-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- @O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O Suburban Terrorism Online Rap and Roll Preservationists @O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O0@O This Issue: We plunge into the depths of my soul. OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO EDITOR'S NOTE "Sometimes I can't fight the feeling (can you handle the pressure) These setbacks they come the millions every day's an episode can you handle the load?" The theme of Suburban Terrorism Online. -*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+- IT'LL BE LIKE 91 TILL THE LAST TIME YOU SEE US By BMC -*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+- 24 karat gold spews from Above The Law's smash hit, "Deep Az The Root." A lot different (better) than anything that we've heard in 98' by a long shot (including "Guess Who's Back"). The one question is, "Did they know that this song was actually good?" If so, why did they make the rest of the album so BAD? Reguardless of how musically weak this album is, their smash hit (track 8) dings the bell for The Neo-Comintern's best rap n' roll single of the 9-izzo. Where did ATL come from? I probably first heard of them because I saw that they were releasing stuff on The E's label, Ruthless Records. Their first solid gold album, "Livin' Like Hustlers" was on the walkman of many citizens of the fair planet Earth, including portions of Massey's population, namely some young man named MC Boss MC. No man can say they created he. Let's stop for a moment and look back on a moment of this young man's life. At seven thirty sharp, the tape playing alarm clock sounds. It pumps out the alarm clock radio station sagment which preludes The title track, "Livin Like A Hustla." Shower cycle progresses and ends, then the towel-clad young man grabs the newspaper from the front door's mailbox. Suddenly he notices that he is flooding the streets with the loud music of "Menace To Society." Suddenly, KMG and Cold 187um pull up to the door in a classic Cadilac limosine. The boy is transported to a distant place that is quite close in terms of his mind. That afternoon he recieves lessons from the band members on lessons such as how to cut an ounce of cocaine, how to fire a gun into someone's body, how to mack to a bitch, pimp a ho, and desensitize his young mind to all of this at the same time. Of course this may all be mataphorical, but it might as well have been the real steel. ATL's first album has been one of my top 5 of all time since the first time I bought the cassette. I have lost the albums or destroyed them by overplaying them, but I have rebought the album a total of SEVEN times. That was a beautiful gallery that will never die, but what happened betwenn then and now? After listening to the immortal song "Ballin" hundreds of times, the song was still as fresh as it was at the first listen. But it was like 89 since the last time we'd seen them, and Above The Law surprised us by bursting back onto the scene with their self-titled album, "Black Mafia Life". It had a very different feel from "Livin Like Hustlaz," mainly because the beat became a hundred times funkier. Classic songs on it include the fat samples of "G's & Macaronies," the fat rhymes on "G-Rupies Best Friend," fat beats on "Pimp Clinic," and my personal favourite: a fat cameo appearance by Eazy-E on "Game Wreck-Oniz-Iz Game." This album was almost as good as the debut album, but it wasn't quite one of the all-time greats. Then Above The Law came out with "Uncle Sam's Curse," an album which I never bothered to buy. Next came "Time Will Reveal," where ATL had suddenly switched over from Ruthless to Tommy Boy. Well, I never liked the movie "Tommy Boy," and although this album has nothing to do with Chris Farley, I can't help but hate it for that unwarranted reason. The album, mind you, isn't very bad, but it is forgettable at best. There are a couple of decent tracks like "Clinic 2000" and "Killaz In The Park," but on the whole it isn't worth repeated listening, unless you are killing time, or playing a game of "Wario's Woods." That basically brings us back to their 1998 release. There is one song that is classifiable as "the muthafuckin bomb," but the rest is pretty terrible. The moral of this story is to quit while you're ahead. "Legends" is basically a kick-ass single that is wrapped in a bunch of packing foam. Way to cheat the fans, guys. The first album was solid gold, the second one was half good, the fourth one had one or two decent songs, and their latest album had ONE good song on it. What can we expect from ATL on their sixth album? Probably one good verse on a song. -*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+-*-+- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Issue #3 February 15th, 1999