As I listened to an advance copy of the All Stars’ new record, All City, which drops on Tuesday, my toddler daughter snoozed on my lap. Halfway through the record, we took our shower. As she poked different parts of her daddy and worked on vocabulary n “chin,” “chest,” “shoulder” n the All Stars’ verses danced through my head.
I thought of all the words that the All Stars know n “guns,” “dope,” “whore” n that I wish my daughter would never have to learn.
The enormous power of this record with its message from the streets still has me thinking. I’ll say right out that it’s the most powerful full-length record the St. Louis hip-hop scene has yet produced.
With all due respect to Nelly, who built this as a hip-hop city, there is a lightness to his touch. Even before Suit, when he emerged as an R&B artist rather than a rapper, there was always more dance than thrust to Nelly’s flow. I have done time in New York on the fringes of its hardest hip-hop scene, the Wu-Tang Clan. Out there, St. Louis rap has always been considered soft.
All City is already changing that. The record ends with a remix of the All Stars’ first single, “So Serious,” which features Styles P n a connection that instantly scored in the NYC scene. New York’s hottest mixtape men, DJ Technic and DJ Fury, already want the Stars to host for them. In a scene where piracy is the highest form of flattery, All City is already being bootlegged. This record is not set to pop; it’s already popping n before the street date.
You would have to be deaf to wonder why.
The guys in the All Stars n Nimmy Russell, Top Dolla, Trust and Vic Damone n all went to school on the streets. They have learned the hard lessons that connect with hip-hop’s core crowd, and they have each developed a voice with grit, poetry and truth. “I’m not happy,” Nimmy raps, “so I’m gonna make the meanest music.” These brothers make the meanest music with their mouths.
And they do it on top of some deep, hard beats, courtesy of in-house guys like Mike Wayne and Harley Davidson (for Calypso) and local old-schoolers Flex, Al Big Hands and Ben Monroe Jr., aka Big Ben, of XP Music, who made the beat for “So Serious,” a song St. Louis will sing for at least another generation.
It’s a sign of the maturity of the All Stars’ organization, Black on Black/Quit Playing Ent., that the record opens with six consecutive house-made beats, including the runaway single, “Do Whatcha Do,” which Mike Wayne built (with the help of Al Big Hands). Also, on a record with a number of tasty features n Murphy Lee, Bun B, Akon, Lil Webbie, Just Black and Olaha n the All Stars are very much the stars of their own record.
The genius of All City is how intensely the All Stars lived with the tracks n how tightly woven their verses are with the underlying rhythms and hooks. Unlike so many rap records, which sound like a disembodied voice floated over a rent-a-beat, this is a record of songs, built tight.
I have been a frequent visitor to their studio during the writing and recording of All City, and I have seen up close how hard these young men sweat their art. I have heard them play and replay a track, scribbling down verses, sharpening their verses, rapping them, rewriting them, worrying every syllable and sound like the hard-wired poets they are.
It paid off. And, at the end of their effort, mix master Adam Long brought out the bass end of the beats, made the keyboards pierce through the upper register and got the vocals right up in our grill.
All of this has me thinking about the future of the All Stars.
They are in good, smart hands. Black on Black/Quit Playing Ent. signed the All Stars to a distribution deal with Universal which offers them a far higher payback on units sold than a full label deal would, and their management team is grinding from market to market to pave the way for sales. They have even arranged a national tour with The Game.
A hot record, a smart deal, a spotlight tour and tight promotion is a potent combination. It’s not a bad bet that the All Stars will have a monster hit n and the Nimmy Russell solo record, which is already underway, would likely follow suit with the same success. Things could get crazy. Blink twice, and these brothers might be on in a big way.
I imagine their future as I listen to this urgent, sexy, dangerous record, which has at its heart the nightmare of the streets.
“All City, where it’s not at all pretty.” “Daddy’s on crack, Mama’s prostituting.” “Guns, dope and money.” “He ran with a crowd full of snakes and phonies, who he loved and respected because they called him ‘homy.'” “Hating on your homeboys get ya killed round here.” “I buried my best friend.”
If that is the subject of your art n if that’s your life n then what do you do if your art transforms your life into success?
I picture Nimmy Russell when I imagine their future. Due props to all the All Stars n an artist with genius, every one n but Nimmy is a superstar. He opens his mouth, you hear it. He enters a room, you feel it. He has the voice, the hooks, the message, the look, even the name: Nelly, Chingy, Nimmy. It’s his destiny to become known by first name alone.
Listen to his verses on the story song “You Don’t Know Dem Guys,” and you realize this guy could write just about anything he set his talent to n short fiction, a play, a novel, a screenplay, you name it. He’s a pure storyteller.
So I picture Nimmy Russell as a rich old man in robe and slippers, his hat still cocked funny, working on his novel or his screenplay or his rich old man R&B record. I hope all this grinding and ambition has a happy ending. Maybe I am trying to tell these brothers that you can become the poet of the streets n of the wrong end of the wrong streets, where it ain’t at all pretty n and that can be your ticket to get off the streets.
Think about it, cousins. But go get on first.
