Prince Paul’s 2nd studio album, “A Prince Among Thieves”, was released on February 23, 1999 on Tommy Boy Records. On the Prince Paul produced “3 Feet High and Rising”, Prince Paul came up with the idea of including skits are a way to piece the album together to tell a story. This idea of telling a story on a record eventually became the idea for his Rap opera or a “movie on wax”. Prince Paul watched a bunch of B-rated crime dramas and eventually came up with the plot for “A Prince Among Thieves”. Rapper Tariq, played by Breeze Brewin’ of the Juggaknots, needs $1,000 in order to finish his demo before his meeting with RZA. Tariq, who is convinced that this meeting will lead to a record deal, against his own better judgement agrees to help from his friend and mentor True, played by Big Sha of the group Horror City, and hustle the money. The album chronicles the highs and lows of the life of a dealer and a friendship scorned by jealousy. Prince Paul recruited an all-star cast for support roles in his Rap opera, like Big Daddy Kane, Kool Keith and De La Soul. The album is produced entirely by Prince Paul and features both new and classic Prince Paul beats. It’s a familiar story but it’s also often humorous and keeps your head nodding throughout. You can’t knock the creativity that went into making this album nor its cast of characters. “A Prince Among Thieves” is one of a kind.
Review with Jav (@javdunyan)
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Chris: Going into this review, “A Prince Among Thieves” was probably one of my favorite Hip Hop albums. It’s just completely unique and because of that I thought it would be an interesting album to review. I guess I probably heard it not too long after it came out because at the time, I was pretty obsessed with anything related to my favorite group, De La Soul. Do you have any memories of listening to “A Prince Among Thieves” before this review?
Jav: Fond memories indeed, thinking back to this era of Hip-Hop feels great, not just for the sake of nostalgia for an old school Hip-Hop “head” but the time when the internet was budding and a few years before downloading music from the internet would absolutely destroy your computer. The album’s story and theme requires time to unfold, each song is an episode in the overall Hip Hopera which needs some time to grasp the whole concept.
Chris: I can think of a few Hip Hop concept albums from over years, like “MM..Food”, “Deltron 3030”, Masta Ace’s “Disposable Arts”, and “Dr. Octagonecologyst” but none of them are what “A Prince Among Thieves” is, which is a true Hip Hopera. I wonder if you remember when MTV put out that musical, “Carmen”, that starred Beyonce, Mekhi Phifer and Mos Def. I remember them calling that a Hip Hopera but come on. I guess, it was Prince Paul’s idea for “A Prince Among Thieves” to be a film but Tommy Boy balked at the idea. They did, however, give him $10,000 to shoot a trailer/music video. Are there any other concept albums in Hip Hop that you can think of? Also, I read that Chris Rock owns the rights to any potential theatrical versions of “A Prince Among Thieves”. Given a decent budget and all the characters from the album being used in the film, what’s your interest level in seeing it?
Jav: I’m DOWN to see a live action version of the album, funny that Chris Rock owns the rights to that? Not sure who I would expect to own it but hey! Better than Martin Skrelli being the sole owner to an unreleased Wu album. MTV is so lame, throwing Mos Def in there to bring some needed street cred into the mix. I imagine the board meeting with Beyonce’s agent like hey it’s a modern day opera! The kids will love it and it comes on after Real World, who remembers that show?
Chris: Good point! Chris Rock, please do something with this! Is the Real World not on anymore? Road Rules gone too? Haha
”A Prince Among Thieves” (Extended Music Video)
Chris: The album, the story of Tariq, is supposed to be loosely based on the struggles, in both the music business and personal life, of Prince Paul. I guess as a fan it’s hard to think about someone like Prince Paul being outcasted by the industry and struggling to find work in music. Do you have any thoughts on Prince Paul as producer and Hip Hop contributor? And what did you think of the production on this album?
Jav: Boggles the mind that Prince Paul would have problems and maybe it is expected. He would not do well with LL Cool J or whomever was the breadwinner throughout the 90’s lol. De La Soul is legendary, and Mr Paul is the producer that made the first three albums, I wonder what the impact of De La’s legacy would be without Prince Paul’s production. Hard to say at this point (not to cast shade on the album Stakes is High). Who remembers the second Gravediggaz album that came out without Prince Paul producing? Exactly.
Chris: I think the thing I appreciate most about Prince Paul is the wide array of genres he samples from. He’s very eclectic with his sample sources. He’s not afraid to challenge himself or be himself and because of that we’ve gotten so many quirky but quality projects to listen to. From his work with De La, to his work with the Gravediggaz, to his work with Dan the Automator.
Chris: I really enjoyed the production on this album. Again, a very eclectic choice of sample sources from Albert King to Extra Ts, from the Average White Band to Magnum.
