Here It Comes: The Make-or-Break Debut from a Third of 3rd Bass
Written: Jul 06 '09 (Updated Jul 06 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Contains underrated posse cut, Serch’s earnest social conscience.
Cons: A weaker second half; Serch is a rather average MC.
The Bottom Line: With a functional rapper over functional beats, Return of the Product is a satisfactory solo debut from MC Serch, showing a flicker of hope of life after 3rd Bass.
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| balogun's Full Review: Return of the Product by MC Serch |
Michael “MC Serch” Berrin was -- and still is -- an anomaly among white rappers. While others extended hip-hop culture with their white identities (be it from affluent suburbia or working-class neighborhoods), MC Serch basked in it. With his gumby haircut, goofy dance moves, and empathy for the black underclass, Serch did occasionally succumb to silly pandering, yet it was such behavior that ultimately endeared him -- and his group, the interracial 3rd Bass -- to hip-hop’s then-solidly black-male hardcore base, something that no other white emcee has ever quite matched (and yes, that includes Eminem.) In a sense, Serch ceased to be either white or Jewish; he was…one of them. Plus, he is married to a black woman. That says it all, right?
However, Serch must have thought he had a large enough following to go solo. Soon after the commercial height 3rd Bass achieved by bashing, ironically, Vanilla Ice (“Pop Goes the Weasel”), Serch left the fold, effectively ending the existence of the group. Unsurprisingly, his band mates Pete Nice and DJ Richie Rich were far from pleased. (The album they would do together, 1993’s Dust to Dust, flung several darts Serch’s way, including the video for “Rat Bastard” where Nice, in a scene inspired by The Untouchables, bludgeons a Serch impersonator to death.) Serch didn’t seem to care, though, because there is nothing throughout his solo debut, 1992’s Return of the Product, that is incendiary enough to provoke or intensify the vitriol his former crew members spewed less than a year later. In fact, his solo debut is a rather competent, light-hearted affair -- a cross between the jovial vestiges of the late ‘80s and the harder-edged sounds that would permeate East Coast rap a little further down the ‘90s.
The first three tracks are easily the strongest. After a brief interlude of solemn strings and keyboard notes, at the end of which Serch chuckles, “So y’all thought I was coming back with some old R&B, huh?”, the chilly instrumental for “Here It Comes” -- laden with prominent cymbals and choir voices -- kicks in, at place for Serch to deliver delightful lines like “You fall to the waistline when you waste rhymes/Serch got it flowing when it comes to fat beats and basslines!” “Don’t Have to Be” finds Serch stretching his creative muscles a little in a snapping soundscape of congas and resounding guitar plucks as he explains that certain circumstances don’t necessarily determine a predictable outcome. (Sample lyric: “I can be paid, and don’t have to have money/Jump off a bridge, and don’t have to use bungee!”)
“Back to the Grill”, however, surpasses them all. Harnessed by a stabbing loop of organs and a thundering steel drum, the song is the sequel to 3rd Bass’ “Kick ‘Em in the Grill” (from 1991’s Derelicts of Dialect) -- and that other pre-Illmatic song. Yes, folks, Nas -- then known as “Nasty Nas” -- makes an appearance here, a few months after his legendary turn in Main Source’s “Live at the Barbeque.” And he has more unholy couplets to unleash: “This is Nas, kid, you know how it runs/I’m waving automatic guns at nuns/Sticking up the preachers in the church, I’m a stone crook/Serial killer, who works by the phone book!” Of course, this is not to leave out Chubb Rock, who appeared in the original -- still kicking an already-down Vanilla Ice, and flinging dazzling lines (e.g., “Lyrics on a diet ‘cause it gets no fatter!”). And MC Serch is no slouch in comparison, with hilarious lines like “Got crazy game, so no one can stop me/But a-yo, I’m white! I guess my game is hockey!” That more than makes up for the weakest link, Samuel “Red Hot Lover Tone” Barnes, who quickly found out that his sleazy alter ego won’t hit him paydirt as a rapper; and eventually focused on a far more lucrative career as one half of the production pair, the Trackmasters. “Pull a ho around my way and make hooker souffle”? Really?
Anyways, the underrated posse cut yields to a string of tracks that don’t quite burn as brightly as the first fourth of Return of the Product. Partly blame the music: Most of it -- handled by T.Ray, Wolf, and Skeff Anselm, with Serch as the executive producer -- is rather perfunctory than pleasant. The general mishmash of funk-guitar, warm-flute and horn samples just don’t feel substantially interesting. Save from the three aforementioned tracks and the musical fluctuation made in the title track, the beats are just bland dressing to Serch’s lyrics. As for Serch, he is not to be totally absolved of the album’s shortcomings. He is rather a sleep-inducing battle emcee (“Can You Dig It” and “Hits the Head”); the quasi-hip-hop dedication “Scenes from the Mind” does not hit as hard as it should; and “Here It Comes Again”, apart from possessing a harder, faster-paced beat, is really a remix of “Here It Comes” and virtually does not merit an inclusion.
Thankfully, Serch redeems himself in other areas of Return of the Product. He amazingly has this high level of empathy for the racial strata that he believes still exists. In “Hard but True”, with ad-lib contributions from an uncredited Q-Tip, he explains that although he is Jewish, “chased from the four corners of the earth,” at least he is considered “white” in the United States. It puts people like him in a unique position to enact change. Although he has entered this realm of “privilege” (or so he thinks), he feels that his heritage, similar to that of black Americans, compels him to -- to paraphrase his rhymes -- pull out the final nail from the coffin rather than hitting it down. “Social Narcotics”, which features Fatal (yes, the same Joe Fatal of “Live at the Barbeque”) continues this narrative of such civic duty. But this time, he extends his logic to the Native Americans: “Now in ‘92, lowered to be mascots/The Redskins, the Indians, the Atlanta Braves/What if we called the team the “Atlanta Slaves”?/Brothers would have a field day!” Indeed -- and Al Sharpton.
And of course, Serch never ceases to lambaste those who he believes undermine hip-hop’s credibility. And no, it’s not just the white boys; MC Hammer is hilariously the subject of Serch’s ire in “Daze in a Weak”: “‘Cause I’m the baddest white boy to ever f**king touch a mic/Like it or not, I don’t care about the Hammer/But he’d be my b***h if me and him was in the slammer!” Don’t drop the soap.
Unfortunately for Serch, Return of the Product did not replicate the success he achieved with 3rd Bass. So it is no surprise that he moved on to concentrate on being a record executive -- and to nurture a hungry Nas barely out of his teens. (He, after all, executive-produced Illmatic) So yeah, Return of the Product is far from a classic, and I won’t recommend it to anyone down to their last dollar. However, considering the level of Serch’s technical skills and the producers’ beatwork, this is a solid effort that surpasses expectations. If anyone wants to find out for oneself how Serch fared musically without 3rd Bass -- or wish to partly wash away the stigma of his involvement in that corny, white-rapper exploitative VH1 reality show -- be sure to pick this up. I mean, it’s either that or, well, downloading “Back to the Grill.”
TRACK LISTING:
1. Here It Comes
2. Don’t Have to Be
3. Back to the Grill
4. Hard but True
5. Return of the Product
6. Daze in a Weak
7. Can You Dig It
8. Social Narcotics
9. Hits the Head
10. Scenes from the Mind
11. Here It Comes Again
Recommended:
Yes
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balogun
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Member: Dayo Akinwande
Location: Columbia, MD
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