The Unkut Guide To Steady B Solo Albums

After realising that I only own one Steady B album (and all of his Pop Art singles), I thought I might revisit his catalogue in order to fill in some gaps in my Philly rap knowledge.

Bring The Beat Back

Fresh off his run of popular answer records and duets with Shante, the rapper formerly known as MC Boob was full of teenage piss and vinegar, to use an outdated turn of phrase. While ‘Take Your Radio’ sadly isn’t included, the new stuff such as ‘Get Physical’ and ‘Hit Me’ (the opening of which bears a striking resemblance to the Clipse’s ‘Grindin’‘ beat) hits the mark alongside old favourites such as ‘Yo Mutha’ and ‘Bring The Beat Back’. ‘Surprise’ is Steady’s contribution to the Philly tradition of amusing story raps, detailing the time he unwittingly got a blowski from a dude (!?) and later made the rookie error of cheating on his girlfriend at home. This album still holds up well if you enjoy loud snares and classic breaks getting cutting up, courtesy of DJ Grand Dragon KD.

What’s My Name

Now the grand old age of seventeen, Steady was growing in confidence and solidified his status as a Philly rap mainstay when the Maze-driven ‘Use Me’ became a local hit. Now with Joe ‘The Butcher’ Nicalo behind the boards, the album has a more polished sound, even featuring a couple of songs with live drumming courtesy of Andy Kravitz. The title track is a vintage piece of 1987 Brag Rap, complete with a guitar stabs, the crew yelling in the background and a hard hitting drum machine beat.

The focus of this LP is really DJ Tat Money, since any rapper worth his salt in P.A. in the eighties needed a champion-level DJ backing them up. As a result, ‘Gangster Rockin’, ‘My Benz’ and in particular ‘Rockin’ Music’ serve to showcase Tat’s top shelf scratching skills. Rounding things off, we get a dose of neighborhood pride on ‘The Hill Top’ and an unfortunate tale about a broad who didn’t want to put out but did anyway on ‘Rong Ho’le’. Steady also declares, ‘To all those people out there that aren’t down with hip-hop, just shut up and like it!’ Can’t argue with him on that one.

Let The Hustlers Play

Only a year later, the gimmick of being a teenager with a great DJ was already starting to wear thin when compared to the massive advances that were happening in rap in 1988. It was hard to get excited about a new Steady B in the midst of Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane and Ultramagnetic, especially since B was still rapping like it was 1986. I get that impression that Jive Records sensed this, as they enlisted his labelmate KRS-One to provide a few beats (or at least oversee DJ Doc) to make the Hilltop Hustler more appealing to rap fans looking for that newest latest.

The remixes of ‘Serious’ and ‘Let The Hustlers Play’ certainly got the job done as far as the singles were concerned, but the album itself feels a little flat, despite the best efforts of Chuck Nice and BDP. Rapping over James Brown loops could still work in ’88, but Steady B sounds like he’s on cruise control as he delivers pretty generic raps about how great he is, without the awkward charm and humour of his older story raps to balance it out.

Going Steady

The year was 1989, and every rap album was contractually required to have at least one ‘conscious’ jam. Steady’s effort, ‘Analogy of a Black Man’ is solid enough, while ‘Stone Cold Hustler’ finds B talking about being stereotyped as a drug dealer because he’s flaunting that rap money, but after that it’s right back into 1986 mode. An unfortunate side-effect of the split with Three Times Dope means that Chuck Nice wasn’t available to help with the beats this time, so it’s up to Steady and LG to handle the loops themselves, which means a lot of JB’s and Average White Band.

‘Nasty Girls’ is this album’s shot at a radio/club record, but proves to be simultaneously too much like a 2 Live Crew record and yet not enough like something Uncle Luke would do, while ‘Going Steady’ is typical Sap Rap and ‘Use Me Again’ fails to rekindle the magic of the original. Elsewhere, the ‘Mac Daddy’ beat seems to shamelessly bite EPMD’s ‘So Whatcha Sayin” (unless this came out first), while ‘Purple Haze’ ticks the other mandatory ’89 rap box by providing a Hip-House track. At this point, I can imagine only the most loyal of Steady B fans were still on deck.

V

Two years later, and Steady B is starting to sound like a relic of a forgotten age. That’s not to say that this album doesn’t have it’s moments, but songs like ‘Pay Me Baby’ feel like the Hilltop’s version of a Tone Loc single from 1988, and the less said about ‘Girl’s Gonna Getcha’ the better. Things improve later on, as the second half of the LP seems to be dedicated to Cool C and Stead repeatedly shitting on 3XD, Tat Money and Kwame. ‘U-Za-Flea’ even lets Steady’s dancers get on the mic, which seemed to be the done thing around this time.

‘And U Don’t Stop’ is kind of an updated version of ‘Cussin’ N Bussin’, ‘I Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere’ is a last ditch attempt to prove his relevance, and ‘Licence To Kill’ is a regrettable cops and robbers fantasy in light of how things wound up for Stead and Cool. Musically, things are pretty grim, featuring some low-budget beats that are only distinguished from the catchy jazz flute snippets on the final two tracks. Nevertheless, this is still miles ahead of Going Steady thanks to the various guests adding some variety to the raps.

The Verdict: The first two albums are definitely worth owning, but I’d just stick to the singles for the rest.