Happy 15th Anniversary to People Under The Stairs’ eighth studio album Highlighter, originally released September 30, 2011.
A group like People Under the Stairs wasn’t expected to take many risks when releasing Highlighter, their eighth album. Throughout the late 1990s and 2000s, Chris “Thes One” Portugal and Michael “Double K” Turner (R.I.P.) built one of my favorite and best discographies in hip-hop. It’s easy to rest on your laurels at that point in your career.
However, when the duo released Highlighter 15 years ago, they were in the process of recalibrating their approach both on record and behind the scenes. And the moves at both ends paid off, with the album being a remarkably enjoyable entry in their catalogue.
Let’s start with the behind-the-scenes moves: Highlighter was PUTS’ first album that they put out through Piecelock 70, a worker cooperative with input from themselves and other like-minded artists. PUTS would operate PL70 for the rest of their career as a group, and all of their subsequent albums would be released through the imprint.
PUTS saw this new artistic freedom as a means to slightly change their approach to their music, especially in terms of production. It wasn’t a radical shift in philosophy, but the group sought to bring themselves back to the roots of what made them fall in love with hip-hop in the first place.
PUTS apparently conceptualized the album during a two-and-a-half-day stint in a hotel in Visalia, CA. While stoned on weed and discussing what they wanted to accomplish at this stage of their careers, they wrote and composed what would become the backbone of the album.
Like many of their previous projects, Highlighter is a sprawling endeavor, composed of 20 tracks with a run-time of 80 minutes. They touch on familiar conceptual territory and give their fans the musical comfort food they’re accustomed to delivering. That said, Highlighter isn’t a paint-by-numbers affair. They compose classic hard-hitting hip-hop, but without creating something formulaic. It’s funny and poignant in different ways than their previous releases were.
PUTS start Highlighter with “Selfish Destruction,” a forceful kick in the door to check anyone who thought that they had fallen off. It’s a potent whirlwind of track, with both emcees setting the tone for the aggression that they display throughout the project. “The P is for lax collecting street tax,” Double K raps. “With penalties for enemies decked out in camouflage down for the cause / Hitting your crew with a barrage / With super high powered mental shotguns pellets / They wanna know the story follow me now tell it.”
One noticeable difference between Highlighter and the rest of PUTS’ discography is their beat selection. Thes One and Double K earned reputations as renowned crate diggers, unearthing obscure gems from untapped sources to transform into amazing hip-hop tracks. For Highlighter, they occasionally opt to use more recognizable sample sources.
As the pair explained in an interview with the Point of the Rhyme website, they hoped to invoke the music of many of their audience’s youth and bring back the feeling of hip-hop in the late 1980s and early 1990s. “Being rare and obscure is all good and great,” Thes One explained. “but then again, you’re not making yourself a part of this thing that’s hip hop, where you steal an old disco record or an old record and make a new song.”
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And it works. So, while Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life (1976) has always been readily available at any record store on planet Earth, there’s no denying the power of the head-nodding, soul-moving groove that PUTS create by sampling the crescendo from “As” on “Left Foot, Right Foot.”
And besides, Highlighter has no shortage of vintage PUTS music. “The Second Track” (which is, unsurprisingly, the second track on the album) features layers of bubbling synths and basslines, as both Thes One and Double K go for broke, delivering bursts of complex lines and tag-team rhyming action. “Dewrit!” (as “Do It!”) is their take on Brazilian jazz funk, featuring assists from Kat Ouano (on keyboards) and Headnotic (on bass), both members of the Crown City Rockers. Both had been frequent collaborators with PUTS and contribute live instrumentation to many of the tracks on Highlighter.
A PUTS album isn’t a PUTS album without the group going into full celebration mode, and Highlighter features a pair of exuberant back-to-back party tracks. “At the House” is a bouncy endeavor, with the pair engaging in beer-soaked revelry at Friday night house parties throughout the Los Angeles area. “Too Much Birthday” is their dedication to rowdy birthday parties, built around a funky horn sample and thumping drums. And leave it to PUTS to find a way to incorporate a sample from Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party” without being corny.
