Mixerr Album Reviews #139

This is Michael Mixerr. Today I will review the self-titled D O A album and revisit this album as well. I've made some errors and now I've decided to correct them. I felt that this album needed to be revisited.

This is real gangsta rap! Not for all you weak ass MC's out there! This album was released in 1994. DOA is 6 Feet (6 Feet Deep) and Smoke Da Locsta' (Loc Malone). D O A (Dead On Arrival) was a rap group out of Flint, Michigan in the early 1990's. Runnin' Scared was their first EP on cassette released in 1993. Then D O A released 2 EPs on cassettes called Marked For Death and Problem Child. This album consists of the EPs Marked For Death and Problem Child, which D O A would go on to release later in 1994 on CD and cassette.
Tracks 1-6 were on Problem Child and tracks 7-14 were on Marked For Death.
Production is done by Da Locsta', 6 Feet Deep, and Randy Howard. The production company was Deep Dark Production from Flint, Michigan.

This album is SAMPLE CRAZY with Rock samples, Hip Hop/Rap samples, and Jazz samples. Think about artists such as Van Halen, Megadeth, Deep Purple, Bee Gees, Lonnie Smith, Bob James, KRS-One, Kool and The Gang, Eric B. and Rakim, Ice Cube, Ice T, MC Breed, Sly Stone, and Charles Mason. That's where some of the samples came from. Even movie samples are used! Think Roger and Me, Cheech And Chong's Still Smokin', Scarface, and My Cousin Vinny. Documentaries too. All that good shit!

(I will start off with Problem Child EP.)
First song up is Running Scared, which has heavy hitting distorted Grand piano notes with super hard bass. Samples are Tom Tom Club - Genius of Love, Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive, Dr. John - Right Place, Kool and The Gang, and KRS-One. It's early in the morning and it's time to sell marijuana. 6 n da mornin' police on the dick. Now it's a dope raid. Time to leave the scene! Duckin' and dodgin' the 5-0. Robbing banks and shooting security guards. Even to the extent of shooting babyies! You get the idea. I like the heavy rock sample at the end.

The second song is My City's Going Down (Part 1). Samples from the Michael Moore documentary Roger And Me are used in this song. Here D O A talks about how rough Flint really is with all the violent crime, drugs, and political corruption. At the time this song was written, Flint at that time was gaining notoriety for a major violent crime center. Money Magazine had rated Flint one of the worst places to live in America in 1988. Ever since GM closed down their automobile manufacturing plants, Flint has gotten worse year by year. There's only 4 police officers to cover every 2 blocks. In fact, there are ONLY 6 officers in the Flint Police Department and now the City of Flint have to use the Michigan State Police to patrol Flint. If people would have taken more action and paid attention to what was happening with Flint, things would have been a lot different they are now! Nothing in Flint is getting better.

The next song is Drugs. Here Loc Malone and 6 Feet talk about how they got into doing drugs, drug trade, and the effects of drugs in general. This song samples BDP - Illegal Business, BDP - Love's Gonna Getcha, and Funkadelic. The bass is super sick!! DOA 4 Life!
The next track is Problem Child. Talks about how home is hell. Born in the ghetto and raised in da guttah with no love. Here 6 Feet talks a bout how the ghetto is a living nightmare. He makes a lot of references to his revolver gun. Loc Malone was just a poor kid who never had much. Running wild through neighborhood and selling drugs. The streets is packed real deep with gats. No fakeness here!

The next song is Dope Game. Here D O A talks about the effects of poverty on children in the ghetto and what children will do to keep roofs over their heads. Such as selling dope, gambling, buying uzis, and using food stamps for other things besides food. 6 Feet talks about sniping niggaz at Flint Park in the Dark. Loc Malone is the getaway driver. They both talk about not getting caught and continue in doing so.

The sixth track is Cruzn. (This was the last track on the Problem Child EP.)
Cruzn samples Juicy - Sugar Free, Eazy-E - Boys In The Hoods, Smokey Robinson - Crusin', and Zapp - More Bounce To The Ounce. Cruzn with da homeboys and puffin' dat ganjah. 45 of da 5-0  and for protection.



(I will finish with Marked For Death EP.)
Marked For Death is a 1 minute intro with excerpts of various movies. It has very dark sounds. Probably samples from horror movies and psycho thriller movies. Definitely not any Ben Stiller fans out there. It's too real for them!

To My Mafakaz is a dedication song which samples Zapp - Freedom and Zapp - Dance Floor. As well as Eazy-E. This is a funk track. Quality is maybe the female singing the background vocals.
At the time this song was written, people were saying a lot of punk ass shit about D O A. Loc Malone talks about his life in the ghetto and his parents. How he does cocaine, is a drug abuser, and abuses other people. Being a bad ass bad boy. Also being a dirty mac! Loc Malone does his dirt alone. Loc Malone ain't no joke, hoes! 6 Feet Deep talks about how hard he is. D O A proves not be scared of anyone.
This song was also aimed at The Dayton Family, Small World, and probably F.O.D! Loc Malone had called them "no-name hoes".  Loc Malone think that the rap groups from Flint are trying to bite and copy each others styles of rap and hip hop. As well as copying each others beats. That is also why D O A dissed TDF. On a side note, DJ Clay (not the Hatchet House DJ) and Play It Again Sam were the hottest producers out of Flint at that time like Lyric Da Queen is now.

On If I Wuz A Police, Loc Malone (I'm sorry, Officer Loc) tells use what he would do if he was the police. Such as getting hydraulics for the paddy wagons, free all the homies in jail and letting them free, sell narcotics, ignore crime, arrest the real police, etc. Officer Loc makes a diss to Chief Woodrow Stanley. At the beginning of the song you can hear the opening intro theme for the TV show called COPS, which is called Bad Boys - Inner Circle. A Cheech and Chong movie sample is used also.
Ridin' High samples the song of the name by Faze-O. Love Track samples Zapp - Tut-Tut Jazz. This is a dedication track to marijuana.

This song up next is My City's Going Down (Part 2). Samples from the Michael Moore documentary Roger And Me are used in this song. Here DOA talks about how rough Flint really is with all the violent crime, drugs, and political corruption. As I said before, Flint at that time was gaining notoriety for a major violent crime center. While Detroit and Pontiac were certainly hurt by the shutdowns and outsourcing, the effect on Flint was absolutely devastating!!! Nearly more than half of the city of Flint is on welfare and food stamps. Crime in Flint continues to grow!

Survival is a reggae fusion dancehall track where 6 Feet goes straight up Reggae with a Jamaican Belize flow. He's about how he lost his job, his wife, and his sanity. Here 6 Feet talks about the struggles of hustlin', starvation, and life. Living on the edge. Think early 70s funk and early 70s reggae! It would have been super crazy if Loc Malone had a Jamaican madd ill flow. Too bad he didn't.

Payback is a diss song aimed at The Dayton Family. D O A even got dissed by The Dayton Family! (This was later in 1995.)) Supposedly one of the members of D O A slept with the mother of Ira Dorsey (Shoestring) and that's what started the beef/feud. And it could have been the fact that
 TDF was probably NOT THAT intimidated since they got the record deal with Relitivity (RED Distribution) later that year in 1995. Eventually the beef between TDF and D O A had ended later sometime that year. So it's all good now.

All of D O A's albums should have gotten proper distribution and recognition, but the beef with TDF made it hard for D O A from doing so. Good luck trying to find this album because all of the D O A music goes for over $500!!!! Possibly only 2,000 copies of this album even exist. D O A was slept on!

I rate this self-titled album, 5/5*****!