During my write-up of Above The Law’s Time Will Reveal, I mentioned that ATL is one of my favorite underdog hip-hop groups. You never hear the Above The Law name mentioned in the discussion of greatest rap groups or hear Cold 187um and KM.G’s names brought up in barbershop debates about best rap duos. Meanwhile, ATL has kept its hand to the plow, steadily putting together a solid catalog with at least one unsung classic under its belt (Livin’ Like Hustlers). I also mentioned during my TWR write-up that I had never heard Uncle Sam’s Curse before, and I had recently bought a Sony Music reissued CD version of the album and was chomping at the bit to give the project a thorough listen and dissect it. Just over a year after uttering those words, here I am reviewing Uncle Sam’s Curse.

Like Black Mafia Life before it and Time Will Reveal after it, ATL would keep all the production in-house for Uncle Sam’s Curse. The album would yield two singles and peak at 15 on the Billboard Top Hip-Hop/R&B Charts and 113 on the Billboard Top 200. Vibe Magazine would include it on their 50 Best Rap Albums Of 1994 list.

The album title and the intriguing cover artwork (credited to Kurt Nagahori) makes me wonder if the pimps/drug dealers from Pomona turned in their underworld cards for conscious content this time around. Let’s jump into it and see what happens.

Continue to rest in peace, KM.G The Illustrator.

Return Of The Real Shit – The album begins with a snippet from the 1994 movie Against The Wall (which was a movie about the Attica Prison riots of 1971, starring the legendary Samuel L. Jackson). Then the beat drops, and Cold 187um does a quick mic check before he sprays his hood rhetoric all over the track in his signature high-pitched, slightly-raspy vocal tone. 187um gives a big middle finger to Hitler, the swastika, and the skinheads, Mr. Rogers catches a shot (Why Mr. Rogers gotta get the pervert title? Or maybe ‘pervert’ is a metaphor for drug dealer, since his next line is he’s “steadily selling candy to the kids, man”), and he asks the listener some poignant rhetorical questions along the way (KM.G answering them all in his adlibs makes me crack up every time I listen to it). KM.G slides in second, spewing his cool player/gangsta shit, and his poker face never wavers. The instrumental consists of synth chords (one of them being a loop from Zapp’s “More Bounce To The Ounce”) and a bunch of random noises thrown together, magically blending into a mobbable, gargled funk groove.

Set Free – KM.G and 187um may have participated in drug dealing, pimping and other criminal activity, but they take pride in being able to say they’ve never been involved in a gang (though they constantly boast about being gangsters). I understand that by the time the nineties rolled around, what Black gangs in America stood for was much different than the pure intentions and unified principles they were founded on in the sixties and seventies. But it feels contradictory for ATL to look down on gang banging as if selling dope to Black people or pimping women of color isn’t just as destructive to the Black community. Regardless of the conflicting messaging, the stank bassline, slick twangy guitar licks, along with 187um’s skats and the harmonizing ladies on the hook, sound amazing.

Kalifornia – Kokane makes his first of several appearances on this ode to the place he and ATL call home. Of course, the three gentlemen’s perspective of Cali comes from a street lens. I wasn’t crazy about this one, but the sample from The Time’s “Gigolos Get Lonely Too” that the instrumental is built around made the record semi-interesting (but that’s probably just my Minnesota bias kicking in).

Concreat Jungle – There was absolutely no reason to misspell “concrete” in the song title, but moving on. 187um and KM.G step firmly into their street hustler roles, issuing threats to their rivals and putting a strong pimp hand down on their hoes. The G-funked jazz arrangement sounds lovely, and the WALZ radio host Michelle Devine, who opens the record and closes the record, sounds like she has an incredible fatty.

Rain Be For Rain Bo – 187um and KM.G get their shit off on the mic, but the instrumentation was a bit drab for my taste buds, and Kokane’s singing on the hook was annoying as shit.

Everything Will Be Alright – What would an Above The Law album be without a song celebrating players, male chauvinism, and misogyny? Kokane’s harmony on the hook sounds much better than his performance on the previous song (he also spits a cringe worthy bar about getting “An eight-year bid” for “a rape,” which I hope I misunderstood), but the true star of this record is the instrumental. The way the heavenly melodic chords dance with the thunderous funk instrumentation is a thing of beauty.

Black Superman – After another clip from Against The Wall plays, the album’s lead single begins. ATL creates a synthy melancholic mid-tempo groove for the dynamic duo to take turns explaining why their underworld deeds qualify them as hood superheroes: (Cold 187um) “I got my mama up out of there/because ya’ll motherfuckas just don’t care/Uh, you really want to know why I sold scum/because my mama to me comes number one/now you sucka motherfuckas don’t understand/but to my mama, I’m her real Black Superman.” The Roger Troutman-esque voice box cosigning K and 187um’s dark heroism on the hook is the delicious topping on top of this audio dessert that sounds just as amazing today as it did thirty years ago.

