balogun's Full Review: Daddy's Home by Big Daddy Kane
Solidly average. That is the best way I can describe Big Daddy Kane’s sixth album, 1994’s Daddy’s Home. The record is as artistically relaxed as he is on the album’s front cover, with a supposed mug of joe and looking almost like he just rolled out of bed. Yep, not much has changed from the last time out, or the last few albums. The funk and soul beats, even if they have been slowed down this time around, are still here. Big Daddy Kane is still the primary producer…
…and the public still didn’t give a damn.
That’s a bit of a shame, because a little more than half this album is very good, and it is partly due to the battling raps. “That’s How I Did ‘Em” is yet another speed rap by Kane as he verbally pulverizes wack M.C.s and bootleggers and inserts an infectious call-and-response chorus. “Lyrical Gymnastics” finds BDK unabatedly riding the vibrant string-heavy funk beat as he drops ill metaphors like: “If rappers were grapes, I'd have a whole wine distillery!” Kane does his best G-Funk impersonation with the high-pitched synthesizers of “Don’t Do It to Yourself” and drops more intriguing figures of speech like: “The only way you could fu@k with me is in a orgy!” And “Show & Prove” is a remarkable DJ Premier-produced posse cut featuring a smooth but rugged Sauce Money, a precocious man-child Shyheim, a usually off-kilter and manic Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and a rapid tongue-twisting 24 year-old protege and hypeman of Kane’s – Jay-Z.
Then there are the other tracks that stray from braggadocio. “In the PJs” is a delicious slice of sunny soul as Big Daddy Kane gives props to his neighborhood and those like it while lamenting and staying away from their ills. And in the dark horn-driven “Let Yourself Go”, Kane ostracizes gangsta rappers and posers even further: “’Yo, I raped his mother, yo, I shot and killed him!’/Is that what you wanna get across to the children?” he says, right after he orders, “If you wanna be a gangster, join the mafia in Italy!” True, and maybe these rappers can withstand being called “moulies” while they’re at it.
“Somebody’s Been Sleeping in My Bed” has to be the most entertaining, though, or at least its second verse. It is R&B with a fast-paced grimy edge, as Kane narrates a tale about his cheating wife with some amusing details of observation to solve the equation:
Now I've heard of traffic, but I've never heard of when
You get off at five and don't make it home ‘til ten
Another thing that I can't comprehend -
Matchbox and pens from the Holiday Inn
And every night that I had to work late
I come home to see that the bathroom ain't straight
I look at the toilet bowl and wonder, “What’s up?”
Because I know damn well that she don't p!ss with the seat up!
Only if Daddy’s Home had more songs like these! The rest of the tracks see him faltering. “Daddy’s Home” is a little too short and sparse on truly standout couplets to make a lasting impression. The same goes for another braggadocio track, “The Way It’s Going Down”, which just slowly appears and leaves uneventfully. The Dolemite sample (“Baby, sex is just like putting money in the bank; once you take it out, the interest is all gone!”) is the only interesting thing about the jazz-styled filler “Sex According to the Prince of Darkness”. Speaking of filler, that is exactly what the one-and-a-half pseudo-acapella “Forties & a Bottle of Moet” feels like. And bad enough “W.G.O.N.R.S.” (“What’s Going On In Our Society?”) lacks any profundity in its black-socialist theme; Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On” is sampled so badly – from the tuneless dissonance of the beat to the grating choruses of the two reggae singers – you just do not want to believe Kane actually produced it. And who in the world came up with that silly acronym?
But the main culprit for Daddy’s Home’s limitations has to be Scoob Lover, one-half of Kane’s backup dancing team (Whatever happened to Scrap Lover?). Being that he has been featured in at least one song in each and every one of Kane’s albums, someone or something must have convinced him to form a duo with BDK, because the guy featured in about a quarter of this album. And for some inexplicable reason, he has switched up his voice, sounding like he pinched his nose tight with a wooden peg. Not only does the listener have to put up with four minutes of unremarkable boasting in “Brooklyn Style…Laid Out”; Scoob Lover whines and squeals with wack lines like “I’m flipping on ni99as like little kids on that mattress.” The absolute worst has to be his unwanted presence in “Show & Prove”. Since when did the weakest link kick off a posse cut? True to form, Scoob irritates with his nasal flow and stumbles with inane bars. “Even if you join an army, you still couldn't battle!” Ha! Even if he’s been coached by Kane all these years, he still couldn’t rap. Someone should have euthanized this cat.
Daddy’s Home came and went, seemingly with no fanfare. It was like the album – let alone Kane – didn’t exist. I don't necessarily blame the buying public. After all, it is a rather forgettable record, presently languishing as an extremely cheap out-of-print item. But it still has its fair share of strong moments. In fact, even as his rhymes were no longer tightly packed in sheer brilliance like the earlier days, Big Daddy Kane was still more technically advanced than most of the rappers of the day. “And I hope the record consumers don't believe the magazine rumors/’Cause Kane is making a comeback, like Puma's!” BDK says in “Lyrical Gymnastics”. If only that were true, Kane. If only.
TRACK LISTING:
1. Daddy’s Home
2. Brooklyn Style…Laid Out
3. In the PJs
4. Show & Prove
5. Lyrical Gymnastics
6. That’s How I Did ‘Em
7. Sex According to the Prince of Darkness
8. Forties & a Bottle of Moet
9. The Way It’s Goin’ Down
10. Somebody’s Been Sleeping in My Bed
11. W.G.O.N.R.S.
12. Let Yourself Go
13. Don’t Do It to Yourself
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