Brand Nubian’s Grand Puba Had It All—So Why Didn’t He Blow Up?

[Icewatermetallik]

He had a lot of buzz between 92 to 95, but both of his solo albums were mid, lets be honest. Yea, each album got a few good tracks but there's not 10-12 bangers on there.

He also disappeared for like 4 years.

In between Everything is Everything and Foundation you barely heard about him.

Between 2 mediocre albums and the fact that he lost his buzz that was it.

 

[OrdaineD]

I used to talk to this girl in North Carolina not too long ago who was related to him and she was telling me he was sleeping on their couch

This true ? Sad state of affairs...damn

 

[Unbothered]

I've been playing Brand Nubian a lot lately.

I go back and forth with myself whether Puba or Sadat was the best member of the group. Sadat became a better rapper when Puba left, especially, whereas Puba fell off a bit once he left Brand Nubian for a moment.

One For All, and the track All For One, in particular, is Puba's career highlight, imo. His solos never really hit, and they're kinda mid and forgettable when it comes to the 90s East Coast era of Hip-hop.

Although it's the same verses with a slight difference in lyrics and beat, he kills both the LP and radio versions .

Radio version:


OG album cut:

 

[QU Hectic]

Puba souled'd out and went jiggy on 2000.
That is what happened.
Diamond did rhe same.
on his second album and both their solo careers never recovered. to cultural and record label drawing acceptability. Like it used to be. when you violated and no passes were given. Regardless of.
if you were commercial mainstream gateway.
to being rhe guy viewed. For getting fresh as the top draw. Plus potential mainstream cross over act. [Girbauds and designer jeans exclusively come from brand nubian, period jist for starters]

2000 at the time.
Was viewed as.
trying to go pop and that shyt was not allowed back then.

sohh puba met his fate.

now considering. They started giving passes because of the jiggy malaise.
Sohh pyba had a chance on the brand nubian reunion. Yet it was too little too late. Sohh puba just never recovered.

as a group or solo artist. In the commercial cross over top drawing potential manner. Puba originally was.



Art Barr

If I’m not mistaken, Kid (Christopher Reid) produced Grandpuba 2000 ? Not taken anything from Kid , and creativity goes across the board (ex Kwamye with Lloyd Banks) , but Puba should have went straight to DITG for his 2nd album

 

[Canon]

long but

 

[Awesome Wells]

Puba was one of my favorite MC's, when I was a kid.

He was THAT guy in NYC, at the time. But by the time we all heard of him, he had already been active for mad long before Brand Nubian. He did blow up. But according to him, he lost interest in wanting to compete and got bored with the game. He said he lost the love for it. So that's when you started hearing about him not showing up to studio sessions, or turning down new record deals and kinda only popping out to do favors for dudes he actually respected in music.

It's like Sadat said recently, everyone wanted to rap like Puba in the early 90's. People were trying to bite his style left and right. But Puba said after 2000, he felt tired of the game and just wanted to chill. That happens to a lot of legends.

 

[Awesome Wells]

If I’m not mistaken, Kid (Christopher Reid) produced Grandpuba 2000 ? Not taken anything from Kid , and creativity goes across the board (ex Kwamye with Lloyd Banks) , but Puba should have went straight to DITG for his 2nd album

Nah, that album was mostly Bronx heads. Like what Sadat did on Wild Cowboys.

He got Minnesota, Mark Sparks and Liggio on production. Kid was just hanging out with Puba at the time, and popped up in the "Little of This" video. Puba was working with DITC on some of the remixes of the 2000 tracks, and did features with them at the time.

 

[keond]

Puba had a good career but he was one dimensional. By the mid 90s Biggie and the Wu took over

 

[Awesome Wells]

Puba had a good career but he was one dimensional. By the mid 90s Biggie and the Wu took over

Nah, Puba wasn't one dimensional, at all.

He was literally one of the most complete MC's from '89-'95. He could make every kind of record from party jams, game-spitting, to street sh*t, and then come with the 5% lessons and pro blackness, etc. That's why he was so dope and ran that era for a quick minute. You throw him on a posse cut, he was killing that too.

 

[patscorpio]

Nah, Puba wasn't one dimensional, at all.

He was literally one of the most complete MC's from '89-'95. He could make every kind of record from party jams, game-spitting, to street sh*t, and then come with the 5% lessons and pro blackness, etc. That's why he was so dope and ran that era for a quick minute. You throw him on a posse cut, he was killing that too.

Puba never struck me as one dimensional...he was versatile with the joints he gave you..but i remember watching the unsung or whatever on them and dude sounded like the liquor kicked his ass...not to mention dude was sheisty as hell

 

[patscorpio]

In God We Trust

and everything is everything - that album was tough

 

[Mikeatris]

Lazy alcoholic and fukked up his momentum with a lackluster solo album

This. It was said he was still on the corners drinking and hanging out instead of keeping up with his rap career. He killed his own momentum

 

[Awesome Wells]

Puba never struck me as one dimensional...he was versatile with the joints he gave you..but i remember watching the unsung or whatever on them and dude sounded like the liquor kicked his ass...not to mention dude was sheisty as hell

Yeah, he could make songs about every topic and make them classic too.

But you may be right. He said he's Jamaican, so he always liked to drink. I saw him years ago at a show, and he was mad heavy and having trouble with the breath control onstage. I think he got to a point where he might've lost track of the fitness and health thing too. But I think he's better now.

 

[keond]

Nah, Puba wasn't one dimensional, at all.

He was literally one of the most complete MC's from '89-'95. He could make every kind of record from party jams, game-spitting, to street sh*t, and then come with the 5% lessons and pro blackness, etc. That's why he was so dope and ran that era for a quick minute. You throw him on a posse cut, he was killing that too.

What I mean is he had no real appeal outside of real hip hop types. Like he never crossed over outside of the nyc type of rap. He didn’t have any joints for the west, south, Midwest, women wasn’t checking for him like that….No crossover songs. Clubs was not playing Puba. He was great at what he did but he was never gonna be bigger than what he wast

 

[Mikeatris]

I used to talk to this girl in North Carolina not too long ago who was related to him and she was telling me he was sleeping on their couch

Funny. I dated this girl for years (started almost 30 years ago before she got married. We still text on occasions) who mom was the first cousin of Gza's mom. I can tell you tons of stories about dude. When Wu first came out, he was doing his mom all kinds of ways