The 21th P&J Albums (and EPs) Poll!

Several of my favorite albums of the decade are on this list (In Utero, Rid of Me, Gentlemen, Symphony or Damn, Buhloone Mindstate), but I'm most in the mood now for Very.

Oh crap, I can't decide. I'm going with Freedy Johnston: Unlucky cause people need some Freedy in their life.

Like Alfred, many of my favorite albums of the 90s are on this list: Painful, This Time, Buhloone Mindstate, and Zooropa. But I will vote for Anodyne, which for four years shaped everything I listened to, for better or worse.

No Bjork?

Voted for: Liz Phair
Runnerup: Urge Overkill
Possible runnerup if I'd actually ever owned a copy: Dr. Dre
Suddenly curious about: Tony Toni Tone; Arthur Alexander, Moby EP
Not bad I guess: Nirvana, Afghan Whigs
Contained a good single: Breeders
Don't much care about: Everything else, though I probably didn't notice a couple things, as usual
Wonder what the marketing logic for them putting out an EP instead of a whole album might have been: En Vogue
Overall appraisal: Not a very good list.

A few 1993 albums I like more than almost all of these:

Ace of Base – Happy Nation (Metronome Musik Germany)
Guns N’ Roses – The Spaghetti Incident? (Geffen)
La Castaneda – Servicios Generrles II (BMG Mexico)
Monster Magnet – Superjudge (A&M)
Aterciopelados – Con El Corazon En La Mano (RCA/BMG Latin/Culebra)
Ace of Base – The Sign (Arista)
Suede – Suede (Nude/Columbia)
La Derecha – La Derecha (RCA/ BMG Latin/Culebra)
Captain Hollywood Project – Love Is Not Sex (Imago)
The Cactus Brothers – The Cactus Brothers (Liberty)
New Kingdom – Heavy Load (Gee Street)
A Split Second – Vengeance C.O.D. (Hypnobeat)
The Almighty – Powertrippin’ (Polydor)
Cybotron – Empathy (Fantasy)
The Bunnybrains – Wouldn’t You Rather Be In Florida For The Holidays (Lhg+Phop)
The Mistaken – Santa Fe (Triple X)
Fobia – Leche (RCA Mexico)
The Auteurs – New Wave (Caroline/VC)
Brooks & Dunn – Hard Workin’ Man (Arista)
Die Toten Hosen – Opel Gang (Virgin)

Also these if they count (among many others, I'm sure):

The Clash – Super Black Market Clash (Epic/Legacy reissue)
Chain Gang – Perfumed (Matador reissue)
45 Grave – Debasement Tapes (Cleopatra reissue)

Ooh another fantastic year! I'm going for sheer listenability here with the Digable Planets. In Utero and Rid of Me may be better albums. But I haven't been able to listen to Nirvana much since Kurt died (and esp. this album which is pretty fucking gutwrenching to sit through given the context). And while Rid of Me remains Harvey's best, listenability is not one of its strong points, to put it mildly. I doubt I've listened to it once in the Aughties.

That leaves Very as the only other serious contender. But despite its overall thematic consistency (they were right to leave off "Shameless," great song or no), the album's brilliance rests on discrete song units. And being 1000% honest with my ears, the quality dips slightly with "One and one make five" and "One in a million." (But goddamnit if "Dreaming of the Queen" ain't one of those greatest songs of all-time. Talk about gutwrenching!)

So Reachin' it is. What with its snippets and ambience and laid-back wooze and interlocking voices and repeated hooks and in media res fade-ins, it pulsates like one big purple-hazed paramecium. In particular, I love how all the stops and starts lend kineticism to a project that could have vaporized into the hash clouds. Check out Ladybug's "unh" at 0:52 in "Time & Space (A New Refuation Of)" which adds a sliver of intense funk and slams the beat slams back in with extra force. What the hell happened to them? (And while I'm at it, how is Prince Be putting food on the table?)

Of course, the best album of that year was the LiLiPUT comp if that counts.

