Something that I enjoy about this blog is that, I haven't really set any limits on a type of rapper I'd talk about, or a level of notoriety or fame or anything like that. Meaning, as much as I enjoy doing classic album reviews of Eminem or Lauryn Hill, as I have done this year, or big new commercial releases in the past, I equally enjoy reviewing underground rappers too. I haven't got a preference or a bias, if somebody wants me to listen to something, I will. And that's where I'm at today, reviewing the 2008 record, The Only Color That Matters is Green by PaceWon and Mr.Green.
I'm not going to profess to know everything about PaceWon (but still read the review, I thoroughly enjoyed the album and think you would too, and hopefully the review is interesting and inspires you to listen to the album if you haven't yet), but what I do know is, Pace came through the underground late 90's Hip Hop scene in New Jersey as part of the collective Outsidaz, who famously appeared on The Score by The Fugees. Other notable members of the Outsidaz includes Young Zee, Slang Ton and Rah Digga, meanwhile the Outsidaz are also affiliated with Eminem, Bizarre, and Redman, with crossover collaborations happening over the late 90's. With that history and crossover there with Eminem, it's interesting to just see how different their careers have gone. As we know Eminem went on to become the biggest selling rapper of all time, meanwhile Pace has very much remained in the underground and not achieved relative commercial success, but what they both have in common is, they're both lyrical assassins. The significance of the relationship between the two MC's will rear its head once more in this review.
Despite being an underground record, focused on lyrical technique and raw subject matter, the album begins with an anthemic, orchestral instrumental with strings providing a bed of glitz and glamour to provide a sense that something great is happening, or at least something great is coming. Pace's lyrics on the opener Four Quarters somewhat contrast with the vibe of the beat, more focusing on well observed hood poetry. Overall though, the song meshes well together and with the beat stirring up a sense of hard-won triumph and Pace's lyrics having an air of defiance and resilience, the song gets the emotions flowing and is a great pace-setter for the record - one fire bar in particular is, "ten year old kids selling crack in the day time, the hood could take your life but it won't take mine".
The next track Children Sing is the lead single and certainly one of the more commercially viable tracks on the album, with that being reflected with this being comfortably the biggest streamer on the project with 7.6m Spotify streams at the time of writing. The beat drop is super smooth with the chopped up vocals of the young child choir dominating the instrumental with a relatively simple drum pattern coming in nicely. Pace drops 3 verses of clever rhyme schemes and silky flows and sounds so at-ease on the instrumental. The next track Eye of the Needle is a slightly more laid back tune with the piano loop ticking over with Pace delivering more witty lyrics and a hook which is essentially 8 bars rapped and repeated thrice throughout the song to split up the verses. This type of hook is something that you can get used to with the album, although it doesn't show huge ambition for hit-making or making a catchy record, it does give it a real underground feel.
The beat on the next track I Need Money has one note from a piano frantically and relentlessly sounding-off like an alarm, giving the track a sense of urgency. Pace's lyrics are more relaxed and are of braggadocios rap, speaking like someone who is already well monied than someone desperately in need of it. The next track Let a Shot Go brings back the feeling that something monumental is happening with its passionate motivational spoken speech part way through, but also, what sounds like an upbeat organ, giving the vibe of a superhero running back to the city, changing into his costume to save the day, but really Pace is spitting his usual slick pieces of wordplay and solid flows.
The next few tracks are amazing and I think take a significant tone shift turn as they become a bit softer, sentimental and pull on the emotional heart strings more so than the greazy backpack style. Who I Am is a homage to Pace's formative years but also Hip Hop and street culture in the 1980's. Pace wax's lyrical of the golden era legends such as the Fat Boys and Run DMC. In the second verse he brings the sounds and smells of the food that defined his more innocent years, and lastly he doubles down on the picture painting by reminiscing on the clothes and style that people wore in those halcyon days. The chorus itself is a clue to the structure of the track as it references the specific subject matter of each verse, but most importantly, Pace defines who he is, he is the culture that raised him, without these influences of music, food and clothes, without Hip Hop, he wouldn't be PaceWon. The chorus goes, "I remember the tunes, I remember the food, I remember the clothes we were all into, all the little things that inspire a man, made me who I am". This track, and the next track, appropriately named Hip Hop, demonstrate how much respect and love Pace has for Hip Hop and the culture that has defined his life. Whilst both Who I Am and Hip Hop have a contagious and delicate piano loop, Hip Hop comes across way more aggressive, defiant and protective of its culture. The MC Shan sample for the hook is perfect for this song, "(Hip Hop - was set out in the dark, they used to do it out in the park), yeah that's a quote from MC Shan, without it I'd be an empty man". Once more Pace displaying his appreciation for a genre that gives him life. In his verses, particularly the second, Pace is sending out disses, to an unnamed recipient, but maybe you could say for Eminem, maybe not. Whoever is the recipient is being othered by Pace, Pace is acting as a guardian of Hip Hop and trying to keep this enemy of the culture, out. For example, he says, "your rhymes are weak, I don't mean to insult ya, but you're an embarrassment to the culture, so I don't want you representing me". This adds to the more militant nature of the song. The beat, the hook, the sample, all make this track nigh-on perfection, regardless of who may or may not be getting dissed. The following track Childhood continues in the same vein of memory and nostalgia this time as a posse-cut with a few different MC's and a more RnB female sung hook, another solid entry into the tracklist.
