finalized public, possible motivations for the demise of sanctified hip-hop’s most promising voice remain murky (could be just as well; not only is D-Boy happy with his Savior, it’s been said that he remarked to Miner during Strength’s production that he felt that he wasn’t long for the world. What was that I said about self-fulfilling prophecy?)

Before he left for Heaven, D-Boy acted as a mentor to other rappers who would sign with Miner’s production team and Frontline. First out of the box was In Jesus Name from M.C. R.G. The young buck says that those last two initials stand for “Relationship with God,” but wouldn’t you have to say that “It’s Hard,” just like the K.C. and the Sunshine Band-bumping jammy from his second album, Think. Dig that Cool J/Shan pose on the cover!

At the time of this writing, R.G. is taking an indefinetly-timed hiatus from recording as a way of refocusing his life into the ministry of Street Church after the D-Boy tragedy. Likewise on hold is the rapping career of M.C. Ge Gee. D-Boy likely knew her as “Sis,” but before being beckoned by Frontline to become the label’s first female hip-hop singing and the first solo female with a recording deal in all of rapping Christendom. Genie Rodriguez’ involvement in her brother’s music was limited to being his drummer on some live dates.

Considering the time constraints under which Ge Gee’s debut, I’m For Real, was created, some fairly pumping tracks were conceived. More consistent, though, is Ge Gee’s follow-up, …And Now The Mission Continues, which finds Ge Gee writing her own material, lyrically anyway, and thus finding her own voice. Speaking loudest of the album’s cuts is probably the sequel to Big Bro’s “Drop The Mic,” “I Caught The Mic.”

Sadly, for the time being Ge Gee has split from the recording scene to solidify relations with the husband she married last year, Joey Lopez.

Not every rapper hooked up with Tim Miner had direct Rodriguez family involvement, however. Some don’t even stay rappers full-time. Such is the case of Washington – A superlative high school athlete who felt the leading to score on the microphone instead. Every Time was his first album and introduced the notion of a godly rhyme-meister who could belt some dreamy crooning to boot.

In reviews of that album, some critics got the idea that Washington sings as well as he raps, so Wash, along with Miner and Co., went for a seriously revamped change of direction for the follow-up, Serious. Wash could still lay down some alright rhymes, but take the rapping/singing combination style to a more aggressive level, as on “Raw.” The rather sudden about-face in style of Serious was maybe a bit too abrupt for only a sophomore album, but if Washington can maintain a balance of his strengths, his will be a unique nice in the urban Gospel soundscape.

Then there are those Dallas-based righteous rappers with no connection to any Rodriguez or Miner folk. A couple of Preachers In Disguise, or P.I.D., preceded the other Dallas rap cats and kitties with their 1988 independent cassette release, Here We Are In Jesus Name. For the major label re-release, the last three words were lopped off and the original artwork replaced by one intense close-up photo. “Don’t Bow” might now sound a mite primitive, but it pointed to plenty of potential and the black Gospel/hip-hop fusion MC Barry G., Doug Tray and K-Mack would later refine.

Though Here We Are may have been a killer for it’s time, there was no way to anticipate the full-force damage that Back To Back would wreak. Back is relatively friendly stuff compared to the all-out assault of hypocrisy in society and the Church that is “Racism.” Aside from it’s lyrical attack, “Racism” is distinguished by some mighty scratching and sampling, including an ominous swipe from Public Enemy’s Chuck D.

If Back To Back was good enough to land P.I.D.’s picture in a Washington Post piece on the Christian hip-hop phenomenon, the third set, The Chosen Ones, would squeeze for them more juice from the mainstream rap media. Most prominently, the virtual Bible of hip-hop hepness, The Source, consented to give The Chosen Ones a fairly glowing review. It’s an album that cuts deeply into the hopelessness of disaffected ghetto reality without Christ, and offers the only real hope on numbers like “Grace.”