What a great year.
Nirvana - In Utero
PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Pearl Jam: Vs.
Bettie Serveert: Palomine
Urge Overkill: Saturation
The Afghan Whigs: Gentlemen
American Music Club: Mercury
Yo La Tengo: Painful
Stereolab: Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements
Uncle Tupelo: Anodyne
Cypress Hill - Black Sunday
PJ Harvey: 4-Track Demos
Dinosaur Jr.: Where You Been
Sugar : Beaster

Lots of great stuff not included either like Underworld - dubnobasswithmyheadman, Aphex Twin (saw 85-92 was out 1993 wasn't it?), Redd Kross - Phaseshifter, and like chuck said Monster Magnet and Suede. Probably loads more.

I think I'll go with my fave Nirvana album though.

"slams the beat back in," that is (in my post)

Wonder what the marketing logic for them putting out an EP instead of a whole album might have been: En Vogue

Well, it was more like a CD single, no?

Ace of Base – Happy Nation (Metronome Musik Germany)
Ace of Base – The Sign (Arista)

What's the difference between these?

And right, the only great albums by Suede and GNR are M.I.A.

xp

Actually, I'd probably be more honest to put Afghan Whigs and Dr. Dre in the "contains a good single" category with the Breeders. (And also, Afghan Whigs in the "a best-of CD seems sufficient" category with Soul Asylum and Black Crowes from the past couple polls {and other middling, '90s semi-bordeline alt-rock stars like Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots and Spin Doctors and Counting Crows}, though my fave track by Whigs, their cover of TLC's "Creep", is not on the Histerectomy best-of on my shelf, and also not on Gentlemen for that matter.)

the only great albums by Suede and GNR

Wait, you like Spaghetti Incident? (their second best album, unless Lies is) more than Appetite for Destruction?? Wacky!

Personally I liked (London) Suede's '96 Coming Up more than their quite likeable debut, but that may well make me alone in the world. (No use for any other albums they made, though I've enjoyed sundry B-sides by them in my time.)

Ace of Base – Happy Nation (Metronome Musik Germany)
Ace of Base – The Sign (Arista)
What's the difference between these?

German one is darker and more Teutonic-goth/post-Belgian-new-beat, thanks especially to "Munchauseen (Just Chaos)." It also contains "Fashion Party" and "Dimension of Depth," which were left off the more peppy U.S. collection. German one does not contain "Don't Turn Around" or "The Sign." Both, as you've deduced by now I'm sure, are must-owns.

As for the En Vogue EP being more a CD single: I didn't know that, and yep, that would explain it.

I've never quite gotten Appetite. But Spaghetti made me doubt the Dolls for a split second. No small feat since they're my all-time fave guitar-bass-drums band. The Spaghetti "Human Being" smokes the original rhythm-wise. The Dolls sounded clunky after that. But then again, they've always sounded clunky (on CD, that is). And btw, this is the orange vinyl version of Spaghetti I'm talking about here. P.S. Rob Sheffield wrote a great review of it in the Voice.

I'll definitely seek out that darker Ace of Base. Big fan of the unhappy "Happy Nation."

I suppose it's a matter of opinion whether or not that En Vogue is an EP or a CD single (assuming there's a cavern of difference anyway). Does anyone know if it was placed in the CD singles section of stores?

The top 5 + the De La, DP's and P.M. Dawn releases have always been my faves from this list, and that hasn't really changed much since then. Initially, I kinda wanted to go with Very, but decided against it pretty much because of similar reasons as those Kevin cited. So I guess I'll pick In Utero after all, even though I, much like Kevin (again), haven't really been able to listen to it since Kurt literally placed his fate in his own hands.

(xhuxk, I'm quite surprised you went with Exile; I always assumed you didn't care all that much for Liz's work.)

Yeah, surprised 2 hear that 2.

And scratch that re: En Vogue. It says "EP" right on the cover.

voted for: TTD
should have voted for: Tony Toni Toné
sad they ain't there: Sweet Pizzicato Five, Field Trip to Planet Nine

Oh, and the Moby disc is great!

xp

Matt, your P5 love is really making me want to check out some of their work. But that's what I get for ignoring them back in the day, I suppose.

Re Liz: I've been liking her work, with much-voiced reservations, for years. Even liked a lot of Exile at the time; was probably just pissed off that the reviews of it then never seemed to take into account what was wrong with it (i.e., that "Divorce Song" isn't as good a Waitresses-style divorce song as "No Guilt") as well as what was right with it. But the album also probably grew on me over time, and I got less grumpy about it after I was single in the city for a while. Also kind of liked the sell-out album a few years ago that lots of old Exile fans (Rob Sheffield included, I think) hated.

