Santee - Out The Pen To Win album review
In case you didn't know, Out The Pen To Win that was recorded and done after Santee got out of the Huntsville State Prison (Huntsville Unit) Huntsville, Texas back in 1996. He was serving a 6 year prison sentence prior to recording this album. Over 3,000 copies of this album were sold out of the trunk in San Antonio, Texas. It was sold in stores also. Only 3,300 copies of this album exist. Today this Santee album is extremely impossible to find. The album was posted online to audiomack and iTunes in 2018.
Notice how the front cover has the caption of “TEXAS PRISON HURTSVILLE TEXAS”. Hurtsville, Texas is a “harsh reality” parody of the city of Huntsville, Texas and Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). The front cover artwork parodies and depicts the Huntsville State Prison located in Huntsville, Texas. Hurtsville, Texas is wordplay of Huntsville, Texas. The cover artwork was designed and composed using ink, pencil, abstract water color paint, and BiC marker.
The album took 6 years to record due to Santee serving time from his 7 year prison sentence. Most of his debut album was recorded from 1995 to 1997. A handful of songs were written in 1997 such as Old School Tip and Texas Build Up.
LC 1 Productions produced the beats while Santee composed the song and wrote raps. Kane was a featured artist all over the album.
This album was released on CD by PRC Recordings out of San Antonio, Texas in 1997. It was pressed in CD-r format. You will love the Doodooism sound on album! (Doodooism is a rap sub-genre of heavy bass and heavy guitars on rap & hip-hop.) The album filled with gangsta rap stories, uplifting songs, and heavy bass. Notice the basement production sound done on this album. It gives the album that mysterious eerie sinking feel. Too bad Lil Sin wasn't on any of the tracks. Santee's albums are impossible to find even in Texas along with all the other albums PRC Recordings has put out over the years.
PRC Rules is a posse cut about how their independent label rules the underground rap scene of San Antonio, Texas. Mr. Will and Kane appear on this track.
The PRC villains are on a mad man rage! PRC is Players Rap Coalition. When you step to these players, you better stop to the right. Santee suggests you better stay long distance. PRC is as hard as the mob and they’re pulling hoe cards. One .40 mm will surely finish the job. Santee smokes his victims like he smoked dank weed. Give respect where it’s due. PRC rules.
PRC rolls cleans in a Cadillac. They stack money. They can’t be seen nor touched. Together they can’t be touched. PRC is a union of players devoted to rap. Santee states PRC is not promoting violence on their records. They are just pushing wax. LC produces the beats. His beats will surely knock you off your feet like a Mossberg. Santee composes songs and raps. It’s all a part of the game.
Santee slaps you with a force of 2 tonnes of bricks as he still has tricks. He explains the Out The Pen To Win album took 6 years to record due to him serving time as a part of incarceration. He stayed true to himself by writing these rhymes. He’s been blessed with a gift so he’s giving some back. His raps are laced with reality. Crossing PRC is like crossing the street. You need to look both ways.
Out The Pen To Win is about Santee quitting the life of crime and going out into the world by getting a legit job. He plans to succeed in life by going legit. He’s going legit like Jake The Flake. For example a legit job and not selling drugs or robbing innocent people. Santee is going to make a success in the underground rap world. Santee is a player coming out to win. He’s on a mission do or die. Being a hustler is in his blood.
Santee had made this song right after he had just gotten out of prison in 1995. The song was recorded at PRC Recording Studios in San Antonio, Texas. LC 1 Productions produced the beats.
At the very beginning of the song is where Santee describes himself by his prison inmate number of TDCJ #587576. He’s out of the penitentiary and he is out in society to win. Even though justice is perceived as being blind to most, justice is on Santee’s side. People die in prison every day. Santee does not want to go out that way. Santee explains he had served 6 years out of a 7 year prison sentence.
He steps through the golden gates of Huntsville State Prison. It feels great. His girl rolls up in 1978 Coup De Ville. The car is maroon colored. They drive off in 3 wheel motion as the head down I 45 to San Antonio.
Santee writes rhymes about the hardcore streets in his music. He represents the streets. Santee plans to sell stacks of albums.
Texas Build Up is song where Santee and PRC raps about the politics of the prison industrial complex system. Santee gets politically conscious and socially conscious on Texas Build Up.
Texas Build Up is a heavy bass ridden track laced with gangsta rhymes. LC 1 Productions produced the beats. However the bass settings are tuned way too high and the vocals are inaudible. Low vocals over heavy bass isn’t exactly ideal for a listening experience. Timing for some of the instrumentation arrangements is inappropriate. For example inserting a loud violin where you can’t hear the vocals is uncalled for.
