Big Ed – The Assassin (9-1-1998)

Posted on Sep 10 in Rapaveli Retroby adminPrint

Big Ed was one of the few tank members to stay around from the earlier California days. Luckily for him he weathered the storm until; No Limit was able to reach its peak in 98. The Assassin marked his only release on the tank and a well one it was. Big Ed was one of the few tank members who strongly perused his career after No Limit fell off. Unfortunately for him he passed away before his career could be re-launched.

The Assassin is one of the few No Limit CDs to actually have an introduction and from what I hear I see why. After the minute and a half of pointless phone messages the album kicks straight into high gear with the Silkk The Shocker and Mystikal assisted “My Entourage.” Master P had a weird way of flipping old classics and making them have that New Orleans appeal, nothing changes with the Sons Of Funk assisted “I’m Your Soldier.”

The Carlos Stephens produced “Life” is a raw example of the depth of Big Ed’s tale telling abilities. For some reason these No Limit dudes never had a problem vividly describing very detailed robberies. Mystikal, Fiend, and Big Ed kick robbery lyrics all over KLC’s production on “Uh Oh” like they’ve done it before. On “I Miss ‘Em” Big Ed and Mac took it to another level as they boldly remade Aaron Hall’s classic song “I Miss You.”

Mo B Dick handles the production efforts as Big Ed, Fiend, and Magic cause complete chaos on the trigger happy “Buck ‘Em.” One of my personal favorite No Limit songs of 98 was “We Represent.” Basically on this track Big Ed, Mia X, C-Murder, and Mr. Serv-On talked bad to all those overzealous fans who thought it was cool to go and get TRU tatted across there chest even though they were from some bullshit like Montana. Big Ed closes out the album with two rather strong efforts in “Come Get Me” and the battle tested “Scriptures.”

When all is said and done The Assassin was one of the most surprising No Limit releases of 1998. The years before hand had been filled with pretty ordinary verses from Big Ed so I honestly didn’t expect a whole lot out of his solo debut. It’s crazy how sometimes the things that you think will bring the smallest satisfaction end up bringing the most. Ten years later I can say that The Assassin was one of the albums that I can vividly remember and I still often take time out to listen to it over and over. RIP Big ED 1971 – 2001