by Damian Garde
Daily Lobo
While Lupe Fiasco counts his Grammy nominations and T.I. pops bottles with models, a whole cadre of underrated rappers get slept on more often than Sealy.
Among the mattress rappers is Sean Price, formerly Ruck of Heltah Skeltah. When his crew, the Boot Camp Clik, burst on the scene in 1993, the hip-hop world was a different place. After the Wu-Tang Clan made it safe for rappers to be grimey, Sean and his cohorts enjoyed moderate mainstream success. But as the tide turned to the flashy-suited, yawn-inducing drivel of Diddy and his cronies, the Boot Campers were relegated to the
underground.
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This commercial failure would provide Price with the crux of his skill: Sean Price raps about being broke, and he's good at it. His first solo album, Monkey Barz, featured the song, "The Brokest Rapper You Know," finding Price returning to the criminal lifestyle of his youth despite becoming a famous rapper.
While Monkey Barz became a success on an independent level, Price remains unfairly unheralded in the hip-hop press.
But, with his new album Jesus Price Supastar hitting stores today, Price is again poised to convince naysayers of his lyrical worth.
The album finds Price in his element, balancing punch lines, death threats and moments of personal reflection.
Though the production is essentially limited to beats by 9th Wonder and people who sound like 9th Wonder, it all comes together when Price settles in as the "Rap prime minister, pa. President P, popping my pistol, partially parched, pass the tea."
While Price may be criminally overlooked, R.A. the Rugged Man may be the most underrated MC in hip-hop history.
Rugged Man's career began back in 1992, when he signed with Jive Records as Crustified Dibbs. Rugged received a fair amount of hype after continuously winning New York-area rap battles. His debut was even set to include a song with a then-unknown Notorious BIG. But Rugged Man's star turn was plagued by his notable temper, resulting in a few legendary studio freak-outs - my favorite of which involves Rugged Man defecating on a mixing board after hearing an unsatisfying vocal mix.
Soon after, Jive remodeled itself as a pop label, signing Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys and leaving no room for an act like Rugged Man. His project was permanently shelved.
The rapper spent the next few years in relative obscurity, battling depression and, as he claims in many songs, homicidal tendencies.
His next break would come through Rawkus Records' influential Soundbombing compilations, where Rugged Man's lyrical dexterity made him a standout alongside rappers like Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Eminem.
Finally, in 2004, his first proper album, Die, Rugged Man, Die, was released on Nature Sounds. As Rugged Man is by far the closest approximation of a white Kool G Rap, he quickly became a critical darling, despite selling just a few more copies than Ron Artest's album.
While Die, Rugged Man, Die has its fair share of highlights, his defining moment can arguably be found on "Uncommon Valor: A Vietnam Story," a song by Jedi Mind Tricks featuring a guest verse by Rugged Man. Ignoring Vinnie Paz's Cookie Monster-sounding first verse, Rugged Man's guest shot finds him telling the story of his father's exploits in Vietnam in first person. Rugged Man paints his father as a willing participant, saying, "Bitches and guns, this is every man's dream. I don't want to go home where I'm just an ordinary human being."
However, after his father's helicopter is shot down and he takes a bullet in the chest, Rugged Man details his father's plight in an impossibly fast cadence: "I see my childhood, I'm back in the arms of my mother. I see my whole life, I see Christ, I see bright lights. I see Israelites, Muslims and Christians at peace - no fights. Blacks, whites, Asians, people of all types."
Despite surviving the war, the song continues to describe the effects of Agent Orange on his children, resulting in numerous disabilities and the death of his son.
Rugged Man ends the song with the simple couplet of, "But I still try to think positive, 'cause, in life, God take, God give."
So, while every hip-hop rag in the nation is calling Lil' Wayne the greatest lyricist in the business and championing Jim Jones as the savior of New York rap, slept-on rappers like Sean Price and R.A. the Rugged Man continue to outdo their contemporaries with one-third the fanfare.
For shame.