PUTS frequently rhyme about their touring experiences but are a bit more introspective about the psychology of achieving success as a touring act on Highlighter. “Can’t Hold It Back,” built around a sample of Art of Noise’s “Moments In Love,” features Double K and Thes One contemplating the journey of their careers, making “a job from a hobby.” “Talkin’ Back to the Streets” serves as a companion piece, with the pair reflecting on their journeys as they return to Los Angeles, ready to re-embrace the city of their birth. “Her freeway arteries consistently stay clogged,” Thes One raps. “She coughs smog, she raised me, she hugs me, says ‘good job.’”
PUTS often play to their 1980s hip-hop sensibilities throughout Highlighter, incorporating popular uptempo breaks and samples, and helping transform them into further tandem exercises in lyrical braggadocio. “The Time Bandit” surges with energy, with the pair rapping atop raucous guitars and furious scratches from Double K.
Overall, Double K shines on the mic throughout these throwback tracks. He channels Critical Beatdown (1988)-era Ced Gee on “We Got It,” boasting that he’s “the party providing, the gift is prolific and is swift / And every time you throw a jam it’s the ill shit.” He later declares himself the “bully of the funk-yard giving out noogies” on “Uprock Boogie,” which uses portions of ESG’s classic “UFO” break and the bassline from Sly and the Family Stone’s “If You Want Me To Stay.”
The group does go in new conceptually creative directions. On “Foolish People,” the pair interact with shady hippie fans who raid their backstage deli tray and surreptitiously dose Double K with LSD. The group professes their love for 1980s sitcoms on “Electric Tookie,” their dedication to their love of 1980s sitcoms and the Thursday night line-up that shaped their lives. And I applaud any track that features a usage of the Family Ties theme song.
The group gets serious again on “This Lifetime,” exploring complex relationship dynamics. Double K bristles at being treated as “just a part-time thing” by the object of his affection, while Thes One wrestles with a longtime female friend attempting to carry on an emotional affair with him, eventually explaining to her that the grass isn’t greener on the other side.
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PUTS switch easily back to irreverence with “Cookie’s Theme,” one of the most intentionally ridiculous songs in their catalogue. Double K envisions himself as Eddum Chibbum, a recovered heroin addict and Vietnam Vet, performing live in Fresno, CA, to an adoring and frenzied crowd of plus-sized women. Double K absolutely commits to the bit, delivering some of the most entertaining ad-libs ever recorded on a rap record.
Highlighter features two great album closing tracks. Normally I’d be peeved at multiple endings, but PUTS proved to be so skilled at album-ending songs, that I’ll cut them some well-deserved slack. “WRLA” is a sunny, feel good track, ideal for being blasted out the car during an early early morning commute. Double K assumes the role of radio host Doobie Howser, with a perfectly exaggerated “DJ voice,” broadcasting on your radio at “100,000 and Watts.” Thes One revels in pumping out feel-good vibes to the listeners, rapping, “That’s just our job: to play shit we find / Don’t turn the dial, just smile while we open your mind.” The song also features the return of DJ Dollar Bill, who last showed on PUTS’ Question in the Form of an Answer (2000).
The bonus track “Ambien Hallway Music” brings the album to a close. The group create a mellow dedication to the power of music to a sample of Michael Jackson’s “Lady In My Life,” encouraging their audience to allow their songs to carry them off to the land of dreams and heal their souls. “Let your body float on the rhythm and ill quotes,” Thes One raps.
Highlighter was the last of People Under The Stairs’ marathon albums. With their subsequent releases, they opted for a leaner approach to putting together their projects. But as an ambitious artistic statement, the album is as entertaining as anything that they ever recorded. Thes One and Double K celebrated the past while continuing to push forward, which was always their mission statement as a group.
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