Happy 20th Anniversary to Screwball’s debut album Y2K: The Album, originally released February 8, 2000.
I was nearly done writing this tribute to Screwball’s Y2K: The Album when news broke on January 20th that group member Hostyle had passed away, aged 47. Of Screwball’s four members, Hostyle sadly wasn’t the first to die young, as KL passed from an asthma attack in 2008. I could dwell on the tragedy of Hostyle and KL’s death further, but the best way to remember them is to jump straight into the music.
Y2K: The Album was Screwball’s shot at coming out from the shadows of New York’s underground scene and taking their place among artists like Jay-Z and The Lox, who had taken the blueprint defined by the likes of Wu-Tang Clan and the Notorious B.I.G. earlier in the decade, and turned hard-edged street rap into something commercially successful.
After bubbling on the indy scene with 12” singles on Hydra Entertainment, Screwball bagged a deal with the famed Tommy Boy Records for the release of Y2K: The Album. What could have been a successful release was ultimately thwarted by an infamous song on Y2K: The Album that was leaked to the press and caused an uproar.
Hip-hop and controversy have been partners since the movement began four decades ago, and Screwball joined the list of rappers to ruffle feathers with the single “Who Shot Rudy?” In a similar vein to rapper Paris’ 1992 song “Bush Killa,” “Who Shot Rudy?” imagines Rudy Giuliani being assassinated. At the time, years before he would become a Trump mouthpiece, Giuliani was mayor of New York City, and not a very good one.
Among his many controversial policies was the infamous “Broken Windows” policing method that sent many people in the black community to jail for misdemeanor crimes. Screwball’s Kyron was locked up when he wrote the song, probably seething with anger towards Giuliani. The song leaked early to the press, was picked up by the media, and caused enough of a stir for the so-called “Hip-Hop Police” to run background checks on Screwball. The group’s lack of mainstream visibility meant any potential action against them was quickly dropped, but the episode was serious enough to disrupt the rollout and promotion of the album, with Screwball’s label bucking under pressure from parent companies to keep the release low-key in light of the drama surrounding “Who Shot Rudy?” It has overshadowed how Y2K: The Album is remembered, but it offers a lot more than just controversy.
There was a grand plan for each member of Screwball to spin off with their own solo albums after Y2K: The Album. Consequently, a lot of Y2K: The Album is given to showcasing individual members on solo tracks. Blaq Poet—already a veteran by now who had been making records since the ‘80s, even becoming embroiled in the infamous Bridge Wars with Boogie Down Productions diss tracks such as “Beat You Down” —goes for the jugular on the DJ Premier-laced banger “F.A.Y.B.A.N." For the uninitiated, the acronym stands for the delightful mantra “Fuck All You Bitch Ass Ni****s,” and the song is appropriately aggressive and over-the-top. It set the tone for the rest of Blaq Poet’s career as someone not to be taken lightly. Hostyle gets his moment to impress on “H-O-S-T-Y-L-E,” and it’s an equally hardcore affair.
Kyron and KL are not afforded solo jams but appear consistently throughout, including together on the highlight “On The Real,” produced by Queens legend Marley Marl, and featuring fellow Queens emcees Havoc and Cormega. In fact, Y2K: The Album is arguably the most Queens-centric album in hip-hop. In addition to the features from Havoc and Cormega, there are also appearances by Prodigy, Nature, Capone and Big Noyd. MC Shan then shows up on “You Love to Hear the Stories,” where he and Blaq Poet provide a potted history of Queensbridge hip-hop, complete with a sample from Shan’s classic “The Bridge.”
Although not from Queens, MC Shan’s old Juice Crew cohort Biz Markie also appears on Y2K: The Album to provide beatbox accompaniment for Kyron to spit over on the short but effective “Biz Interlude.” There are actually only four tracks that feature all four members of Screwball, the standouts of which are “Y2K” and “Zoning,” both produced by underground hero Godfather Don.
Speaking of producers, the remaining credits on Y2K: The Album are heavily stacked. In addition to the aforementioned DJ Premier, Marley Marl and Godfather Don, there are also tracks produced by Pete Rock, EZ Elpee and the Ghetto Professionals (Mike Heron and V.I.C.). With this much talent driving the sound, and four decent emcees on top, it’s hard to shake the feeling that Y2K: The Album should have been bigger than it was. And it probably would have been had the repercussions of “Who Shot Rudy?” not forced the hand of the label.
The masterplan for more group albums and solo ventures never materialized beyond a selection of further releases. Blaq Poet has been the most active artist since Y2K: The Album, working extensively with DJ Premier. With Hostyle and KL gone, we’ll probably not see another Screwball album, but Y2K: The Album represents a lasting legacy nevertheless.
LISTEN: