Happy 30th Anniversary to Onyx’s second studio album All We Got Iz Us, originally released October 24, 1995.
Fall & early winter 1995 were a mini golden age for East Coast “street” hip-hop. As the year entered its final quarter, there were a wealth of albums released by NYC-centered artists that blended rugged beats with lyricism focused on ghetto survival. Of these many albums, All We Got Iz Us, Onyx’s sophomore album, is one of the best and most underappreciated.
The Queens-based group had already made their indelible mark on hip-hop with their debut album Bacdafucup (1993). Made up of Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones, Fred “Fredro Starr” Scruggs, and Tyrone “Sonny Seeza” Taylor, they were mentored by Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay, who signed them to his JMJ imprint, distributed through Def Jam. Onyx were gun-toting rhyme animals, sporting Timberlands and fatigues and rocking bald heads. They possessed boundless energy and seemingly shouted 90% of their rhymes. However, all three were skilled lyricists, and could command a live crowd.
In short order, they recorded two certified anthems, “Throw Ya Gunz” and “Slam,” and released Bacdafucup (1993). Both Bacdafucup and the single for “Slam,” were certified Platinum, with their music earning the group impressive crossover appeal.
A year-and-a-half later, Onyx followed up Bacdafucup with their sophomore release All We Got Iz Us. But rather than trying to replicate their previous success by recording new versions of “Slam,” they decided to dig deeper. What resulted is the best album in their discography. All We Got Iz Us is not accessible by any means; even less so than Bacdafucup. But it’s an album with striking emotional depth, backed up but rock-solid production.
All We Got Iz Us, released 30 years ago, is caked with palpable layers of sweat, grime, and pain. The album’s content is permeated with a claustrophobic sense of desperation. The group had previously recorded songs about robbing and stealing, but not quite like what’s offered here. Fredro, Sonsee, and Sticky Fingaz speak from the perspective of citizens on the edge, wallowing in poverty and pushed to the brink of insanity, resigned to stealing and robbing as the only way to put food in their stomachs.
All We Got Iz Us is one of the last great albums about post-Robert Moses, pre-Rudy Giuliani New York City. It presents an unvarnished view of the city in all of its pre-gentrified, rat-infested glory. It’s a brutally effective, unvarnished portrayal of the calcified violence and despair thick in the atmosphere of many of the city’s boroughs and neighborhoods. Onyx present little in the way of optimism for the future, focusing on the physical and psychological anguish that goes along with struggling to survive. They state that the only source of victory is to “maintain.”
Listen to the Album:
According to Sticky Fingaz and Fredro, the group made All We Got Iz Us only after scrapping other plans. Both Fredro and Sticky Fingaz had begun working on the small and big screen after the success of Bacdafucup, and both had been cast in supporting roles for the Michelle Pheiffer vehicle Dangerous Minds. Fredro has said that the two passed on the opportunity after Def Jam president Lyor Cohen came to the set and offered them $1 million to record a new album instead.
Both on the mic and behind the boards, things shifted for Onyx on All We Got Iz Us. For one, Big D.S. (R.I.P.) had left the fold. Used only sparingly on Bacdafucup, he decided to leave the crew to pursue his own solo career. The group forged on without missing a proverbial beat, as all three of the remaining emcees each improved as emcees. Sticky Fingaz still gives the strongest overall performance. Though the subject matter is much more serious, he still manages to work in some dark humor to make the situations he depicts more relatable.
The album’s production lineup is also different. Chyskillz, credited for producing the majority of Bacdafucup, is noticeably absent. Jam Master Jay receives no production credits but still serves as one of the album’s executive producers. He reportedly helped Onyx whittle down the 25 tracks they recorded for this project to a more manageable 15. Members of the group (particularly Fredro, but also Sticky Fingaz) craft most of the album’s beats, receiving the occasional assist from 8-Off Agallah.
One production choice that stayed constant was how the group chose to use samples from jazz recordings. When explaining the recording process for Bacdafucup, Sticky Fingaz explained how jazz samples “could be happy or they could be evil.” For All We Got Iz Us, jazz tracks are very much used for “evil” purposes. The production palette on this project is even more bleak than Bacdafucup, setting the album’s desolate tone.
The heart of the album is contained in its opening section, which delves into the despondency that drives inner city denizens to steal. “Last Dayz,” the album’s first official single, exemplifies this point of view. All three emcees present a stark view of those living on the margins of society, wracked by substance abuse and psychological turmoil. The beat, which samples Bob James and Earl Klugh’s “Love Lips,” provides a mournfully beautiful backdrop. The instrumental for the song was a mainstay in the Detroit battle scene throughout the 1990s. It was even featured in the film 8 Mile, set during that era.
