Lonnie Harvis

Rock the House

Review

TLDR: Otherworldly mixing and scratching from DJ Jazzy Jeff with The Fresh Prince providing story driven boom-bap hip-hop vocals.

Now, this is a story all about howMy life got flipped-turned—

My bad, I got carried away. Listening to DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince takes me back to classic episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I can’t help but to think about The Prince’s colorful audacious style or Jazzy Jeff constantly being thrown out of the house. Sigh The memories....

Rock the House is the duo’s (or trio during this period) first album release after joining together two years prior. During an era of hip-hop that their style did not fit, The Fresh Prince still showed he had a high rapping ability in weaving stories reminiscent of Slick Rick. He mixes up the type of stories as well, starting with a lament of the stresses that women have on his life on Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble (with a scathing response from the ladies on Guys Ain’t Nothing But Trouble.)

He then realizes that his troubles may actually be with himself as he spins a tale on Just One of Those Days. The stories don’t stop there as he comes back with more on Rock the House, Taking It To the Top, and Just Rockin’. The Fresh Prince’s style may not have been as aggressive or gritty as his contemporaries but he definitely had the skills to hang with them. Even if that wasn’t acknowledged until much later in his career.

Let us not forget about The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff. DJ Jazzy Jeff is still considered one of the best DJ’s in the world to this day. On Rock the House, he not only accompanies The Fresh Prince’s vocals but he also gets his time to shine on a couple of solo tracks. A Touch of Jazz shows his considerable skill in bringing together jazz with with her hip-hop offspring. His hands truly do have the “speed of a cheetah.”

If you’re looking for some music for your BBQ playlist, or wanting to introduce your kids to hip-hop without the adult themes of today’s rappers, I suggest giving Rock the House a try. Actually, it doesn't have to be that limited. If some good music is what you want, let DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince lead the way.

Favorite Tracks:

1. Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble

2. The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff

3. Just Rockin’

Sean Rodgers

Can’t Hold Back

Review

TLDR: DOA, that is how I would describe this album. It was bad when released and it has aged like rotten milk in an abandoned plantation in the middle of a fart swamp.

I grew up with Pure Prairie League rolling on the record player. I remember listening to Vince Gill on the radio. So, it would seem that when Peanut Butter and Jelly meet only wonder and glory can follow. Vince Gill at the beginning of his long awarded career and Pure Prairie League at the top of peak of their charts. What went wrong?

This album can't be that bad? Well, a few songs here and there might be ok at certain points. But the package as a whole is just terrible. If you've ever heard someone learning to drive their first manual transmission in an old beater, you can under stand what listening to Can't Hold Back is like. Sometimes you hear everything click into position making good progress. More often than not you hear grating and grinding of gears.

There is a lot behind the scene that I don't know. Maybe there was tension. Maybe there was excess. But there is one thing I do know. There was disco. And then... the month after this album was released, disco was brutally and publicly murdered in Comiskey Park on July 12, 1979.

Inspiration and experimentation are great things. But Can't Hold Back's amalgamation of Bluegrass, Blues, Rock, and Disco... can only be properly visualized by John Carpenter's The Thing from 1982.

What ever Pure Prairie League was hoping to go for here is lost somewhere in a heap of dirt, grass, and vinyl somewhere on a demolished field in time past Chicago.

Don't listen to this album.

Extra Material

DJ Jazzy Jeff keeping up with the times

Quarantine house party with Will Smith with DJ Jazzy Jeff

Will Smith Tidal interview

Disco Demolition Night

Information

• Artist: DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
• Album: Rock the House
• Release date: April 7, 1987

Track List:

1. Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble
2. Just One of those Days
3. Rock the House
4. Taking It to the Top
5. The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff
6. Just Rockin’
7. Guys Ain’t Nothing But Trouble (feat. Ice Cream Tee)
8. A Touch of Jazz
9. Don’t Even Try It
10. Special Announcement

Information

• Artist: Pure Prairie League
• Album: Can't Hold Back
• Release date: June 1979

Track List:

1. Can't Hold Back
2. I Can't Believe
3. Rude Rude Awakening
4. White Line
5. Misery Train
6. Restless Woman
7. I'm Goin' Away
8. Jerene
9. Livin' It Alone
10. Fool Fool
11. Goodbye So Long