Happy 25th Anniversary to Aceyalone’s debut album All Balls Don’t Bounce, originally released October 24, 1995.
It’s a shame that terms like “paradigm shift” have become hackneyed corporate-speak. Though it’s now considered an empty corporate term, there really are some hip-hop artists that actively worked to create something “outside of the box” (spare me your eye-rolls, please) and challenge their audience. During the early to mid-1990s, few hip-hop artists challenged their audience like Freestyle Fellowship, the four-man crew of innovators from Los Angeles, California.
Edwin “Aceyalone” Hayes, Jr. would likely be considered the “breakout” star of Freestyle Fellowship. As a prolific artist, he’s considered one of the most prominent pioneers and elder statesmen of Los Angeles’ underground scene. He and his compatriots flourished in a scene that was anchored by the Good Life Café and the Project: Blowed talent incubators. Twenty-five years ago, he released All Balls Don’t Bounce, his first solo endeavor. At the time, it was perceived as an aggressively non-commercial undertaking by an emcee determined to establish his own dominance in the oddest way possible.
I’ll admit that I was late to my Freestyle Fellowship appreciation. I didn’t cop Innercity Griots (1993), their break-out second album, until over a year after it was first released, on the recommendation of good friend of mine. However, I was very much on board from the jump for an Aceyalone solo album. During the summer of 1995, while I was helping my homies put together some music to record, I copped the maxi-single for “Mic Check,” the first single from All Balls Don’t Bounce. My crew and I played it incessantly, marveling at Acey’s dexterity as a lyricist, and the almost alien way that he approached making music. I was convinced I was witnessing an upheaval of what hip-hop could be.
A quarter of a century later, one thing that I’ve noticed about All Balls Don’t Bounce is that much of it doesn’t sound so weird anymore. Sure, Aceyalone does occasionally go pretty deep into left field, but much of what was considered “aggressively non-commercial” back then doesn’t really seem that way anymore. Much of this has to do with the sheer number of emcees and crews that Freestyle Fellowship inspired in the last 25 years; we’re at the point where the metaphorical “grandchildren” of the Good Life/Project: Blowed era are rapping. Even crews that didn’t necessarily grow up listening to Aceyalone’s music, like Kendrick Lamar and the whole Black Hippy/TDE crew, share an unusual approach to rapping and creating albums.
The fact that Aceyalone was so ahead of the curve makes All Balls even more impressive retrospectively. The album is imaginative and inventive in ways that still stand out today. He’s a well-rounded emcee, but his years performing at open mics and getting busy in cyphers means that battling and asserting his dominance is encoded into his DNA as an artist.
Acey transforms into a lyrical dynamo on the aforementioned “Mic Check,” channeling enough energy to power Southern California in its entirety. “I love putting pressure on the lesser competitive,” he boasts. “Inferior you’re determined, vermin, shermin’ stick smoked / I got the elephantitus styles superior stroke / Of genius, I spoke, and hell broke loose / I saturated the streets, ’fatuated by drum beats.”
A couple of songs on All Balls first appeared on the Project: Blowed compilation (1994), an album designed to showcase many of the talents that were mainstays at the weekly event. Both fit incredibly well, as the Nonce-produced title track set the theme and message appropriately. “I Think” is a brief, self-produced track, where Aceyalone kicks a potent 16-bars and keeps it moving. He’s quite adept at verbal gymnastics, with each line interlocking together.
“Mr. Outsider” is All Balls’ soul and centerpiece, as Aceyalone expounds on his transformation into an iconoclastic artist, operating outside what’s expected of him as a rapper and a person. He details his life as “a n***a that the world don't care about,” avoiding gang life and trying to enjoy a Cooley High-like existence while attending high school. He details toiling to come up with a way that will shift how people listen to music. “It’s all about being a fighter,” he raps. “Use the guide to open up your mind a little wider.”
Much like Innercity Griots, Aceyalone often approaches tracks on All Balls like they were jazz compositions, using his voice as the lead instrument. This technique often works best when the sonic backdrop utilizes jazzy source material. He executes this approach perfectly on the Mumbles-produced “Greatest Show On Earth,” a dizzying spectacle. Acey rides the shifting bassline and vibes taken from chunks of Horacee Arnold’s “Orchards of Engeti.” It’s impressive to watch him keep pace with such an experimental track, rapping at dizzying speeds and utilizing such an expansive vocabulary without a single misplaced step.
“Headaches and Woes” is another jazz-soaked exhibition, as Aceyalone struggles with coping with being overwhelmed by his thoughts and anxieties, resolving to find solace in his rhymes. After flowing to a sample of the vibraphone intro to Milt Jackson’s “Moonray,” he segues into a spoken-word piece for the last quarter of the song, firing off stanzas over chaotic and abstract jazz.
Aceyalone does occasionally go even farther to the left, at least in terms of presentation and stylistic exhibitions. Aceyalone’s patterns and cadences on “Arhythamaticulas” are so unorthodox that it’s easy to get lost in the way he structures syllables, rapidly shifting time signatures, and overlook the content of his rhymes. I’ve listened to the track countless times over the last 25 years, and I’m still picking out the nuances of the song.
Acey conducts a literal style clinic on the Chillin Villain Empire-produced track, imploring both his audiences and his peers to expand their mind and set aside their conventional notions of what a hip-hop track should be, all while offering himself as an alternative to the mind-numbingly familiar. “Brother, I say to you but don't you believe or be deceived by the hip-hop that you breathe,” he raps. “I am multidirectional I move randomly and professional Intellectual with perpetual / First in motion busting you open / Now you are exposed to the rap and closed in the mind trap.”
Aceyalone also covers his interactions with the opposite sex a couple of times on All Balls. “Annalillia” is a buoyant, light-hearted entry, as he pursues a woman he meets at various bars around the city, only to realize that she’s just not into him. “Makeba” takes on a darker, haunting feel, as Acey reconnects with a teenage love who “disappeared into the night” without warning. There’s some serious emotional depth and maturity, as he realizes that people evolve in different ways, and that they still may not be right for each other.
He enlists fellow Los Angeles lyricist supreme Abstract Rude to assist him throughout All Balls. The pair had worked together extensively on Project: Blowed and they carry over that chemistry here. The mellow and melodic “Deep and Wide” is one of the least aggressive style exhibitions on the album, as both utilize smooth and watery rhyme flows. The boisterous “Knownots” is one of the best songs on the album, and certainly the most fun. Acey, Abstract, and Freestyle Fellowship member Myka 9 team up to “signify” their skills, waking those up who would sleep on the talents of the West Coast Underground.
All three later join with P.E.A.C.E. (also of Freestyle Fellowship) on “B-Boy Kingdom,” a call for musical revolution. While Myka provides the rousing rallying cry as a hook for the Fatjack-produced track, the other three emcees portray dedicated soldiers of the resistance, fighting guerilla warfare in their ongoing battle against an oppressive anti-hip-hop regime. All three give detailed accounts of the covert operations, turning it into a more violent hip-hop version of Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime.” “Now I possess the blueprint, I counter the message you sent,” Abstract, a.k.a. The Scorpion, raps. “No longer will you slander and tamper with our music.”
Aceyalone has continued with his productive solo career, releasing 15 full-length solo albums. He’s also teamed with Abstract Rude as the A-Team to release an album or two, formed the Haiku d'Etat triumvirate (himself, Abstract Rude, and Myka 9), as well as released a few more projects as a member of Freestyle Fellowship. Every time out, he offers something distinctive that no other artist than himself could have recorded. On All Balls, he’s content with being an outsider, even while he welcomes others to join his revolution.
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