Freestyle Fellowship Innercity Griots CD

The Underground Railroad Band: Cockney "O" Dire, Archie, Volume 10, Spoon (rap vocals); Marvin McDaniel (acoustic guitar); Rodney Millon (guitar); Randall Willis (flute, saxophone); Jon Williams (trumpet); Tom Ralls (trombone); Onaje Murray (vibraphone); Christy Smith (acoustic & electric bass); Kevin O'Neal (acoustic bass); Robert Harris, Alfred Threats (bass); JMD (bass, drums, tympani, percussion); Don Littleton (percussion).

Contains 9 samples, including "F-Encounter" (Bootsie Collins/R. Ford/R.L. Evans/George Clinton Jr.), "It's A Musical" (C. Small/Bootsie Collins/George Clinton Jr.), "Beaux J. Poo Boo" and "The Lovers" (as recorded by Les McCann) and "Tenor Song" (Dizzy Gillepie).

If success were measured in terms of influence rather than units sold, INNERCITY GRIOTS would truly be ghetto platinum. Not only did this collective of the Los Angeles underground's finest take the art of free-style to a new plateau of complexity, but their signature sound of double-time flows and jazz-inflected harmonies foreshadowed an entire generation of Midwestern & southern rappers in the "Bone Thugz N Harmony" mold. The album's first cut "Blood" acts as a quick introduction to their distinctive style. They shift between vocalese and scat, straightforward battle rhymes and polyrhythmic cascades of internal rhyme schemes that can only be described as a capella drum & bass (before either the sound or the term had risen from the London underground to touch U.S. shores).

Although backed by mostly solid production--a less happy-go-lucky version of the tru-skool party beats favored by fellow Los Angelenos the Pharcyde--the Fellowship's unique vocals seem to demand the more flexible framework provided by live instrumentation. They shine brightest within the loose jazz-fusion feel of "Inner City Boundaries," (the counterpoint provided by Daddy-O's b-boy rhymes doesn't hurt either) and the spookily laid-back "Mary."

Recorded at Sonora Studios, Summa Studio, and Crystal Recording, Los Angeles, California and Studiodad Recording, Brooklyn, New York.

Producers: The Earthquake Brothers, Freestyle Fellowship, Bambawar, Daddy-O, Edman.

Engineers: Matt Hyde, Rich "Crash" Herrera, Dawud, Daddy-O.

Freestyle Fellowship: Mikah Nine, Aceyalone, MtulazajI, PeAce, Self Jupiter (rap vocals).

The Earthquake Brothers: Mathmattiks (rap vocals, DJ); The Jamm Messenger D, The Mighty O-Roc (rap vocals); DJ Kiilu (DJ).

Entertainment Weekly (7/23/93, p.61) - "...Here's some L.A. rap that doesn't reek of post-riot jargon or empty gangsta threats. These four L.A. bohos use fluid rhymes and funky jazz jams to create some of the best hip-hop vibes since Boogie Down Productions' `Criminal Minded'..." - Rating: A-
Q (7/93, p.88) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...Griot tradition involves a bush-troubadour allowed free rein to criticize...The application of the term here to a South Central LA rap crew is appropriate...[the album falls] outside the genre's attitudinal poles of gangstas and New Age black hippies..."
The Source (3/93, p.79) - 3.5 Stars - Very Good - "...an innovative step in the `next' direction...The best thing about this group is that they dare to be different. They provide rap with a new perspective..."