Stetsasonic - “Sally”

So what have I been up to in these past few days? Well, this story’s funny. I met this girl, she had money. In vast abundance, goo-goo-gobs, I mean redundant…

Okay, well, no, that didn’t happen, but one day, one day.

The six-member troop originally known as the Stetson Brothers hailed from Brooklyn and gained acclaim as one of the earliest rap groups to employ a real live band, inspiring groups to come like The Roots and Justice System (okay, that last group you’ve probably never heard of—don’t worry, I’ll get to ‘em soon enough). The group is also pretty fondly remembered for members Daddy-O, who would become known for his production work; Frukwan, whose later work included being a prominent member of the future group Gravediggaz; and some goofy kid from Long Island named Paul Huston, whom, with some crazy kids from Amityville, would change hip-hop forever.

Yeah, Prince Paul got his start right here, though he was unable to show off his skills for creating off-kilter, sample-heavy productions. In fact, while a member of the group Paul had little say in the sounds of Stetsa’s records, still being treated as a rather obnoxious and inexperienced kid while Daddy-O and member DBC took point on the production. His experiences would shape his direction and outbursts later on when working with De La Soul (but I’ve already covered that one).

Anyhow, in ‘88 Stetsa released their second album, In Full Gear, a terrific record which was somewhat lost in the flow of utterly classic records released that year (1988 and 1994 in rap, simply magical years). The album was ambitious, full of different styles, b-boy swagger, and classic anthems, this being one of them. “Sally” is one of those typical hip-hop tracks about falling for a woman, except this is the golden age, so it’s roughly 65% less sleazy and 400% more funky. And Stetsa does a great job here, with a stuttery beat, fantastic quotables, always welcome samples from James Brown, and some good scratching to boot. Perfect.