In the summer of 1994, Craig Mack became the first artist to release a single on Puff Daddy’s new label, Bad Boy Records. “Flava In Your Ear” would become a Billboard Top 10 hit, reach platinum status, and lay the foundation for Diddy’s musical empire. Craig Mack seemed prone to become rap’s next star, but there was one small problem. Biggie.

Mack released the label’s first single, but Biggie would release his debut and the label’s first full-length, Ready To Die, one week before Mack’s Project: Funk Da World. Biggie blew up, becoming a bonafide rap superstar and the label’s main attraction and focus. Craig Mack would get lost in the shuffle, and eventually, Puff would send Mack packing and looking for a new label home. Thankfully, he wouldn’t be homeless for long as Eric B, who had just become an executive at Street Life Records (a subsidiary of Scotti Brothers Records), would scoop him up and sign him, where he’d release his sophomore album, Operation: Get Down.

Eric B would get one production credit on the album but mainly served as the executive producer. Instead, Prince Markie Dee, Johnny J, and a few lesser-known names would be responsible for sculpting the album’s sound. OGD would produce a couple of singles, but without the Bad Boy machine behind it, the singles and the album didn’t make much noise or move many units. OGD would spell the end of Craig Mack’s rap career, and when you factor in the way he died in 2018, he makes for the perfect subject for TV One’s Unsung. Does that show still come on? Does TV One still exist?

I bought a used CD copy of OGD several years ago, and this is my first time listening to it. Let’s jump into it and see if Get Down was a successful Operation for Mr. Mack.

Can You Still Love Me – Mr. Mack begins OGD with an elegant R&B instrumental (credited to Eric B), complete with an elaborate chord progression and sultry female vocals (courtesy of Natasha Barr) on the hook and adlibs. It kind of plays like a new age, hip-hop version of The Isley Brothers’ “Work To Do.” Craig spends three verses trying to convince his insecure woman that he has to travel and tour to provide the extravagant lifestyle she enjoys living (“Now the type of things/like diamond rings, mink coats/cars and boats/come from notes that come out my throat/the rhyme I wrote got me making paper/hate to tell you this but I’mma list the things you got/cause my style’s hot/like it or not/I gotta go on tour/keep ya chillin’/gots to make some more/million dollar house with marble floor”). This is a much different sound than Mack gave us his first go-round, but I like the concept, and Craig sounds comfortable and in sync with the music. And please, fellas. When he’s out on tour, keep your hands off his girl!

What I Need – This was the lead single. Mack attempts to get his Heavy D ladies’ man persona on but comes off sounding too thirsty and extra horny (letting a random chick walk up and start sucking your toe is crazy). I didn’t care for the generic electronic-sounding backdrop, and the talk box (the O.G. autotune) crooning on the hook was godawful.

Jockin’ My Style – This sounds like something that could have been on Funk Da World. Craig uses Tyrone “Sugarless” Fyffe’s bouncy backdrop to brag and boast about the bodaciousness of his bars (tongue twister much). The instrumental sounds like it’s trying to recapture the magic of “Flava In Your Ear” (which might also be why it was the second single), and even though it doesn’t, it’s still a decent record.

Rap Hangover – The late Johnny J (whose name you may recognize for his production work on some of Pac’s albums) taps a Dianna Ross classic for Mack’s ode to rap. During his first verse, Craig gets personal as he addresses the state he was in after his separation from Bad Boy: “I was broke in the corner, Street Life picked me up/two days away from asking for some change inside a cup/Now “Flava In Ya Ear” was the jam to rock the many/but at the time my rhyme did not make a penny.” Craig uses the last two verses to talk shit and pledges his allegiance to emceeing. You can’t really mess up an interpolation of “Love Hangover,” and La Shawn Monet’s seductive vocals on the hook make it sound even more enticing.

Sit Back & Relax – Al West and Prince Markie Dee (rip) interpolate Tony! Toni! Tone!’s “It Never Rains (In Southern California),” turning it into a silky-smooth R&B groove, which it already was in the first place. Mack stays true to his emcee mentality and uses the refined canvas to battle emcees (his “dig into your ass quick” line sounded a little crazy, though). Demarkie “Meech” Sheki and PJ DeMarks sing the hook that gives the track an even more sophisticated feel, and I took the duo’s advice. Rest peace to D’Wayne Wiggins.