Huntsville State Prison is where the song takes place. Bossman is asked to open up J42. Santee is being released from his cell block. Texas Build Up is similar to a Texas Round Up. TDCJ has over 100,000 inmates locked up.
Santee explains how he fell pray to the system. He fell victim to the system for the second time. Once in 1984 and once in 1989. Santee served a 7 year bid for a 3rd degree crime. He was branded like a bull in a herd. He was TDCJ #587576. He felt like he was locked down for coming up. It’s all a part of the plan to keep blacks down. TDCJ and the State of Texas have Santee confused. Is this a prison or a plantation? It’s all about the prison industrial complex profiting off inmates.
The prison industrial complex profiting off inmates can be considered as a white collared crime. Education is a crime to the prison industrial complex. While jails and prisons are being built, our education declines. We loose our children to the streets and/or prison. Mandatory sentencing laws affect us all when serving time. Mandatory laws apply to us all. Children are given life long sentences which are considered unjust and unfair.
Santee thinks that US Congress needs to make a lot of revisions in their laws. Specifically mandatory sentencing laws. US Congress should make laws that require education to help our children.
Let Santee Be The One a heavy bass ridden gangsta rap song. The bass is hard hitting and will surely rattle your speakers. The sound is similar to Frustrated By Death from Lil Sin and Straight Doo-Dooism by Spooky G & Blackjack. Hence the doodooism sound. The production of Let Santee Be The One is quite lo-fi and low tech considering it was produced in the mid-90s. The only down side is that Let Santee Be The One is 2:23 in duration and should have been much longer.
He rolls smooth like a Cadillac. Santee takes us on a journey through the hood and the projects. He explains how he’s living in the streets and how he came to be. He packs a gat and keeps his pockets fat. Santee lives on the edge like a pigeon. Using his skills on his independent label (PRC), he pays the bills that way. Santee is protected from any tank moves like a teller in a bank. If you try to play Santee for his money, you’re ranked as a sucker. Make it easy on yourself. Let Santee be the one.
It’s Friday night in the projects. Santee crashes out at someone’s pad. He has sex with many freaks and hoes. The crew joins in. A busta runs away with dope. That’s one sucka less. It happens every day around the jets. Dope grows like cancer that you can’t cut away. Santee explains how project life is very lethal.
Santee works out with his microphone (mic) and lays his tracks so tight. Santee fights all alone in a battle against others. Like Michael Jordan with a basketball Santee is sure to win it all. He’ll mark you to death with a mic and not a gun. Just like Steven Seagal. Santee continues to release out hardcore rhymes.
SAPD has it out for Santee. They treat him like a coon or a dog. He’ll never be a target. He’s a youngster in the game who’s slanging packs. Not rolling 1 or 2 packs, but 5 packs instead. He gets rich off his packs. Now he’s going legit in the music business by slanging grooves. He came off the streets so he could get rich.
The song Old School Tip relies heavily on the sample of DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - Summertime. The treble has a huge reduction used. Old School Tip takes us back down memory. Yes it’s one of those songs. It was recorded in 1997.
Old School Tip is quite similar to Niggahs Will Be Niggahs by Papa Chuk. Although the song Old School Tip is a nostalgia trip, the song deals with the social problems African Americans face today. For example the black on black disrespect in the black community. Another huge issue for the black community is gun violence. Blacks are easy to resort to gun violence. Gun violence is what kills African Americans faster than AIDS.
Violence altogether is very common amongst African Americans. Another example is black people uplifting themselves or helping each other out. When it come to that, black people don’t help each other out the way they are supposed to.
Santee is on the old school tip for this composition as he takes us back in time. This is when the game was the game and people lived by the code. Respect, honor, and loyalty were must. Today you can’t find any true players like Santee.
Archie Ree is a pimp who dresses to impress with a fat money sack. The language he uses is of a big daddy mack (mack daddy). He got caught up into using cocaine and couldn’t refrain from stopping. All his cash went down the drain due to drug use. The use of drugs is never good. Now Archie is dead.
Eddie C was a 13 year old hustler who was murdered back in 1993. The murder of this player is still mystery that has yet to be solved. Suckers violated the code and loosing respect. They started violating the code of respect. The murder that we see is one we are about to regret.
Eddie C was a natural born hustler and manipulator. He was a hustler who knew the game and played by all the rules. Eddic C was caught by surprise as suckers took him for a ride in a 1985 Cadillac. The 1985 Cadillac is where Eddie C was last found. He died there. Violence on the streets was to blame. The streets will never again be the same. People are crazy. It happens.
