Big Daddy Kane Long Live The Kane CD

Personnel: Big Daddy Kane (vocals).
Audio Mixer: Marley Marl.
Photographer: George DuBose.
An eternally revered figure in hip-hop, Brooklyn's Big Daddy Kane first broke into the biz writing rhymes for Biz Markie. Kane had just a handful of singles and appearances to his name at the time of his first full-length release. Arguably his best record, LONG LIVE THE KANE sees the King Asiatic Nobody's Equal flipping slick one-liners at the speed of rap back when almost everything else was known as "rap slow."
Featuring that unmistakable New York production from Marley Marl and scratches by DJ Mr. Cee, LONG LIVE THE KANE stands as one of the Juice Crew's finest achievements. From the hyped-up assault of "Raw" and Beatles-driven "Set It Off" to the laid-back piano loop of "Ain't No Half Steppin,'" the 10-song tracklist is packed with endlessly quotable old-school anthems. Biz Markie is featured on the favorite, "Just Rhymin' With Biz."
Even though he spends a good 90% of the album boasting about his skills and abilities on the microphone, and cutting those of other MCs, Big Daddy Kane consistently proves himself a thrilling artist on his debut album, Long Live the Kane, one of the most appealing creations from the original new school of rap. This debut captures the Big Daddy Kane who rocked the house at hip-hop clubs and verbally cut up any and all comers in the late '80s with his articulate precision and locomotive power -- the Big Daddy Kane who became an underground legend, the Big Daddy Kane who had the sheer verbal facility and razor-clean dexterity to ambush any MC and exhilarate anyone who witnessed or heard him perform. There are missteps here, to be sure -- especially "The Day You're Mine," on which Kane casts himself as a loverman over a stilted drum machine and lackluster, cheesily seductive singing (offering a glimpse of the particular corner into which he would eventually paint himself). But there are also plenty of legitimate early hip-hop classics, none of which have lost an ounce of their power, and all of which serve as reminders of a time and era when hip-hop felt immediate, exciting, fresh, and a little bit dangerous (in the figurative, rather than literal, sense), and when hip-hop spawned commercial tastes of the moment rather than surrendering to them. Although his next album would be nearly the artistic equal of the debut -- and, in many ways, even bettered it -- Big Daddy Kane would never sound as compelling or as fresh as on this first effort. ~ Stanton Swihart