I’ve got to admit, I’ve been ignoring those of you who frequent this website on a daily basis and are fiendin’ to hear some new mid 90s indy records for a while now. Not on purpose or anything, it’s just that at some point I got tired of hearin’ the same old shit over and over again. Of course there are a lot of mid to late 90s indy records that are worth searching for, but the majority of the ‘popular’ indy 12’s out there to me sound like blablabla over mediocre beats. To each his own of course, but I would take something from let’s say a Steady B or a Grand Daddy I.U. (two emcees I’ve been listening to a lot over the past few days) over a Brainwash 2000 12” any day, even if someone would give me a stack of $ bills in addition.
Well anyway, to make a long story short, this time I decided to review a mid 90s indy release that’s not just my cup of tea, but I’m positive that it will appeal to the vast majority of the visitors of this website as well. It’s a 12” by a crew named Sez? Who, released on a small indy label from East Orange, New Jersey named Ill-Sound Records. The record contains a total of three tracks, the ‘dirty’ and ‘radio’ versions of “On Da Dealznicks” on side A plus a track titled “Owl # One” on the flipside.
Now I can’t say I had heard about this crew (or this 12” for that matter) before, so not for the first time I had to try my luck on Google. First I searched for “Sez Who” which gave me 300,000+ hits, but after goin’ through the first 20 pages I knew that wouldn’t lead to anything. After some additional searches I typed in “Sez Who” plus “Dealznicks” and this lead me to a few eBay links which unfortunately were no longer available. Fuck that shit. Then I tried Discogs… nothing. Luckily Popsike had one listing for the Sez? Who 12” and this at least showed that apparently people are willing to pay some decent cash for this record, because the winning bid was $ 87,65 (it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it was everybody’s favorite eBayer Mr. Belmont (or the98_vikes as he calls himself these days) who placed the winning bid).
Without any real information it’s only right to focus on the music, right? The a-side cut “On Da Dealznicks” is my favorite track on this 12”. The beats provided by A.R. and M.D.M. are hittin’ harder than Mike Tyson in his prime and despite the fact that the emcees are not the most skilled emcees in the world the track also entertains on the lyrical tip with some punchlines that will have you laughin’ out loud. With a chorus like “I’m about to flip your bitch on da dealznick / I’m flippin’ that ass right on my motherfuckin’diiiiiiick!!!” you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what the song’s about…
Sez? Who refer to themselves as ‘Owls’ (or ‘Niggaz Of The Night’ as you can read on the sticker), so I guess the b-side track “Owl # One” can be considered as their group anthem. For the hook they used the played-out “Who Is The Top Choice Of Them All?” vocal sample taken from “La-Di-Da-Di”, but no matter how many times it’s been used before it still works well on this track. M.D.M. again provided the beats, but this time the jazzy flavored yet hard hitting beats of “On Da Dealznicks” have been replaced with a darker and more moody sound that perfectly fits the theme of the song. Dopeness.
No idea exactly when or how many copies of this record were pressed, but based on the fact that I couldn’t find any information about it I’m guessin’ that it’s a pretty scarce release. For my copy I paid the hefty sum of € 2 which I think was a steal. If you want to try your luck on the world’s largest auction site I think the price I mentioned earlier is a more realistic figure. If you’re willing to pay that price now all you have to do is wait for someone to put it up. If you’re not, you just have to keep your eyes and ears open whenever you decide to go diggin’ again. Peace.
Edit (July 2nd, 2010): Recently I found out that the group did a second (promo-only) single titled “Mil-lyni-em’ Slaves” b/w “Secret Garden” which was released on WWP Records (WWP stands for Who World Productions), a label located in Irvington, New Jersey. I noticed a copy on eBay and on the strength of the “Dealznicks” 12” I was tempted to buy this, but after hearing the audio snippets the eBay seller provided I decided to leave it. Why? Well, because in terms of dopeness both tracks didn’t even come close to “On Da Dealznicks” or “Owl # One”. “Mil-lyni-em’ Slaves” is okay at best, but the flipside joint “Secret Garden” (which samples “Pop Life” by Prince) is just awful, really awful. I’m glad I found out about this release though, because the labels do mention the emcees on this record. Side A features E.S. Poetic, M.D. “Reality” Mayhymn (the labels of the “Dealznicks” 12” mention M.C.M. and I’m guessin’ that him and M.D. “Reality” Mayhymn are the same guy), Lefty and Mully, while the flipside is a solo joint from M.D. “Reality” Mayhymn. Based on the ‘millenium’ reference and audio files I heard I’d say that these tracks are late 90s recordings, which leaves a gap of about five years between the first 12” and this one. Not sure what the group has been up to in between both releases and I also can’t tell if all emcees featured on the “Mil-lyni-em’ Slaves” 12” were in or affiliated to the group around the time they did the “Dealznicks” 12”, so if anyone out there has some useful information feel free to contact us.
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