Who Framed The A-Team?

You might have heard the A-Team on the Project Blowed compilation for the first time on the track "Maskeraid" for example. Here they (Abstract Rude & Aceyalone) are again but this time with a full-length album. There is another Heavyweights track on it, so that you can find all the released ones on this blog.

A-Team

Project Blowed

Being originally released on tape in 1994, I think, there is also a vinyl and a CD version. It sets the land mark between the shutdown of the Good Life sessions and the introduction to the upcoming open-mic sessions at the Project Blowed.
The album contains the second Heavyweights track out of four and a lot more to explore. On Philaflava you can find some tracks flying around which were on the original release and left out on this release for whatever reason. There is also a difference between the vinyl and the CD version because the vinyl version also contains the monumental "Mix Tapes" song from the Nonce.

The tracks are all very dope starting with the track "Jurassick" having a word play by the track name which implies the sick styles of the featured rappers which have lots of experience by being long in the game(jurassic). Followed by a "knock, knock, who's there?" from Self Jupiter introducing the "Strength Of ATU" with a dope-ass beat and having the CVE said "What a pity, I'm living in New York City" and am not able to watch these cats. Figures Of Speech speak out a warning that you better "Don't get it twisted" because it's "Hot", maybe too hot! Tray Loc is followed by Dolla Holla who really sounds like he is Snupe who raps about a "Beautiful day in the neighborhood" and who is followed by "Solo is so low" from DK Toon and B/Cartoon and you know the track, I do it and I think everybody does who is old enough! "This evening" introduces the "Heavyweights Round 2" featuring PEACE, Aceyalone, Nefertiti, Self Jupiter, BJ, Ganjah K, Medusa, Ko Ko, Mikah 9 and Volume 10 interrupted by a "Funky Commercial Break" and followed by some more dope tracks featuring Aceyalone, Ab Rude, CVE and Ellay Khule. Pure Hip-Hop history that's all I can say!

Project Blowed Compilation

Freestyle Fellowship - Innercity Griots

The Fellowships second installment featuring a bunch of interesting people dropped in '93 one year before the Good Life Café closed the doors and a new era began with the Project Blowed. Like Volume 10's "HipHopera", "Innercity Griots" was released on a major label which was a good thing for the popularity but probably it also was a reason for the end of the Good Life. The movie "This Is The Life" dealt with the growing popularity and the impact on the Good Life sessions. If you haven't seen it for now, I can recommend you to watch this movie because it presents a part of HipHop history.
This album contains the first Heavyweights track featuring high level MCs Ganjah K, Big Arch, Spoon,  Volume 10 and Cockney'O'Dire besides the Fellowship. BTW, Mikah 9 has a really crazy appearance on this one! Most of the production is handled by the Earthquake Brothers, a crew of producers, which consists of Jamm Messenger Devine aka JMD, Mathmattics, DJ Kiilu and Mighty O-Roc. They also join creative forces on the Project Blowed compilation!

Freestyle Fellowship - Innercity Griots

Painting A New Picture

Next stop P.A.I.N.T.     ATU doesn't exist anymore in the way we knew it from before. Abstract Rude, Fat Jack and Zulu remained while DJ Drez joined in. Abstract Rude got more dominant in the group as you can see on the cover, that the group isn't stated as Abstract Tribe Unique anymore but Abstract Rude + Tribe Unique. You can also realize this fact in the album itself, it is not solely produced by Fat Jack, but also Daddy Kev, Rob The Viking and Kenny Segal. Vocally there are also a lot of features on the album of rappers that didn't belong to the Tribe, for example Awol One, the Heavyweights, Slug, G&E, Moka Only, LMNO, Busdriver, 2Mex, Xololanxinxo, Eyedea and some fine female artists. The overall sound got more clean and is probably meant to address the masses and not only the headz but maybe it was necessary to get a record deal on Battle Axe, the label of the Swollen Members who partly  serve a different audience. It is more clearer on this album than it was on the South Central Thynk Taynk, there the sound also got more clean and lost a bit of its roughness. You can say that ATU switched the station (oh what a coincidence!) to target a greater audience by reinventing themselves and painting a new picture with this album...

P.A.I.N.T.

Instrumentals