Re En Vogue: Was the title of it the same as the title of the single it would have been a CD single of, and was that song a hit? Were the other songs specific to the EP, or just remixes or retreads? How many songs -- three, or six (or some other number)? These would all be considerations, I think (though CD singles, if they contain two other discrete songs and run under 30 minutes, were P&J-EP eligible.)

I like all of these, to varying degrees:
Liz Phair/Nirvana/Pet Shop Boys/Dr. Dre/P.M. Dawn/Bob Dylan/Stereolab

Very is my favourite record of the decade (even tho' I agree about those two songs near the end being kind of weak), but I somehow feel like voting for P.M. Dawn or Liz Phair or Dylan (which I listen to way more than his three most recent)--I feel like I've used up way too many Pet Shop Boys votes already.

(From chuck's list I like first ace of base and suede, and maybe the auteurs, which i don't know as well.)

Very, as I've probably noted elsewhere, was where I completed jumped ship from Pet Shop fandom.

Always thought Pizaccato 5 sounded too thin and precious, but then I would. (I am so predictable -- except when it comes to Liz Phair, apparently.)

Re En Vogue: Was the title of it the same as the title of the single it would have been a CD single of, and was that song a hit?

Yes and yes (not a HUGE one but a hit).

Were the other songs specific to the EP, or just remixes or retreads?

Remixes. Plus "Whatta Man" which was not specific to this EP. Plus an extended version of the "single."

How many songs -- three, or six (or some other number)?

Six.

Sweet Pizzicato Five

Hate hate hate.

Field Trip to Planet Nine

Love love love.

Very, as I've probably noted elsewhere, was where I completed jumped ship from Pet Shop fandom

Always been kind of curious as to why? I can come up with a lot of good reasons to jump ship after Very, but it's always seemed like their most poppy and most danceable record.

Really??? More dancey than Introspecitive and poppier than the first two albums, even? That just seems crazy. At the time, at least, it struck me as where they turned into mere bland singer-songwriters, and lost their hooks. I did (and do) like "Go West." But the rest just never clicked for me. But I should also admit though that I haven't played the thing for years, and who knows? Maybe I was wrong, and maybe I should go back and try it out again sometime. As is, their '90s stuff is just all mushed together in my memory. But it's not inconceivable I picked the wrong album to jump.

The Moby EP is BY FAR the greatest thing he ever did.

I missed Beaster, Suede (although, like, Chuck, these I prefer their b-sides and Coming Up, The Auteurs' New Wave, and the only post-Achtung Baby U2 album worth a damn.

I've never heard that Moby EP. I'm intrigued, though, if it's better than Everything Is Wrong, which I love, and was my gateway to dance music.

I didn't mention Bettie Serveert's Palomine, but that's another great record, maybe overshadowed by their longevity at this point. But that's a shame, as it beats Neil Young at all the games he played in the 90s, some of which, like Ragged Glory, were pretty great.

xp...Or, I dunno, maybe it's possible that I thought Very was too conventionally pop-dance, and that the PSBoys had thereby lost whatever distictions had made them interesting to begin with? I didn't review it, so I'm not sure. But weirder things have happened. All I know is it bored me at the time.

Also: Reachin' and Tribe's Midnight Marauders. Damn, a very good year indeed.

Chuck, I wonder if you were kind of turned off Very by the first single, "Can You Forgive Her"? I like the song a lot now, but at the time, it did feel a bit like a retreat, I thought. But in regards to the "bland singer-songwriter" thing--Behaviour hits me much more as that sort of thing. The liveliest songs on Very strike me as the perfect balance between their pop and dance moves.

Absolutely agreed with Scott on the above. Also, "Go West" was probably the single greatest recording of 1993! Cool video, too.

Plus, there's a euphoria to Very, carried over from 1991's "Was It Worth It?" borne out of, if you want to get biographical, Tennant's out-and-proudness that sends a jolt through everything they attempt: the lyrics, the singing, the grooves. You could dance to "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing," I suppose, but why would you? Besides, did anyone listen to the PSB exclusively to dance?

a lot of great albums on this list -- i would be happy if nirvana, pj harvey, pumpkins or whigs won it -- but i voted for yo la tengo 'painful' which personally means a lot more to me than the aforementioned records.

The Chronic, obvi.

So did Enter the Wu-Tang make the '94 list?

URGE OVERKILL

Suddenly curious about: Tony Toni Tone; Arthur Alexander, Moby EP

arthur alexander, which i coincidentally listened to this weekend for the first time in years, is a really well done late-career southern-pop album, much better than i remembered it. nice playing by dan penn, spooner oldham, people like that. it was a comeback album for alexander, who hadn't recorded for years before making it, but he died shortly after it came out. a lot of the songs are remakes of his own '60s work, which is better of course.

voted for: nirvana
extremely glad to see: the shams
surprised to not see: wu-tang (guess that came out too late in the year), counting crows (didn't everyone love them?) mazzy star, the fall
not surprised but sad not to see: the muffs

The Fall never placed in Pazz & Jop, I don't think. (And I don't know if Counting Crows did, either. Maybe a single or two? More likely not even that.)

(Interestingly or more likely not, I personally love more '90s Counting Crows songs -- namely, "Mr. Jones" and "A Long December" -- than '90s Fall songs.)

Had to go with Cypress Hill. "Black Sunday" is dark and hallucinogenic, but manages to push deep into the pleasure zone with almost every track. I know it's just a refinement of their first album, but it seems perfect to me.

Liz Phair is a close second. I've listened to it so much that it's worn itself out a little, but "fuck and run" has never lost it's power. I remember hearing it on NPR before I ever knew who she was. The intro/first verse seemed kind of thin and austere to me, but by the chorus that heartbreak in her voice really got to me.

So did Enter the Wu-Tang make the '94 list?

Sadly Enter the Wu-Tang never made it on any P&J poll. (And that fact must certainly be one of P&J's most grievous crimes against history!)

Bjork's Debut seems like a weird omission. Orbital's Brown Album more understandable, but still my favourite record from that year. Therefore, PSBs it is.

Voted P.M. Dawn after all (apologies to Neil, Chris, Liz, and all the rest). I still think it's an amazing record (except "Plastic"), and probably the most anomalous album in hip-hop.

... The only thing I can think of that sounds at all like it is the first P.M. Dawn album. Not that its anomalousness is necessarily what makes it good, but it does add to the record's mystique somewhat.

I've never heard those Liz Phair or PJ Harvey albums, and I've hardly heard anything at all by either one, which I find kind of weird. (By the mid-1993, I was pretty much in my own world, listening to more Arabic music on cassette than anything else.)

That's very endearing, actually, Rockist (not being sarcastic).

But what the freakshow is this, Scott:

I still think it's an amazing record (except "Plastic")

How on earth could you not positively WORSHIP the "I don't know hip-hop?" section? Another great review in the Voice of this (by Rob Tannenbaum?) rightfully claiming that those little snippets beat most (all?) other rappers at their own game.

Better than anything KRS-One did (to be plastic about it).

I don't know, Kevin, maybe I need to listen to it again, but "Plastic" always kind of struck me as unnecessarily defensive, which would be okay (and probably IS okay, lyrically), if they weren't attempting to do something hard-edged. It just seems like a song that goes against P.M. Dawn's better instincts, which, for the most part, were to make really pretty, dreamy, milky sort of beats. Who cares if they can make beats as hard as KRS-One--KRS-One is the worst.

Everyone should hear 'Shatter' by Liz Phair at least once in their lifetime.

NME/Melody Maker 1993 Album Of The Year

Noticably Absent:

