Street-Rap Fables

Showbiz and A.G. - “More Than One Way Out Of The Ghetto”, “40 Acres And My Props”
From: Runaway Slave [Payday, 1992]

Junior’s O.C. post fits like fresh Nike Dunks with tight fitted low-cut white socks in “hotter than July” weather; I mean to say, Junior posting O.C. compliments my Showbiz and A.G. post. D.I.T.C. alumni possess regal status on the campus of NYC Rap that sprung up in the `90s. I fully agree with Junior, a resurgence in `90s rap is blowing up and the Internet is an encyclopedia of rap music knowledge.

Anyway, in `92 George H. W. Bush puked on the Japanese Prime Minister, Mike Tyson rapes a Miss Black America contestant and war erupts in Bosnia – while the world is going to hell two cats from The Bronx release Runaway Slave, a rap album that was risky in a “people might not get it” way. Thank Lord Finesse for laying the D.I.T.C. foundation on his Funky Technician album, which is a piece of rap history in its own right.

Showbiz’s production on Runaway Slave has that jazzy bounce that early Digable Planets’ singles mimic, but A.G.’s hard lyrics keep Runway Slave in the intelligent street-raps realm. “More Than One Way Out Of The Ghetto” is genius. That early-nineties horn will forever linger as the soundtrack to my youth, I love it. A.G.’s lyrics on “More Than One Way Out Of The Ghetto” start off grimy in a tale of project welfare to hood rich ostentation. This song is a rap allegory that authority figures cannot comprehend (at the time), while youth soak up the reality of at-risk living.

In `92 Spike Lee releases the 202 minute bio-film Malcolm X and afro-centricity skyrockets. When I hear “40 Acres And My Props,” I immediately think of Lee’s 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks company. Forty acres and a mule is an expression people would use after American slaves were freed in a post-Civil War America. Major General William T. Sherman announces 40-acre land distribution on January 16, 1865, but after President Lincoln is assassinated, President Andrew Johnson revokes distribution of the land. African-Americans in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida settle on 400,000 acres of land in 1865, but Johnson returns the land to the original owners leaving tens of thousands homeless; “40 Acres And My Props” is a brilliant street-rap fable.