Classic Music: Antlife's Top 25 Hip Hop Albums of All-Time #5 (Redman "Dare Iz a Darkside") (1994)

Yessir..

As I got closer to my Top 5 albums of all-time, things just got really tough to list. Some albums are so classic, that it’s hard to compare their impact with similar-level albums. I spent the early 90’s pretty much just worshipping every thing you’ve seen posted on this list, and they all got a ridiculous amount of burn in my playlist. So it’s not easy to rank them, when you see them all as so important.

I went with Redman’s second album Dare Iz a Darkside as my 5th pick. And even that was tough because his first album really changed my ear for Hip Hop, and definitely introduced me to a more funky hardcore type of vibe that became the standard for me for awhile. Those first two albums are so close in quality to me, so it took me awhile to pick this one over that first one. I went with what I listen to the most today, and I listen to this album way too much…still! It was a little departure from what we heard from him on the first one, as it was kinda spaced-out with its theme and content, but the album itself was just ridiculous!

Red did most of the production himself, and the beats were super dark, and banged like crazy! As hard as the first album was, this album really kicked that level up mad notches. This dropped in ’94 when Def Jam was doing their dual promotion campaign called “Month of the Man” with this and Method Man’s Tical album droppin’ closely together. If you remember the climate back then, Hip Hop was easily at its grittiest and hardest, and this was just Redman at his best to me.

Lyrically, he was just on another planet. But the album as a whole, really worked a concept that I felt fit that era so perfectly. A lot of people go with Muddy Waters, as his best album. And I love that one too, but Dare Iz a Darkside is seriously the Redman I couldn’t stop listening to back then. I play the whole album front to back, so I’m not going to list my favorite tracks. This is a complete effort, and one that you can roll with from start to finish. Whenever I’m in the mood for some hardcore, gritty, 90’s Hip Hop with that boom bap classic feel to it, this is the album I throw on. If you don’t own this album, shame on you. But do yourself a favor and pick this up, it won’t disappoint.

Respectington..

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