Search - Schoolly D :: Jive Collection Series 3

Schoolly D will never be remembered for his rhymes, which often bordered on rote and elementary; but when packaged with DJ Code Money's woofer-cracking 808 bass and long-distance scratches, they morphed into some of the most memorable and well-loved hip-hop songs of all time. Schoolly planted the seeds of gangsta rap ("P.S.K. What Does It Mean?" and "Parkside 5-2" were shouts to the infamous Parkside Killers gang in north Philly) while bragging about the trappings of success ("Gucci Time," "Put Your Filas On," "Fat Gold Chain"), but his most notorious recorded moment was his diary of a typical weekend night ("Saturday Night"), where he finds himself getting drunk, losing his key, picking up a hooker, then confronting his pistol- packing mom. However, the late 1980s found him trying to replicate the shock value on "Smoke Some Kill," "Coqui 900," and the sophomoric "Mr. Big Dick," but by then, gangsta rap had migrated to South Central--leaving Schoolly looking old and in the way. The Jive Collection reminds us that he was neither. His drum patterns and booming bass have become key documents, Xeroxed by producers. Schoolly D's psycho realm is best appreciated in the darkness of a club, four-foot woofers beating out the drum pattern in your chest, his terse sentence structure dumbing you down with him. --Todd Inoue