Innercity Griots

Innercity Griots
Studio album by Freestyle Fellowship
Released	April 28, 1993 (1993-04-28) [1]
Genre	Hip hop
Length	65:25
Label	4th & B'way Island PolyGram
Producer	Freestyle Fellowship the Earthquake Brothers Bambawar Daddy-O Edman JMD Kevin O'Neal
Freestyle Fellowship chronology
To Whom It May Concern... (1991) Innercity Griots (1993) Temptations (2001)
Singles from Innercity Griots
"Bullies of the Block" Released: 1992 "Hot Potato" Released: 1993

Innercity Griots is the second studio album by American hip hop group Freestyle Fellowship. It was released on April 28, 1993, on 4th & B'way Records and distributed through Island Records.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Christgau's Consumer Guide	[3]
Entertainment Weekly	A− [4]
Pitchfork	9.0/10 [5]
Q	[6]
The Source	[7]
Tom Hull – on the Web	B+ ( ) [8]

Nathan Bush of AllMusic praised the group's creativity and range as well as the album's production, which he felt showed an improvement from their previous effort. ^[2] Jihad Hassan Muhammad of The Dallas Weekly commented that "they gave an unlikely musical offering at the time when everything was gangs and sets thrown as far as hip-hop was concerned in Los Angeles." ^[9]

In 2012, The Daily Californian included it on the "10 Albums for the Hip-Hop Layman" list. ^[10] In 2013, Spin included it on its list of the 50 best rap albums of 1993. ^[11] In 2015, NME placed it at number 51 on its list of the "100 Lost Albums You Need to Know". ^[12]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Bullies of the Block"	Freestyle Fellowship Bambawar	4:55
2.	"Everything's Everything"	Freestyle Fellowship The Earthquake Brothers L. McCann	3:47
3.	"Shammy's"	Freestyle Fellowship The Earthquake Brothers Daddy-O	4:16
4.	"Six Tray"	M. Davis The Earthquake Brothers	4:39
5.	"Danger"	Freestyle Fellowship The Earthquake Brothers	3:58
6.	"Inner City Boundaries" (featuring Daddy-O)	Freestyle Fellowship Daddy-O R. Willis	4:39
7.	"Cornbread"	E. Hayes, Jr.	4:21
8.	"Way Cool"	Freestyle Fellowship G. Redd R. Bell R. Mickens D. Thomas R. Westfield G. Brown C. Smith	4:22
9.	"Hot Potato"	Freestyle Fellowship Edman M. Rice J. Gillespie	4:30
10.	"Mary"	E. Hayes, Jr. M. Troy O. Glenn H. Mancini	3:45
11.	"Park Bench People"	M. Troy The Earthquake Brothers	4:59
12.	"Heavyweights" (featuring Cockney "O" Dire, Archie, Volume 10, Spoon, and Ganja K Chronic)	Freestyle Fellowship The Heavyweights The Earthquake Brothers	6:11
13.	"Respect Due"	Freestyle Fellowship The Earthquake Brothers	3:53
14.	"Pure Thought" (CD bonus track)	Freestyle Fellowship W. Cobham	3:04
Total length:			65:25

Personnel

Information taken from the liner notes. ^[13]

• Freestyle Fellowship: Myka 9, Aceyalone, Peace, and Self Jupiter.
• The Earthquake Brothers: The Jamm Messenger D, Mathmattiks, and The Mighty O-Roc.

• Freestyle Fellowship – vocals, production, mixing
• The Earthquake Brothers – production, mixing
• Bambawar – production, mixing
• Daddy-O – vocals, production, engineering
• Edman – production
• JMD – bass guitar, timpani, drums, percussion, production
• Kevin O'Neal – upright bass, production
• Kim Buie – executive production
• Kedar Massenburg – executive production, mixing
• Matt Hyde – engineering, mixing
• Rich Herrera – engineering, mixing
• Dawud – engineering
• Aceyalone – mixing
• Ed Lawson – mixing
• Robert Harris – bass guitar
• Don Littleton – percussion
• Marvin McDaniel – acoustic guitar
• Rodney Millon – guitar
• Onaje Murray – vibraphone
• Tom Ralls – trombone
• Christy Smith – bass guitar, upright bass
• Alfred Threats – bass guitar
• Jon Williams – trumpet
• Randall Willis – tenor saxophone, saxophone, flute
• DJ Kiilu – turntables
• Mathmattiks – turntables
• Spoon – vocals
• Cockney "O" Dire – vocals
• Archie – vocals
• Volume 10 – vocals
• Ganja K Chronic – vocals

References

1. Madden, Sidney (April 28, 2015). "Today in Hip-Hop: Freestyle Fellowship Drop 'Innercity Griots' Album". XXL . Retrieved May 20, 2017.
2. Bush, Nathan. "Inner City Griots - Freestyle Fellowship". AllMusic . Retrieved May 9, 2010.
3. Christgau, Robert. "Consumer Guide: Freestyle Fellowship". Robert Christgau . Retrieved May 15, 2017.
4. Fox, Marisa (July 23, 1993). "Innercity Griots (1993)". Entertainment Weekly . Archived from the original on December 21, 2009. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
5. Pemberton, Rollie (October 11, 2020). "Freestyle Fellowship: Innercity Griots Review". Pitchfork . Retrieved October 11, 2020.
6. "Q review". Q : 88. July 1993.
7. "The Source review". The Source : 79. March 1993.
8. Hull, Tom (April 19, 2021). "Music Week". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
9. Muhammad, Jihad Hassan (February 14, 2013). "Hip-Hop's Black History Album List Part 2". The Dallas Weekly . Retrieved December 6, 2014.^{[ dead link ]}
10. Bell, James (September 19, 2012). "Goin' Off: 10 Albums for the hip-hop layman". The Daily Californian . Retrieved December 6, 2014.
11. "Freestyle Fellowship, Innercity Griots (4th & B'way/Island/Polygram)". Spin . November 21, 2013. Retrieved May 20, 2017.
12. "100 Lost Albums You Need To Know". NME . March 6, 2015. Retrieved May 20, 2017.
13. Freestyle Fellowship (1993). Innercity Griots.

External links

• Innercity Griots at Discogs (list of releases)