Masta Ace Incorporated: SlaughtaHouse (2LP) [CONCORD]

Why you'll love it

This remaster spreads the album across two LPs. It reached No. 6 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart, and RapReviews gave it 8.5 out of 10.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Remastered

About the album

In 1993, with rap videos racking up ever bigger body counts, Masta Ace answered with a send-up. The Juice Crew veteran had already made his name with 1990's Take a Look Around, and he formed The I.N.C. to make SlaughtaHouse for Delicious Vinyl at Firehouse Studios in Brooklyn.

Ace handles almost all the rapping, with Lord Digga as hype man and, as half of the Bluez Brothas, producer of five songs. The over-the-top title track lampoons gangsta excess, Eyceurokk turn up on "Slaughtahouse," "Ain't You Da Masta" and "Saturday Nite Live," Paula Perry takes the lead on "Who You Jackin'," and Leschea sings on the outro. The beats lean on West Coast funk while the rhymes stay rough and New York.

A bass-heavy remix of one of these tracks became Born to Roll, a Top 25 Hot 100 hit about cruising with the subwoofers up. A record about violent rap by a man who mostly wanted to talk about his car is, we'd argue, the healthier hobby.

Also at Kops: more Masta Ace Incorporated on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Craft Recordings (orig. Delicious Vinyl) (cat# CR00081), a reissue of the 1993 album.