Two Words, One Answer.
run king
 Down with the King $13.98 By 1993, a lot of people had counted Run-DMC out. Their last album, Back from Hell, failed to have much commercial impact. It seemed like the rappers they helped to inspire had bypassed them, just as they had bypassed genre-birthing rap acts like Kurtis Blow and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. Fortunately, the `Kings from Queens' still carried respect among those who followed in their wake; under the auspices of Profile Records, they set about recording a comeback album. For Down with the King, Run-DMC made use of a then-unprecedented laundry list of then-contemporary beatmakers in hip-hop production. Since the release of this album, it has become a common (and some would say, tedious) trend to make use of several "star" producers on hip-hop albums. Here, at least, the tactic works. Among the big names here are Pete Rock, who collaborated on several album cuts, including the gold-selling title track. Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest gets behind the boards on "Come on Everybody", and EPMD pump up the bass on "Can I Get it, Yo!" Naughty By Nature's Kay Gee threw in his group's trademark piano-riffs for "Hit `em Hard", and Public Enemy's Bomb Squad contributed "3 in the Head" and "Ooh, Whatcha Gonna Do". Fresh of the success of Kriss Kross, Jermaine Dupri helmed "Can I Get a Witness". A then-unknown Tom Morello (Audioslave, R.A.T.M.) added guitar work to "Big Willie", the only nod to rock-rap fusion here. The album sold over 500,000 copies, enough to go gold, and the group toured with Naughty By Nature and several acts from Death Row Records (for a time, they were briefly courted by the label). This would be Run-DMC's last studio album before the release of Crown Royal in 2001. Arista Records bought the Profile catalog in the late 90's and re-released the standard versions of Run DMC's studio LPs. However, Down with the King was not included in the 2004 expanded versions of the group's albums. Period interviews confirmed that there were sessions with Bay Area-rappers N2Deep, but they didn't make the final cut. That makes for at least one potential bonus cut that could be included for a proper re-release. Down with the king Come on everybody Can I get it, yo Hit `em hard To the maker 3 in the head ooh, whatcha gonna do big willie three little Indians in the house can I get a witness get open what's next wreck shop for 10 years  The Home-Run King (Scraps of Time) $4.99 Award-winning author Patricia C. McKissack¡Çs next story about one black family¡Çs history?perfect for Black History Month! Brothers Tank and Jimbo Turner love sneaking into Nashville¡Çs Sulphur Dell Ballpark to watch the superstars of Negro League baseball. When Josh Gibson, the famous home-run hitter for the Homestead Grays, bunks at their house, the boys think they¡Çre one step away from heaven. With warmth and humor, the fourth installment of Patricia C. McKissack¡Çs family saga brings to life an era of all-black baseball for readers who may not know that Major League teams were once restricted only to white players. |
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