3rd Bass |
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Thu. July 20.2000 8:33 AM EDT |
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3rd Bass To Return With Single, AlbumDuo ready to drop first new material since 1992 — but don't call them 'old school.' by Correspondent Elita Bradley |
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Pete Nice performs with his trademark cane in his left hand and a Cuban cigar in his right. (Elita Bradley) |
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SOUTHBURY, Conn. — Hip-hop elder statesmen 3rd Bass are ready to slip into the mix again with a new album, a new label and their old-school ability to "move a mass of people," they announced Tuesday at a
MC Serch (born Michael Berrin) said he and Prime Minister Pete Nice (born Peter Nash) are busy working on rhymes and tracks for an album they hope to have in stores by early next year, and a single and video they expect to put out as early as September — on Serch's own Serchlite imprint. In the meantime, they got the buzz going with a brief, energetic performance for a bouncin' crowd of label reps, distribution execs and a few fellow artists at Red Distribution's showcase at the Heritage Convention Resort in this Wonder Bread community. Although it's been more than seven years since 3rd Bass' most recent release, 1992's Gladiator EP, Serch and Nice insist this is not a comeback or reunion project. "We didn't go nowhere," the pair said during a string of interviews after the show. Oh, and one more thing: Don't call them "old school." More Offensive Labels "I don't think anyone looked at Aerosmith, who took a 15-year hiatus, as 'old school' when they returned," Serch, 33, said. (In fact, Aerosmith's original lineup splintered for five years, from 1979 to 1984, though the band continued performing and recording.) "It's so sad that we classify artists, because we feel like this music has to be typified by young buyers. I don't feel old school. We come from a class of MCs that you'll never see again. We come from a class." True enough. On the one hand that you need to count the white hip-hop groups that have any cred with the heads, 3rd Bass definitely take up a finger. Signed to Def Jam in 1988, the duo (along with DJ Richie Rich) released The Derelicts of Dialect in 1991 to critical kudos, but, more important, street approval. "They didn't come out gimmicky, and their beats and lyrics were solid," said DJ Rhude, a columnist for hardcore hip-hop magazine XXL, remembering their debut. "Every mixtape back then that was worth something had a Third Bass song on it: 'Wordz of Wisdom,' 'Gas Face,' 'Pop Goes the Weasel.' " For 3rd Bass and their fans, color was, and is, irrelevant. Asked to address the "race issue," Serch immediately deadpanned, "I personally believe that Marion Jones is the fastest woman on Earth ... and if you wanna talk about Michael Johnson? I'll tell you, that muthaf---a is quick. That's what I think about the race issue." Like their counterparts, including the Beastie Boys, House of Pain and, now, Eminem, Serch said they were able to prove that 3rd Bass could be "passionate not only about our political beliefs but also our lyrical beliefs ... for a couple of peckerwoods coming in trying to make black music, we had to be on the J.O.B." The other thing, he said, is that they were in the right place at the right time. "We rolled with all the right people. We didn't have the benefit of MTV, we didn't have the cookie-cutter layout of what hip-hop was — we just had to make our rounds," Serch said of their status among the black hip-hop community, particularly in New York. "We were performing everywhere. We were in the cut, and it was our system to run for a long time. It wasn't, if we were gonna blow, it was when." Second Chance With Fans Now that they have proved themselves once, the big question is, can they do it again? They've spent the past several years doing their own thing, far from the studio. In addition to starting up Serchlite records, Serch has been a senior marketing VP for Wild Pitch records; Nice, a baseball fanatic, owns several baseball businesses in Cooperstown, N.Y. They decided to go back to the studio after all this time, because, according to Nice, "We wanted to have fun again." Before Tuesday night's show, according to 3rd Bass spinner DJ Eclipse, they'd performed together only twice in the past year and rehearsed once. Their 20-minute set showed a lot of rough edges, as Serch, dressed in a Phat Farm denim suit and Nice, in his trademark suit and cane, ebbed and flowed through verses of old hits including "Products of the Environment," "Brooklyn Queens," "Gas Face" and "Pop Goes the Weasel." The crowd, however, didn't mind and afterward happily mugged for "prison posin' shots" with the pair in front of a huge ghetto-style, airbrush-painted backdrop. The picture even came with its own sparkly cardboard frame, inscribed with the words "Let's Light Up the Night!" "I don't know if they're gonna make it this time around," Jason Moscowitz of Red Distribution said as he watched Serch and Nice chat up some people before going onstage. "But I don't see why not. Serch has been in the business, and he knows what people want to hear on the street and underground, and they've definitely got the talent to make a great record again. It's just a matter of, if it's a great record that people are gonna buy." |
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