Paper Chase
Just across the river from the relatively wealthy and bustling City of Brothery Love lies one of the most poverty striken cities in North America- Camden, New Jersey. One of the only rap group that hails from the mean streets of “East Philadelphia” is the duo known as The Krown Rulers. Made up of MC Grand-Pubah (not Grand Puba from Brand Nubian) and DJ Royal Rocker, The Krown Rulers came up with Philly’s legendary Tuff Crew and released the ‘often talked about’ but ‘rare as f’ “Phanjam” LP (”Phanjam” is not as rare anymore, as the official reissue is available from Traffic). In 1988, The Krown Rulers put out their own LP on Warlock Records called “Paper Chase.” This is without a doubt one of the best old school Hip Hop records ever. It’s simply drenched in the heavy, heavy percussion-first ethos that characterized a lot of the great records from the late 80s. The shit just flat out bangs with hella loud drums, energetic sample stabs, and some pretty furious scratch hooks. There are many stand out joints on this classic album including the violent title track banger “Paper Chase”, “32nd St. Down (The Eastside Story),” that rides the Stevie Wonder’s “Superstitious” guitar riff, and the Mos Def and High & Mighty covered “B-Boy Document”.