Stanfords Finest

Released in 1996 when I was a poor student. Broke as a motherfucker but still with a record player I was living in Manchester and would often trawl through Piccadilly Records in Manchester looking, with flat pockets, in the windows and the racks at records I couldn’t afford. Around this time I saw this from Sadat X who was dropping his first solo work outside of Brand Nubian. Out of all the Brand Nubian members Derek X aka Sadat X was always my least favourite. He was the one that had the annoying voice and I preferred Jamar and Puba but there was always something about his flow that intrigued. Over time I have begun to appreciate his idiosyncrasies and unique style and so I downloaded some of solo albums a while back. Wild Cowboys (for some fucking reason Cowboys were in vogue in mid 90′s hip hop for a short while) is a fucking great album. Bit of a flop on release but surely must be a nomination for cult classic these days. Wild Cowboys is an album in the strictest sense – no real stand out tracks as such and the singles that were released from it – Hang ‘Em High which is some weird Diamond produced Cowboy thing and Showbiz’s Stages and Lights and the party jam Lump Lump – are all fully passable but not hit record material. No, The album tracks are where its at homeslice. Sauce For Birdheads is a jazzy, plinky plonky hip hop masterclass not least of all because it features Shawn Black. Shawn Black who litters this album but is now M.I.A. Seemingly disappeared after this release which is a real shame because he brings a lot to the rap table. Open Bar is a stunning sloooow jam featuring Puba and is indeed smother than a fez on the head of Kojak. This is all good but there are two real stand out moments. Stand out moment number 1: Petty People. This could have come straight from Stunts, Blunts and Hip Hop – Diamond D on the board and Sadat and Shawn Black rip this to shreds. Its so good. THIS should have been a single but they overlooked it for Lump Lump? Crazy ish. Second Stand Out Moment: Escape From New York. Pete Rock delivers a beautiful, soul laden groove whilst Sadat laments how hard life in the Big Apple is (his girl just caught a case). These two make the album an essential purchase alone but then you have the stoned Hashout (this whole album is high as a kite come to think about it) which is very trippy but menacing with it and Shawn Black, again, provides the lyrics ‘pop the block, we bubble like Shampoo’. Been trying to get an US OG copy for a while but saw some chump posting a mint copy on Ebay today for 8 pounds instead of the usual 20+ quid on Discogs. Buy It Now. Done. You have been.