Dru Down - Explicit Game

Artist:

Dru Down

UPC:

088561122225

See Also:

Kane, Big Daddy Boogie Down Productions Kool G. Rap

Description:

Personnel: Dru Down (vocals).
When Explicit Game came out in 1994, numerous West Coast rappers were jumping on the G-funk bandwagon and emulating the recordings that Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg were providing for Death Row Records. There is no shortage of Dre/Snoop influence on this CD but, while other Californians were content to be clones of Death Row artists, Oakland`s Dru Down was his own man. Definitely a cut above most of the G-funk efforts that came from the West Coast in 1994, Explicit Game draws on a variety of gangsta rap influences. In addition to the Dre/Snoop influence, one hears elements of DJ Quik, Eazy-E, and Ice Cube in his rapping style and, at times, Down hints at Cypress Hill, which was a rare example of an L.A. gangsta rap group favoring the sort of complex flow you would have expected from an East Coast group. Down`s rapping isn`t as consistently complex as Cypress Hill`s, but the Cypress Hill influence is still one of the effective tools in his arsenal. By 1994 standards, Explicit Game isn`t groundbreaking -- Down was hardly the first person to rap about inner-city thug life on the West Coast, and this certainly isn`t the first gangsta rap CD to be influenced by Dr. Dre`s production style. But while Down isn`t an innovator, he isn`t faceless either. Explicit Game doesn`t have the historic importance of N.W.A.`s Straight Outta Compton, Dre`s The Chronic, or Ice-T`s Rhyme Pays, but it`s still among 1994`s more memorable G-funk/gangsta rap efforts. ~ Alex Henderson

Track Listing:

DISC 1

1. Pimp of the Year
2. Ice Cream Man
3. Rescue 911
4. Realer Than Real
5. Rigged
6. Bad Boys
7. Should Have Said So
8. Talkin` Shit
9. Ain`t No Stoppin`
10. Hoo Ride
11. Call Me Dru Down
12. No One Loves You
13. Talk How You Feel
14. Fools from the Streets
15. Bonus Track

Album Information

Release Date:

01/01/1994

Type:

Performer

Genre:

R&B

Subgenre:

West Coast Rap

Label:

Ruthless Records

Producer:

Chris Hicks; Gino Blackwell; K. Foster; JT The Bigga Figga; Ant Banks; Robin Duhe; Tone Capone

Catalog Number:

1222

Original Release Year:

1994

# of Discs:

1

SPARS Coding:

DDD

Studio/Live:

Studio

Mono/Stereo:

Stereo

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