05/14/04 | The Return Of The Black Superman
      Big Hutch (aka “Cold 187um”) of the legendary West Coast supergroup, Above The Law, returns with his long awaited second solo release, Live From The Ghetto. Above The Law was one of the seminal, G-funk laced groups on the Ruthless Records label, run by the late, legendary Eric “Eazy-E” Wright. Hiphop heads last heard from Hutch back in 1999 when he released his first solo debut album, Executive Decisions, on his independent label, West World Records. With this album, Hutch brings melody back, with his time-honored brand of West Coast hiphop.

Hutch’s signature G-Funk sound can be found on classic hiphop tracks like 2Pac’s “Until The End Of Time,” The Dogg Pound’s “The Dog Pound 2002,” Snoop Dogg’s “Dead Man Walking” among many others. Suge Knight had even tried to enlist the production services of Hutch, but the two could not see eye to eye on a myriad of things, so 187 chose to leave the situation.

Live From The Ghetto is not merely an album title, but it is the state of mind, as well as environment, which Hutch has always shared in, and it permeates through this highly-anticipated album.

Destined to be noted as an essential work, Cold 187um decided to remake the classic Curtis Mayfield song, “Give Me Your Love,” but rather than just sampling it, he released it as a duet, featuring both the late singer’s trademark falsetto, a voice that was such an influence on his own delivery, and added his own vocals to it. The stunning combination of these two voices marks a special, flawless vision in hiphop, production that has 187’s own stamp on it. Hutch explains, “I wanted to pay homage to Curtis Mayfield by adding my style to it and telling a story similar to which his original was based. “Give Me Your Love,” from the Superfly soundtrack, is about a brother who is on the daily grind, doing what he’s got to do, but knowing that whatever happens, his woman his got his back, regardless of the outcome.” He adds, “Curtis Mayfield was always one of my favorites, and he did it all. He wrote, produced and sang. When I was coming up, my uncle, Willie Hutch and my Dad Richard Hutch, wrote for Motown. They wrote things like The Mack, Foxy Brown, the Jackson’s, the Miracles. I experienced the Mack, Motown, all of that, because of the work my dad and my uncle did for Motown. I was brought up on that sort of player, smoothed-out music. So this is paying homage. When you listen to it, it sounds like I was in the studio with Curtis Mayfield. It sounds real natural.”

Among the album’s guests are Above The Law, Kokane and upstarts Young Madd, Geno and Viet Nam.

Hutch is known as one of the original creators of G-Funk. Bringing Above The Law projects like the EP, For The Funk Of It, and the influential Black Mafia Life. Hutch remains understated, modest and extremely humble, despite his major role in the creation of G-Funk. “When we were making music in the early days at Ruthless, and I was producing, I wanted to do things for the vibe of it, to influence people. The music was new, hiphop, if you were around back then, you know one thing---just everything was kind of new. It was more so an experimental type of thing. When I was doing G-Funk, which was that all we were doing is adding a funky, new, melodic vibe to hiphop, because at the time, it was more metal sounding, you know, like NWA had this more metal sounding, hard-edged, cut throat feel to it. But Above The Law was more funky, funky but real smoothed-out. So when I started adding that into the scenario of hiphop, that’s when we coined the phrase for what we called our sound. At the time, Warren G slept on my floor, in my apartment. This had to be ’89 or ’90. We’d be like, ‘This is some G-Funk, gangsta funk.’ We were working on Black Mafia Life.”

2Pac lives on as a witness on that album. Hutch notes, “I remember 2Pac asked me, ‘Your music is funky, it’s not like all the regular gangsta shit. What do you call your shit?’ So that’s why when you listen to our song, “Call It What U Want,” which came out before “Indo Smoke,” came out before “The Chronic,” or any of that, on the song, 2Pac, says, “I’m bumpin,’ G-Funk, but you can call it what you want.’ So that was the first time you heard that term on a record.”

Then Warren came out and said, “Our music is G-funk.” He was influenced by cats who were OG’s he saw doing it, and rolling with it. Warren is a part of G-Funk, and part of its emerging, but he didn’t invent it. He’s from our camp, from our hood, so is Snoop Dogg, they’re all descendants of our camp. I was the first to take Snoop and Warren under my wing.” He adds, “They were originally going to come out through Ruthless/Lawhouse, until Dre split and broke camp, and people left with Dre to go to Death Row. I

don’t really trip off who did what really, because G-Funk was just one influence in the music,” he says. “I use blues, rock and a lot of other different things, as well in music.”

The album’s “Born Hustla” is about someone whose mindset is born out of necessity. Hutch expounds, “It’s about brothers who have no way out, and hustlin’ is all they can do, they’re trapped, it’s all they know. They don’t have a bachelor’s degree in sociology, they’re not great a football player, as not everybody can’t do that, and so they get caught up.”

Hutch is in his element, as he describes the song “Ghetto Platinum.” “Ghetto Platinum” is like saying you’re so dope and so underground, that everybody knows what’s up on that scene. You are ghetto gold, ghetto platinum. There are only a few people who are respected that level, on a ghetto level, that can give you certified ghetto shit. A lot of motherf#@%#@s talk ghetto shit, but they give you pop music instead. We bring certified ghetto platinum. No matter how many records we sell, we are still certified ghetto platinum.”

187’s vocal delivery was one of the first to come with a straight, melodic flow. “I always knew melody will outlive the words you are hearing. You may not remember the words to the song, but you always know the melody. I am a musician first, and then, I’m a rapper, with the vocals. I always wanted to put melody into it, because melody is timeless,” he says.

With Live From The Ghetto, says Hutch, “I want to put melody back into gangsta rap, and put that back into the fold. I wanted to sing the melodies myself, rather than hire someone else, and just be a rapper. I wanted to be a full-fledged artist, a true musician, and show that side of me. This album enabled me to give you all my soul, and that’s the way I look at it.”

"Live From The Ghetto" will be released nation-wide on June 8th, 2004. Order it here!

For additional information on Above The Law visit: abvdlaw.com

Here is the tracklisting:

01. Intro: Do It Again
02. Still That Nigga
03. Ghetto Love
04. Lyrical Murda (1st Single)
05. Born Hustla
06. Boo
07. Give Me Your Love (feat. Curtis Mayfield)
08. Gutta (feat. Kokane & KMG)
09. I Used To Respect You (feat. Vietnam)
10. Maor Dic
11. Ride Like A Gangsta
12. State Of Emergency