"Dare Iz A Darkside" is Redman's best release from The 90's era, if of all time

[Free Suge Knight, Gucci Mane, & BShmurda Welcome Home Tray D]

How "Muddy Waters" and "Whut? Thee Album" get more praise than this 1 has always been beyond Me.  



I once heard Red say that this album brought him back to a "dark time" in his life but dammit man this shit was funky!  



I think it's safe to say that you'd have to be a Hip Hop outsider or an 80's Hip Hop enthuastist to rank this album under number 1.  I fuck with "Muddy Waters" tough, I really do, I think it's a helluva album and I often play it in between "Dare Iz A Darkside".  But to say it's better is like saying a Bee is faster than a Fly... It's close but it didn't beat it



But then again that's just my opinion but u know this album is extremely underrated

[Hack Wilson - real]

i will cosign this thread and it's message.


muddy waters is a close second to it but i prefer Dare...

[KrazySumwhat]

 Me an my mates must've been about 13-14 when this came out. My mate had it on cassette. We used to listen to it alot. I never loved it or Redman as much as some of my mates but i do remember it being my mates fave redman album and it being a good album. I must listen to it again some time.

 I never bought any redman albums for some reason. i guess friends of mine always did so i got to hear them.
 I did see him live with method man, that was dope!
 I forget the name of the album but i did give one of his newer ones a listen and it was such a dope fucking album. Guess i slept on him a fair bit.

[Blood$]

I have a hard time choosing between Whut!, Dare Iz A Darkside, and Muddy Watters because they all have too many classic joints

[fogcitypimpin]

D.i.a d.s. is garbage truck juice

[Okka]

Classic, my 2nd favorite album from Redman. "Muddy Waters" is still my favorite.

[Black Excellence]

muddy waters >>>

[Free Suge Knight, Gucci Mane, & BShmurda Welcome Home Tray D]

"Muddy Waters" is a more polished album, i'll give it that.... i actually like "Muddy Waters".  But "Dare Iz A Darkside" is better lyrically and the production is better, let alone tha fact that it was way more raw. 



The only thing that "Muddy Waters" has on "Dare Iz A Darkside" besides a few stand out tracks is it's mixing.  "Dare Iz A Darkside" is way more real and way more raw.  Even when u read some of the reviews online u see that the only ppl who didn't like "Dare Iz A Darkside" or were underwhelmed by it were White People who were usually from overseas somewhere.

[HighEyeCue]

you could make a case for Red as the best rapper in the 90's as well

[Free Suge Knight, Gucci Mane, & BShmurda Welcome Home Tray D]

you could make a case for Red as the best rapper in the 90's as well

nah.  u biddin now

[Okka]

"Muddy Waters" is a more polished album, i'll give it that.... i actually like "Muddy Waters".  But "Dare Iz A Darkside" is better lyrically and the production is better, let alone tha fact that it was way more raw. 



The only thing that "Muddy Waters" has on "Dare Iz A Darkside" besides a few stand out tracks is it's mixing.  "Dare Iz A Darkside" is way more real and way more raw.  Even when u read some of the reviews online u see that the only ppl who didn't like "Dare Iz A Darkside" or were underwhelmed by it were White People who were usually from overseas somewhere.

You got some links to these reviews you're talkin' about or is this just you tryin' to shit on people who don't agree with you?

[Free Suge Knight, Gucci Mane, & BShmurda Welcome Home Tray D]

"Muddy Waters" is a more polished album, i'll give it that.... i actually like "Muddy Waters".  But "Dare Iz A Darkside" is better lyrically and the production is better, let alone tha fact that it was way more raw. 



The only thing that "Muddy Waters" has on "Dare Iz A Darkside" besides a few stand out tracks is it's mixing.  "Dare Iz A Darkside" is way more real and way more raw.  Even when u read some of the reviews online u see that the only ppl who didn't like "Dare Iz A Darkside" or were underwhelmed by it were White People who were usually from overseas somewhere.

You got some links to these reviews you're talkin' about or is this just you tryin' to shit on people who don't agree with you?

First off Okka, stop deleting and MOVING threads.  U anything for that



but here u go:


