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Los Angeles' South Central Cartel were pioneers in the West Coast gangsta rap genre, in the same league as Dr. Dre, NWA, Eazy E, Ice Cube, Compton's Most
Wanted, Above the Law, Da Lench Mob, Mac Dre and Kurupt. South Central Cartel (S.C.C.) was one of the first West Coast groups to gain national popularity in the immediate wake of groundbreaking and controversial releases by NWA & Eazy-E, and are still etched in hip hop's collective memory for pushing the envelope with their unapologetic embrace of gang affiliation, automatic weapons, violent crime, prison and car culture. “South Central
Madness” is their debut album, originally released on Pump/Quality Records,
with subsequent albums released on Def Jam West in a deal between their
G.W.K. (Gangsters Wit Knowledge) imprint and the West Coast division of Rick
Rubin & Russell Simmons’ label.
Over a now-classic bed of sample sources (Zapp/Roger Troutman, Delfonics,
Fatback, The Temptations, James Brown, Barry White, Funkadelic), with lyrical
sample drops of their hip hop contemporaries (MC Breed, LL Cool J, Ice Cube,
Public Enemy, NWA, Geto Boys, Big Daddy Kane), lyricists Havoc, Havik, Prodeje
and Young Prodeje along with singer L.V. (later featured on “Gangsta’s Paradise”
by Coolio) deliver a solid bridge from hip hop’s established East Coast
chart-dominating status quo toward the West Coast-centric “G-Funk era”, Crips
vs. Bloods subtexts and the definition of what it meant to be hard. Videos for the
singles “U Gotta Deal Wit Dis (Gangsta Luv)”/”Ya Getz Clowned” and “Papa Was
a Rolling Stone” feature uptempo Havoc & Prodeje in black baseball caps,
shades and curls that Eazy-E should have trademarked, riding and further
extending the ominous Compton MC legacy. “Ya Getz Clowned” actually samples
MC Breed’s “Ain’t No Future in yo’ Frontin’”, released just months before,
tightening a food chain of club/radio DJ/producer sample/remix culture that was
evolving fast in 1991.
An interesting and maybe still unresolved footnote is that an unrelated up and
coming duo from Queensbridge named Mobb Deep with members Havoc &
Prodigy would release their debut “Juvenile Hell” in 1993. Although their a.k.a.’s
both parallel characters in the X-Men comic book, it’s notable that two hip hop
crews 3000 miles away from each other both arrived at the same choice for a set
of stage names. “Who came first?” was a mildly controversial topic for a minute
in the early/mid 1990s’ East vs. West battles, with differing versions of the crews’
possible early meetings being recounted in The Source & Rap Pages. |
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