Today in Hip-Hop — October 16: Freestyle Fellowship’s Temptations Turns 25, and the Trumpet Player Who Linked Project Blowed to Kendrick

October 16, 2001. Freestyle Fellowship releases Temptations on Ground Control Records, and it turns 25 today. Their previous album, Innercity Griots, came out in 1993, so this was the first Fellowship album in eight years. The group had gone on hiatus while Self Jupiter was incarcerated. The album was recorded in 2001 at Project Blowed Recordings, home base of the Leimert Park workshop scene the crew came up in. Most of the beats are by a trumpet player named Josef Leimberg, and he’s where today’s jewel comes from.

The lineage first. Aceyalone, Myka 9 and Self Jupiter started out as teenagers in a crew called MC Aces at the Good Life Cafe. P.E.A.C.E. joined them and the group became Freestyle Fellowship. Their bebop-influenced beats and freestyle training produced dense, unpredictable flows. Myka 9 explained the idea to the Los Angeles Times in 1993: “What we are is liberators, liberating rap from its R&B/funk structures—that 4 (time) prison.” A whole generation of West Coast underground rappers grew up in that same scene. Jurassic 5 came through it too (read our Jurassic 5 lineup history).

Temptations keeps the circle tight. Abstract Rude, RBX and Supernatural are the guests, and “Sex in the City” was the lead single, with “Temptations” b/w “Ghetto Youth” following in 2002. The production credit points forward. Leimberg made most of the Fellowship’s 2000s output, and more than a decade later he teamed up with Terrace Martin as LoveDragon. That partnership produced a co-writing credit on “How Much a Dollar Cost” from Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly. The jazz-rap thread running from Leimert Park to one of the most acclaimed rap albums of the 2010s goes right through this record.

We made a Freestyle Fellowship Innercity Griots hoodie for the heads who know the West Coast underground started with four kids freestyling at the Good Life Cafe. Throw on Temptations today, then go back to Griots to hear where it all started.

Also today in hip-hop:

• Run-DMC, Back from Hell (Oct 16, 1990, 36 years): The Hollis crew’s fifth album came out on Profile, produced by the group and Jam Master Jay. They tried new jack swing on “Pause” and “Faces.” The deep cut is “What’s It All About,” which loops The Stone Roses’ “Fools Gold,” a Queens rap group sampling Madchester in 1990. Rep the DJ with our Jam Master Jay tee.
• Eyedea (passed Oct 16, 2010, age 28): St. Paul’s freestyle prodigy won Scribble Jam in 1999 and HBO’s Blaze Battle in 2000, which was hosted by KRS-One. He was the MC half of Eyedea & Abilities and helped build Rhymesayers from the ground up. Rest easy, Mike. Eyedea & Abilities tee.
• Masta Ace, Disposable Arts (October 2001, 25 years this month): Sources disagree on the exact date, with October 16 and October 30 both listed, but the album is 25 either way. It’s a concept record about a Brooklyn man who comes home from prison and enrolls at the satirical “Institute of Disposable Arts.” The production came from Ayatollah, Domingo and the Croatian beatmaker Koolade, among others. JCOR, the label, folded less than a month after release. The story continues on A Long Hot Summer, which you’ll find on our Masta Ace A Long Hot Summer tee.

Stay creative — The Custom Creative Team

Jon Jones