9th August - Gravediggaz's 6 Feet Deep

Artist – Album: Gravediggaz – 6 Feet Deep

Released: 9^th July 1994

Sounds Like: If Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers joined forces with Eminem and Busta Rhymes
 

Gravediggaz hold exulted status as one of the pioneers of the small hip hop sub genre dubbed Horrorcore. Its proponents were famed for their horror movie soundtracks and evil fantasy lyrics (rather than for producing horrifically bad hip hop a la Vanilla Ice), with a few of the other colourful stars of the movement include Flatlinerz (named after the fantastically trashy cult movie of the near-same name) and the brilliantly named duo of Insane Clown Posse and Kung Fu Vampire.

As you may have guessed, the violence and terror promoted by these guys contained at least a pinch of cartoon, and Gravediggaz had it in spades. It’s there quite obviously in the maniacal Woody Woodpecker-esque cackle in ‘Constant Elevation’ and the even more evil laugh at the end of ‘1-800 Suicide’, it’s there in the Hammer Horror titles such as ‘2 Cups of Blood’, ‘Diary of a Madman’ and ‘Mommy, Whats A Gravedigga?’, and it’s there in the gruesome, death obsessed lyrics. The music here may be of the sort that can terrify your parents, but Frukwan, Poetic, and the more well known RZA and Prince Paul had their collective tongues at least hovering close to cheek.

Whilst it’s rare that I have two hip hop albums in a row on my Albumaday… project (and it’s unprecedented to have consecutive records that both contain the rhyming couplet “tortoise” and “rigor mortis”) it’s been an absolute pleasure to have two such interesting and experimental albums from hip hop’s golden age.

Albumaday... rating: 7/10

1.       Just When You Thought It Was Over (Intro) – 0:10

2.       Constant Elevation – 2:30

3.       Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide – 3:55

4.       Defective Trip (Trippin’) – 5:04

5.       2 Cups of Blood – 1:24

6.       Blood Brothers – 4:47

7.       360 Questions – 0:33

8.       1-800 Suicide – 4:18

9.       Pass The Shovel – 3:36

10.   Diary of a Madman – 4:34

11.   Mommy, What’s a Gravedigga? – 1:44

12.   Bang Your Head – 3:24

13.   Here Comes the Gravediggaz – 3:44

14.   Graveyard Chamber – 4:57

15.   Death Trap – 2:57

16.   6 Feet Deep – 4:36

17.   Rest in Peace (Outro) – 2:01

Listen to ‘Constant Elevation’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anvDbCK_ODI

Also released on the 9^th August:

1994: Machine Head – Burn My Eyes

Also released on the 9^th August:

1996: Therion – Theli