This week twenty years ago saw the release of the debut album from Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), R.Kelly’s first solo outing 12 Play, and the best Tribe Called Quest album Midnight Marauders (if you thought that was a great release date, that was not even the most impressive week a Tribe album dropped; The Low End Theory was released on the same day as Nevermind, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and the first CD I ever bought, Bryan Adam’s Waking Up the Neighbours). Even the casual rap fan knows Award Tour (which was number four on my list of the 100 Greatest Songs from the Golden Age of Hip-Hop) as well as Electric Relaxation, so let me highlight another song from the album, which was actually the bane of my existence shortly after hearing it.
Stuck near the end of the album is The Chase, Part II, another slow head nodder which features Phife Dog rapping, “you’re styles are incomplete same as Vinnie Testeverde.” For the youngsters out there, as the lyric suggest Vinnie was a horrible quarterback who was always near the top of the league in interceptions and holds the record for most loses for a starting quarterback in NFL history. Of course the Cleveland Browns just signed him when the album was released and the team then turned around and traded beloved local hero Bernie Kosar (who would go on to win a Super Bowl ring that season). After the Browns signed Vinnie, they became so bad that the owner was able to move the team and the Browns have made the playoff twice since the song was released and only had three winning seasons. As Bill Simmons would say, “God hates Cleveland.”
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