Within the same sphere as P.I.D. but from a long ways away in Houston comes Apocalypse. Coming from the terrain of Rap-A-Lot Records (Geto Boys, M.C. Choice, et al), Apocalypse might be expected to be harder-than-hard in their approach, and anyone expecting as much would be pretty satisfied from their Holiness Or Hell premiere. To include the one-of-a-kind Apocalypse Hot Mix/Roots Coalition would mean upping this collection to a two disc/tape set, but the aural bombs dropped by Kirk “Notorious K” Miller and Jamerson “Al Capone Of The Microphone” Smith in “Crucifix” and “Notorious” should suffice to provide a healthy helping of holy hardcore jollies.

If you’re wondering whether Frontline has ever signed any rappers from their own sprawling backyard of Southern California, the answer is yes. 12th Tribe consists of some of the most up-front Christian Hispanic rappers to come from SoCal in wake of the success of artists like Mellow Man Ace and Kid Frost. Tribesmen Excell and Rapps Galore don’t trade in on the cultural traits of their ethnicity on their Knowledge Is The Tree Of Life, but there is enough of an accent in their rhyme delivery to let the listener know the difference.

Watchers of Ron Reagan’s now defunct talk show got to know the difference in 12th Tribe’s lyrical stance when they were planted in the audience of a show were members of BWP and the Geto Boys, along with Kool Moe Dee, were defending the controversial nature of their art. Rapps and Excell stood up to compliment their fellow hip-hop practitioners on their honesty, then offered their work as a source of solutions to the problems posited on the other M.C.’s records. The answer, of course is Jesus.

Though 12th Tribe is still coming into its own, the def(t) production of former New York City club and radio house music guru Scott Blackwell gives “Knowledge Is The Tree Of Life” and “Break The Ice” a sharp, funky edge which bodes well for further sonic/poetic excursions.

Frontline wasn’t the first label to sign a Christian rap act (black Gospel labels actually beat the ccm community to the punch), nor have any of its acts so inclined reached their peak in terms of mainstream acceptance, but the label continues to be a force for creative street rhythms and stupid-phat rhyme-busting for those who want the Spirit brought down when the noise is brought up.

In 1992 the bread of Frontline rappers continue their quest to master the rhyme-busting craft with new releases that will certainly prove this art form worthy of its calling. 12th Tribe, and Apocalypse further their reputations as wise street poets and uncompromised messengers of the Gospel with sophomore releases due out this summer. A newly-arranged P.I.D returns with a new record boasting their psalms of remedy and encouragement and a unique pop hip-hop groove. Following the advice of street poet D-Boy Rodriguez, Frontline vows not to “release weak rhymes that are humdrum… bringing all weak beats and rhymes to an end/ fake accents commence like ya down from the city.” – HIP-HOPCRACY

Jamie Lee Rake, March 1992 [CD liner notes]

CD tracklist:

01. P.I.D. – Grace – 3:44 (from The Chosen Ones)
02. 12th Tribe – Knowledge is the Tree of Life – 3:41 (from Knowledge is the Tree of Life)
03. Apocalypse – Crucifix – 3:54 (from Holiness or Hell)
04. D-Boy – Drop the Mic – 3:32 (from The Lyrical Strength of One Street Poet)
05. MC Ge Gee – I Caught the Mic – 3:39 (from … And Now The Mission Continues)
06. P.I.D. – Racism – 3:53 (from Back to Back)
07. Washington – Raw – 3:25 (from Serious)
08. Apocalypse – Notorious – 3:02 (from Holiness or Hell)
09. Jon Gibson/Hammer – The Wall – 4:38 (from Change of Heart)
10. D-Boy – G.O.D.S. Posse in Effect – 5:30 (from Plantin’ a Seed)
11. P.I.D. – Back – 3:03 (from Back to Back)
12. MC RG – It’s Hard – 3:41 (from Think)
13. 12th Tribe – Break the Ice – 3:40 (from Knowledge is the Tree of Life)
14. P.I.D. – Don’t Bow – 2:45 (from Here We Are)
15. D-Boy – Cease for Peace – 5:51 (from The Lyrical Strength of One Street Poet)