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

[Awesome Wells]

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

He had the Mary joint on her first album. That was a classic everywhere, not just NYC.

But women loved Puba because of the clothes thing. His shows in NYC back in the day were basically 1/2 women dressed exactly like him. HAHA!! During his era, most NY rappers weren't making music trying to cross over to other regions. If it happened, it happened. But nobody during the time was making music for that purpose.

The clubs in NYC, Jersey and Philly played Puba's sh*t crazily during his era. Sadat just did an interview talking about how they used to have to sneak Puba out the back of clubs because the women would be trying to rush him. He ran the early 90's on the east coast. Dude was doing shows rocking backpacks, and then after that, other MC's started doing club dates rocking backpacks too. His influence was wild in the early 90's.

 

[get these nets]

Good concept for a vid, but shouldnt have been more than 10 minutes long.

Also, the narrator brings up the term "critically acclaimed" when describing singles and albums. Believe me when I tell you that NOBODY cared about album reviews from critics in that era.
Your man who always bought albums when they dropped was the one who told you whether it hot or not. Then you'd buy it, or ask him to dub it for you.

 

[Toe Jay Simpson]

For those who do not know

Grand Puba was viewed the way people now view Phonte Coleman. The everyman who could out rap everyone and should have been next up.

 

[TripleAgent]

I'll have to check it out probably listening to master p and celly cel back then

Best album any of them made, solo or group.

 

[Ziploc]

What I gathered from interviews from people around him is that he had a lousy work ethic, was tardy,did some grimey shyt regarding money and contracts with Brand Nubian and lost his drive to compete after 2000 was received with mixed reviews.

 

[bad_company]

He's a style icon and I loved 2000 and still play it sometimes. But rapwise he didn't really "fit in" with the whole new era of advanced NYC rap ushered in by WU, Nas, Hov etc etc.

 

[MrRDU]

Best album any of them made, solo or group.

Easily

 

[Awesome Wells]

He's a style icon and I loved 2000 and still play it sometimes. But rapwise he didn't really "fit in" with the whole new era of advanced NYC rap ushered in by WU, Nas, Hov etc etc.

That's the thing though, in that era, there wasn't any "fitting in" for the legends. You didn't have to.

You could just be yourself and still make dope sh*t. So everyone could be different and still have their own lane. So after the new artists came in, Puba was still dope and making dope music, but he didn't have the drive to keep going. He was on tour with dudes like Common, Fat Joe, Artifacts, Beatnuts and Nas. But his focus was elsewhere.

 

[Redwood]

For those who do not know

Grand Puba was viewed the way people now view Phonte Coleman. The everyman who could out rap everyone and should have been next up.

Drake took his style and ran with it

 

[Awesome Wells]

Best album any of them made, solo or group.

In God We Trust was dope and exceeded mad expectations, but it wasn't better than One for All.



One for All was one of the first 5 mic classics in The Source. Mad untouchable.

 

[Awesome Wells]

For those who do not know

Grand Puba was viewed the way people now view Phonte Coleman. The everyman who could out rap everyone and should have been next up.

Nah, this isn't true, at all, lol.

Because Phonte was never the hottest rapper in the game. Puba was.

Dude was a household Hip Hop name during his prime. People don’t f*ck with Phonte like that.

 

[TripleAgent]

In God We Trust was dope and exceeded mad expectations, but it wasn't better than One for All.



One for All was one of the first 5 mic classics in The Source. Mad untouchable.

One For All has a couple higher highs, but lower lows as well. IGWT aged way better as well. Jamar and Sadat were WAY better rappers by then.

 

[Awesome Wells]

One For All has a couple higher highs, but lower lows as well. IGWT aged way better as well. Jamar and Sadat were WAY better rappers by then.

There's only one track on One For All that I would say is a skip, and that's "Feels So Good". Which doesn't really count because that was from their demo. They didn't put that one on the cassettes and CD's later. But that album was pretty much flawless.

IGWT had a lot of weak tracks, and also weird lyrics about women, like on some NWA after Cube left sh*t, lol. X and Jamar were better rappers by the second album, but I definitely had to skip over a lot of it to get to the joints I f*cked with back then.

 

[TripleAgent]

There's only one track on One For All that I would say is a skip, and that's "Feels So Good". Which doesn't really count because that was from their demo. They didn't put that one on the cassettes and CD's later. But that album was pretty much flawless.

IGWT had a lot of weak tracks, and also weird lyrics about women, like on some NWA after Cube left sh*t, lol. X and Jamar were better rappers by the second album, but I definitely had to skip over a lot of it to get to the joints I f*cked with back then.

I feel the opposite. AFO has more skips IMO. There is nothing on IGWT as bad as Try To Do Me.

 

[Awesome Wells]

I feel the opposite. AFO has more skips IMO. There is nothing on IGWT as bad as Try To Do Me.

They recorded that one in '89. That was the sound back then for a lot of rap albums, lol. That was the New Jack era.

I actually forgot about that song. But yeah, that was a bad one. HAHA!!

On IGWT, they OD'd with the 5% songs. It got boring after awhile. Sadat said Jamar wanted to put all of those songs on there. I only f*cked with like 1/2 of that album. Loved "Allah U Akbar" and sh*t like 'Pass the Gat", but a lot of the album cuts were kinda dry to me.

One For All was nonstop jams.

Step to the Rear
Ragtime
Wake Up
Concerto in X Minor
Drop the Bomb
Who Can Get Busy Like This Man
Grand Puba, Positive & LG
Dance to My Ministry
Slow Down
All for One
To the Right

Damn near the whole album was hits, back then. Easily one of the best Hip Hop albums of all-time. One of my favorites.