Happy 30th Anniversary to Onyx’s debut album Bacdafucup, originally released March 30, 1993.
Onyx helped define the direction of hip-hop in the early to mid-1990s. With Bacdafucup, their debut album released 30 years ago, they established a distinct sound with their unique presence. They were aggressive. They were loud. They were brash. They were confrontational. They were a monster success.
Comprised of Fred “Fredro Starr” Scruggs, Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones, Tyrone “Sonny Seeza” Taylor, and Marlon “Big DS” Fletcher, Onyx bum-rushed the gates of hip-hop music. They were one of the few hip-hop groups during this period that was able to achieve commercial success to go along with critical acclaim without recording remotely pop-friendly music. Like their contemporaries Cypress Hill and Das EFX, they were about as unlikely of a group to release a certified Platinum album.
Onyx was also one of the first hip-hop groups to understand branding. Artists from Slick Rick to N.W.A to Queen Latifah were known for their distinctive looks and other groups, like Public Enemy, had already come up with iconic logos. Onyx is one of the few crews that put it all together to create one instantly recognizable “brand.”
Members of Onyx certainly had a distinctive look. Every member of the group sported a shaved head. They wore all black or grey and black army fatigues in their videos and promotional material. They sported wheat Timberlands. They frequently brandished guns. The group’s logo was also iconic: a frowning stick-figure head. It was easily turned into a sticker that could be plastered throughout the streets of urban areas around the country.
And Onyx’s music was in lockstep with their image: brimming with aggression and grit. Members of the group mostly shouted their lyrics in gravelly tones, sounding at the very least like they were eager to smack the shit out of someone. It was all integral to making Bacdafucup one of the most memorable albums of the early to mid-1990s.
Initially, Onyx didn’t make their way into the record industry fully formed. Both Fredro and Sticky Fingaz were barbers before they began seriously dedicating themselves to their hip-hop craft, with Fredro cutting the hair of many of New York City’s most prominent drug dealers. When Onyx first formed, Sticky was not a part of the collective, and their music was much different. The group released the “Ah, And We Do It Like This” 12-inch single on Profile Records in 1990, sounding like an edgier version of De La Soul. The song did not catch on, and the group went back to the drawing board.
Things really clicked with the group after they met Jam Master Jay. Members of the group encountered the DJ for Run-DMC on the road and convinced him to listen to their music. While playing him 30 different recorded demos, JMJ was struck by the song “Stik ‘N’ Muve,” the first grimy and street-oriented song that they had recorded. He reportedly instructed Fredro to give him “12 more songs just like that.” Jay signed the group to his JMJ imprint, which had a distribution deal through Def Jam/Rush Associated Labels. He was also a constant presence in the studio while the group recorded Bacdafucup through much of 1992, helping guide the group through the recording process.
Even though the members of Onyx shouted their raps, it should not be misconstrued that the crew was more sizzle than steak. Fredro, Sticky, and Sonny Seeza were all incredibly skilled lyricists, and they demonstrate their verbal talents throughout Bacdafucup. However, their energy and bombast were impossible to ignore, imbuing the beats with potent energy. They were hostile as a stylistic choice, putting groups on notice in the name of competition.
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The majority of Bacdafucup’s production is credited to Chylow “Chyskillz” Parker or a combination of him and Jam Master Jay. The group reportedly met Chyskillz leaving a weed spot, and he slid them a beat tape. They loved the jazz-influenced beats, but wanted to ensure that they properly matched their content. “With jazz type samples,” Sticky told Brian Coleman in Check the Technique, “they could be happy or they could be evil. We took the harder shit.” Fredro also explained that members of the group had “100% input” with the album’s production, working with Chyskillz and JMJ to fine-tune the musical backdrop to their rhymes.
Other production on the album was handled by Kool Tee, a former member of The Afros, another act that signed to JMJ’s imprint shortly after it was created. Jeff Harris, the group’s former manager, also received production credits on a pair of tracks, though members of the group have said he had nothing to do with the creation of those beats.
As for an introduction to the crew’s new sensibilities, Onyx couldn’t have picked a better single than “Throw Ya Gunz.” From the opening acapella chant to the menacing beat to the three thunderous verses, it hits with the force of a sledgehammer to the head. Chyskillz manipulates Bob James’ “Nautilus” in a way the makes it even more ominous and foreboding. Though Fredro (“I set a whole choir on fire!”) and Sonny Seeza (“Heads up! ’Cause we’re dropping some shit!”) both contribute memorable verses, Sticky gives a star-making performance. His voice pulses with fury as he bellows, “Just in the nick of time, I commit the perfect crime / Rip my heart out my chest, put it right into a rhyme / I don’t feel pain ’cause it's all in the mind / And what’s mines is mines, and yours is mine.”