Archers Of Loaf: Icky Mettle
Autechre: Incunabula
Barbara Manning: Sings With The Original Artists
Bone Thugs & Harmony: Faces Of Death
Built To Spill: Ultimate Alternative Wavers
Caetano Veloso & Gilberto Gil: Tropicalia 2
Caroliner Rainbow Fingers of the Underworld & Their Unbreakable Bones - The Sabre Waving Saracen Wall
De Artsen: Conny Waves With A Shell
Don Caballero: For Respect
Earth: Earth 2
Eazy-E: It's On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa
Eric's Trip: Love Tara
Flying Saucer Attack: s/t
Fugazi: In On The Kill Taker
Gastr Del Sol: The Serpentine Similar
Guided By Voices: Propellor
Guided By Voices: Vampire On Titus
Heavy Vegetable: A Bunch Of Stuff
Heroin: s/t
Jim O'Rourke: Remove The Need
Jim O'Rourke: Rules Of Reduction
Labradford: Prazision
Liquorball: Fucks The Sky
New Order: Republic
Nothing Painted Blue: Power Trips Down Lovers Lane
Pitchblende: Kill Atom Smasher
Polvo: Today's Active Lifestyles
Polygon Window: Surfing On Sine Waves
Red House Painters: s/t
Sabres Of Paradise: Sabresonic
Seam: The Problem With Me
Seefeel: Quique
SF Seals: The Baseball Trilogy
Six Finger Satellite: The Pigeon Is The Most Popular Bird
Superchunk: Foolish
Tara Key: Bourbon Country
The Dwarves: Sugar Fix
The Mountain Goats: Chile De Arbol
The Mountain Goats: Hot Garden Stomp
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282: Wormed By Leonard
Three Mile Pilot: Chief Assassin To The Sinister
Today Is The Day: Supernova
Trumans Water: Spasm Smash XXXOXOX OX & Ass
v/a - Headstart To Purgatory
Wu-Tang Clang: Enter the 36 Chambers

Rated higher than I would now due to excessive pot-smoking: Dr. Dre, De La Soul, U2, Afghan Whigs, Nirvana, Stereolab, Yo La Tengo, and non-finishers Bikini Kill, Unrest, the Hang Ups, and Fugazi (though I'd still defend individual songs on all of those). Beat Happening's last album (late '92) probably belongs on that list. De La, Yo La, U2, Stereolab, the Hang Ups, and Fugazi all released better albums later.

My vote: A Tribe Called Quest, Midnight Marauders. Maybe this is an altered choice, too, but I hear only a couple throwaway tracks near the end, and otherwise still play this back in my mind: Phife at his funniest, Tip at his dreamiest.

Best reissue, maybe best box set of all time: Tougher Than Tough: The Story of Jamaican Music (Mango)

Came to late: Mighty Sparrow, Volume One (Ice)

Still getting into: Wu Tang and Pharcyde.

Still feel vaguely guilty for not caring about: Liz Phair and PJ Harvey

Nobody's mentioned the country/alt-country/whaterver-ya-wanna-call-it Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Willie Nelson, Dwight Yoakam, Rosanne Cash and John Hiatt (if he counts) records as of yet. (What, no opinions from the rollin' country regulars?)

I kind of liked The Wheel at the time--though nowhere near as much as I liked her two previous albums. Haven't heard any of the others.

Gilmore is an unbearable singer (though he writes real good now and then); no use for Hiatt after he stopped trying to be new wave; not much use for Rosanne after she stopped being new wave either; the Willie Nelson album may or may not contain a good single. (He's almost never connected with me for an album at a time, though there must be some distinction that helped that one score in Pazz & Jop. No idea what it is.) I should probably listen to that Dwight album someday; he's made a great album or two in the '00s, so it's not out of the question that he may have made a great album in the '90s too. Either way, yeah -- that's a lot of country, if not necessarily the kind I like most.

Shaver (whose album I also don't know, and who also has a hard-to-take voice) counts as country too, obviously.

Probably Uncle Tupelo, too.

And Arthur Alexander may well be on the cusp.

JDG is one of my favorite singers ever and Spinning Around the Sun would have been in my Top 5. I probably like this list more than any P&J from the past 20 years. I voted, without hesitation, for Very.

Willie Nelson album may or may not contain a good single. (He's almost never connected with me for an album at a time, though there must be some distinction that helped that one score in Pazz & Jop. No idea what it is

don was-produced crossover attempt. back when that sort of meant something.

i liked jimmie dale but that album is right around where he started going downhill for me, getting all new agey and stuff.

Is that the one with the covers of "Graceland" and "Don't Give Up"?

Damn. My effusive praise for Exile in Guyville got eaten by the system. It's the only album I still listen to from any above that I listened to in the first place. I love this record through and through. humansuit's recommendation of "Shatter" otm.

Huh, these threads are actually kind of interesting. I voted for Digable Planets. I also agree with Scott about "Plastic."

This Time is my favorite Dwight Yoakum record, particularly for the huge thumping rockabilly of "Fast As You" (comes across as a sexier "Oh Pretty Woman"). It has what I reckon must be his biggest mainstream country hit after "Guitars, Cadillacs", namely "Ain't That Lonely Yet". It's probably his biggest sounding record, and I wished then and still wish it would have gathered him a bigger following. I'm sure others here can say other things about it, but it's well worth your listens.

this time DID get dwight a bigger following. it went triple platinum! "ain't that lonely yet" crossed over as a minor pop hit.