The ‘G’ In Me – Over an elegant G-Funk score, our hosts explain the double meaning of being a G, giving proper context for both sides. 187um sums it up best in two bars: “I got stripes, oh yes, I gots many stripes, from checkin’ a gang of niggas, and layin’ a gang of pipe.” His verbal visual later in the verse, left me salivating: “Time, and time, and time again, I find myself in between two big, gorgeous ass thighs, going for a long, long ride.” If I had to pick a G-side, I’m rollin’ with the gigolos.

Uncle Sam’s Curse – This one starts with another movie soundbite. The clip comes from the 1988 film Mississippi Burning, which is loosely-based around the murder investigation of three civil rights workers in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement of 1964. The clip features one of the agents conducting the investigation, Rupert Anderson (played by Gene Hackman), singing a white supremacy jingle before the song begins (boy, I felt like I spent too much time explaining that clip with little ROI). Then soulful synthesized chords come in for KM.G to list off a bunch of examples of Uncle Sam’s Curse, followed by verses from he and 187um talkin’ that gangsta shit. The instrumental gets progressively more interesting as the song goes on when the chords get chopped up and the melody switches. This was fire.

One Time Two Meny – This one begins with a movie clip of a police officer rolling up on a couple of young brothers to harass them (If you know what movie this snippet came from, hit me in the comments). It works as a flawless segue for ATL to address the never-ending strained relationship between Black males and the police. 187um shares a story about being stopped by the police, who then search his vehicle on “probable cause.” KM.G comes from a completely different angle, detailing a drug dealing partner of his who gets seduced and duped by an undercover female cop and is now looking at twenty-five to life. I don’t think KM.G’s friend’s situation falls under the “One time always trippin’” category that’s sung on the hook. She was just doing her job, but I digress. I love the dark descending bells and crashing drum claps in the instrumental, which makes for the perfect soundtrack for the album cover artwork.

Who Ryde – KoKane joins KM.G and 187 one last time to take a ride with his homies for this verbal drive-by. They also invite Tone Loc to the party, as he dusts off his old derringer to get off a couple of bars on the song’s final verse. Tone doesn’t sound bad, but I wouldn’t have expected the maker of “Funky Cold Medina” and “Wild Thing” to appear on an Above The Law record. All parties involved turn in decent performances, but something about the loop in the instrumental (that sounds like it was played backwards) makes the song feel sleepy like it drunk a gallon of lean.

Gangsta Madness – This one begins with yet another Against The Wall interlude (which is easily the most touching of them all), setting up the final song of the night. KM.G and 187um contemplate the inevitability of death over beautifully somber music (which includes an interpolation of Kool & The Gang’s “Summer Madness,” hence the song title). KM.G closes the song by shouting out the names of his deceased people, which feels super sad and eerie now that KM.G has also passed away. Fittingly, the album ends with one final snippet from Against The Wall.

The album cover, which shows the image of an angry Uncle Sam in the form of a storm cloud coming down from above to wreak havoc on the inner city, is both incredible and chilling. Since the 19th century, Uncle Sam has been the symbol for the United States government, and since the Atlantic slave trade, which brought millions of Africans across the ocean to build the United States on the backs of the enslaved, the treatment of African Americans by the American government has been tumultuous, and that’s being kind. The artwork gives the impression that Above The Law is going to pivot from their normal pimp rhetoric and gangsta posturing to focus on social commentary and a deeper message. But you know what they say about the cover of a book. The same rules apply for albums.

During a 2014 newspaper interview, Cold 187um recalls the group playing “Black Superman” for Eazy-E (who was the founder of Ruthless Records, the label that released Uncle Sam’s Curse) before the album was released, and Eazy telling the group it had to be the lead single. “He (Eazy-E) said the reason why ‘Black Superman’ is the single is it explains what the whole album is going to be about.” “Black Superman” and “One Time Two Meny” are solid social commentary pieces, and there are a few other songs on the project that sprinkle in socially conscious tidbits, but Uncle Sam’s Curse is far from a woke album.

There are certain emcees that I look to when I want a conscious message or some lyrical substance to feed my soul: Public Enemy, KRS-One, old Ice Cube, Common, Talib Kweli, J.Cole, Kendrick Lamar. There are several more I could list, but Above The Law isn’t one of them. When I listen to ATL’s music I’m not looking for righteousness, but a sufficient dose of ratchetness and an occasional street jewel. Don’t let the slew of movie soundbites laced throughout the album fool you. At its core, Uncle Sam’s Curse finds Cold 187um and KM.G up to their old antics: gangsta talk, random acts of violence, drug dealing, pimpin’, and an occasional gem droppage. And as usual, they make it entertaining. But even more entertaining than the rhymes is the music underneath the bars. Production wise, Uncle Sam’s Curse might be ATL’s best work, as it’s full of enough pristine layered G-Funk-esque fire to overshadow the occasional dud that the album bears.

I’ve only heard Above The Law’s first four albums, and if Time Will Reveal is any indication of how their last three albums sound (Legends, Forever: Rich Thugs, Book One, Sex, Money & Music), then I’m pretty sure their best artistic days were behind them. Uncle Sam’s Curse might not only feature ATL’s best production work, but pound for pound, it may be better than Livin’ Like Hustlers. Even with the artwork being a bit misleading.

-Deedub

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