“Purse Snatchaz” features members of the group’s descriptions of living in abject poverty, surrounded by fellow residents who have turned to a life of crime out of necessity. The album’s title track is an even stronger exploration of these themes, as the group gives its strongest collective lyrical performances of its career. All three give in-depth portrayals of the mind-state and action of those who engage in armed robberies on the streets of Queens to a manipulated section of John Coltrane’s version of “Tunji.” Fredro vividly describes misbegotten capers of amateurs, rapping, “As I move through these evil New York streets / Like grease, and some kids get caught up / All up in the crime rate, couldn’t hold your 9mm straight / When you was busting your whole clip and hit nothing.” Son Ceaze then depicts “concrete combat” in “a crime covered city / Where there's no time for pity.”
Watch the Official Videos:
“Live!”, which first appeared on the soundtrack for The Show (1995), demonstrates what constitutes a “lighter” approach for the group. It’s not a party track per se, but it’s definitely the least dour song on the album; its catchy hook is pretty infectious. Sticky’s closing verse is memorable, as he depicts the comical absurdity of disgruntled thieves robbing a friend’s funeral, set on collecting the dead man’s debts.
Some of the songs on All We Got Iz Us channel a similar vibe to what was found on Bacdafucup. “Shout” could have functioned as the album’s version of “Slam!”, as it’s the most high-energy track on the project, and its hook is a reinterpretation of Tears For Fears’ “Shout.” All three emcees demonstrate their even more improved chemistry, trading lines and weaving together their verses effortlessly. Meanwhile, the brief “Punkmotherfuckaz” is an informal sequel to Bacdafucup’s “Bitchassn****z,” as the three mock those who talk tough and can’t back it up.
The plodding, dirge-like “Betta Off Dead” could have been an outtake from an even more sinister version of Bacdafucup. Members of the group lumber across the track as larger-than-life supervillains. Fredro declares that he “has the right to remain violent” and proclaims, “I’m a tyrant, striking like a Viking / A knight in shining armor, death before dishonor / The ruff rhymer, suicidal like Nirvana.” Sticky Fingaz later boasts that “I’m considered less than a god, but more than a man / I can knock down a mule like Conan the Barbarian.”
“Most Def” is unlike any other song in Onyx’s catalogue. It features the group at its most reserved, with all three emcees creating a “vibe” by delivering well-crafted, skills-oriented verses to a murky keyboard sample and stabs of horns. Sonny Seeza’s closing verse is the song’s strongest, as he raps, “Imma drop the rope that makes emcees croak / Murder one wrote resulting he choked on my rhyme he tried to quote.”
Onyx even injects a little political content into the album with “Two Wrongs.” On production, the song takes Motown Soul and makes it as “evil” as possible. Labelmate Method Man used the main groove to Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrel’s “You’re All I Need to Get By” as the basis for one of the best hip-hop love songs of all time, but in Onyx’s hands the sample makes a perfect backdrop for their screed against mass incarceration and calls for violent uprising. Sticky Fingaz speaks of his commitment to the cause, growling, “I’ll get my revenge if it’s the last thing that I do / When I start speaking in tongues the Holy Ghost couldn’t save you.”
All We Got Iz Us ends with “Walk In New York,” which is the anti “Theme From New York, New York.” The song is a “celebration” of hardcore East Coast hip-hop as the group basks in the city’s grit and misery. The three emcees rap like they recorded their verses in an abandoned burned-out building. Son Ceaze declares, “I'm rappin', loot snatchin', stayin' greasy this shit ain't easy” and Fredro warns outsiders to “back up, get off of that soft or wack rap style / My shots ring loud and panic the crowd.” Sticky, as one of “the triflest motherfuckers on the face of this Earth,” closes the close track with an impassioned verse. “The crime rate's so goddamn high, we had to name the shit twice,” he raps. “’Cause tourists be scared to death to visit the criminal’s paradise.”
Onyx left it all out there with All We Got Iz Us, so it’s a shame that the album didn’t enjoy the commercial sales and critical acclaim that Bacdafucup received. Fortunately, its stature has only grown as the decades have passed. It’s universally embraced by Onyx’s fans and by all those who can appreciate street-oriented, psychologically complex hip-hop music. In an era that produced so many great albums depicting the harsh reality of East Coast inner city living, All We Got Iz Us is still near the top.
Listen: