Jazzie Redd – Spice of Life is a jazzy hip hop album where the sounds of hip hop and jazz are incorporated to meet each other with a touch of New Jack Swing. Jazzie has that soul touch with a jazzy flavor. His sound and style are very much similar to Grand Daddy I.U., Jhiame, J Reale, Bobby Brown, Aaron Hall, and Guru.
Jazzie Redd raps on the smooth tip on Watching You. The song uses several layers of percussion with the occasional saxophone. Beats on this song are considerably bouncy for a song titled Watching You. Of course that can be too surprising since the song was released during a time when New Jack Swing was at a high peak. Either way, if you are into old school rap, then you will not want miss out on the opportunity to listen to this song.
Jazzie has this eye on this woman whom he has trying to get with for a long time. She passes by him every time. He tells her, “Girl, I’m watching you.” He has a desire to invite her over to his place for a dinner date. She’s the one for him.
Watching You uses a medium sized selection of samples which consist of 4 songs. The 4 songs are as follows: Indeep – Last Night a DJ Saved My Life, King Floyd – Groove Me, Art of Noise – Beatbox, Run DMC – Here We Go (Live at the Funhouse).
She Turned Me On (She Saxed Me) is a jazzy hip hop song where jazz and hip hop meet other. The song follows a sophisticated groove over several layers of bouncy synth bass. She Turned Me On (She Saxed Me) is a mellow jazz hop song on that RnB tip similar to Cameo or Charlie Wilson.
This song is about a sexy female saxophone soloist whom Jazzie wants to have sex with. Setting for this song took place in California. It’s a really dope track.
I’m A Dope Fiend was his smash hit single back in 1992. The I’m A Dope Fiend single sold over 400,000 copies nationwide thanks to distribution from Pump Records/Quality Records. Distribution was a huge contributor for the national success of this single. The song featured Los Angeles/Compton rapper Toddy Tee. He was also Jazzie’s label mate and long time affiliate of Pump Records.
I’m A Dope Fiend used to be played all the time on radio stations in Houston. People used to hear this song played on 93 WBLX and 97 KBXX. K104 Greg Street in Atlanta played this song a bunch of times. Yet this is one of those songs that was more popular than the artist that sung it. Unfortunately people forgot about Jazzie Redd it seems. But those from Houston won’t.
The song was even played on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Jimmy Fallon first heard his song during a performance in LA. It was there where Jimmy invited Jazzie Redd to perform I’m A Dope Fiend on his television show. That is exactly how this song of Jazzie Redd’s was included in one of Jimmy’s skits. Not too many people remember that one of Jimmy’s skits included this song.
For those who didn’t know or don’t remember, I’m A Dope Fiend was an anti-drug rap song which explained the dangers of drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Everything on this song is right on point. It’s hard to clean yourself up when you do drugs. You can’t help people that don’t want to be helped.
The song also discusses the tragic side of drug use which is suicide. People sometimes commit suicide when they do drugs. These lyrics represent the tragic side of drug use.: “He had a bullet in his chest and a pipe in his hand” Jazzie’s homeboy pulled a Kurt Cobain and then shot himself after he smoked crack. Now this is the portion of the song that will make you sad.
I rate this album 3/5***.
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