15 thoughts on “No Country For Old (Rap) Men: Too Smooth, Too Soon”

  1. I saw Kane in an interview admit the”prince of darkness” was rubbish. By the time the third lp came out it was over for most of the juice crew, I remember buying “take a look around” by masta ace on import and the guys in the record shop said Marley marl is played out, you need to buy the Ubc lp. Hip hop fans were always looking for that new sound, especially in this period. Love Kane, going to see him in dec, one of the greats.

  2. This article was so on point. Most people are surprised when I tell ’em BDK isn’t in my Top 10 MCs (considering Rakim, G-Rap, & KRS are), but you outlined my exact reasons why.

  3. Kane will always be in my top three for his first 2 lp’s alone. I could even make his worst albums into a classic or at the very least, dope, ep

  4. I think Kane was smart to stop making albums unlike alot of his peers from his era because on the rare occasion he drops a verse he still sounds hungry. Kane might have made himself look bad but he didn’t make his legacy a complete joke like say KRS who hasn’t made good music since the mid 90’s but still continues to put out garbage.

  5. Funny thing is this article could have just as easily been about LL. The only difference is he was able to last a little longer. Better production would have helped Kane but then again Kane got crucified for rocking over R&B samples that were almost the norm 4, 5 years later (G Rap and Nas over Surface’s Happy, anyone?…)

  6. @oska: LL is still putting out albums with the occasional decent track, plus he started earlier, so he can’t be touched in terms of longevity.

  7. your summary is on point. long live the kane is an all time classic as we all know and the second lp could have been a classic if he cut it down to about 10 or 11 tracks. however after that he kept trying to cater to the radio and the ladies and lost his core fans who wanted him to keep dropping jams like raw over and over. the production was not nearly so good after he stopped working with marley for the most part, and that daddy’s home lp was just terrible imo. he became old hat and played out while nas and biggie and others stole his thunder. a lot of the great rappers from the 80’s that we all like immensely fell off pretty bad by the mid 90’s and kept releasing bad lp’s, at least kane stopped releasing bad lp’s and kept himself busy with features. i wish krs-one would stop dropping lp’s because he can’t carry a full length lp anymore, he might have one or two strong tracks and then the rest of the album is rubbish and filler.

  8. This article could apply equally to LL Cool J or Chubb Rock as BDK. Odd how BDK was shunned for doing exactly what Jay-Z, Notorious BIG and Nas would be doing by the late 90s. Blaming BDK’s fall from grace on the production is a cop out. The 2nd reason Heads stopped checking for BDK (after the sappy R&B pap) is because you can’t sustain an album career on braggadocio alone. You can’t just keep telling people how good you are at rapping; you have to eventually show and prove with topics/concepts/messages. If all you’ve got are variations on the same brags, it’s only a matter of time before people see you as all-mouth-no-trouser (see also Canibus and Rakim).

  10. ‘Taste of Chocolate’ has its high points, but to these ears, the hatred for ‘Prince of Darkness’ is criminal. ‘Death Sentence’, ‘Get Bizzy’, ‘Get On Down’, even ‘Ooh, Aah, Nah-Nah-Nah’all get props over here, and it’s a testament to just how great Kane’s first two albums were that people could legitimately consider this the sound of an emcee who’d fallen off.

  11. Even “Looks Like A Job For…” had its dope tracks: “The Beef Is On”, “Stop Shammin'”, “Rest In Peace”, “Niggaz Never Learn”, “Here Come Kane Scoob and Scrap” and the title track itself.

  12. The visuals that came with the taste of chocolate and the prince of darkness albums hurt kane during the no sellout era but the music was there. If “brother, brother” or “come on down” were released as singles instead of “this is for the lover in you” hip hop wouldn’t have flipped on him. Kane lost me around 94 when he moved to NC and his voice and cadence changed. Too soft, too soon, maybe but I’ll defend the music brought to albums 3,4 and 5, just not the visuals.

  13. I enjoyed the production on “Looks like a job for…” And the fast rapping “Nuff Respect” off the Juice soundtrack, but besides a few other album cuts on his early 90s albums, he wasn’t really garnering any attention from me…

  14. Bdk tried to be too smooth as silk. That album was a complete let down. Its like he was trying to be a skinny heavy d or something.
    Bdk everything was hot before he jump the shark trying to be a modern day barry white.

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