http://www.allmusic.com/album/dare-iz-a-darkside-mw0000120679
Redman may have become a household name among the rap community by the end of the '90s, but there was a time when he garnered little more than a cult following. Why? Well, Dare Iz a Darkside illustrates this better than any of his other '90s albums -- nowhere else has Redman ever been this odd, to be quite frank. It's fairly evident here that he'd been listening to his George Clinton records and that he wasn't fronting when he alluded to "A Million and 1 Buddah Spots" that he'd visited. In fact, this album often divides his fans. Many admire it for its eccentricities, while others deride it for being quite simply too inaccessible. It's almost as if Redman is trying to puzzle listeners on Dare Iz a Darkside with his continually morphing persona. In fact, there's actually little questioning his motives -- it's a matter of fact that Redman's trying to be as crazy as he can without alienating too many of those who first knew him for his affiliation with EPMD. And while that affiliation does aid this album, since Erick Sermon plays a large role in production, it's not quite enough. If this album has one unforgivable flaw besides the debatable quirks in Redman's persona, it's the production. Sermon isn't up to his usual standards here, unfortunately, and the album could really use some of his trademark funk. But the reason most fans either feel devotion or disdain for this album isn't the beats, but rather Redman's antics. If you appreciate his wacky sense of insane humor, this album is a gold mine. If you're more into his latter-day Method Man-style rhymes, then this album probably isn't one you want to bother with. After all, though Redman became a household name by the end of the '90s, it surely wasn't because of albums like this.


http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1084916/a/Dare+Iz+A+Darkside.htm

5 stars
   (0)       (0)
Helpful?
   Definitely a five star album
Dare Iz a Darkside buy CD music This is Redmans best album ever. Check Bobyahed2dis, Noorotic or Can't Wait - they're monotonous? Heavy beats, cool bass, wild rhymes - and those are not the only tracks from the album, which you would like to listen once again.
By Korni (Warsaw, Poland)
5 stars
   (0)       (0)
Helpful?
   Easily his best album...
Dare Iz a Darkside songs ... I don't know what that cracker from Ireland was thinking giving this 1 star. You obviously know very little about hip hop and its history.
By Culture (Queens, NY)
4 stars
   (0)       (0)
Helpful?
   Best One
Redmans best cd ever. His rhymes are far more brushed up since his last cd and the beats go together with them very well.
By cduniverseho (East Coast)
1 star
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Helpful?
   Cool as Cheese
Dare Iz a Darkside album for sale Redman needed a hit upon the release of this,his scond album and sadly it was not be. The beats contained throughout the album become monotonous very early on and the raps seem to be pointless imitations of his previous album.
By bloodpuppies (Swords, Co. Dublin, Ireland)
5 stars
   (0)       (0)
Helpful?
   Dope LP
I've heard Redman's newer albums, and those were great, but this is the best Redman I've heard-But all of his LPs are smashin'-his dedication to weed makes hime the rapper he's became to be.
By a reviewer (Colorado, USA)


http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/BTTL_darkside.html
Redman :: Dare Iz a Darkside :: Def Jam
** RapReviews "Back to the Lab" series **
as reviewed by Steve 'Flash' Juon

It should be little secret by now that the staff of RapReviews.com is enamored with the snotty-nosed notty-headed lyrical terror of Newark, NJ. Looking over the four prior reviews of Redman on this website, from "Whut? Thee Album" to "Malpractice", none of his releases have ever scored less than eight out of ten overall. That leaves at last with "Dare Iz a Darkside", perhaps the most obscure and UNAPPRECIATED of all the CD's that Funk Doctor Spock has dropped on the unsuspecting public.

Following the phenomenal success of a debut album universally hailed as a P-Funked out hip-hop classic, the deck was already stacked against Reggie Noble right out the gate with this sophomore release. Despite that, Redman didn't play it safe and stick with the same ol' sound that would have made this LP a huge hit. Instead, this album literally lives up to the "Darkside" of it's title with a sound that's darker than a Hershey Special Dark bar. This is a funky album to be sure, but it's not a light and bouncy funk - it's gritty like the dirt under your fingernails that even Lava soap can't get out.

Rockwilder's "Noorotic" is a perfect example. Those of you who know his name from bouncy remixes for people like Destiny's Child would be SHOCKED by this track; a thumping walking zombie of funk where Redman "rocks tracks like Van Halen" and is accompanied by a raw chorus of rap samples punctuated with "stay off his dick!" In his typical bravado, Mr. Noble proves with verse two with so many people wish they could rhyme or sound just like him:

"I'm seein a lot of happy copycat rappers
actin like they got asthma
They attackin me, they slowin they rhymes down; actually
They got factories with little dolls named after me
But it's no question my funk segment leave the whole atmosphere pregnant
I take advantage of niggaz like I was molesterin
Newark, New Jersey's what I represent.. ayyy-iyyyyy-iyyyy
My brain be zonin, I phoned home to E.T.'s home
and to hook me up with stash spots to put my chrome in"

If you're having a hard time following all this, just wait for his trademark punchlines like "The bomb like Elway throw balls on John Madden." Oh you didn't know? We had that shit back in '94 too, don't think that it only came around when your Playstation 2 came out. The most hilarious part of this song though is the breakdown at just over three minutes, when Redman interrupts his own song for a sex break by saying, "Can any MC do this.." {*insert sounds of intercourse here*} ".. and come back on the mic? I THINK NOT!"

