Corny, cool and contrived--that's the most accurate way of describing Dust To Dust in 2008. While the many who'll have heard this for the first time today may not appreciate the album, it's those (like myself) who invested in Dust To Dust back in '93 that'll rediscover the album's greatness. You might think it's impossible to be both corny and cool, but I assure you it's not. Pete Nice was the closest thing white people had to Big Daddy Kane in the rap world. I don't mean that lyrically, rather stylistically. Pete Nice was always the "cool" one out the crew while MC Serch was always that goofy self-hating poseur that could have made Kamron (Young Black Teenagers) look like Asher Roth.
Dust To Dust is a great album for the same reasons it can be considered corny. The rhymin' is elementary at best and sometimes flat out predictable. The album dropped at a time when rhyming wasn't always sophisticated. Complexity didn't exactly sell and I don't think any of us would ever mistake groups like 3rd Bass or The Beatnuts for wordsmiths, but it didn't matter because they were beyond witty, had an infectious swagger and most importantly dope production.
A year after the breakup of 3rd Bass and the debut album of former member Serch, Pete Nice got the co-sign by Russell Simmons to go dolo. Some might even remember seeing Russell in the "Kick The Bobo" video that sported a Serch lookalike getting beat down with a bat. Dust To Dust came and went with the quickness. Many people had already dismissed 3rd Bass as a gimmick and while Serch receive some attention from his ill-collabo "Back To The Grill" featuring Red Hot Lover Tone, Chubb Rock and Nasty Nas, it was Pete Nice who delivered the better album. It's true that as much as Serch had help, Pete Nice did as well, enlisting friends K.M.D, Sam Sever and The Beatnuts for production. Psycho Les and Kurious both have guest spots and Cage debuts (1993) for the first time on "Rick Bring 'Em Back."
If you enjoyed Kurious' "A Constipated Monkey" then there is no reason you won't enjoy this. They're practically identical albums. This one is just the "white" version.
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