Revisiting the lost Council Era album, twenty years later

Listening to this album again reminds me of a few important facts. For starters, certified mentalist The Jaz aka Jaz-O was making some great beats in the late nineties. Secondly, apparently Avirex still held some weight in certain sections of Brooklyn in 1998. Thirdly, this vaulted LP from the guys who would later put out the King Kounty album encapsulated the breadth that the seemingly endless run-time of rap CD’s from the era brought us – covering just about every base imaginable in an effective fashion and delivering a varied listening experience that stands up to multiple spins. Just for shits ‘n gigs, I thought I’d review this properly for historical purposes.

‘Intro: The Mathematical Calculator’

Something about another group with the same name getting a write-up in Vibe. Par for the course for 1998 skits really.

‘Hear Me Out’

Remember when everybody was going ape for those overly chopped-up MPC beats? This is better than most of them I guess, but the rapping sounds like a warm-up session for the next song.

‘Banannas’

Now we’re talking! A fella by the name of the Dominator Dom Flava (who produced half of the LP) laces a catchy foundation for the trio to unleash a buttery-smooth flow-on routine.

‘Prepare For The Shining’

A superior jeep music/jiggnorant club jam with a nickle-slick groove.

‘Council Era’

This is basically the BK version of ‘Killed In The Crap Game’, meaning that it’s an incredible slice of that rough, rugged and hardcore that Parrish Smith was always banging on about.

‘Interlude’ [skit]

This is actually pretty funny for a sex skit. Well played.

‘Roscoe’

The obligatory boot-knock anthem, and an entertaining one at that.

‘Party Nights’ feat. Jaz-O

The second diddy-bop offering, this is basically a Harlem World song with a better vocabulary. Thumbs up.

‘Total Recall’

Weird beat but catchy nevertheless, thanks to a fairly intense vocal barrage from P Knocka, Floss and Dibiase.

‘Get Outta Da Game’

Remember when you had to have a cautionary tale about not getting caught-up in the street life? Council did. This is nice though.

‘Missing You’

A heartfelt song about dead parents. Way to kill my buzz, fellas.

‘Interlude’ [skit]

A pause-worthy skit about the luh dudes got for each other.

‘Give Me 4 Minutes’

A welcome return to the uptempo stuff, as the lads deliver a great brag rap showcase which combines equal parts science and showmanship.

‘World Premiere’

A Tonka-tough blues riff, loud drums and strings drive this superb example of hardcore Brooklyn rap.

‘Rock A Bye Baby’

Third trip to the bar. This album was expertly sequenced in terms of keeping it varied.

‘Interlude’ [skit]

Another SOBB story.

‘We’re On Top Of Thangs’

Another headcracker, this was later remixed and released as the b-side to their second Tommy Boy single.

‘Call It Quits’

Solid street-level track.

‘The Will’

This beat is busy as fuck but somehow works as the crew do a stand-out job of staying on theme.

‘Live’

Might have been better to finish the album with ‘The Will’. This isn’t bad but lacks the same punch.

‘Outro’

Easily the best rap outro skit to ever feature humorous Italian ethnic stereotypes. Salutes!

The Verdict: Council Era covers a lot of ground but wins because they execute each style as effectively as the other, providing a varied rap album that doesn’t outstay it’s welcome and only delivers a single skippable song (‘Missing You’), but even that isn’t that bad. If this album had actually been released, it would easily rate as a late nineties classic.

Since this thing still hasn’t come out at retail or reissue, here’s a free internets version courtesy of Zippyshare Records and Tapes…

Download: Council – Council Era

Here’s some extra backstory, courtesy of the Fat Lace blog comments section:

Mike Moskowitz November 14, 2012 16:38 pm
I own the masters, once owned Rancore Records (now defunct). I liked the Council Era Album as well, the problem came when we had to cough up $250,000 in sample clearance fees.

And some of the samples were not clearable unless we had a strong arm contract with the Label that owned the publishing. Well, that’s my 2 cents.

