As far as all the Dust Brothers records go, this is the one that's most dated and entertaining at the same time. As far as pop rappers went, you couldn't get more pop than Young MC, yet for his debut record he pulls off the style rather cleanly, other than a weird penchant for rolling his R's. But "Bust A Move" and "Principal's Office" are so stupidly catchy it's diabolical. It doesn't nearly hold up through the entire record, the Dust Brothers' work is slipshod at points ("Know How"), but there are enough reminders to hold interest ("Fastest Rhyme").

This is a record which seems rather quaint when hearing it back years later, but believe it or not, for the time it was fairly forward-thinking and mainstream all at once. Tone's gregarious personality played a big part in shooting this record to the top of the charts in 1989. But the real power behind the throne was the production team of Dike, Ross, and the Dust Brothers, who also either produced or contributed heavily to a number of other highly successful records around the same time. The chart hits ("Wild Thing", "Funky Cold Medina") are the most cohesive tracks, but there's plenty of good times to go around, if you don't make this out to be a high-brow experience ("Don't Get Close", "Cheeba Cheeba").

Great character-driven show - and I'm not just talking about Darren McGavin's seersucker-suited portrayal of the classic paranoid tabloid-obsessed American newspaper reporter who sees a conspiracy 'round every corner, it applies to the entire cast - partially fouled by an obscure backlog of slipshod stories on legends and/or fantastical beasts. There are moments here and there which recall the thrills and chills of the TV movies (the ending of "Mr. R.I.N.G." was a definite highlight) but usually the fantasy parts of the show left me wanting more, and often the better payoffs were with guest stars (usually Kolchak vs. the chief cop in charge of the investigation) or ancillary characters like Gordy "The Ghoul" Spangler, the morgue attendant who ran a death lottery!

One of these days I may rewatch but seeing this first run - I remember it as overblown tripe. The Simcoe character was especially revolting. Save yourself the trouble and read Alexander Rose's excellent book on the subject.

I don't have this rated as a great record but the production from N.O. Joe is definitely an upgrade over past Rap-A-Lot employs. There's more space, thick beats, and funky bass which sees the slicker raps of Big Mike replacing Willie D's more vociferous barks. It comes together best on low-end sample-shiftng mega monsters like "Murder After Midnight", the lengthy Rap-A-Lot roster freestyle "Bring It On", and "Six Feet Deep", a devastatingly sad ballad in the mold of Ice Cube's "Dead Homiez". There's just as many misses on what turns out to be another mercurial Geto Boys record we ultimately cannot dismiss...and still revisit once in a while.