Craig Mack's Flava in Ya Ear was one of those songs that just electrified the world. You listened to it, you couldn't believe it, you didn't know the title or the rapper but all you knew was you had to hear it again, and again. I think this is one of the last hiphop songs that had that effect on me although it's difficult to recall which may have been the absolute last.
Craig Mack
1000 degrees
You'll be on your knees
and you'll be burnin', beggin' please
Brother FREEZE! {BOY!...}
Man's indisputed
and deep-booted
funk smoke that leaves your brains booted
This bad M.C.
with stamina like Bruce Jenner
the winner
Tasting M.C.'s for dinner
You're crazy like that glue {...you're crazy, boy, You're crazy.}
to think that you
could out-do
my one-two
that's sick like the flu {...shake 'em down, Mack}
BOY, I flip
BOY all the time, 'cause
BOY, the rhyme you're kickin' {HAAAAAAAAA! BOY!...}
ain't worth a dime
Seems like there's no competition
in this rap world expedition
You come around,
I'll knock you out [of] position {... knock 'em out!}
No flav
could ever dig a grave
for the Mack
the power pack
in black
makin' cement crack {...make it crack...}
Every rap fan on the planet knows this rhythm now, but there is no way to rap this without having heard Craig Mack do it. This is the second stanza and it is nothing like the first or the third. It's just completely unique. The 'stamina like Bruce Jenner' moves at a completely different pace than 'youre crazy like that glue'. The phrasing can't even be called classic, it simply hasn't been duplicated. Now there is one possible exception to that which is 'Shake Ya Ass' which also works in stanzas with refrains each stanza with unique phrasings. That too was massive breakout single, unique in every way.
Making a rap like this is extraordinarily complicated. It's something I think George Clinton thought he was doing on several occasions, breaking walls of beats per line with compression, or letting it go over into the next measure. Failed completely.
Not enough can be said about the complimentary responses {in braces} that the second voice adds to the rap. As far as I know, only Flavor Flav has done this consistently in his world-rocking duets with Chuck D, but this unknown rapper behind Craig Mack is a serious partner in making 'Flava in Ya Ear' one of the great lyrical triumphs of all time.
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