Whut? Thee Album

If Redman’s 1990 EPMD-mentored breakthrough via his Business As Usual guest verses appeared to capture lightning in a bottle, his debut Whut? Thee Album turned that bottle into a gravity bong. And while his mainstream notoriety would take a while to emerge — somewhere between Mike Tyson using his howling barrage “Time 4 Sum Aksion” as his ’95 ring entrance theme and Method Man joining Red to create the most rugged-voiced rap superduo of the Y2K cusp — this first album is one of those arriving-fully-formed statements with enough juice and presence to carry his style from the Golden Era deep through the next decade-plus of hip-hop. It works because that style’s a blend of hardcore-head lyrical aggression and freewheeling party-vibe goofiness that his guttural bravado could tie together while still leaving a lot of room for bizarre spontaneity — check him out undergoing a Slick Rick-ian alter-ego clash for “Redman Meets Reggie Noble,” unfurling an internal-rhyming punchline tornado on “Blow Your Mind” (complete with a verse in actual translated Korean), and annihilating the smoothed-out/street shit binary with proto-Biggie panache on “Tonight’s da Night.” Meanwhile, Erick Sermon’s acknowledgment of the West Coast’s g-funkateering makes for a strong reiteration of NYC’s own claim on the sound, from the titular Cypress Hill samples on the concussive bounce of “Aktion” to the Clinton/Troutman-mining house party jams of “So Ruff,” “Da Funk,” and “Watch Yo Nuggets.” Meanwhile, Pete Rock’s Mary Jane Girls flip for Phillies-repurposing masterclass “How to Roll a Blunt” is the production slate’s big show-stealer.