Black Moon — Enta Da Stage (1993)
 

<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/Blackmoonr.jpg">

Black Moon — Enta Da Stage

Unfortunately, I did not discover this album until about four years ago but I've played it consistently since then. I can't get enough of it. It's one of the very, very few truly timeless rap albums. It rarely sounds dated.

I'm sure there's other fans of it here.

I used to be a huge Duck Down fan in high school. This, Smif-N-Wesson and Heltah Skeltah especially. The mid-90s were truly a golden age for quality East Coast hip-hop, with Wu Tang, Biggie, Nas et al.

NoirFan, me too. I picked up the fist Black Moon 12" back in '92 on the recommendation of a local DJ, and tried for months to get local heads into it, to no avail. The combination of Buckshot's laid back delivery and Evil Dee's dark, jazzy, thumpy beats is a winning one for me. I almost lost my shit the first time I heard Bucktown U.S.A.

The Bus, have you heard any of the remixes from that album? Buck 'Em Down and I Got Cha Open are incredible. I'm currently doing needle drops of my vinyl collection, if you're interested in either of them, hit me up with a PM. Either way, if you haven't checked it out yet, your next purchase should be the first Smiff 'n' Wesson album.

I've always loved Enta Da Stage. I think I probably picked up the CD around 94 or so. Am I alone in thinking that the sound quality of the actual album is quite terrible? The bass seems to be way too loud on many (if not all) of the tracks.

Of course the crappy sound added to the appeal of it. It sounds raw.

I think a lot of that is just the way the Beatminerz produce their stuff. Almost dubby, the amount of bass they put on the tracks. I think a lot of the 12" remixes came out sounding a lot "smoother" (Props, Buck 'em).

Those are also on the remix/b-side compilation Diggin' in dah Vaults.

Cool, I didn't know there was such a thing.

Do you know if the original version of Show Down (with the 'South South Bronx' sample) has appeared on CD? Ditto for The Cocoa Brovaz Do Dat.

TIA

There is a compilation of the Enta Da Stage remix singles (Who Got Da Props, How Many Emcees, etc) along with a number of other awesome songs from Smif n wessum, Mad Lion, etc. It is one of the best CDs ever, as it contains the absolute greatest non-Wu, non-Bad Boy East Coast songs of the early and mid 1990s.

Now here is where I get flamed: I completely forgot the title.

As an aside, Buckshot's verse on "*hit is Real" is insane.

I rank Enta Da Stage with 36 Chambers, Illmatic, Ready to Die, and Reasonable Doubt. Classics that really brought about the golden age of NY rap in the mid-90's.