The Cactus Al/Bum (also known as The Cactus Cee/D and The Cactus Cas/Ette depending on release format) is the debut album by hip hop trio 3rd Bass, released on Def Jam Recordings on November 10, 1989. Others are bound to be hiding like little hip-hop Easter eggs laid by a former DJ cleaning house.Pete Nice, MC Serch, Sam Sever, Prince Paul, The Bomb Squad (Hank Shocklee, Keith Shocklee, Eric "Vietnam" Sadler) If you see a couple stray Def Jam singles go back through the whole rack. As we go along, I’ll point out where all these came from to give shout outs to the local and not-so-local record stores. But one thing I love about coming across old school hip-hop records in the used bin is that they travel in bunches. Looking now at the sleeve, I see I’ve scratched off the price sticker at some point, so I don’t know where I bought Cactus Album. Something a smart person with taste would do. Like using Gravity Kills as an alternative to 2pac, I guess. I wasn’t invited, so I was “Alternative.” I’m not sure what tradition or norm I was providing an alternative to in 1996, but it had something to do with hating cool kids and having superior taste. Hip-hop was for popular kids and jocks and their no doubt LAME awesome parties. This statement has to be totally incomprehensible to a teenager in the 21st century.)īy high school, I was, to be honest, mostly in the non-rap half, had even sold my Snow and Vanilla Ice tapes. (“I listen to everything except rap and country,” some of us would say, waiting on the trolley to Woolworth’s. They probably felt the point had been made with Paul’s Boutique: they weren’t just in it for the free booze in Madonna’s green room anymore.įor white Midwesterners who came of age in that foggy post-X, pre-Millennial sweet spot, rap was something that had gone from a curious thematic interlude during Revenge of the Nerds to a cultural force dividing your homeroom. ![]() Then again, dis songs aren’t their style. They were as embarrassed as anybody by some of the License to Ill antics, and no return dis was ever penned. I have to wonder if Beastie Boys took “Sons of 3rd Bass” to heart. Note the lines “the others stand by ’em and they take the fall / The Beast now lives in the Capitol.” Beastie Boys cut from Def Jam then signed to Capitol out in L.A. 3rd Bass would have to settle for critical acclaim and a hot appearance on Arsenio. Yet, despite all this and despite shaving “3rd Bass” into their scalp as a form of constant and free advertising, Pete Nice and MC Serch found only gold success with Cactus Album the Vanilla One, meanwhile, sold more records in 1990 than any other hip-hop album up to that point. (Don’t look at me, I only bought one copy). The fact that the MCs in 3rd bass are white can take the sting out of scolding other white artists for “exploiting art the black man made,” but the point still stands. It matters that one group met this suspicion head on, repeatedly citing forerunners and cultural pilferers. By ’89, the process by which black art forms were “absorbed” into the mainstream was viewed so cynically, the suspicion that it would happen with hip-hop was a given. ![]() None of this should matter, but obviously it does at least a little. Second things second: 3rd Bass inevitably bring up comparisons to one-time label-mates Beastie Boys and other white rappers of the day. ![]() Here we go, top of the list! …unless you put your #s at the end of your record collection, or spell 3rd Bass out “T-h-i-r-d.” Which I don’t, so here we are!įirst things first: 3rd Bass are great and Cactus Album is a classic.
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