The Council February 14, 2013 11:49 am
We loved recording this album. We never received a real valid response as to why the album wasn’t released. At the time Eddie O from Tommy Boy wanted to put out the album and had every intention to partner with Mike Moskowitz but he couldn’t stop Tommy Boy from dissolving. Mike Moskowitz never made it clear as to why the album couldn’t go out. There was a lot of smoke and mirrors, however we moved on and started another project which was the Kingz Kounty album which was sabotaged by Jaz-O and Mike Moskowitz. Mike Moskowitz became a sycophant to Jaz-O or vice versa and for some strange reason (out of the blue) Mike Moskowitz was convinced by Jaz-O that it was Jaz-o who would be the primary focus when the original Council members which was now known as the Immobilarie and the other members were to be in a secondary position. Jaz-O was brought in as a producer and we made sure Mike Moskowitz understood his role in the whole picture. But of course these two marketing geniuses (that was a joke) had a few tricks up their sleeves. In fact the reason the name of the album is Jaz-O and the Immobilarie but only has a few Jaz-O songs on it (which weren’t even supposed to be), is because Jaz-O and Mike Moskowitz changed the billing at the last minute behind our backs, they even tried to remove our songs at a mastering session which we intercepted. The name of the album was supposed be the Immobilarie, period. Jaz-O was just a feature and a producer, supossed to be member of the Immobilarie. He decided to promote Kingz Kounty as some imaginary crew that had zero members, literally. We had no idea who and what Kingz Kounty was but the Brooklyn itself but when asked what it was he responded it was his movement, but his movement was no one. He inserted Kingz Kounty into the marketing overnight and we didn’t even see it coming. It never occurred to Mike Moskowitz that Jaz-O putting out a diss song dissing Jay-Z was going to be a disaster (and the marketing genius of year award goes to…) when everyone in the Council told him it was the biggest mistake he could make or let Jaz-O make during an album release and period. For example putting out a $30,000 ad in the Source magazine versus shooting a video, the ad runs in circulation for one month versus a video that creates more buzz in syndication. Mike Moskowitz always seemed to be stubborn and completely oblivious to reality when it came to both Council Era and Kingz Kounty, the latter being a vampiric attempt for Jaz-O to resurrect himself from the dead at the expense of destroying the opportunity of the Council that brought him in on the whole situation. To this day we are all trying to figure out why would Jaz-O cross us and then turn around and be a hypocrite and blame Jay-Z for seeing what he did to us and cutting him loose. That is why Jay-Z cut Jaz-O off; it was common knowledge that Jaz-O was doing everyone dirty at the time even DJ Premiere was stiffed for his money. Juan at Bassline studios was stiffed and it all started to feel like there was something really dark about Jaz-O. Mike Moskowitz let Jaz-O arrange secret meetings, arrangements, and project changes behind everyone’s back. We never wanted to be involved with that whole Jay-Z beef because we respected Jay-Z and he respected us. There were many times when Jay-Z had to call Jaz-O and ask him a thousand times why was he saying what he was saying about Jay-Z and Jaz-O would blame Sauce Money and cop a plea and actually deny he said any of it. Just like he recanted the fact that he said Jay-Z was “letting industry big wigs feel him up”. Now watch the video of him saying it then watch the video of him denying it. That’s classic Jaz-O a schizophrenic, bi-polar personality disorder. So as the Council and the Immobilarie we apologize to all of our fans who were robbed of what could have been a great catalog of music, a real hip hop legacy. We also would like to make it very clear that we never ever condoned the disrespect sent to Jay-Z and we were the only people against it. Besides it having a direct effect on our careers, we had an ethical stance against it because we saw a miserable man and incompetent President perpetuating the slander of one of our successful brothers – Jay-Z. In peace to all of our beloved we send our best regards but we had to expose the truth so you can finally know what happened to Council and the Immobilarie who consisted of P Knocka, Floss, and Dibiase.