One Classic Wonder: 'Livin' Proof' by Group Home (Produced Entirely By DJ Premier)

It starts off like a gunshot. Those drums. Piercing your eardrums. THOSE DRUMS. Then the centerpiece sample hits. Both flow through a audio filter of grime and out the speakers with such intensity you just HAVE to stop what your doing and listen. If,you know, your into this type of thing. This music. And Preemo is the king of it. He is the creme de la creme of 90's boom bap rap music. With Guru at his side, DJ Premier dominated the rap world for a decade-plus as Gangstarr. But this song I'm describing isn't a Gangstarr track, amazingly. No, this is Group Home. 1995 was, well, the "peak" of golden-era hip-hop music. Top 40 and what now is described basically as "backpack rap" (or, lovingly by some, "boom bap") were one in the same. Puff Daddy would soon flip the script on the tastes of Top 40 hip-hop with his shiny-suit era, but in 1995 it was all about grimy, hard-hitting "boom bap" drums and really smart, dope lyrics. You had to have the skills. It wasn't diluted (that's actually a matter of opinion and open to debate which I'll leave to another discussion). And 1995 was a good year for DJ Premier. Good enough, in fact, that it allowed him the ability to focus on more than his own group, Gangstarr. This group of young dudes - all rappers or producers that Preemo knew and would work with - was known as The Gangstarr Foundation. Jeru The Damaja and his group Dirty Rotten Scoundrels were part of this collective, and were able to thus enjoy the fruits of Premier's labor on the boards. Another side group that Preemo had been working with in this time period was known as Group Home. They wouldn't go on to have nearly the type of career that Premier had hoped, but that first album they made was definitely one for the ages. Called 'Livin' Proof', the album would do just upon release. Like I said, Premier was king. But Hip-hop also didn't make up nearly as much of the music playing field as it does now. 'Supa Star' was the first and only single to hit the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 85. That's still a testament to Premier that it even charted. The first track off the album, 'Livin' Proof', which I started this article describing, managed to hit #26 on the Hot Rap Singles chart but quickly lost it's luster on the Billboard charts, which is a shame. Because that very song would become a hip-hop head's library staple. One of those instrumentals that always seems to make it's way into the rotation during a backyard cypher between friends (including this writer). 'Suspended In Time' was the album's 3rd single, and definitely is another album stand-out track. It contains a beautiful, mystical-sounding loop and the hard-hitting drums all filtered thru that 90's grime that is standard Premier. It follows the rare lackluster track on this album, 'Serious Rap Shit', which was a vast departure in sound for Preemo and thankfully, he didn't pursue it on any other tracks. Instead, the entire album has that grimy boom-bap feel that would stamp-date it with the year 1995 but at the same time make it timeless. Complex Magazine argued, in a fantastic piece on their website, that 'Livin' Proof' might just be the best hip-hop album ever produced. I don't necessarily agree, at least w/out some time to really think about it, but the fact that I'm EVEN considering it is a testament to it's quality. For every 'Baby Pa' snooze, there's a track like 'Up Against The Wall (Getaway Car Mix)' that just smacks you in the face with it's quality. This is some high-level shit coming outta D&D Studios (RIP). Lyrically, Lil' Dap has to rely more on his unique voice and charisma then his lyrics. Malachi the Nutcracker, the other member of the duo (with one of the worst rap names ever i don't care if he has some crazy personal story like "yo, I used to crack nuts a lot when I was a kid" I don't care that shit is WAAAAACK) is pretty much the Phife to Lil' Dap's Q-Tip, except Phife is waaaaay better (no disrespect due to Phife, he's a legend). But you can definitely see that one is better than the other. No, this album is all about the beats. And for DJ Premier fanatics like myself, one of his best.