Word: grand
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Back when Brand Nubian's debut, One for all, was first released, Grand Puba seemed the quartet's spokesperson, the lead, the one with the skills and the knowledge. The fact that one of his two solo joints on the album was their first single might've been what delivered this message or the fact that he was the most adamant about his five-percenter beliefs, which fit right into the era of Africa medallions and Feared Black Planets. Regardless, everybody of course seated Brand Nu's beats, was amused by Derrick X's pre-B Real's nasalness...
...Lord Jamar and Derrick--now Sadat--X weren't respected: their memorable appearances on Tribe's "Show Business" and Diamond D's "A Day in the Life" still get props. And how ridiculous is "Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down," Brand Nubian's first post-Grand Puba & DJ Alamo single, to this day? Play it at your girl's birthday party, and everybody'll get open, guaranteed (as long as they're old enough...
...thing is, despite this extraordinary single, Lord Jamar and Sadat X seemed to hide behind Grand Puba's light--for a while at least, because even Puba's solos left much to be desired, especially Lord Jamar, who didn't have Sadat's distinctive "flow" that sounded like he was holding his nose while not caring about what rhymed with what. So by last year, after Puba proved to be capable of only a single (don't front, you know you started rocking Tommy only after you saw the "360 degrees" video) and after Sadat X's solo attempts flopped...
...shortstop, seems kind of slick, and Paul O'Neill has a warrior self-hatred thing, banging into walls and throwing down his helmet whenever he grounds out. And Shane Spencer, a lifetime minor leaguer who was called up at the end of the season to hit a barrage of grand slams, seemed like the Natural. But this team kept even Strawberry and Wells politely restrained. They got the ridiculously self-monikered Rock Raines to go back to Tim Raines. None of them wanted to take the microphone during the ticker-tape parade, not even Wells...
Australia, like America, had grand spectacles of nature: gorges, waterfalls, rain forests, mountains. It also had disasters, one of which was recorded by Piguenit (1836-1914) in the most striking of his paintings, The Flood in the Darling 1890, 1895, with its biblical waste of waters spreading beneath a leaden but vivaciously painted...