Onyx' "Slam": C or D?

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Their sole hit, I think; kind of hyper-purposefully abrasive. I liked the last guy ("The mad author of anguish, my language polluted...") the best. Creative style or best forgotten? Did their other stuff sound like this? Whatever happened to 'em?

― Joe, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What about "Throw Ya Gunz"? Wasn't that a hit as well?

Saw them open up for Public Enemy and Ice-T at the New Ritz back in `92. They were certainly amusing, if quite silly.

― Alex in NYC, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Judgment Night was a single too, I believe? One of the Onyx blokes was on Eminem's Remember Me? not too long ago...

― Siegbran Hetteson, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Fuck that! BET last nite and saw fuckin' "SLAM HARDER"! The sequel, guys!

I'm downloading. I'll post again after I listen again.

― Keiko, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

world's easiest bootleg: Slam and "Unbelievable" by EMF

― , Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I read somewhere when the song first came out that it was like hip- hop's answer to skinhead oi! music. Sounds about right.
Also, Beavis going "SLAM! DUH-DUH-NUH!" on the Beavis and Butt- Head Experience comp never fails to make me laugh my head off.

― Nate Patrin, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

that is in fact the first thing I invariably think of when someone says 'slam!'.

― Josh, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Slam Harder" = ol' skool joint of the year?

Not as catchy, of course (because that's not possible), but it has this aura. It's a feeling only captured in old school summerjams.
Oh, and a Prefuse remix would be GRATE.

― Keiko, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Onyx being referred to as old school makes me feel really, really old.

― J Blount, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah me too

does anyone remember the 'biohazard remix'

― geeta, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the bassline is really dope

― Ron, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

They're NOT OLD SCHOOL. Feels that way, damnit. It's the VIBE. Has anyone else even heard it?

― Keiko, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

totally C.

sticky fingaz' vocal at its maddest and best. the album it was on ("bacdafucup") wasn't too great but they got better, some of their less um, crossover stuff is better... mind you, sticky fingaz solo album is arguably a bit of a D...

i cant believe theyre now "Oldskool" either.

― kieron, Saturday, 8 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

They are so old school. But what's worse is that they sucked.

― Maria, Saturday, 8 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

1993 is old school??? ans: NO. does it FEEL old school? ans: NO.

― Ron, Saturday, 8 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i prefer shiftee (low down gritty n grime) less comicbook, better samples, good video. and i can never hear slam without being reminded of that episode of blind date where some dude starts , ehem, slamming, on his own in the studio, watched by a horrified cilla. visible shudder.

― dbini, Saturday, 8 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I only have one Onyx track, off a compilation called Hip Hop meets Opera, and they rap over Puccinni's Vissi D'Arte from Tosca! But it's the best on the album, a fucking riot with brilliant cartoon villain lyrics :

I can only speak for myself, it's the Onyx again, I wish I was never born I want the whole world to end 'cause everyone's gonna die anyway even I gots to go one day, but I ain't scared of death, 'cause life's a waste of time so I'll die young promoting crime In the ghetto state of mind, with my nigger police, and when it comes down to it, I'm holding court in the streets ...

Awesome ...

― phil, Saturday, 8 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

five months pass...

Onyx is without a doubt a great rap group. More hardcore than most now adays, even in their new record. They are one of the only groups who never sold out to hip-hop, they still kept with what they loved, weather it made money or not. At least they had heart enough not to sell out like once great rappers such as Ja Rule who now is more pop that Boy Bands. There not oldskool or newskool, just a timeless rap group who's hits will never get old or cease to impress.

― Tha Master, Wednesday, 13 November 2002 02:46 (twenty-three years ago)

"Aaaaaaaaaiiiiiii got struck by lightning and the thunder" = one of the best opening gambits eva.

what tune is the jeru-come clean chorus from?

― nebbesh (nebbesh), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 04:03 (twenty-three years ago)

throw ya gunz

― ron (ron), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 05:50 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

revive

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Wednesday, 7 December 2005 08:21 (twenty years ago)

fredro starr hosted Dance 360. classic.

song's good too.

― one time gaffled 'em up (one time gaffled 'em up), Wednesday, 7 December 2005 08:29 (twenty years ago)

dud

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Wednesday, 7 December 2005 08:31 (twenty years ago)

it's a good alternate for everyone sick of "insane in the brain"/"jump around"

― one time gaffled 'em up (one time gaffled 'em up), Wednesday, 7 December 2005 08:39 (twenty years ago)

you can never get sick of "insane in the brain".

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 7 December 2005 08:47 (twenty years ago)

they sound so OTT with the pumped up aggression just like grime MCs
which is cool cos they always called their music grimey
their second album was much better though

― okoko, Wednesday, 7 December 2005 10:48 (twenty years ago)

their second album was much better though,

Hell yeah. "All we got iz us" rules. Now that's an example of a truely bleak mid 90s album. Sticky Fingaz kilt that album.

Anyway, "slam" = classic.

Their sole hit? Uh, "throw ya gunz" off the same album, "last dayz" (which was HUGE) + "shout" off the 2nd album and the cut with a young and fat 50 Cent album with the hockey video off the 3rd album.

― ELLI$, Wednesday, 7 December 2005 11:25 (twenty years ago)

SLAM! Omg, what a classic, if solely for "Um! Excuse me! For example!" and "B-b-b-but wait it gets worse!" The poster above who talked about Insane in the Brain etc has a point - "Slam" is an early 90s rap hit that everybody knows and nobody plays, so it's probably still got some crowd-pleasing punch that hasn't been run into the ground. Can you dance to it, though?

S: Onyx's teamup with Wu-Tang, "The Worst." It's not the Best by any means but it's got some moments.

― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 7 December 2005 15:34 (twenty years ago)

five years pass...

revive

― everybody funny ... now you funny too (Eisbaer), Saturday, 9 April 2011 20:55 (fourteen years ago)

Oh utter classic. And as someone pointed up thread definitely hasn't been overplayed unlike other 90s hits. It still sounds fresh now when I do hear it.

― