KMD - Figure of Speech

KMD (Kausing Much Damage) was a hip hop trio from Long Beach, New York. The group's core consisted of DJ Subroc and emcee Zev Love X. The third member Onyx the Birthstone Kid quit the group during the recording of their second album in 1993. The group only made two albums in the early 1990's. Shortly before their second album was released, Subroc was killed in a car accident and the group was dropped by their label. "Mr. Hood" was their debut album and was released in 1991.

A lot of the rhyming on this record reminds me of something like an early version of De La Soul. The album manages to keep a positive bouncy tone while tackling sensitive subjects like racism. What they use to keep a semi-storyline throughout the album is a set of samples from a language-learning tape. The man in the recording is referred to as Mr. Hood and pops up in almost every song. Having proper English spoken by the recording juxtaposed by the slang by the group can lead to some pretty amusing conversations. The interlude where Mr. Hood meets Onyx and they insult each other through escalation is legitimately funny.

This album represents a wonderful point in time for hip hop music. It had evolved past simply telling stories of going to the mall, and added more political resonance and message. That being said, you have to take the entire track into context to try and understand what they're trying to convey. If you take it line by line it wont make much sense, if at all. I wouldn't call it the polar opposite of an NWA album, but NWA doesn't have Ernie from Sesame Street humming a beat for one of their songs.

Normally I would pick a few of the standouts on the album. However, it would be hard to do that on this album because they stay so consistently amusing. I decided to upload "Figure of Speech" because I set the album to shuffle and it was the first track that played. Besides the fact that it seems to be the only song that doesn't include the Mr. Hood character, it's a fairly accurate representation of the rest of the record.

It's hard for me to give a rating to this album. The conundrum comes from the fact that when it comes to politically charged rap music, gangster rap pulls it off better. So rating a more "wholesome" version needs to take into consideration the difference between the two. Considering what would be the groups competition KMD would have had to deal with when the album came out, I have to give the record a rating somewhere around a 75/100. It's a solid album that will make you laugh in between wonderfully catchy songs.

Buy it here:

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/mr.-hood/id376268300

or here:

http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Hood-KMD/dp/B000I2KRC6