Happy 30th Anniversary to Hard 2 Obtain’s debut (and only) studio album Ism & Blues, originally released July 5, 1994.
Hip-hop heads of a certain age consider 1994 to be on one of the best years ever for the genre. There is certainly a legitimate argument to be made. Many hip-hop immortals and other top emcees and crews released their debut albums that year, while even more artists released phenomenal second or third albums. Anyway you slice it, if you were consuming hip-hop music 30 years ago, an embarrassment of riches was available for you to play.
Invariably, amongst all that great product, some thoroughly enjoyable albums got lost in the shuffle. Artists like Dred Scott, Da Odd Squad, Down South, Scientifik, Nefertiti, and many others were victims of a crowded market. In any other year, these projects might have received more ears or spins, but for whatever reason, they didn’t quite connect with a wider audience.
I was a college freshman/sophomore in 1994, and if I’d have bought every single album that got 3 to 3.5 mics in The Source that year, I would not have been able to afford food. I discovered many of these albums years after the fact, during the hip-hop blog era.
One of these albums that almost slipped through the cracks was Hard 2 Obtain’s debut Ism & Blues. Unlike projects by Dred Scott and Down South, I heard it at the time it was released, but only because a high school friend had received a promo copy of the tape and passed it off to me. His loss, because it was a highly enjoyable album.
The Long Island-based crew was comprised of Warren “Taste” Mason, Lorenzo “DL” Smith and Kevin “DJ Six Seven” Calhoun. Their first and only long-player, released 30 years ago on Atlantic Records, was produced almost in its entirety by SD50s/Stimulated Dummies, one of the most talented production crews of the ’90s.
Though it received mixed reviews when first released, the album’s stature has grown over time. It’s now considered one of the underappreciated gems of its era.
Ism & Blues exemplifies the no gimmicks approach that emcees and crews signed to major labels could still take during the mid ’90s. Atlantic believed in Hard 2 Obtain enough to release a total of three singles and film a pair of videos, which is a considerable amount of promo material in a crowded market. Three decades later, when most artists care an inordinate amount about crafting their brand, Ism & Blues exists as a stand-alone collection of dope music.
The beats on the project are superbly crafted and exceptionally banging. SD50s didn’t often commit to producing nearly an entire album, but when they did, they came correct. And Ism & Blues is no exception. The crew was well known for their ability to take dusty soul and jazz tracks and transform them into hip-hop bliss. They excelled at creating both thick, sonically packed production, and simpler, sparser endeavors.
Listen to the Album:
What has been said about Taste as an emcee tends to focus on the fact that his vocal tone sounded a lot of like Grand Puba, one of the era’s more celebrated lyricists. The fact that SD50s had frequently worked with Puba as both a member of Brand Nubian and as a solo artist made the comparisons even more glaring. Though Taste was not as adept as Puba, he certainly proved himself competent, and both he and DL acquit themselves well on the SD50’s production.
Hard 2 Obtain’s most recognizable song is “L.I. Groove,” a dedication to repping the area of their birth. The track is a near production masterpiece by the SD50s, as it starts with just Taste and DL kicking their rough raps over a cracking drum track and muted bassline. Slowly, the production team brings a jazzy sax sample and a distinctive piano loop from Melvin Sparks’ “If You Want My Love.” Eventually everything interlocks together to create a song as dope as anything released during the mid ’90s.
And as crews were wont to do during this era, Hard 2 Obtain recorded a lot of tracks that were focused on exploring and extolling their own lyrical ability. They display these skills on tracks like “Joker’s World” and “Babble On,” which set the album’s mood from the outset. Taste and DL channel hip-hop’s old school days on “Parkyard Lingo,” flowing over a funky but understated bassline, taken from Maynard Ferguson’s “Pocahontas.” “Bust Me Down” is blessed with another sublime saxophone sample and a smooth but moving keyboard groove, as Taste raps, “I’m all that / freaking all the flows that broke your speaker stack / and make you turn your fucking hat back.”
“A Lil’ Something,” the album’s busy posse cut, is notable for an early appearance by both members of Artifacts. The New Jersey roughnecks were also signed to Atlantic Records and would release their debut album Between a Rock and a Hard Place mere months later. Tame One delivers the best verse on the song, rapping, “Do damage like a tumor, walk through asses in my Pumas.” The song also features what I believe is the first and only appearance of Raquel, an emcee that sounds quite similar to LA’s own Yo-Yo, another Atlantic signee.
Hard 2 Obtain don’t solely focus on lyrical braggadocio, as some of the album’s best moments come when they address different topics. “S*** We Do,” produced by DJ Nastee, chronicles a day in the life of Taste and DL, as they wander through their L.I. ’hood, shooting dice and getting into various forms of trouble. The slow and deliberate bassline gives the track its laid-back feel.
On the more serious end, tracks like “Heels Without Souls” and “Street Dwellers” chronicle the dangers that they face living in the rougher parts of Long Island, warning of the denizens that are out to wreak havoc with remorse. “Local Hero” is a sharp bit of storytelling by the crew, as they chronicle the criminal aspirations of Old Man Vin and his growing empire. After setting up a 60-man crew of dealers and street soldiers, he becomes a neighborhood celebrity, before eventually running afoul of crooked cops and rivals gunning for his spot.
The DJ Nastee-produced “Ghetto Diamond,” the album’s second single, functions as Hard 2 Obtain’s inverted version of MC Lyte’s “Ruffneck” or a less explicit version of Apache’s “Gangsta B****.” The song is a dedication to beautiful and street-savvy women who rock Timberlands and jeans and have “slammin’ ass mentals.” Songs celebrating women you can puff a blunt and drink a beer with are very much a product of the mid-’90s, but this one holds up.
While many of the 1994 alumnus are still present in hip-hop three decades later, Hard 2 Obtain has all but disappeared. These days, the market for hip-hop music is even more flooded and it’s even harder to hold the listener’s attention for more than a week. Ism & Blues was good enough to desire a follow-up album, to hear what they would have sounded like over more SD50s production. But if I need to settle for one album that sounds even better now than it did then, I’ll just have to live with it.
LISTEN:
Editor's note: this anniversary tribute was originally published in 2019 and has since been edited for accuracy and timeliness.