Poets & Gangstas was a compilation album of artists from San Antonio, Dallas, and Fort Worth released on Youngsta Records in 1995. Youngsta Records was based in San Antonio, Texas. Poets & Gangstas is a gangsta rap compilation of sorts. Everything from hardcore gangsta rap to soul can be heard on this album. If you mix Ruthless, Bad Boy, Rap-A-Lot, Black Market Records, AWOL, Grapetree, Motown, New West, and Luke Records, you’ll get Youngsta Records! Think about it that way. Be sure to buy this dope ass compilation if you because it is long out of print! This is an album which every song is worth listening to. No tracks are worth skipping. You won’t regret it!!
It would have been more dope if C-Stud Vill, Lil Sin, C-Ordell, Sweet-P, Denise James, K-Ski, Staci Russell, Mr. Joshay, Ricé, Finesse 1, Dirty Red, Jr. Boy, Twice Tha Power, MC Falcon, and Sharon Lincoln had made features on this dope ass compilation. But for whatever reason they didn’t which is too bad.
The first song is the title track with Nino, Kottonmouth, and Pops. This song has that San Antonio Doo-Dooism sound with heavy bass and heavy guitars produced by DJ Snake. The song is a Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio collabo. That’s what Texas rap and hip-hop sounded like in the mid 90s. Great song! The track Poets & Gangstas is very similar to Creepin’ On Ah Come Up.
The Murda Afta Murda song is not the remix that is on Kottonmouth’s 1995 debut album on Youngsta Records. This is the original version. It is one heavy ass G-Funk bass track! DJ Snake produced the beats. It would have been dope if this version was on his 1995 debut!
The song Ill Regala was written and performed by the rap group Ill Regala. Ill Regala was a rap group from the Westside of San Antonio, Texas in the mid 90s. The duo was more the less unknown outside the highway loops of San Antonio. Ill Regala has both a hip hop and rap sound. A funky guitar loop resonates all over the track. The song Ill Regala is hip hop sound meets rap.
Nino tells us how he talk the talk and walk the walk on Walk The Walk. This song has that San Antonio Doo-Dooism sound with heavy bass and heavy guitars produced by DJ Snake and Ricé. Nino explains on the song why police want to throw him in Bexar County and lock up him permanently.
Nino serves them up with some of that dope shit. Police want to throw him in Bexar County Jail for that. A high ass bounty is placed over his head. It’s kind of fucked up that your boy is seeing all these county blues. All that fucked up food. He is gambling in jail. He can’t wait to hit the streets. 13 weeks is how long he had been in jail.
His pockets are swole because he just got his serve on. Got 1/5 of bourbon and a sack of weed. Packing a tech for you playa hating hoes. Flossing down the strip like the playas do. The game is not the same like it was in 1992. 5-0 is always trying to catch a nigga.
Million Me’s is one of the more harsh yet darker songs on the album. The song has such enigmatic versatility. The song has storytelling rap similar to Slick Rick, Biz Markie, and Lil Sin. Mad Wisdom tells us the story of how he divided himself into a million copies of himself. Watch Mad Wisdom as he divides himself into a million copies of himself and be the only dope emcee (MC).
The song was produced by the legendary DJ Snake. So you already know this is going to be pure G-Funk. He produced those beats and synths you hear on this song. Bhumble Bhe and DJ Snake produced the drums and bass used on this track. Million Me’s uses a Kenyatta Banks sample over a looped guitar sample and distorted bass notes. Million Me’s is just a dope ass freestyle song. A remix version of this song appeared on his 1998 self-titled debut album. Mad Wisdom is from Fort Wort, Texas and was on Youngsta Records and Midwest Records from 1995 to 1998.
Mad Wisdom lost himself up in hell. His brain swelled. Is he going crazy? “Am I going crazy?” is the question Mad Wisdom asks himself as he has gone psycho. Can the world tell? Smell the smoke that he sends. He is gone in with the wind. He finds himself on the other side looking. He does not like the future that he is seeing. Everything is gory in the future he is seeing. This future involves violence and bloodshed.
