''Ear to the Street'' is the debut studio album by American
hip hop duo
The Conscious Daughters. It was released in 1993 via Scarface Records and
Priority Records
Priority Records is an American distribution company and record label known for artists including N.W.A, Ice-T, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Big L, Silkk the Shocker and Westside Connection. It also distributed hip hop record labels including Death Row R ...
.
[ ]Production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
was handled solely by San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
rapper Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. The album peaked at #126 on the ''Billboard'' 200, at #25 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated J ...
chart, and at #7 on the Heatseekers Albums
Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...
. It spawned two single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
s, "Somethin' to Ride To (Fonky Expedition)" and "We Roll Deep," both of which made it to the ''Billboard'' charts.
Production
The album was produced by Paris, who also wrote the tracks and contributed instrumentation. It was engineered by Eric Valentine. The album came out two years after the duo had given Paris their demo tape.[
]
Critical reception
''Trouser Press
''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...
'' deemed the album a "busy-beat debut," calling the group "a young Oakland tag team possessing average skills, big attitudes and no pretense of political awareness."East Bay Express
The ''East Bay Express'' is an Oakland-based weekly newspaper serving the Berkeley, Oakland and East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is distributed throughout Alameda County and parts of Contra Costa County every Wednesday.
The ''E ...
'' wrote that the album's two singles "are recognized as classics in the hip-hop canon." ''Complex
Complex commonly refers to:
* Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe
** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
'' listed "Fonky Expedition" at #46 on its list of "The 50 Greatest Bay Area Rap Songs."
Track listing
Personnel
*Carla "CMG" Green – vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
*Karryl "Special One" Smith – vocals
*DJ Yon – scratches
* Oscar Jerome Jackson, Jr. – producer
* Eric Dodd – engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
*Todd D. Smith – design
*Victor Hall – photography
Charts
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1993 debut albums
The Conscious Daughters albums
Priority Records albums