Diamond and The Psychotic Neurotics
Stunts, Blunts & Hip Hop
One wonders if hip-hop artists are out for legacy or fame: Diamond D seems to have been saddled with the former. Stunts is another hip-hop album, like Mecca and the Soul Brother that was saddled with the uncomfortable memory of being released near the beginning of Dr. Dre's run on hip-hop, a time period when what really mattered was what MTV video was attracting the suburbs to your CD. Of course, it wouldn't matter if Diamond had made an album that wasn't as good as The Chronic, but the truth is that he did: Stunts is stronger, funnier and just all around more cohesive than Dre. While the lyrics are a bit lacking at times, the tight, economic beats stand in stark contrast to what was getting ready to take over the entire west coast for the next six years. (Diamond just showed back up this year, courtesy of Busta Rhymes beat-biting attempts to revive a justly-fading career.) The Factual will, regardless of its hopes and dreams, never be able to give success to a forgotten hero, but that doesn't mean we have to join the rank and file and pretend that there wasn't a whole lot of great stuff going on in hip-hop in 1992. So here it is: a hip-hop album that producers and archivist know all about, still available to all the cats who missed out 'cause we were too busy with the Twenty Dollar Sack Pyramid.
-Tucker Stone, 2006
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