Average White Band – “Reach Out”
Chris: One of the things I really enjoy most about this album is that it cast some not as well-known rappers in the most prominent roles and some of the most prominent rappers, legends really, in support roles. You have Everlast as the corrupt cop, Kool Keith as the arms-dealing nerd, you have Big Daddy Kane as the pimp supreme, you have Chubb Rock as the crime boss, you have De La Soul as junkies and then Sadat X, Xzibit and Kid Creole as the intimidating but also sage inmates. Which was your favorite character(s) on the album and why?
Jav: Kool Keith stands out to me as the arms-dealing nerd, love the way you put that by the way. His monologue at the end of the song gets me everytime. “with the aluminum skin of an alligator” like what kind of sales pitch is that Keith c'mon man!? Don't worry i wont tell nobody in the projects. Something about Big Daddy Kane as a pimp in a movie, and his track “Count Makula” feels like a 70’s b movie which makes sense, knowing you mentioned Prince Paul watched a lot of B movies for inspiration, it just works somehow.
Chris: I really enjoyed both of those tracks too. Kool Keith’s wordplay and then the subject matter, it’s like all the stars align. The same can be said for the Big Daddy Kane track. He just comes off so smooth and believable in his role.
My favorite feature though was “More Than U Know” featuring De La Soul. Pos and Dave playing drug addicts and then the metaphors for getting high and taking a plane flight and a drug dealer as travel agent. I thought that really funny and creative.
Prince Paul feat. Big Daddy Kane – “Count Macula”
Prince Paul feat. De La Soul – “More Than U Know”
Chris: Did you have any favorite tracks?
Jav: I was totally a huge Sadat X fan so “Handle Your Time” is one of my favorite songs. “Weapon World” has my favorite beat, those strings and Keith’s high pitched voice match so well together, wonder what a Kool Keith and Prince Paul album would have sounded like?
Chris: Oh man! Can you imagine? The Dr. Octagon stuff with Dan the Automator was so ill and no disrespect to Dan but I could only imagine an album with Prince Paul sounding better or at least funkier. On another review, I talked about how much I would have enjoyed hearing an album with Chubb Rock and Prince Paul, an album with Kool Keith and Prince Paul would be incredible.
An additional track, I liked was with two Juggaknot members, Breeze Brewin’ and Queen Herawin, on “The Other Line”. Tariq calls his girl, Tammy, to convince her to call-in to work for him and Tru. I just really enjoy the back and forth. In my opinion, the dialogue between the two is like modern Shakespearean.
Prince Paul feat. Kool Keith – “Weapon World”
Prince Paul feat. Breeze Brewin’ and Queen Herawin – “The Other Line”
Chris: One of the things I read about the making of the album, is that the Rappers/Actors were all left in the dark about what was going on with the project as a whole. Prince Paul recorded them all and then pieced together all the dialogue and everything else himself at the end. So you’ve made beats and you’ve worked Rappers, what do you think of Prince Paul’s method for putting together this album? In your experience, have you tried to implement something like this yourself and if not, do you feel like maybe the finished product would have come out better if you had?
Jav: I have not taken such a task, mainly small projects and home-produced music that does not match the quality of a legendary producer. The amount of thought and creative effort that it must have taken to put this together is astounding. It is unimaginable really, the time required to make all these beats and come up with dialogue AND to piece them all together after the recording was done! Maybe as a virtuoso producer such as Prince Paul, the beats maybe would not take as much time, but sitting in a dark and smoky studio editing and matching the vocal tracks, dialogue and background sounds of a cinematic experience doubles his workload, in film industry there are departments alone that create sounds like cars and people walking, that takes time to set up and make sure everything is lined up correctly, wonder how many people helped with the engineering of the album. Prince Paul is like George Lucas, like nope that jail cell slamming sound was a little too loud, can we knock that down a tad?
Chris: Thank you for taking the time do this review with me, Jav! I appreciate your perspective and I hope that we can do it again! “A Prince Among Thieves” turns 22 on the 23rd, has it stood the test of time for you? Also, did you feel bad for Tariq?
Jav: I do feel for the guy, from the beginning it's like hey would I trust Tru or not, hmmmm. All of Tru’s verses have the feeling like hey I'm totally going to betray you because I feel I’m the better rapper and Tariq is so wack. I honestly did not know who Tru and Tariq were played by until recently, which gives the great opportunity to listen and discover some older unheard music, thanks Chris for giving me the chance to give my thoughts to this piece of art! I'm ready to do some more anytime Man! The best way to close out the decade with this gem of an album for sure.
Chris: I felt bad for Tariq as well. He was getting played from the start. I think that time has only made me appreciate this album more and I’m glad we got to review it because I really got to delve into it.
Thanks again, Jav!
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