Masta Ace did not do what every other man did

ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY

Down, he said, way down, the devil call it underground, and back then he said it with pride—Masta Ace on album released in 1993 the day after “Protect Ya Neck” came out, and if he had been a day earlier, what tasteful mansion would he live in now? 1993 was a nice year in NYC and Ace made one of the best records: Slaughtahouse, a mean but righteous hip-hop album about making a hip-hop album. Lead single features MC Negro and the Ignorant MC, and then Ace dropping the incognito thing to precisely chop at the mechanics of the industry (“Ain’t U Da Masta”: “My patience is starting to wear short . . . ”) and the clumsier and crueler mechanics of the city (the grim “Walk Thru the Valley”) and to detail the life of a mean but righteous MC, tumbled drunk and wild between shows and street (“Rollin Wit Umdadda”) and into a big finish on the nervous “Saturday Night,” when Ace free-reels a lyric retrospective that curls revisited lines from the rest of the record around one last verse wondering how closely anyone listened? Everything happening on this album should have moved Ace ahead—his sounds-simple/reads-deep onbeat/offbeat style gave him a level over a lot of MCs and his in-house Masta Ace Inc. production had that ’93 shallow-grave bass/drum sound arranged to fit Ace’s onbeat/offbeat sense of humor—and sense for detail—by servicing string/jazz samples (Galt McDermott and Bobbi Humphrey) and sound effects as set-dressing and dripping in a selection of horror-movie FX that put some seasickness inside each slow song (“Boom Bashin’”). Instead he bounced against the top of the second tier for years. What didn’t connect? He made more comebacks than luck would typically allocate—this might be one—and every time people who knew probably felt glad he had that much luck left.

MASTA ACE WITH WORDSWORTH, STRICKLIN, PUNCHLINE, BLU, 5TH ELEMENT, CONCRETE GUERILLAS, THIRSTY FISH, ELEMENT AND DJ RONLEE  SAFARI SAM’S | 5214 SUNSET BLVD  HOLLYWOOD 90027 | SAFARI-SAMS.COM  THURS 8PM $15 | ALL AGES

Tags: hip hop, masta ace, Music, new york, safari sam's