Happy 25th Anniversary to Funkdoobiest’s second studio album Brothas Doobie, originally released July 4, 1995.
As successful sophomore albums go, Funkdoobiest’s Brothas Doobie flies under the proverbial radar. Released 25 years ago, the group course-corrected from the missteps of their first album and gave the audience a glimpse into their full potential. As members of the Soul Assassins camp, Jason “Son Doobie” Vasquez, Tyrone “Tomahawk Funk” Pacheco, and DJ Ralph “M” Medrano used the album to stand on their own.
Funkdoobiest’s first release Which Doobie U B? (1993) was decent enough, but it was largely carried by the production of Ralph M, DJ Muggs, DJ Lethal, and T-Ray. It was very clear that Son Doobie was young and hadn’t really defined has style yet. He sounded like a mix of B-Real and Das EFX, letting off a stream of disconnected pop culture references in a deeper nasal vocal tone. There was nothing that really distinguished it from other Soul Assassins’ releases.
Funkdoobiest came into Brothas Doobie a little more seasoned and with a stronger sense of their identity. The album flows as a cohesive whole, even though it has two defined halves. The first half of Brothas Doobie represents the best music that the group ever recorded. Much of it has to do with the subject matter, as the crew takes a more pensive tone, grappling with the effects of poverty, violence, and despair on entire communities.
Soul Assassins affiliates handle the vast majority of the album’s production, with DJ Muggs taking the foremost role. Though Muggs is best known for his gritty, buzzed approach to production, many of the album’s finest moments feature a more deliberate, often evocative backdrop. On the mic, Son Doobie takes the spotlight on Brothas Doobie. Nearly two thirds of the tracks on the album are solo tracks, which allow him to display his growth as a lyricist. However, Tomahawk Funk’s role as an emcee is severely reduced, as he appears on only four songs on the album.
“Rock On,” the album’s first single, sets the tone for the album, as Son Doobie and Tomahawk seek spiritual enlightenment in a world of full of sin and temptation. The verses are filled with allusions to terminology from the NGE, as it becomes a tale of the righteous seeking to overcome the wicked. Though the Muggs produced version of the track is strong, the remix, handled by D.I.T.C.’s Buckwild, is even stronger.
“Dedicated,” the album’s second single, continues in this vein. It’s bolstered by Muggs’ production, which transforms a sample of Roy Ayers’ classic “Everybody Loves the Sunshine,” one of the most joyful songs of all time, into something melancholy and mournful. With his pair of verses, Son Doobie contemplates the lives of “all the lost souls,” from those hustling on the street to those locked up behind bars. He dedicates his first verse to the those “catching hell, paying dues” while living in the inner-city, in a predicament where “surviving’s just a job as they dodge caps daily.” As a product of these surroundings, Son Doobie thanks his friends who, though living “rowdy on the rooftop,” still kept him focused on searching for a way to live a better life.
Finding a way to succeed in a world where everything is rigged is a constant theme during Brothas Doobie’s first half. Son Doobie mentally struggles to deal with life’s pressures on “Lost in Thought,” furiously searching for a way to survive in a hostile environment. Meanwhile, both he and Tomahawk Funk lament the lives of lost souls on the haunting “Ka Sera Sera,” portraying the lives of a fly girl turned speed-freak stripper to a young man who kills in hopes of earning respect from the neighborhood.
Son Doobie utilizes remarkably solid storytelling skills on “What the Deal.” He describes a day unfolding in Los Angeles, and all the good and bad that he encounters, from going to the liquor store, to hanging out in front of his building, to heading to a late-night party. Muggs again sets the mood perfectly, sampling portions of Grover Washington’s version of “Mercy, Mercy Me,” and adding soulful background vocals.
Funkdoobiest focuses the second half of Brothas Doobie on extremely sexually explicit material, playing off of Son Doobie’s “porno king” persona. Some entries are better than others. “XXX Funk” is solid, where the “triple x, hardcore nasty, ill filthy” emcee flexes over Muggs’ dustiest beat on the album, a throwback to his early ’90s era sound. “Pussy Ain’t Shit” is a clear miss, and a waste of a dope Muggs’ horn loop. The song is an in-depth dissertation on women’s genitals and the misdeeds that men engage in when obsessed with sexual gratification. All in all, it pretty much falls flat.
“Superhoes” is a middling entry. The subject matter, the sexual escapades of cartoon superheroes and other nursery rhyme characters, is cringe-worthy, but the song is saved by a rumbling bassline and solid drums by Muggs. The song was released early on the Friday soundtrack (1995), and it’s best remembered for scoring the scene where Deebo punks Red for his bicycle.
The best entries on Brothas Doobie’s back half come from when the group strays away from the porno-themed material. “It Ain’t Goin’ Down,” produced by DJ Lethal, features Son Doobie describing the pain of being betrayed by close friends. “Tomahawk Bang,” a Tomahawk Funk solo outing, allows the under-utilized emcee to celebrate his Native American heritage over a chaotic Ralph M track.
The album ends strong with “Who Ra Ra,” a jazzy braggadocio track, with a horn sample from Dizzy Gillespie’s “Matrix” giving the song a triumphant feel. Son Doobie takes a victory lap, boasting, “The fronts in my grill coerce what I utter / The wild Puerto Rican with the style from the gutter.”
The song also features a leadoff verse from Brett Bouldin, the mentor to many of the members of the Soul Assassins. Bouldin founded the group 7A3 in the late ’80s, of which Muggs was a member. He also helped teach Son Doobie, B-Real, and others in the group how to put together songs, and developed Cypress Hill as a group. After largely stepping away from the mic after 7A3 stopped recording, he delivers a solid verse here, rapping, “The brother from the ruff, yo, shines like the diamond / The broke n***a grinding ’til the paid n***a rhyming.”
Funkdoobiest changed their trajectory after the album. For one thing, they left the Soul Assassins fold, as their follow-up Troubleshooters (1997) was produced almost entirely by Ralph M. For another, Tomahawk Funk left the crew (though returned over a decade later). And finally, rather than going the more psychologically complex route, Son Doobie leaned even more into the “Porno King” persona. Rappers have a long history of being involved in the realms of adult entertainment, from scoring films to “hosting” them. To my knowledge, Son Doobie is the only established rapper who actively “participated” in a couple of porno films in the late ’90s. He went on to have a respectable career as a solo rapper.
Later forays into the adult film industry by no means undercut the depth Funkdoobiest showed across Brothas Doobie. They successfully put together an album that captured their sensibilities as artists. Whether giving voices to the voiceless or detailing the sexual exploits of Little Bo Peep and Betty Boop, Funkdoobiest definitely knew who they were this time around.
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