Alex Henderson

Schoolly D
Saturday Night: The Album [Deluxe Expanded Edition]

Hip-hop started in New York City—specifically, Harlem and the South Bronx—in the late 1970s, and during the first half of the 1980s, the vast majority of well-known rappers were from the Big Apple. But by the mid-1980s, other cities were making major inroads in hip-hop. And one of the most important was Philadelphia. Hip-hop in Philly goes back at least as far as 1979, when Wendy Clark, a.k.a. Lady B, recorded her landmark single, “To the Beat, Y’all” (the first rap recording by a female solo artist). And by 1986, Philly had a large hip-hop scene that boasted DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, the Tuff Crew, the Hilltop Hustlers, DJ Cash Money, Three Times Dope and the seminal Jesse Weaver, a.k.a. Schoolly D. It’s no exaggeration to describe Schoolly as one of the most innovative MCs of all time: he was arguably the first gangsta rapper, influencing Ice-T, Eazy-E, N.W.A, Ice Cube and many others. 

Born in Philly on June 22, 1962, Schoolly recorded his self-titled debut album in 1985 and 1986 and released it independently on his own label, Schoolly D Records. Not everything on that LP was gangsta rap, but the seminal “P.S.K., What Does It Mean?” (which was released as a single in 1985 and included on Schoolly D the following year) is widely regarded as the first real gangsta rap recording and clearly influenced gangsta classics like Ice-T’s “Six’N the Mornin’” and Eazy-E’s “Boyz-N-the-Hood.” A menacing, in-your-face description of ghetto life in West Philly (where Schoolly grew up), “P.S.K., What Does It Mean?” wasn’t the first hip-hop single to tackle the subject of urban crime. But while Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “The Message” from 1982 or Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde’s “Fast Life” from 1984 were performed in the third person, “P.S.K., What Does It Mean?” favored the first-person narrative style that would soon become a trademark of Ice-T, Eazy-E, N.W.A and other California residents.

Schoolly began working on his second album, Saturday Night: The Album, in 1986, enlisting Philly-based producer/engineer Joe “The Butcher” Nicolo. After initially coming out on Schoolly D Records as a seven-song LP, Saturday Night: The Album was picked up by Jive/RCA Records and re-released as a 10-song LP in 1987 with three songs added: “Housing the Joint,” “Dis Groove Is Bad” and “Parkside 5-2” (a hard-hitting ode to thug life at 52^nd Street and Parkside Avenue in West Philly). And in 2014, FunkytownGrooves transforms Saturday Night: The Album into a deluxe two-CD set, offering the 1987 LP in its entirety on Disc One and eight bonus tracks (including radio and instrumental versions of “Parkside 5-2,” “Housing the Joint” and the thuggish “Saturday Night”) on Disc Two.

Saturday Night: The Album isn’t exclusively gangsta rap, but even the songs that aren’t full-fledged gangsta rap have an aggressive, edgy quality. From “We Get Ill,” “Do It, Do It,” “B-Boy Rhyme and Riddle” and “Get N’ Paid” to the noisy, dissonant “It’s Krack,” Schoolly is not afraid to push the envelope.

Schoolly produced Saturday Night: The Album with Nicolo, who went on to co-found the Philly-based Ruffhouse Records with Chris Schwartz in 1988 and has been one of the city’s most prolific producer/engineers. In addition to all of his rock and R&B credits, Nicolo has worked with a who’s-who of Philly hip-hop (including DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, the Goats and Three Times Dope, among others) and many major rappers from outside Philly (ranging from L.A.’s Cypress Hill to the Bronx’s Tim Dog).

Interviewed in July 2014, Nicolo reflected on Schoolly’s impact and asserted: “I feel like Schoolly definitely influenced Dr. Dre, N.W.A and Eazy-E. It was definitely the West Coast he influenced, and rappers on the West Coast would sometimes admit that Schoolly influenced them.”

Nicolo remembered that Schoolly’s decision to rap about ghetto life in the first person was a big departure from all the MCs who had described ghetto life in the third person. “The rappers before Schoolly were rapping about their environment, whereas when Schoolly rapped, he was the environment,” Nicolo stresses. “Schoolly was 52^nd and Parkside. When you heard Schoolly’s more ominous tracks, it was like, ‘I wouldn’t mess with this guy.’ And he had a free-form attitude of not really caring what people thought. That’s what was so cool about it.”

Hip-hop production styles have changed considerably since 1986, when many MCs favored tough, hard tracks consisting of drum machines, cuts and scratching. Many of today’s hip-hop producers favor a much sleeker approach, but when Nicolo, Schoolly and DJ Code Money (Schoolly’s DJ at the time) worked together on Saturday Night: The Album, they were going for rawness and grit.

“The big reverb on the kick drum that we were using was unique,” Nicolo recalls. “Nobody else was doing that. It was like, ‘Why are you putting so much reverb on the cymbal and the kick drum?’ and my attitude was, ‘Why not?’ It kind of gave it an ominous sound. It made it cool. It was dark. And when you listened, you could picture a dark alley. I’ve worked with some pretty tough rappers in my day, all the way through the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.—and when Schoolly D was rapping, you could picture him hanging out at 52^nd & Parkside.”

In the 1980s, Schoolly didn’t sell as many albums as Ice-T, N.W.A and others he influenced. Nor did he have the triple platinum crossover success that pop-rappers DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince enjoyed with He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper, another Philly favorite that Nicolo worked on. But Schoolly had an enthusiastic following, and Saturday Night: The Album went down in history as a cult classic.

“Schoolly was never one of the best-selling artists on Jive, but certainly, he was one of the most respected,” Nicolo recalls. “And of all the rap records I’ve ever done, people will bring up Schoolly ten to one. They don’t mention He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper as much. Not that there was anything wrong with that record—He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper put me on the map, and I made a career out of it. But Schoolly was the critics’ choice.”

—Alex Henderson, July 2014

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Salon.com, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, AlterNet, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, Latin Style, The New York City Jazz Record, Jazz Inside Magazine and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) also contributed several thousand CD reviews to the popular Allmusic.com website and The All Music Guide’s series of music reference books.