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For those of you who are basketball fanatics or insomniacs who happen to turn on ESPN at 4 in the morning, you've probably seen a couple of the games that the U.S. National team has been playing in preperation for this summer's FIBA World Championship. After a couple of disappointing finishes the past few times out, blamed in large part on the fact that it has been less of a team than a random collection of All Stars, the U.S. claimed it was going to change things around this year and select players less on their individual talent and more on their ability to play as a team. Apparently that meant dropping Allen Iverson and replacing him with bench warmers like Shane Battier and Bruce Bowen. After a couple of blowouts against China and Puerto Rico, the U.S. team once again ran into trouble against Brazil, barely escaping with a win the last minute. Although the team includes the best young players in the world, I suspect they will once again have some difficulty winning the championship. As with teams of the past, this U.S. group consists of a bunch of All Stars who have very little cohesion out on the floor.
Right, so what does this have to do with hip hop? The concept of a Dream Team, or supergroup, is something thats been attempted in rap as well. Just as the U.S. has attempted to put together a Dream Team of individual stars year after year, some of the best artists in hip hop have come together after establishing their solo careers to form supergroups. Results have been mixed in both cases. Although I've no doubt missed a few, here are some of the attempts at rap Dream Teams:
The Juice Crew. The original hip hop supergroup, and one of the most successful. Members included Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, MC Shan, Marly Marl, Masta Ace, Roxanne Shante, Tragedy and Kool G Rap. The group is best known for putting out one of the greatest posse cuts of all time, The Symphony, a track that The Firm would attempt (and fail) to recreate almost a decade later.
The GraveDiggaz. Consisting of RZA, Fruitkwan (of Stetsasonic fame), the late Too Poetic and Prince Paul, this may have had the greatest production team of all the supergroups. Unfortunately, the combination of horrorcore lyrics and five percenter references kept the group from attaining any real mainstream success. They did manage to put out three album releases, with the debut album becoming an underground classic.
Murder, Inc. Before the record label of the same name existed, Jay-Z, DMX and Ja Rule planned to form a group named Murder, Inc. Appearing on the cover of XXL dressed in black leather, they proclaimed themselves the rap version of Murder Incorporated. The group did one song together, Murdergram, for the classic Jay-Z movie Streets Is Watching. After that, the group fell apart once DMX realized Ja Rule had jacked his whole swagger (in the days before Ja decided to emulate Tupac), and Jay-Z decided he'd rather prop up Memphis Bleek's fading career than Ja Rule's.
The Commission. In the mid-90's, this was going to be the group that took over the rap game. Rumors about who would actually be involved in the group varied, but in several interviews Biggie mentioned that he, Jay-Z, Charli Baltimore, Puffy, Lil Cease, Cam'Ron and Lance "Un" Rivera would all be involved. The group did come together to record a few songs in the studio, but things fell apart after Biggie was murdered. Any hope for a Commission album being released ended in 1999, when Jay-Z assaulted and stabbed Rivera. Though a Biggie/Jay-Z song was released last year on the Biggie Duets album, entitled Whatchu Want (The Commission), the best example of what the group could have been is probably Brooklyn's Finest, a track off of Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt featuring B.I.G. On Biggie's Life After Death, you can hear him give a few shoutouts to the crew.
The Firm. One of the few rap super groups to actually put out an album. The group originally came together to do the track Affirmative Action for Nas' album It Was Written. The song featured the original lineup for the Firm, Nas, AZ, Foxxy Brown and Cormega. After Cormega got into an argument over his contract with manager Steve Stoute, he was dropped from the group and replaced with another Queensbridge rapper, Nature. The group put out an album under Dr. Dre's Aftermath, with the album being touted as the centerpiece of the label, in the days before Eminem and 50 Cent were signed. The album sold well, but was not well reviewed. One single, Phone Tap, managed to get some radio play, but other than that the album was pretty weak (though I did like the one track with Noreaga and Nature). Ultimately, the group would have been a lot better off dropping Foxxy and keeping Cormega on board.
The Horsemen. This group has been rumored to be working on an album since 2000. Consisting of Canibus, Ras Kass, Kurupt, Killah Priest, Rakim, Pharoah Monche, Royce Da 5'9" and Myspace's own Pacewon, it certainly has the potential to be one of the most lyrically-potent groups of all time. In 2004, Killah Priest put out a Horsemen mixtape that was average at best, but the official studio album remains unfinished.
Here is a clip from the Tim Westwood radio show, featuring the Gravediggaz freestyling over Rahzel's beatboxing:
Gravediggaz and Rahzel The Human Beatbox
8/10/2006 9:58:32 AM posted by Fresh