Dr. Dre followed by Sade, ATCQ & De La. I need to hear some of the others, namely T!T!T! & Cypress Hill.

Keep in mind I've heard about three songs by them, but PM Dawn are like rap minus everything that's good about rap.

Huh, triple platinum. That's great for Dwight---I'm happy to be wrong about things like that. I guess when I said "bigger following", I meant that he ended up off Reprise after a couple more records. I remember "Under the Covers" as a big disappointment for me at the time, but mostly because of its slickness which I think I would like more now.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Shaver (whose album I also don't know, and who also has a hard-to-take voice) counts as country too, obviously.

Probably Uncle Tupelo, too.

And Arthur Alexander may well be on the cusp.

Man, that is a shit-load of "country" for one of these polls! Has there ever been a year where "country" did even better P&J-poll-wise?

Let's not forget "Go West," which is country, sort of. At least in the Village People version.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

"Plastic" always kind of struck me as unnecessarily defensive, which would be okay (and probably IS okay, lyrically), if they weren't attempting to do something hard-edged. It just seems like a song that goes against P.M. Dawn's better instincts, which, for the most part, were to make really pretty, dreamy, milky sort of beats. Who cares if they can make beats as hard as KRS-One--KRS-One is the worst.

Well, in case it's not known, "Plastic" was a response to a violent incident against PM Dawn instigated by KRS-One. (You can read one perspective on the whole sorry story here. The comments following the story are particularly dispiriting. And what the fuck was Queen Latifah doing there???) The remarkable thing about the "I don't know hip-hop?" section of "Plastic," then, is that these supposedly soft alternarappers beat KRS-One and the like at their own bullshit game of hard.

Now whether or not PM Dawn should've risen above the thuggery and not responded at all is another matter. But it's kind of irrelevant because the debut proved they could mix in hard with all the billowing. "Comatose" and "A Watcher's Point of View (Don't 'Cha Think)" are at least as hard as pretty much anything on Rhino's Beats & Rhymes: Hip-Hop of the 1990s series. And the album goes out on a very hard piece of funk. So I don't think "Plastic" overall was such an anomaly for them.

I am somewhat familiar with the KRRS-One fracas, Kevin, but it doesn't enhance my interest in the song for some reason. Sometimes those sorts of things do, sometimes they don't. I will read through the link, however.

I don't know--maybe "hard" was the wrong word choice. I think I have to go back to what sounds like defensiveness to get at why I don't care about the song. I think there's a defensiveness maybe in a lot of hip-hop from that era, which is understandable perhaps (everyone felt the need to prove that they weren't MC Hammer or Vanilla Ice), but it usually doesn't translate that well to music for me. I haven't done a survey on this or anything, it's just a hunch I have about a lot of hip-hop from the early '90s. P.M. Dawn's best music doesn't have anything at all to do with that, so maybe "Plastic" just sounded like a lapse in judgment--musical judgment, I mean.

That Stereolab is pretty good, but I would never have guessed that it would have topped Tribe or Yo La.

You can tell it was a good year when lots of albums got a vote. At the time I always thought 91 or 92 was the best year but maybe 93 was better.
My 1st 3 years of being into music. Ahh the memories.

"Plastic" always reminded me of Tin Machine.

(Laughs) Are you being serious?

And to Scott: I hear what you're saying about its defensiveness. Still, I doubt there's a better song about what it means to keep it real. Or to be male. Or to be hip-hop. And at the end of the day, I'll take my many-songs-in-one pleasures wherever I can get them. Such great (and funny!) lyrics:

Forever hearing Prince has to stick to his kind,
Prince make a love song about a tech 9,
I thought Prince Be had to be Prince Be
Yet they wanna riff when they find I disagree

Lord, what they wanna serve me now
a cup of dried rainbows and a dark cloud

doubt there's a better song about what it means to keep the costs of keeping it real.

Ok but what exactly did it cost Prince Be?

I mean, for KRS-One, it cost his humanist credibility. Plus, come on. As mentioned in some of the comments in that link, you're going to step up to PM Dawn and not Ice Cube or X-Clan when you get dissed?