Young Bleed – My Balls & My Word (1-20-1998)

Posted on Jan 20 in Rapaveli Retroby adminPrint

No Limit Record’s chart topping dominance during the late ‘90s is definitely nothing to sneeze at. It all started in 1995 when Tru’s “Bout It, Bout It” gave the entire nation a glimpse of what crunk would come to be. ’96 and ’97 turned out to be even more successful years for the tank, garnering multiple gold and platinum plaques for various releases. A big year in ’97 led to an astronomical outlook for 1998. In celebrating the ten years since No Limit Records dropped a disc damn near every other week I will be taking a look back at all 26 albums.

Things started off with Young Bleed’s gold selling debut My Balls And My Word. I remember this was before every single CD was available in stores the day they came out so I had to wait a couple of weeks to get my hands on it (thus the reason you had to wait a couple of weeks to read this). The disc starts out with some slow oriental sounding guitar plucks on the Master P and C-Loc assisted “Keep It Real.” Mystikal’s rapid raspy delivery takes front stage ahead of the in-tune gun shots on “Bring The Noise” as remnants of the recently departed Pimp C’s (RIP) production style shines the brightest amongst the track’s all-star cast of producers which included KLC, Craig B, and Mo B. Dick. No Limit’s infatuation with the whole Italian Mafia thing could’ve very well begun with the short but effective “An Offer You Can’t Refuse.”

Back in the day the track I found myself replaying time after time was the Concentration Camp posse cut “Pull It Off.” In house producer N. (Happy) Perez infused massive amounts of scratches along with a wealth of mesmerizing and crystal clear sounds over an athletic bass line on the track. Assistance from Fiend and Master P coupled with some Gangsta Harmony courtesy of Mo B. Dick propelled the struggle, drums, and piano filled “Times So Hard” to the forefront as the album’s lead single. The second half of the fourteen track album sees a shift away from Beats By The Pound allowing N. (Happy) Perez to showcase his knack for flipping old ‘70s feeling beats into modern tasting selections such as “Confedi”, “Ghostrider”, and “We Don’t Stop.”

Young Bleed’s debut album definitely deserves to be mentioned amongst the cream of the 1998 crop of No Limit releases. At the time it dropped neither me nor my fellow No Limit Records infatuated middle school hip hop heads knew to even the smallest extent the history the tank would make that year. Right about now I’m only wishing it could be 1998 again; but unfortunately it won’t be, so all I can do is retrospect.
Another ONE by Ambition-1