Happy 30th Anniversary to Heather B.’s debut album Takin’ Mine, originally released June 11, 1996.
Heather B. Gardner a.k.a. Heather B. is an extremely skilled emcee who dropped a severely underappreciated debut, Takin’ Mine, 30 years ago. Sadly, her achievements throughout her musical career often get overlooked by what she did before and after.
In 1992, Heather B. was a member of the seven-person “cast” of the first season of The Real World, MTV’s groundbreaking reality show. Twenty years later, she became a co-host of Sway In the Morning, a successful radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio, created by longtime hip-hop personality Sway Calloway. Throughout this period (and even before), she plied her trade as a rapper, establishing herself as a formidable emcee. She recorded some extremely dope music, and Takin’ Mine is one of the mid-1990s’ hidden gems.
The New Jersey-bred emcee began her career affiliated with Boogie Down Productions, debuting on the group’s masterful Edutainment (1990). She appeared in the “Love’s Gonna Get Cha” video and dropped a passionate and awesomely belligerent verse on “7 Deejays.” Her effort to secure a record deal was the backdrop to her “story” on that initial season of The Real World, and she dropped the single “I Get Wrecked” through Elektra Records the same year the show aired. She eventually made her way to Pendulum/EMI Records, which released her initial full-length.
I admit that I didn’t discover Takin’ Mine until almost a decade after its release. I’d enjoyed the album’s first two singles, but never purchased the album (even I didn’t buy everything in 1996). In retrospect, I certainly missed out by not copping Takin’ Mine when it first hit the shelves.
Heather B. has a unique presence on the microphone, with her gruff vocals and boisterous delivery. She throws lyrical elbows and head-butts on par with the best emcees of the era, taking a no-nonsense approach to craft high-caliber hip-hop.
She finds an ideal partner with DJ Kenny Parker, who produced nearly the entirety of Takin’ Mine. Parker and Heather had an established history, as he served as BDP’s DJ (he’s also KRS-One’s brother) and produced the aforementioned “I Get Wrecked.” Here Parker does some of his best work behind the boards. His drum tracks hit hard, his basslines are thick and muddy, and he has a great ear for samples. Together, the two come together to create an album that captures the rough and rugged zeitgeist of mid-1990s East Coast hip-hop as well as any full-length of the era.
Takin’ Mine has among the best four-song opening stretches that I can think of. It begins with four straight musical personifications of Timberlands and hoodies, razor-under-the-tongue hip-hop. It establishes the album as another in the category of “winter albums that happened to be released during the summer.”
The run begins with “Da Heartbreaka,” a gritty opus built on a menacing piano sample from Herbie Hancock’s “Suite Revenge” and pounding drums. Heather B. utilizes off-center rhymes schemes throughout the second and third verse, as only rarely does one line rhyme with the next. “Recognize the most thoroughest, word is bond,” she raps. “Armored clips of lyrics and stacks of steel tracks.”
Listen to the Album:
The run continues with a trio of my personal favorite singles from the mid-1990s. “All Glocks Down” is an underappreciated East Coast anthem, as Heather B. flows to a sample of the Stylistics’ “People Make the World Go Round,” creating a perfect Jeep music track for traversing the streets of New Jersey on a cold winter night. “If Headz Only Knew…,” the album’s high-energy second single, showcases Kenny Parker’s aptitude as a producer, as he expertly chops a section of Hubert Laws’ “Family.” Heather drops three “intelligently hostile” verses, including an extended basketball-themed final verse.
“My Kinda N***a,” the album’s third single and Heather B.’s duet with M.O.P., unfolds as a track that could serve as the theme music for sticking up someone on the L Train during the mid-1990s. Parker creates a beat that could have come out of DJ Premier’s MPC, hooking up a downright threatening bassline, as both Billy Danze and Lil’ Fame manage to match Heather B.’s ferocity. “My squad knock, make you wannabe hard-rocks smoother,” Lil’ Fame raps. “And move ya with itchy trigger finger maneuvers.”
Heather B. dispenses hefty battle rhymes throughout. On “Sendin’ ’Em Back” she boasts how “another Heather B freestyle done hit the streets” to a plucky bassline and stabs of synths. “No Doubt” features her wrecking shop to chopped portions of Weather Report’s “Mysterious Traveler.” “We gon' burn on three different crews from three different hoods,” she raps. “I don’t know who lied and told you it was all good / Not around here and that's word / Leavin' teeth on the corner and ass on the curb.”
“Real N****z Up” is Takin Mine’s sole entry not produced by Kenny Parker, featuring a bass heavy track by Da Beatminerz. It also features solid verses by Tone 2000 and Thorough Bo of Heather B’s 54th Regiment crew. I have no idea if they really rolled 54 deep, but Heather does assert it many times throughout the project.
Heather B. does occasionally cover some topical material. The title track is a heartfelt recollection of her grind to get her album out and her efforts to snatch by force her deserved respect from the music industry. Though the verses are strong, the track falters a bit on the musical end. Parker’s incorporation of a portion of Luther Vandross’ “Promise Me” clashes with the neck-snapping drum track, dampening the track’s power.
The backdrop of “Mad Bent” features Heather B. examining her potentially damaging usage of alcohol and weed. The song’s third verse is particularly powerful, as she vents against record labels that have underestimated her during her career, warning them that “I'm not your standard female rapper, so motherfucker, don’t label me.” Later, she ends the album with “What Goes On,” where she delivers a description of what she’s looking for in a potential mate to a sample of the intro of Kool & the Gang’s “Summer Madness.”
Takin’ Mine certainly deserved more attention and acclaim than it received. Though Heather B. doesn’t rap as much these days, her debut holds up as well as the best albums from the mid-1990s era. She forced the industry to respect her abilities without compromising her music. I just wish the public, me included, had been ready for what she provided.
Listen: