Flashback: Ill Al Skratch (have they found their homiez, yet?)

I’ve been on a kick lately to re-discover lost B-level hip-hop albums from the mid-90s. I think it’s either a sign of a quarter-life crisis, or a desperate attempt to remember what it was like to be easily susceptible to suggestion.

Digging deep into my memories of staying up late to watch Yo! MTV Raps, I flashed back to two dudes wearing backwards Punisher jackets asking where their homiez where at. It was a light bulb moment. EBAY!

Enter the world (and my mailbox one week later) Ill Al Skratch.

This album is a work of genius. I mean, Ill and Al Skratch manage to make a 54 minute full-length out of asking each other where their homiez are at. We even discover where their homiez are at in under 3 minutes AND what they are doing: “Creep’n through the hood / Up to no good.”

Yet, the album relentlessly trods forward, posing the question and inviting the listener to creep with them through their neighborhood. Here’s a sampling of the first half of the album which plays out like an extended single:

Track 1 – ”Where My Homiez?” (asked live in a club at the 0:05 mark)
Track 2 – “Where My Homiez? (Come Around My Way)” (the single)
Track 3 – “This Is For My Homiez” (SAME EXACT HOOK AS THE SINGLE)
Track 4 – Ill raps “I made that jam with my man about the homiez” (and, he did!)
Track 5 – Ill raps “‘Homiez’ was our single debut” (i.e. Track 2)
Track 6 – “Where My Homiez? (Come Around My Way) (Dub Version)” (REMIX!!!)

It’s all a bit confusing. They ask where their homiez are at (we’re told they’re in the hood), then we’re asked to creep with them and their homiez through the hood (I thought they couldn’t find their homiez?). I’m beginning to think they were simply lost and wanted to make a record to discover where they were located.

Complaints are made that more libraries need to be built in the hood. I disagree. What the hood obviously needs is more visible street signs and a map/compass program to help its residents figure out where the hell they are.

All confusion about their homiez aside, I’m not afraid to say I love this album…and not just in the ironic hipster sort of way. New Jack Swing will never die, and the day I don’t have access to hip-hop smoothed out on the r&b tip is the day I give up looking for my homiez.

Now here it is, your moment of Zen…

2 Comments   Post a Comment

1. Nice. Keep doing this sort of post.

   Comment by Aaron B — Jan 26 2008 @ 1:11 pm

2. Ha, that post is DOPE! Whooohaaa!

   Comment by Inf — Jan 26 2008 @ 2:36 pm

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