Throwback Artist of the Day: Schoolly D
“Lookin’ at my Gucci – It’s about that time”
Schoolly D – the original East Coast OG. According to Ice-T he should get the credit for gangster rap:
“The first record that came out along those lines was Schoolly D’s “P.S.K.” Then the syncopation of that rap was used by me when I made “Six In The Morning”. The vocal delivery was the same: ‘…P.S.K. is makin’ that green’, ‘…six in the morning, police at my door’. When I heard that record I was like “Oh shit!” and call it a bite or what you will but I dug that record. My record didn’t sound like “P.S.K.”, but I liked the way he was flowing with it. “P.S.K.” was talking about Park Side Killers but it was very vague. That was the only difference, when Schoolly did it, it was ‘…one by one, I’m knockin’ em out’. All he did was represent a gang on his record. I took that and wrote a record about guns, beating people down, and all that with “Six In The Morning”
So the main track today (PSK) is on the lighter side but I’m also including a couple of other notable tracks that were harder than most other stuff coming out back then. The fact that Schoolly D had his own label helped to him to say and put out what he wanted whereas other artists found themselves limited by major label constraints. As far as the hardcore lyrics for the time – I can’t help but laugh when I hear this…
Cause all I care about is sellin my lleyo
Makin’ money like a nigga make mayo
Toke on weed, sippin on my Olde E
All the crackheads all on my wee-wee
Peep the video below with Lawrence “Larry’ Fishburne – it came out along with King of NY starring Larry and Christopher Walken. Apparently the director Abel Ferrara dug Schoolly as he featured his song Signifying Rapper in his other movie Bad Lieutenant. If you haven’t seen Bad Lieutenant in a while you should go peep it again. Seeing Harvey Keitel smoke copious amounts of crack, lose thousands of dollars on the Mets, and do impersonations of a tweetie bird while naked will forever scar you.
P.S.K. What does it mean? (86′) – HERE
Gucci Time (86′) – HERE
Signifying Rapper (88′) – HERE
Gangster Boogie (88′) – HERE
King of New York (91′) – HERE
Easily your best post of all time. I no longer hate you. As much.