The next track So Straight changes the pace slightly with a peppier beat and the synth/piano loop creates a carefree instrumental. Pace is still doing a lot of looking backwords in the first verse, talking about being disciplined by his parents for wanting to grow up too quickly, "despite what my parents used to tell me at home, Jerome get off the phone, get into your books, leave them hookers alone, you can have them when you get grown". We get more appreciation for Hip Hop in the chorus as he name drops the likes of Nas, Redman and KRS One, with once again a more rap-style, simple chorus. Whilst the second verse Pace shows some ambition for going bigger with Hip Hop and achieving something greater than where he is now, when he says "I want a Grammy, or at least to get to die, before I fell, fall off and be forced to get a job". The tone and content of the lyric seems to be only half-serious, with Pace's self-awareness that, getting a Grammy is pretty unrealistic, especially when the line before reveals his truest and purest aims in music - "I gotta write keep on coming with clever rhymes, cliches and punchlines these kids'll memorise". It's pretty unrealistic to just rap your ass off to a Grammy, which is what Pace is doing on this record. To achieve a Grammy you more likely need one, or a mix of; a lot of luck, commercial viability, mutually beneficial collaborations, or a distinct and unique concept to your art. What does Kendrick say on Hood Politics? - "critics want to mention that they miss when Hip Hop was rapping, motherfu**er if you did then Killer Mike'd be platinum".
Won on Won is a real change of pace, the phat and funky bassline, the crowd noise, the celebratory brass instruments matching the bassline, all result in an all-round good time. It sounds like the sort of song that would be playing in a pool party scene in a hood film, or some parking lot party.
She Can Be So Cold has Pace riding the beat effortlessly in one of the more commercially coded tracks - the song contains a sample hook from The White Stripes, with Jack White's signature strained vocals sounding super crisp and distinct. As a big fan of Elephant (2003) by The White Stripes, I loved this unexpected "collaboration", although the sample actually came from the album Get Behind Me Satan (2005) on the track The Denial's Twist.
The closing track on the album, The Joker is a direct diss towards Eminem. The vibe of the instrumental is aggressive, spiteful, and sounds pretty underground straight for download sort of track. On the track Pace is revelling in being Em's biggest hater - "he's a prick and when it comes to that man, I freaking hate him like the Joker hate Batman". This song doesn't reveal all when it comes to why Pace hates Eminem, from the tracks he's released and the respective careers the two had, it seems to stem from Eminem leaving the Outsidaz in the underground when he found his fame and went off to sign other artists such as D12 and 50 Cent. These feelings of resentment are echoed on the Young Zee diss track Dear Shady from as late as 2015. The Joker is not super potent, with some disses being more childish than deep-cutting, for example mostly resort to violent threats, with the odd reference to what he actually hates about Eminem, for example, here's a violent lyric - "if you were right here I'd cut you, if I had a razer or switchblade I'd gut you". Then here's a more personal jab - "what kinda sucker would diss his own mother, the same freacking type that would diss his own brother" - but there wasn't enough of this on the track. If you want an epic diss from Pace to Em, check out Rap Music over the iconic Right Back At You Mobb Deep beat.
It's hard not to understand Pace's bitterness towards Eminem and think 'what could have been'? But I don't understand every detail of why the relationship between Em and Pace went south. But for all Eminem fans, those underground tracks will stay living on and will always be a significant chapter in the Eminem story.
As for PaceWon and this record, its quality justifies the tag classic, an underground classic for sure. Pace's self-deprecating and witty style is both and endearing and unique, and not just a competent lyricist, he crafted an album here that is personal, varied, relatively accessible in spots, and packed full of sick tunes. There's only 12 songs on the album but there's a lot to glean from it and there's enough depth to keep the whole thing interesting time and time again.
Star Track - Hip-Hop
8/10
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