Tripple Gold is about them Dayton rims. The song is both percussion heavy and bass driven. Tripple Gold samples N.W.A. - Just Don’t Bite It. Shorty T aka Tammy is featured on the cut. She raps a significant majority of the track.
Smoked Filled is a great song for a smoke session. To get your smoke on to. So toke away playas. Reminds me of C-Ordell's song of the same name from his 1994 debut solo album on BLVD Records. C-Ordell should have been on this album.
Mobbin' Music has that early 90s Bay Area mobb music/gangsta rap sound to it. A great song to listen to in a low rider while you’re in traffic. Hearing mobb music on a Texas rap album was completely a different experience. Of course the track has bass included. T (Tammy) is the female rapper on the track.
Step To The Mic is a freestyle song and PRC posse cut where Santee showcases his dope lyrical skills. He is known for his hardcore rhymes and dope lyrics. His lyrics are dope too.
What's Your Skills is another freestyle song that is a PRC posse cut. Santee showcases his dope lyrical skills too. The beat programming is quite basic.
The song 312 has an Afro-centric percussion selection. It’s another day in the hood at the 312 spot. Cocaine is sold at the 312 spot. Donald is staring at a blunt of cocaine and is paranoid as he lost all hope. He is a crackhead addicted to coke. It’s all about rock sales.
5/5*****!
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Choyce - Slowly Risen album review
Choyce was one of Saginaw’s early R&B/Soul groups next to B.A.D., The Perfections, Klockwize, Strictly Original, U Be U, and The Soul Merchants to have released an album or single. Much of which were overlooked. This album from Choyce is no exception. Choyce was one of Saginaw’s R&B/Soul groups that never got the recognition they truly deserved. The album is filled with subtle soothing love ballads that was considered a common theme in the 90s.
Choyce - Slowly Risen was released on cassette by So Smooth Productions in 1994. Pleasure Sparks helped coordinate arrangements for a portion of this album. Lemon and Daddy REG served as the executive producers. Choyce - Slowly Risen was produced at U Be U Production House aka U Be U Studios in 1994. This was back when everyone including their mom and dad who lived in Michigan went to U Be U Studios to have their music mixed and mastered.
The smooth calming mood for the song of Settle Down is a perfect way to start an R&B/soul album off with. Subtleness of such nature is perfect for people to unwind to whether they come home from getting off work or in a mood for perfect midnight love session.
The chorus on Settle Down is quite soothing and subtle to one’s ears. The song is backed by a calm settling male chorus. Chorus for Settle Down is quite catchy.
[Chorus]
Do you mind if we settle down.
I Thought U Loved Me is a love song based on heartbreak and betrayal. A man who thought a woman had loved him really loved someone else instead of that man. He thought she had loved him. That turned out not to be the case. The woman says things that are very hurtful to the man.
Come Back is an upbeat R&B/soul song that uses jingle bells throughout the whole duration of the song. Come Back is a tale of heartbreak for which the song is based on. It’s a tale of love.
Lay Your Body Down is a song you would expect to hear from RFTW, Jodeci, Ginuwine, or Fo Deep. The song is perfect for those in the mood for perfect midnight love session. Lay Your Body Down is a slow tempo paced slow jam.
Freak U Down is a song you would expect to hear from Jodeci, Ginuwine, or INOJ. The song itself is played at a mid tempo pace.
The last song called U Didn’t Know is where this album’s mood gets sad. Sound effects of rain mould into the song’s sadness. It’s sad when someone you though that had loved you and cared didn’t reciprocate your love.
4/5****
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B.A.D. – Stay While / Secret Admirer single review
B.A.D. – Stay While / Secret Admirer is a lost single from the Saginaw soul scene released in the year of 1984. The single is filled with romantic love songs seeing how it was released during the 1980s. Not a surprise there. Anyway… B.A.D., The Soul Merchants, The Perfections, U Be U, and Klockwize were one of Saginaw’s earliest R&B/soul groups.
B.A.D. (4) – Stay While / Secret Admirer was released as 7” vinyl single on Rolls Voyce Records in 1983 before being repressed and reissued on a 12” single by James A. Carpenter’s Sinban Records in 1984. This version of the single as well as the song Stay Awhile is very much different from the vinyl single on Sinban Records.
If your single has the following category label on the single, then your single is a first pressing.: Rolls Voyce Records – RV 001
4/5****
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