You Down With Other People's ...? (Naughty By Nature - Naughty By Nature)

Member Name: XICripZ

Product:	Naughty By Nature - Naughty By Nature
Date:	01/04/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bangers throughuot

Disadvantages: Nothing specific

Naughty By Nature capitalised on the success of their hits single, "O.P.P" by releasing a self-entiled album in 1991. Although you could call this their debut, the trio consisting of Treach, Vin Rock and DJ Kay Gee had come out with an earlier album as The New Style. The New Jersey crew were well-respected in the game, and despite Pop success, balanced this with hardcore appeal.

1. "Yoke The Joker"

To kick things off, we have a track to show off the skills that the group hve, and in particualr the words of the Treacherous MC are put to the teest. For the second half of the opening verse by Treach, you get him using words starting with nothing but 's'. The extensive use of sibillance is over-powering and displays how strong his lyricism is, even at this early stage in his career.

**Five Stars**

2. "Wickedest Man Alive"

A very popular thing to do at the time was to do Reggae-influenced tracks, and that is exactly what you receive on this one as Queen Latifah joins them on a low-tempoed joint, on which they show their diversity, and ability to adapt to different stuff without much of an effort.

**Five Stars**

3. "O.P.P."

This is their most well-known track to date, and it is probably down to the fact that this one crossed over onto the mainstream audience as they came with a contraversially-wrote one, that has them come up with a mad flow about getting to other people's .... The Jackson 5's "ABC" is sampled, and this may be part of the reason it is enjoyed so much too, but you cannot deby it as a classic in Hip Hop.

**Five Stars**

4. "Everything's Gonna Be Alright"

This was one of the singles off the album, and it gets them working with a variety of samples, to give off the vibe that they know their stuff, and are able to work with a range of different things. I foudn this one to be quite uplifting in the way it is constructed, and it acts as mtivation as Treach raps about the bad start he had to life.

**Five Stars**

5. "Let They Ho's Go"

The classic break from Bob James' "Take Me To The Mardi Gras" is used for this one, and the funky belss (which had already been used in the work of the World, Class Wreckin' Cru, Missy Elloit and Run-D.M.C. (amongst others) had the NBN treatment on this one as it is taken a completely new way with it being used with similar sounding beats to muffle it in what is a high quality piece of production.

**Five Stars**

6. "Every Day All Day"

You hear some heavy percussion in this one to indicate that we are about to take things in a new direction, and you have Treach rapping his work with a much more specific expectation for the outcome. He starts it off with lots of thought-provoking words, and with such a speedy pace, you have listen to it more than once to take in all that is going on with it all.

**Five Stars**

7. "Guard Your Grill"

On this one you have them taking their unique hardcore rap lyrics a stage further towards Gangsta Rap as they describe why people must be prepared for the streets and protect themself if they aren't willing to actually fight. It is a much harder one from them, and although the generic NBN sound comes through, it is much darker than usual.

**Five Stars**

8. "Pin the Tail on the Donkey"

This one is an up-tempo tune from them, and forces them to change their ways in order to fit the speed of things. Since Treach is known for his quick-paced flow, this wasn't an issue, and he took on the challenge without that much trouble, and made it into something quite tameable. From this, he was able to show off his great flow, and show how complex he can get his lines to be.

**Five Stars**

9. "1, 2, 3"

You have them taking on some classic West Coast Rap for this one as a little of The D.O.C. and Above The Law is used by them, and it gives them a chance to get into even more gangsta Rap. It is a another strong one from them, and it displays some grea creativity on the part of their producer, DJ Kay Gee. It is a rough one, and builds things up with them able to lay off the complex rhymes for a while.

**Five Stars**

10. "Strike a Nerve"

I felt as though this one was one of theose on the album which required a little more effort, and it had to be slept on in order to feel the quality of the rhymes in it. It is however a great one once you have given it enough time, and after the funny skit, you have them dropping a big beat and flowing on top of more jiggling beats with funky breaks.

**Five Stars**

11. "Rhyme'll Shine On"

Using a Funkdelic sample, which is more popularly known in the Hip Hop world as somehting which had been used by Eric B. & Rakim. With the funky drumming being used for the whole thing, it kept the tune under control, and hadthe trio coming together to take advantage of te fact that they had once again used a banger of a break to work with,

**Five Stars**

12. "Thankx for Sleepwalking"

This one starts off with a skit and a freestlyed rap before we get into the thing, and once it all kicks into the tune, you notice a sample of The Beatles' "You Know My name" as they begin to wind down the track, and work their way through the final track that they constructed for this album ("Uptown Anthem" was on the "Juice" soundtrack). It reflects the fact that they have put in lot of effort in the project, and are proud of the results.

**Five Stars**

13. "Uptown Anthem"

Although it clearly was never going to reach the success of "O.P.P", this single has them end the albumoff with yet another killer tune and top the album off as a completely flawless one. This was one of the only one's on the release not to use a sample, and this original composition from DJ Kay Gee is straight quality, and something that engages you as they chant their way through the tune with the type of raps that had been heard by Nice & Smooth aroudn the same time too.

**Five Stars**

I honestly cannot see a reason why someone wouldn't want this album, there is not a single thing wrong with it as you have the great rhymes from Treach (and Vin Rock to a lesser extent), and amazing Funk-inspred production too. With these working together effortlessly, you can't find a single flaw in the release.

Summary: Naughty By Nature's debut album