October 15, 2016

Da Bush Babees "Gravity" (Press Kit + Vibe Review, 10/96)


"Bush Babees sit in a semi-circle, looking half-perplexed. The huddle is comprised of two 22-year-olds, Khaliyl aka Mr. Man and Lee aka Lee Major (formerly Babyface Kaos), and one 21-year-old, Jamal aka Light (formerly Y-Tee). The Flatbush, Brooklyn hip-hop trio are set to release their sophomore LP, Gravity, to follow-up 1994's critically acclaimed Ambushed, which yielded the indisputable bi-coastral hits, "We Run Things" and "Remember We." But it's the oft repeated question of the minute, that has their minds moving. "Why Bush Babees'?" ... Mr. Man answers: "Always Bush Babees," he declares of the group's moniker, defiant of any threat of growing old; and his reasoning falls on theoretically stable ground. "It sounds better than Bush Men." Peep the visuals to "The Love Song," with lyrics like: "I came all the way from Brooklyn to present my rep / Lyrically deep like sleep; I rock hard like Led Zepp..." with a nice guest feature from Mos Def, cont'd below...


"It's the name," adds Lee. "We're always new to this - we're just a little more developed now. For Gravity, we definitely dug into ourselves." It seems odd enough: as these lyrical architects take greater steps towards manhood, they remain Babees having musical babies; and when they searched for gravity, they looked inward. But, upon listening to Gravity, it becomes clear that the only way to bring the evolution of the musical artform decreed as hip-hop to the future, was to find its roots in the past. "When we do our thing, we try not to listen to the radio," confides Lee. "We just listen to our beats and do what we do. That way we're not trapped in time." - via "Gravity" press kit. As a bonus, check out the review for "Gravity" in Vibe, October 1996. Peep the album HERE.