Is it any wonder then that the album's first single "Rockafella" was a funked out self-produced Redman masterpiece accompanied by a music video whose backdrop is a carnival freak show? "On and on and it don't quit, Redman rockin on to the funky shit," echoes the chorus over and over, and listening to this song you can only help but nod your head to these HEAVY beats and rhymes in agreement:

"Droppin the flavor, stay Sky high like Pager
I'm magical like "Fantasia" on paper
"I Saw the Light" like Kraftwerk, of course
When the T L-A Rock shock the stuff, IT'S YOURS
TO YOUR DRAWERS!! Your record label got your staff gassed
thinkin you gonna sell two mill' cakes real fast
But you flopped and your image choked like a Tec
Now WHO freakin style your ass gonna steal next?
Are there any more imitators in the house? THERE ARE NO
Bust like NBA Jams, and you can have Chicago"

Thus speaks the voice of undeniably egotistical confidence (that's the MICHAEL JORDAN Chicago he's spotting you) and with songs like these it's well-earned. Still this album continues to be unrecognized in the pantheon of Redman releases, for reasons this writer truly fails to comprehend. Maybe the mood and tone of this album was just TOO dark for some people, even with singles like his upbeat follow-up track "Can't Wait" - often best rembered for his finishing punchline, "Switchin speeds like Bruce Lee ridin a Fuji, in a movie." You can't help but smile as he turns to look at the audience like a director with his own camcorder and quips, "If you didn't get it - laugh now.. AND THEN FIGURE THE SHIT OUT WHEN YOU GET HOME!" This kind of lighthearted track is the exception to the rule though. The trademark Redman humor is found throughout, but the tracks resonate with more stank than "Stankonia" on ridiculously pounding bass monsters like "Wuditlooklike" and the SUPER HEAVY duet "We Run N.Y." with Hurricane G. Normally the latter artist could make Angie Martinez sound like Rakim by comparison, but she can do no wrong in tandem with a man who bigs up a generation of artists as hardcore as this track:

"Well um - let's take a journey to hell and beyond
Where the bomb grows on palms, and bags labelled Cheech and Chong
The Jimi Hendrix of rap; I got an afro and bandana
Then I rock jams like Santana
I move MC's like niggaz move ki's Uptown
Red and Hurricane G, SO HOW YOU LIKE US NOW?!?!?!"

In writing this review, I was hoping that perhaps this was going to be the album that broke the mold for our website - a Reggie Noble release somebody on the staff DIDN'T love. Unfortunately that's just not the case, because by making a stinky, filthy, dirty, nasty, BOOMING hip-hop album that's so raw that it flew over the heads of even his hardcore fans, "Dare Iz a Darkside" may rate as the sleeper in his WHOLE catalogue. For those who just can't live without a LITTLE more bounce in a Redman album, there are a few obligatory cuts like the "Tonight's Da Nite (Remix)" and the mellowed out "Green Island" you can skip to, but the hardcore Redman fans will want to hear the inaugural Squad union of Red, Keith, and Erick on the pounding pianos of the epic "Cosmic Slop" and the verbal and musical terror of songs like "Journey Throo Da Darkside" - a song so bleak and dark even Reggie himself begs "somebody, turn on the lights" in the song's introduction! You may know him as the smoked out rap comedian of "How High" and tons of miscelleaneous MTV specials, but this album truly proves that "Dare Iz a Darkside" of Reggie Noble - and THANK GOD FOR THAT!

Music Vibes: 9 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 9 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 9 of 10

Originally posted: March 5, 2002
source: www.RapReviews.com


http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.13301/title.redman-revisits-dare-iz-a-darkside-and-talks-gilla-house-saukrates
"Another element of Redman's future is his sequel to beloved 1996 album, Muddy Waters. HipHopDX asked Redman why that album, as his first three albums: Whut? Thee Album, Dare Iz A Darkside and Muddy Waters are often debated among fans as their favorite. "Because [Muddy Waters] was one of my pivotal albums, in branching from that darkness of Dare Iz A Darkside," explained a candid Red. "I was doing a lot of drugs on Dare Iz A Darkside. I have chicks that come up to me and say, 'Yo, Dare Iz A Darkside is my favorite fuckin' album, ever.' I swear, I have not played Dare Iz A Darkside damn near since I did it. Seriously! I was so lost, I was so fucked up during that album.""




There's more reviews about this album but alot of them dont really differ....  i'm just sayin

[Okka]

I haven't deleted any threads from you?

[Free Suge Knight, Gucci Mane, & BShmurda Welcome Home Tray D]

It's not really the deleting threads part, you're right it's almost non-existant.  It's the moving threads part that's the bad part.  Some threads u should just live and let live



But w/e tho

[fogcitypimpin]

Docs the name> d.i.a.d.