Customer Reviews

Hell With the Lid Off

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Incredibly, this album remains an obscure preface to MC's later commercial success with inferior work. Humorous lyrics throughout range from silly to scary/psychotic.

Apparently DJ Zero, and the production heavily influenced this album, because MC 900's sense of humor seems to be the only common link between Hell with the Lid Off and later albums like One Step Ahead of the Spider, and Welcome to My dream. While funny is good, it doesn't substitute for the creative, energetic, and trippy sounds produced on Hell With the Lid Off.

Be warned! If you liked his later work, you probably will not like this album. To me One Step Ahead, and Welcome to My Dream, were very dissapointing. If you like the idea of a twisted story told through a heavily modified vocal, in a quick style over slamming beats, with spare, but effective turntablism, you might check it out. If you are looking for jazzy tracks, with a lazy humorous narrative like you may have heard on his other albums, skip this one.

First of all, Thank God Nettwerk decided to re-release this awesome CD with some bonus stuff.

MC 900 Foot Jesus' HWTLO is a staple from an era long gone by. This piece of work can be best described as Beat Poetry interlaced with Acid Jazz smothered in Industrial Hip Hop with a splash of Psychedelic Creativity and Great Rhythm. But, there are many more secret ingredients that I dare not mention. You will just have to taste it for yourself.

Every song on here is excellent. I recommend purchasing this CD, then drinking a lot of alcohol (in the privacy of your domicile) and then turning up the speakers very loud.

This is also a great CD to play at a party. Everyone will love it and think you are the coolest kid on the block because they will have no idea who it is. Share a miracle and impress all of your friends at the same time. You will go straight to Heaven.

Where to begin, I have about 20 CDs in my collection of which I will NEVER part with, this album ranks in the upper most 5 of that list. I was hooked up to it from the advice of the owner of an independent "record" (back in the day when there were no CDs) store in Dallas (from which the artist also hails). If you like Meat Beat Manifesto's "Storm the Studio", Nitzer Ebb, early Kraftwerk, and The Beastie Boys "Paul's Boutique", you will love this album.

The first album by the Dallasite Mark Griffin is one that needs to be recognized as a classic. Much as Meat Beat Manifesto has been recognized for making music way ahead of its time back in the late 80's/early 90's--this album came out in 89, and when one listens to it, one can hear the electronica/hiphop of the day, but with a musicianship rooted in the jazz degree Mark Griffin got in North Texas--a stellar program---this ain't no simplistic techno that "sounds the same as everything else"--this is music exploring boundaries and concepts--throw in the insane scratching of DJ Zero, and some of the most clever lyrics ever to grace the face of modern music and you got it--I own 630 cd's, I've made 100's of mix tapes--and this album is one of the ones I listen to the most often--more than ten years after I picked it up--there are very few electronic albums that sound "new" and "fresh" after a few years on the shelf, this album still astounds

Quirky hip-hop meets sublime acid jazz in a creative, subversive, sometimes humorous, and possibly psychotic masterpiece.

This album was a jaw-dropper the first time I heard it, and still absorbs me every time I play it. Solid all the way through, but not for everybody. There's stuff in here that will scare some people off, but for the rest of us, it's therapeutic, allowing listeners to get in touch with their inner sociopath and blow some steam.

Thanks, eventually everything is a blast!! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

I received this album much faster than I thought I would. Not my favorite one but it's pretty good and completes the collection. Video's are a fun bonus.

this album is more goth dance techno than jesus's other albums, with contributions by scratch genius dj zero. while mark griffin is definitely at home in his usual hip~hop jazz focus, lid off takes his rhyme and reason to new levels. the sinister 'ufos are real' takes a rocket scientest to unravel, 'born with monkey asses' would take a social worker with infinite patience forever to even scratch the surface and 'too bad' would make a serial killer shiver. however the albums highlights would have to be 'real black angel' and 'space man'

The first album that always seems to be overlooked... Anyone who loved Welcome to my Dream should grab this album and see where the brilliant beyond classification storytelling originated. The track "Spaceman" is easily the precursor to "The City Sleeps" and I would say that both songs are equally as good! DJ Zero really shines across the album, and check out the very worthy singles that came before/from this record. A funny yet intimidating finish, "Born With Monkey [butt]" will definitely please any social gathering.

This CD is mostly booty bass drum loops with scratches and unmelodic lyrics through a scratch vocoder. If you're expecting this to be like the mellow and disturbingly enchanting One Step Ahead of the Spider, you'll be sorely disappointed. If, on the other hand, you like a sort of noisy, scratchy, fuzzy, repetitive monotone broken up by the one good track (containing a crazy man yelling at some lady), then you will love this CD.

Listen to the samples. The samples are indicative of the entire song, since the samples are just looped to fill a track's worth of time.



Leave this one on the shelf and go check out MC 900 Ft's One Step Ahead of the Spider. It's quirkier and more original than this.