The album-opening “BitchAssN****z” radiates a similar furious vitality, each verse rattling with a sneering contempt for their adversaries. “Atak of Da Bal-Headz” is a chaotic anthem, with all four emcees swarming the track simultaneously, unleashing flurries of verbal punches to the jaw. Both songs feature appearances by Big DS, who appears on the album sparingly and, reportedly, left the group later, wanting to pursue a solo career. He passed away due to cancer in 2003.
Some of the darker, more lyrically oriented tracks on Bacdafucup are its best. On the grim “Here and Now,” Sonny, Fredro, and Sticky flow over a haunting horn, disembodied voices, and a snippet of Bob James’ version of “Feel Like Making Love.” The song features Sonny Seeza’s best verse on the album, who raps, “'Cause I gets the chills on a midsummer night / Yeah, I could fight or in the winter I’ll make your ass hot like a light.”
“Shiftee,” the album’s third single, is a dedication to getting into shady shit. All three emcees sound particularly devious, channeling pure malice over echoing saxophone and a murky bassline. Fredro leads things off, rapping, “If you’re blinded by the blackness, here’s the gun to guide you / Fumble up, crews crumble up under pressure, god.” Sticky ends things just as strong, sounding his most unhinged. “Back then I lost all my marbles, today I lost my job,” he raps. “So unless it’s Armageddon somebody’s bound to get robbed.”
Onyx spend a decent portion of Bacdafucup rapping about robbing people. It’s the subject matter of “Stik ‘N’ Muve,” the aforementioned first song that Sticky Fingaz recorded with the group. The song primarily features Sticky and Fredro (as “Mickey Billy” a.k.a. Mugs Bunny), each recount their exploits robbing people in Queens. But even when the crew raps about being stick-up artists, there’s often some subtext to the track. On “N***a Bridges,” all four members channel how poverty have pushed them towards desperation, where stealing from others seems like the sole solution to having money in their pockets.
In keeping with the group’s vibe, Onyx recorded some of the most sinister sex raps of the time. “Blac Vagina Finda” features Sticky and Fredro delivering tales of wanton lust and perversion. “Da Nex N****z” is one of the most questionable and entertaining hip-hop tracks about infidelity ever. As I write in many of these tributes about music from the ‘80s and ’90s, much of the content is not particularly enlightened three decades later, but it sure was funny at the time. Behind the boards, producer Kool Tee takes a brief portion of Milt Jackson’s “People Make the World Go Round” and makes it sound as sleazy as possible.
Amongst all of this material, “Slam,” Onyx’s biggest hit, stands out. While the song possesses the same aggressive energy as the rest of the songs on the project, the track is much more fun. However, it fits in well within the context of the album. The song was apparently not only influenced by Naughty By Nature’s “O.P.P.,” but also Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” as the crew looked to harness the same passion that the Seattle-based group channeled in its music.
The song was a massive hit, with the single going platinum. And yet there’s nothing overtly “commercial” about it. It has a great hook, a reinterpretation of “The Champ” by The Mohawks, that’s perfectly designed for call-and-response crowd participation. Like Naughty By Nature’s “Hip-Hop Hooray” and House of Pain’s “Jump Around,” it has become a transcendent “arena rock” hip-hop record. It’s still played in stadiums across the country and appears in countless films, previews, and commercials. Later, at the behest of Def Jam’s Lyor Cohen, the group recorded a “Bionyx” remix, featuring heavy-metal band Biohazard. That version of the song went platinum as well.
Onyx has maintained a long career during the past three decades, going to a lot of different places sonically, while keeping things grimy and aggressive. But the crew has always maintained a special place in their hearts for what they created with Bacdafucup. Recently, Onyx released 1993 (2022), a reimagination of their debut of sorts. The tracks are inspired by the music they created during the early 1990s and all feature dark and evil jazz sample-based beats produced entirely by Stasvech Beats of Ukraine.
Bacdafucup is an album that captured a moment in hip-hop history perfectly, but it’s also timeless. To this day, it’s a perfect album to listen to in the gym, while out jogging, or mashing down the highway way over the speed limit. Onyx’s aggression never loses its power and always keeps the brand strong.
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