Today in Hip-Hop — October 18: Word…Life, The Diary and Blowout Comb All Dropped on the Same Tuesday in 1994

Some release Tuesdays are just a Tuesday. October 18, 1994 was a whole crate. On one day, Wild Pitch put out O.C.’s debut Word…Life, Rap-A-Lot dropped Scarface’s The Diary, and Digable Planets released Blowout Comb, the album that turned out to be their last. That’s a Brooklyn lyricist, Houston’s top storyteller and a Fort Greene jazz collective, all in the same new-release rack. Thirty-two years later, all three still hold up.

Start with O. Word…Life is the record that locked O.C. into D.I.T.C., the crew that runs through Lord Finesse, Diamond D, Showbiz & A.G., Fat Joe and Big L. Buckwild produced most of it, with Organized Konfusion and Lord Finesse also on the boards. The lead single “Time’s Up” came out that July and called out a whole generation of fake-thug rap: O said he’d “rather be broke and have a whole lot of respect.” He meant it. It was never a big seller, but it lasted as a cult record, enough to earn a tenth-anniversary reissue in 2004 with five bonus cuts.

On the same day, Scarface went the opposite way commercially. The Diary debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum before the year was out, a fast run for a record this dark. Face co-produced it with N.O. Joe, and it was the first Scarface album with Mike Dean on the boards, years before Dean’s Kanye era. The whole album has just one guest verse: Ice Cube on “Hand of the Dead Body,” with Devin the Dude on the hook. XXL later gave it a perfect rating, and a whole generation of moviegoers heard “No Tears” without realizing it: it plays in the opening traffic scene of Office Space. (The full Face story is in our Scarface deep dive.)

And then there’s Blowout Comb. Digable Planets had moved from Philly to Fort Greene and made a Brooklyn record, mixing samples with live instruments. Guru from Gang Starr appears on “Borough Check,” which is built on Roy Ayers’ “We Live in Brooklyn, Baby.” The inner sleeve was designed to look like the Black Panther newspaper. The label barely promoted it, and the group split up soon after. Butterfly (Ishmael Butler) came back years later with Shabazz Palaces. Today the record is regarded as a classic, more so than it was in 1994.

We made an O.C. Word…Life tee for heads who’d rather be broke with a whole lot of respect. If the Houston side is more your speed, the Mr. Scarface Is Back hoodie just landed. For the Digable fans, there’s a Reachin’ tee.

Also today in hip-hop:

• Bun B, Trill (Oct 18, 2005, 21 years): Bun’s solo debut opened at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and went gold, all while Pimp C was still locked up. Pimp came home on December 30 that year. Our UGK Ridin’ Dirty tee is for the Port Arthur loyalists.
• M.O.P., St. Marxmen (Oct 18, 2005, 21 years): Brownsville’s loudest duo cleared the vault with a mixtape of new songs, unreleased Roc-A-Fella-era cuts and the “Pop Shots” remix with Ol’ Dirty Bastard.
• Rev Run, Distortion (Oct 18, 2005, 21 years): Joseph Simmons’ solo debut on Def Jam, released two decades after Run-DMC took hip-hop to Hollis and then around the world.

Stay creative — The Custom Creative Team

Jon Jones