Chino Xl Here To Save You All CD

Years before Eminem began outraging parents and pop stars alike with his brutally funny lyrics, New Jersey's Chino XL was already making the musical world safe for brainy, tasteless battle-rappers with his enormously promising but little-remembered debut, 1996's Here to Save You All. As might be expected from a rapper who boasts about his SAT scores, Chino is both smart and eccentric, and like Eminem, he uses his razor-sharp wit to lyrically dismember everyone from Will Smith to Magic Johnson to Chubb Rock. Considering the similarities between Detroit's most notorious native son and Chino XL, it's no wonder Eminem-basher Evidence of Dilated Peoples has decried the sometimes Slim Shady as a "fake Chino XL." It's not an entirely fair criticism, but it does contain a grain of truth, particularly since, like Eminem, Chino has a tendency to alternate between gleefully mean-spirited black comedy with tortured, self-deprecating introspection. "It's All Bad" is undoubtedly the album's most elaborate, ambitious, and unusual song, beginning like a typical rags-to-riches narrative but taking a detour into a surreal theoretical universe where Chino's a huge, coke-addled mega-star whose career and life are both falling apart before his eyes. "Who Am I" smartly and sensitively addresses the complexities, frustrations, and ambiguities of Chino's mixed-race heritage, while "Kreep" borrows the chorus of Radiohead's breakthrough hit in dramatizing the ins and outs of a dysfunctional relationship. The same overbearing force of personality that makes Chino a hero to some will undoubtedly turn off others, but for the most part, Here to Save You All is one of the most distinctive and underrated debuts in hip-hop history. ~ Nathan Rabin

Personnel: Jut Boogie, Jamie Stewart (vocals); Lamont Holbdy (maracas, timbales, vibraslap).

Audio Mixers: Steve Souder; Chip Mullaney; Dan Charnas; King Tech; Sean Freehill; Carlos Bess.

Photographer: Stephen Stickler.

Unknown Contributor Roles: Mark Luv; Jay Vietnam; Sean Freehill.

Personnel: Chino XL (vocals); Ras Kass, Gravitation, Kool Keith.

Producers include: B Wiz, Kutmasta Kurt, Bird, D.J. Homicide, Erik Romero, Dan Charnas.

Rolling Stone (5/30/96, p.50) - 3 Stars - Good - "...takes rap back to the hollowed African-American tradition of capping, in which black kids stand in front yards and shoot verbal arrows into each others' asses..."
The Source (5/96, p.70) - 3.5 Mics - Dope - "...a record with equal amounts [of] style and substance....incorporates elements of both coasts' sounds. HERE TO SAVE YOU ALL is solid, dynamic and refreshing..."
Melody Maker (4/20/96, p.46) - "...pushes sonic frontiers while engaging in a one-man war on humankind....tours the darkside with a body-breaking bass on the underside..."
Rap Pages (5/96, p.33) - 7 (out of 10) - "...a blend of rugged rhythms featuring dope punch lines and hooks. His rhymes run through warped rhythms, making for a nonstop head-nod....There's nothing Chino XL won't say to get his message across..."
NME (Magazine) (5/11/96, p.46) - 6 (out of 10) - "...[Chino] is riveting precisely because he doesn't pull punches..."