DOPEST CREWS YOU JUST COL' FORGOT ABOUT: TUFF CREW

Philly's Finest!

I'll be the first to admit that I didn't know much about the Tuff Crew the first time around. I mean, I was only 11 years old and I lived in Lubbock, Texas. "Philly" was DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince. I've truly grown to appreciate their music through the teachings of Da Pocket Prophet. Let me just lay it down: these dude's were made nice. They were doing things back in 1988-1989 that were years ahead of hip hop's still infant state. Their compositions were a full-on assault of battle raps, insanely fresh rhythm patterns, perfectly cut and sculpted samples and the incredible abilities of DJ Too Tuff always took front stage before the song was through.

Their recordings are so fantastically aggressive and it's worth noting that almost every Tuff Crew song sounds like it is recorded at 120 BPM. Some dude's slow it down from time to to time whether for the ladies or just to give their vocals a break, but not Tuff Crew. These dude's did everything at a full sprint like every song was a high-speed a chance. But, not "fast" like the tongue-twisting novelty raps of their contemporaries, they simply just did their thing and did it double time. Songs like Too Tuff's "Danger Zone Assault" and "Soul Food" or the group cuts "Come On & Go Off" and "Mountain's World" display Tuff Crew's frantic party vibe, but everything is in the right place...everything distinctly calculated and executed masterfully.
The group disbanded somewhere after their 1991 release Still Dangerous and DJ Too Tuff was incarcerated on marijuana possession, however, it just so happens there's a reunion planned for April 5th in Philly. Peep the jacket. Someone needs very desperately to do a limited run on the Tuff Crew jacket. Yikes, that's so ill.
Check out this footage of DJ Too Tuff just going off on the tables. He ain't flashy, but he does his damn thing. I like how he barely emotes at all--just standing there tranced working those tables like a part-time job. And when he goes into "Peter Piper" and "Beats to the Rhyme," my head explodes.

In other news, Boston Celtics clinched a playoff spot with their sixth win a row in their victory over the Detroit Pistons. The playoffs are in June. They clinched in March. The playoffs are in June. They clinched in March. What the? I'll do the research, but that has to be the earliest clinch for the Celtics. Speaking of clinch, I got some business to tend to. It's Thursday. Two days until I'm at Taos lifting off.