Prince Paul may have got his start in the game as a DJ for hip-hop’s first unofficial band, Stetsasonic, but over time, he’s become one of hip-hop’s most underrated producers. Over the years, he has produced tracks for artists such as Stetsasonic, MC Lyte, Big Daddy Kane, Living Colour, Queen Latifah, 3rd Bass, Souls of Mischief, MF Doom, Gorillaz, and Run the Jewels. And while he has provided quality instrumentals for his extensive clientele throughout his career, his most valuable production attribute may be his conceptual genius. He was the brains behind De La Soul’s landmark hippy hip-hop debut,3 Feet High And Rising, which many credit as the pioneer album for hip-hop album skits. He also played a large role in the direction of De La’s second and third albums, De La Soul Is Dead and Buhloone Mindstate, respectively. He created cult classic concept albums like Psychoanalysis: What Is It?, A Prince Amongst Thieves, and Politics Of The Business. He’s also been the brains and part of some off-kilter vanity groups: The fictitious doo-wop group, The Dix, Handsome Boy Modeling School (with Dan The Automator), and, of course, Gravediggaz.

Gravediggaz began as a supergroup comprised of RZA (The RZArector), Poetic (The Grym Reaper), Prince Paul (The Undertaker), and his former Stetsasonic groupmate, Frukwan (The Gatekeeper). Their 1994 debut album, 6 Feet Deep, featured tongue-in-cheek death/murder themes over ominous instrumentals, giving birth to the hip-hop sub-genre, horrorcore. The liner notes for 6FD list Prince Paul as the project’s overseer, and he was responsible for most of the album’s production. 6FD wasn’t a commercial monster by any stretch, but it was a well-received conceptual piece that gave Gravediggaz a cult like following. They would return in 1997, with their sophomore effort, The Pick, The Sickle And The Shovel.

The first thing that stood out to me when reading The Pick’s liner notes was that Prince Paul is only credited for producing one track. RZA and his production cronies, True Master and 4th Disciple, are responsible for sculpting most of the album’s mood. The album produced two singles, making minor noise, but the critics gave The Pick mostly favorable reviews.

This is another first-time listen. I’m interested to hear how a Prince Paul-lite Gravediggaz album sounds.

Continue to rest in peace, Anthony “Poetic/Grym Reaper” Berkeley.

Side note: The CD version of The Pick (which is the format I own) comes with a snazzy four-flap fold-out insert that includes a pic of each member on one of the four flaps. I know most folks don’t care (I stay on my music nerd shit), but it’s another small thing you won’t get when buying the album on a DSP.

Intro – Over RZA’s lo-fi, wacky-sounding backdrop, he, Grym Reaper, and Gatekeeper welcome the listener to the album, reintroduce themselves (Gatekeeper makes it sound like Prince Paul died when he says “My man, Undertaker, in spirit with us”), and take turns talking in circles about the meaning and purpose of Gravediggaz. Now, on with the show.

Dangerous Mindz – This was the lead single. 4th Disciple loops up a somber acoustic guitar and sorrowful strings for Grym Reaper, RZA, and Gatekeeper to let their minds and rhymes run freely, firing off back-to-back-to-back verses with no interruption of a hook. The threesome sounds great, especially Reaper and RZA, spewing their randomness. This was fire.

Da Bomb – RZA sits this one out and lets Reaper and Gatekeeper spar over True Master’s solid production. Gatekeeper must have downed a Red Bull, as he sounds much more alert and energized than he did on the previous track, and Reaper continues to spit sharp bars.

Unexplained – Reaper and Gatekeeper give us another duet performance, building on their synergy from the previous track. Gatekeeper does his thing on the second verse, but Reaper is the early star on The Pick, as he continues his annihilation of the first three tracks: “Each word springs a cold current, that haunt niggas like old warrants, make an emcee life insurance.” Reaper’s dark and eerie backdrop was just as impressive as his bars (the haunted female voices placed over Gatekeeper’s verse sound incredible).

Twelve Jewelz – The RZA returns from his two-track smoke break, babbling on about resurrecting the mentally dead (he must have smoked the honey-dipped blunts that Reaper mentioned during “Dangerous Mindz”). Then, Darkim’s simple but effective instrumental drops, and RZA evokes his double time flow to get off a verse filled with Five Percenter equations and mathematics, capped off by a story about a wise but poor Sudan immigrant (he also gets a chance to list off the twelve jewels of Islam, hence the song title). I enjoy hearing RZA when he’s in his teacher/wisdom bag.

Fairytalez – Reap and Gatekeep turn a few children’s stories into socially conscious commentary while a young Kelis makes her first professional appearance singing the hook. The playful concept and the instrumental sound like a Prince Paul concoction, but the screechy string-loop-laden backdrop is credited to Goldfinghaz. This feels like something that could have gone on 6FD, but I still enjoyed it.

Never Gonna Come Back – Over Goldfinghaz’s gloomy backdrop, Reaper and Gatekeeper each share a sad story of losing their lady love to gun violence. I sure hope these aren’t true stories, and if they’re not, it amplifies how morbid their minds are to come up with this concept.

Pit Of Snakes – For only the second time on the album to this point, we get to hear all three members of Gravediggaz rhyme together. RZA kicks things off and sounds like a mad scientist threatening to “splatter your gall bladder” with “mathematical data.” Gatekeeper and Reaper follow, and while they sound good enough, this snake pit was clearly RZA’s playground. Which makes sense, considering he co-produced the possessed synth backdrop along with True Master.