Do You See – Mack picks up where he left off on Funk Da World’s “When God Comes.” Instead of using a ruggedly monster Easy Mo Bee backdrop, Meech slides him a soft and tender R&B instrumental to speak on the perilous times and the impending apocalypse (Mack gets into his bag on the second verse, which is easily the best verse on the album). I didn’t necessarily need Meech and PJ’s singing on the hook, but I like hearing from Apocalyptic Craig Mack.

Put It On You – Mack keeps the R&B theme going with this one. Meech gets the production credit and sings the hook. The instrumental was decent, and Mack sounds cool, but the hook didn’t make any sense or correlate with Craig’s bars. Maybe I’m expecting too much from a hip-hop record.

Rock Da Party – I didn’t realize how beloved a record Sweet G’s “Games People Play” was to nineties rappers. This is at least the third album I’ve reviewed in the past few years that pays respect to the old-school eighties joint by recycling its instrumental (built around a sample of Issac Hayes’ “Ike’s Mood I”). Craig Mack assumes the role of “King Emcee” and raps from that perspective. God bless the dead, but I’m calling cap on Craig’s crown. Still, he sounds decent enough over this sufficient beat.

Today’s Forecast – Sugarless returns behind the boards and lives up to his moniker because there’s nothing sweet about this tough backdrop. Craig sounds inspired by the instrumental and harder than normal spittin’ over the blazing heat: “I shake the concrete hard when I walk/fuck the smooth talk/peace to all my niggas from New York/Erect to wreck/ all emcees hit the deck/mic check/you bitch ass niggas get no respect.” Fittingly, he recycles a line from “Get Down” (off PFDW) for the hook, and the shit is catchy and sounds hard as hell.

Style – Mack pays homage to Spoonie G’s “Spoonin’ Rap” and proves that all homage isn’t good homage.

You! – Craig sounds extra nimble, navigating through Johnny J’s frantic backdrop, driven by anxious keys. This was a nice find this late in the track sequencing.

Drugs, Guns And Thugs – Craig takes a break from battling emcees to go into storytelling mode. Jewel, Pamela, and his unnamed mans who lived down the street from him each get a verse dedicated to them in this cautionary tale about living a life of crime. Craig delivers a cool PSA, but Meech’s instrumental has a synthetic Casio keyboard sound that I couldn’t get with.

Prime Time Live – Coming completely out of left field, Deion Sanders takes center stage for the last song on OGD. You kids may know him as Coach Prime, but before he coached college football, they called him Prime Time for what he did on the football field and baseball diamond. Deion Sanders is arguably the most talented athlete of all time (the man once hit a home run as a New York Yankee and returned a punt for a touchdown as an Atlanta Falcon in the same week), but rapping was never his strong suit. He released an album called Prime Time in ‘94 on Hammer’s Bust It Records label. I’ve never heard the album, but the lead single, “Must Be The Money,” was horrible. If you want a good laugh, watch the video on YouTube. I don’t know what sounds worse on this track: Deion’s laughably bad rhymes or Al West and Prince Markie Dee’s embarrassingly corny instrumental. What a terrible way to close out the album.

If you read my review of Craig Mack’s Project: Funk Da World, you already know I wasn’t the biggest fan of his debut project. The production was hit or miss, and while Craig proved he could rap, his mumbled mouth delivery and lack of diverse content stifled the album’s momentum. Thank God for second chances.

On Operation: Get Down, Mack deviates from the traditional rugged East Coast boom-bap that filled his debut in exchange for a heaping helping of heavily seasoned R&B canvases to paint on. Unlike most rappers who chose this sound (i.e., Heavy D, Prince Markie D, Father MC), Mack doesn’t use the R&B-drenched instrumentals to talk about love or please a female fanbase (at least not on most of them). He sticks with the themes that occupied most of PFDW: boasting and battling emcees. The clean, chilled, and pop-accessible backdrops help Mack’s semi-drunken, lackadaisical style breathe, allowing his rhymes to sound more vivid, and in turn, the listener can appreciate his rhyming ability more. The R&B formula is only used for half of the album. The other half of the production is where OGD runs into problems.

I loved “Today’s Forecast.” “You!” was solid, and “Jockin’ My Style” was decent. The rest of it falls in the mid-to-trash range. But even with its lackluster finish, I found OGD more enjoyable than its more commercially successful predecessor.

On “Sit Back & Relax,” Craig Mack asks, “Can you imagine a world without me rapping?” I can, and we now live in that world. But that doesn’t mean we can’t occasionally take some time to sit back, relax, and appreciate the handful of audible treats he left in the world.

-Deedub
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