Today in Hip Hop: October 29
One date, five heavy entries. October 29 gave hip hop a West Coast classic, a Wu-Tang solo debut, a Chicago first lady, a Cleveland harmony landmark and a Detroit pop rap giant.
Ice Cube Drops Death Certificate
Ice Cube released his second solo album Death Certificate on October 29, 1991 through Priority Records, produced with Sir Jinx and the Boogie Men. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, topped the Top R and B and Hip Hop Albums chart, sold about 105,000 copies in its first week and was certified platinum that December. The singles were Steady Mobbin and True to the Game.
Cube split the album into two halves, the Death side as a mirror of where things stood and the Life side as a vision of where they needed to go. Recorded in the wake of the Rodney King beating, it took on policing, the military, gang life and work, and it drew both acclaim and organised protest at the same time. Thirty five years on, it still sounds like a state of emergency delivered on funk samples.
Ghostface Killah Goes Solo With Ironman
Ghostface Killah released his solo debut Ironman on October 29, 1996 on Razor Sharp and Epic. It topped the Top R and B and Hip Hop Albums chart and put the most emotional voice in Wu-Tang at the front of his own record, with soul samples carrying stories instead of just choruses.
Daytona 500 showed the speed and the breath control, while All That I Got Is You, built around Mary J. Blige, showed the heart. Debut lists still rank Ironman among the strongest first solo statements of the nineties, and it set the template every Wu solo run after it had to answer to.
Da Brat Delivers Anuthatantrum
The same day Ironman landed, Da Brat released her second album Anuthatantrum. It reached number 20 on the Billboard 200 and number five on the Top R and B and Hip Hop Albums chart, powered by the singles Sittin on Top of the World and Ghetto Love.
Brat had already made history as a chart topping solo female rapper, and the second album mattered because it refused to soften anything. The flow stayed fast, the Chicago confidence stayed loud, and the record treated her pen as the headline, which was still a fight women in rap had to win album by album in 1996.
Bone Thugs Close the Ruthless Era
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony released their fifth album Thug World Order on October 29, 2002. It peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200 and number three on the Top R and B and Hip Hop Albums chart, and it closed their run with Ruthless Records, the label that had launched them.
By then the Cleveland group had already changed how rap could sound, harmonising at double time speed years before melodic rap became the default setting of the genre. Thug World Order is a late chapter, but it documents a group whose influence was already baked into the next generation.
Eminem and Rihanna Unleash The Monster
Eminem released The Monster, featuring Rihanna, on October 29, 2013 as the fourth single from The Marshall Mathers LP 2. It was the pair fourth collaboration, after the Love the Way You Lie songs and Numb, and it took on fame from his side and inner demons from hers.
The record topped the charts in twelve countries, including the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, and it gave Eminem his first number one on the Hot R and B and Hip Hop Songs chart. It also debuted at number one on Digital Songs with more than 373,000 downloads in its first week, proof the sequel energy around that pairing was very real.
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