The Night The Earth Cried – This was the second and final single released from The Pick. Reaper and RZA use their verses to address the past and present evil deeds of the white man inflicted on the Black man in this land called North America. Gatekeeper closes with a verse drenched in Five Percent teachings, which is what he uses to cope with the stress and racism the Black man continues to face in America. 4th Disciple and RZA blend haunting piano chords with tormented strings, resulting in a brilliant instrumental tailor-made for the song’s content. It’s an interesting choice for a single (especially during the blinged-out, jiggy era), but I dug it. And with all that’s currently going on in the United States today, it couldn’t be more relevant.

Elimination Process – This one begins with Grym Reaper receiving instruction from some devilishly distorted voiced being (played by one of the Aleem Brothers) to take control of the black hole perimeter and eliminate all the fake deaf, dumb, and blind niggas (aka meek, zombie ghetto dwellers) from the face of the earth (he also instructs Reaper to “preserve the niggettes,” which I found hi-larious). Then Reaper and Gatekeeper round out their makeshift army with Shabazz The Disciple (who sounds eerily similar to Ghostface Killah) and Omen to wage war and call out these race-killing Black devils. It’s not my favorite track on The Pick, but it’s listenable.

Repentance Day – Reaper concocts a horror movie score for himself, Killah Priest, and Hell Razah to give an unsettlingly descriptive account of the day of Armageddon. This was darkly dope.

Hidden Emotions – This one begins with a skit that shows street pharmacist, Jay Jackson, transforming from a heartless thug into a loving husband and doting father when he gets word his wife is giving birth to their son. Then, True Master’s ghostly, piano-riff-laden instrumental drops, and Reaper and Gatekeeper proceed to discuss the struggle for Black men to connect with and express their emotions. True Master also makes a rare appearance on the mic (I like what he did on “Medicine” from Guru’s Jazzmatazz Vol. II album), chiming in on the subject and summing up things best with his closing bar: “You need to let it out, ‘cause it could cause you bad health, hiding your emotions can rob you from yourself.” A hip-hop mental health record, decades before the subject became sexy.

What’s Goin’ On – RZA, Reaper, Gatekeeper, and RZA’s younger brother and Killarmy de facto leader, 9th Prince, put a spooky twist (thanks to RZA’s eerie bells and celestial choir sample) on Marvin Gaye’s soulful anti-war classic. Long-time Wu-Tang affiliate songstress, Blue Raspberry, lends her vocals to the track, adding additional flavor (pun intended).

Deadliest Biz – Reaper and Gatekeeper join forces for the last time on The Pick, issuing boasts and deadly threats to wack emcees. It was kind of uncomfortable hearing Gatekeeper jack RZA’s “Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing To Fuck Wit” flow, and his zany backdrop made this sound like something more appropriate for 6FD.

Outro – Prince Paul gets his lone production credit of the evening on this closing track. He hooks up pounding drums and an urgent, slightly demented piano loop, placing a collage of RZA, Reaper, and Gatekeeper soundbites over the backdrop to explain the Gravediggaz’s purpose and mission.

In 1950, Tennessee blues singer Stick McGhee recorded and released a record titled “One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show.” The song title was based on a popular term in southern Black culture, meaning the absence or antics of one person/clown shouldn’t stop things from progressing or proceeding for everyone else. When Cee-Lo Green decided to leave Goodie Mob (temporarily) after their 1999 third release, World Party, the remaining three members decided to title their fourth album after Stick McGhee’s signature record as a statement that the show must go on, and as a shot at Cee-Lo (the album’s artwork even features Khujo, T-Mo, and Big Gipp sitting with a monkey in a movie theater, which I’ve always found hi-larious). The Pick, The Sickle, And The Shovel proves that one Gravedigga don’t stop no burial.

From The Pick’s first track, you immediately sense a much more serious tone than the playfully morbid atmosphere that Gravediggaz operated in under Prince Paul’s direction on 6 Feet Deep. Musically, they stick with a dark production scheme, which is suitable for horrorcore hip-hop, but with RZA at the helm, the production sounds more Wu-Tang Clanish than Gravediggaz. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as most of the instrumentals are fire. I more so struggled adjusting to RZA, Grym Reaper, and Gatekeeper sounding nothing like the Gravediggaz we were introduced to on 6FD.

6FD found RZA, Grym Reaper, and Gatekeeper rhyming with dark twisted humor, but their witty punchlines, whimsical deliveries, and overall playful nature made it clear that their morbidness was just entertainment. The RZA-led Gravediggaz regime has little time for jokes, as they spend most of The Pick “digging up the graves of the mentally dead” with social commentary, Five Percent teachings, and discussing the world’s impending doom. The rhyming is solid (I was especially impressed by Reaper’s lyrical growth since 6FD), though at times, a lot to consume in one sitting. Ultimately, they sound less like Gravediggaz and more like another Wu-Tang Clan affiliate group, which is only compounded by guest cameos from Killah Priest, 9th Prince, Hell Razah, Shabazz The Disciple, and Blue Raspberry.

Even if Prince Paul was more involved on The Pick, I don’t think the gimmicky, dark humor approach used on 6FD would have worked a second time. Maybe Prince Paul knew this as well, which is why he stepped back and eventually away from the group. I enjoyed The Pick, but the group’s conversion from Gravediggaz to Archaeologists was unexpected.

-Deedub
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