It may be a trick. African American people have been tricked before in the past many times. America ain’t no candy store. The devil offered Mad Wisdom an apple. Mad Wisdom preferred Snapple. So the got capped as Mad Wisdom shot the devil with a gun. One minute the devil was a snake and the next minute the devil turned into Uncle Sam. Then the devil transformed into death in the palm of Mad Wisdom’s hand with 7 hoes bleeding as he dies. This is all a dream though. He is dreaming in Dallas, Texas hence the reference to the area code 214. He wakes up screaming.
Watch Mad Wisdom as he divides himself into a million copies of himself and be the only dope emcee (MC).
Hell is the street that he stands on in Dallas, Texas. He doesn’t give a fuck about you marks. Misery loves company. So he invites misery right on in. He is awake in the night. The streets are a place of suffering, destruction, and misery of course. Which way is Mad Wisdom turning?
People rise from a cemetery as they are burning. Walls are burning. The devil is their god. Now this cemetery is an everlasting cemetery. Everybody is lost.
He asks for money to save. He asks, “Who is God? Who am I? Who is it who played me?” Mad Wisdom is living with no hope so he is going to take your life away. You’re gonna disappear from this earth.
The blunt burns slowly as he continues his flow. Notice the smells. He was raised in hell (Dallas, Texas). His freestyles are furious and at the same are wicked. He kicks wicked wisdom as he’s about to hang these tracks. There ain’t no coming back from the sinful side of life. Life after death because after death comes life. Mad Wisdom is mentally sick inside. Mad Wisdom called out the media and America for portraying a negative light on African American people. Flames stay lit in the midst of civil unrest. The god screams, “American is in trouble!”
What I Luv Most is a song by dat infamous playa K-Sam. This is a different version of the original version that appeared on the Infamous Playa EP by K-Sam in 1994. DJ Snake produced the beats for this song of course. This is one playalistic remix!
What I Love Most is a song written and performed on the solo tip by dat infamous playa K-Sam. On his song K-Sam tells us why he loves being a drug dealer throughout the entirety of this song. The song was written from a drug dealer’s perspective on life. The life of a drug dealer.
What K-Sam loves most is being a drug dealer. Some niggaz try to shoot him and put an end to his career as a drug dealer. He ain’t gettin’ caught slippin’ by no motherfuckin’ BG. K-Sam is too smart for that. Every morning he wakes sound of the birds. Not the birds in the trees you know I mean them ki’s. All he talks about is profits. Drugs help him support himself and his family.
The lyrics “I wake up every morning to the sound of the birds/Not the birds in the trees you know I mean them ki’s” are what made What I Love Most a memorable classic.
K-Sam got that fresh candy on his hoopty. Triple gold Dayton rims on his Cadillac. A phat ass doobie is in the ashtray. He then went straight to the cleaners. He hit a fat lick last night. So he buys his mother a leather couch. He buys himself another diamond ring. His rent was paid off for 12 months. Another nigga is always trying to take away all the profits. So he stays strapped with his gat at all times.
K-Sam is an infamous playa who is the neighborhood drug dealer. His life in the illicit drug trade as an infamous drug dealer is often dangerous. His life as a drug dealer is filled with danger that comes along with the lavish thrills. He is often able to take out of state trips.
It’s Saturday night. So K-Sam goes to the Hyatt Regency hotel to get a room. He is having hoes that are giving him sexual pleasure and gratification. It’s all about the pimping and making big money on the corner. Now he is off to California to sell drugs and make profit. K-Sam looks at the profits that pack made for his boys. K-Sam is taking half of the profits that the pack made for them and using the money to take a trip to Las Vegas with the Youngsta Mafia. Mike E.D. made $1,000 dollars while playing a game of Roulette. Magic Mark hit a $20,000 bet. K-Sam is having so much money that your ass can’t even imagine.
All In is a smooth fast song by Pinhead aka C-Lo from Fort Worth. He was in P.K.O. in the 1990s. Do or die is the mission. So don’t ask why, fool. Pinhead sounds a lot like Ice Cube on this track.
Gangsta Mental is an instrumental drums and bass track done by the one and only legendary DJ Snake from Dallas. DJ Snake was going back and forth from Dallas to San Antonio at that time in the mid 90s working for both Youngsta Records and Profile Records. DJ Snake needs to make a comeback with Ron C again like he did in 2004.
The final song, Poets & Gangstas (Remix), is a remix of the first song with an unknown quirky rap group called ANIA. ANIA was apparently a one time rap group that collaborated to perform this song.
I rate this album 5/5*****!!