Back in '88, during hip-hop's so-called 'golden age,' for some magnificant reason damn near every rap release that came out was an instant classic: records like Marley Marl's "The Symphony," Eric B & Rakim's "Follow The Leader," EPMD's "Strictly Business," Too Short's "Life Is...Too Short," and of course Sir-Mix-a-Lot's "Posse on Broadway." 

A single off the famed Seattle rapper's debut album Swass on Nastymix Records, Sir Mix-a-Lot's song struck a nerve with rap fans everywhere at the time firstly because of the great lyrics and the track's 808 kick-drum fueled sick beat, and secondly because listeners made the song lyrics relate to their own town's Broadway -- whether they were in New York or San Francisco or wherever.

Of course, the Broadway in "Posse On Broadway" was the one in Mix-a-Lot's (born Anthony Ray) own hometown of Seattle in the Capitol Hill district, the one were they "stopped at Taco Bell for some Mexican eatin' But Taco Bell was closed, The girls was on my tip. They said go back the other way we'll stop and eat at Dick's. Dick's is the place where the cool hang out. The Swass like to play and the rich flaunt clout. Posse to he burger stand so big we walk in twos." (Scroll down to see full song lyrics.)

                    


1) Kid Cudi Man On The Moon: The End of Day (Motown / Pgd)

2) KRS-ONE & Buckshot Survival Skills (Duck Down)

3) Drake So Far Gone (Cash Money)

4) M.O.P. The Foundation (E1 Entertainment)

5) Q-Tip Kamaal the Abstract (Battery Records)

6) Nicolay City Lights 2 - Shibuya (Hard Boiled Records)

7) New Boyz Skinny Jeanz & A Mic (Asylum Records)

8) DJ Fresh The Tonite Show (The Album) (Town Thizzness)

9) DJ Shadow Diminishing Returns (Reconstruction Productions)

10) Young Cellski/aka 2Took Mr Predicter (Inner City 2000)

Humboldt County's Potluck may have spent the last decade building a rap rep closely associated with their Northern California home county's best known export, but below the surface of this talented, hard-working, hip-hop duo is a lot more than blunts and weed smoke, insists member UnderRated.

"Our first message might appear to be the weed because we are from Humboldt and our name is Potluck," said the rapper/producer backstage at BB Kings in NYC recently as part of the North American End of Days tour with Twiztid, Boondox, and Prozak. "But what we really try to do is spread a message of peace and to show that everyone can get along for real." Proof lies, he says, in the fact that a comparatively small Jewish white guy born in the small town NorCal Humboldt area and his partner in rhyme, the SoCal born African American 1 Ton, who lives up to his name, can get along so well. "We are totally different people but we get along great. We have learned from each other, coming up from completely different backgrounds. He's not from Humboldt. He's from San Diego. So he came up north and learned a different way...a Humboldt way, which is laid back, cool, you know be cool to everybody. And then I learned from him like this world ain't all cool and easy."

Further proving that Potluck is a lot more than just stoner-anthem makers, are several fantastic songs on the new album Pipe Dreams like "Computer Love," a hilarious commentary about the perils of online romantic connections, and the serious, heartfelt "My Dad," which is an ode to the pair's respective fathers. "That's really a very personal song to both of us," said 1 Ton. "You see, my father is really sick right now, so that is why I start my verse with 'Some thoughts that you deserve to hear before you pass away,' because a lot of the reason why I am who I am is because of him. So it's like a tribute song but in the same way a celebration of the relationship we have. I just hope that now with my kids that I can have the same relationship."
 
The two members of Potluck, neither of whom were rappers to begin with, first met at a DJ audition. "We both started out as DJ's," recalled emcee 1 Ton, who, despite his intimidating Suge Knight-like presence, is nothing like the Death Row figure. "We met at a DJ trial for a club and we started DJ'ing [together], four turntables, ya know, rockin' underground house parties and all that stuff and we started making beats. And then reluctantly at the very end we started rhyming, you know just due to people flaking and not coming over to rap and stuff like that. So then it just kinda snowballed into what it is today. But we reluctantly got into rap." That was a decade ago. Since then, the pair have worked hard at honing their craft and equally as hard at building their careers, mostly through tireless networking wherever a door opened for them. All of their hard work has paid off.

1) Eligh and Jo Wilkinson On Sacred Ground: Mother And Son (Legendary Music)

2) Scarab + Very present The Classic EP (Legendary Music)

3) Brother Ali The Truth Is Here (Rhymesayers Entertainment)

4) N.A.S.A. The Spirit Of Apollo (Anti)

5) T.I. Paper Trail (Atlantic)

Special thanks to Marques at the Hollywood Amoeba Music store for this week's Hip-Hop Top Five chart of the store's best selling new hip-hop albums. In the number one, with a bullet, slot is the new Legendary Music release from Eligh and Jo Wilkinson, On Sacred Ground: Mother And Son, whose impressive guest list includes Mark Bell, The Grouch, Pigeon John, Jiro Yamaguchi, Paul Dateh, Robert Miranda, Shanti Foster, and Slug of Atmosphere. Album highlights include "By And By" (feat. The Grouch & Paul Dateh), and "Honor Me" (feat. Pigeon John). Number two on the chart is a related release featuring Scarab (also of Living Legends fame) and Very of Us Pros, the duo known as Afro Classics, with the Classic EP. The EP includes songs such as "Boom It," "The Follow Through," and "Live From Los Angeles Pt 1."

Rapper C-BO has long been known for his no-holds-barred, shock-filled, self-described "killer style" of gangsta rap. Ever since his debut album Gas Chamber sixteen years ago, the Sacramento rapper has been consistently satisfying his dedicated legions of hardcore rap fans with both controversy and countless releases. In addition to a string of solo albums, he has also collaborated on songs or albums with the likes of first cousin E40, 2Pac, Yukmouth, Killa Tay, Spice-1, Master P, Brotha Lynch Hung, as well as his crew Mob Figaz, to name but a few.

Unlike so many self-described "gangsta" rappers, Shawn "C-BO" Thomas is genuinely 'gangsta'. Growing up in the notorious gang-filled Garden Block of Sacramento, the artist became a member of the Crips while barely into his teens, and openly admits his past involvement in drug dealing and other gang related crimes before he became a full time recording artist. His rap name stands for Cowboy: "I got the name cowboy from being around guns all the time," he told me in a 1997 interview.

Not surprisingly, that lifestyle resulted in C-BO's spending several periods of his life incarcerated from his teens onwards. It was in jail in 1993 that he first met Killa Tay, who he would later collaborate with. And it was also during a separate stint in the Sacramento County Jail that he collaborated with fellow inmate X-Raided on writing some music. In fact, it was X-Raided who wrote the song "Deadly Game" for C-BO, a song that later landed C-BO back in jail and caused a national controversy -- drawing attention and outrage amongst freedom of speech advocates while simultaneously only further fueling C-BO's notorious reputation amongst hardcore rap fans.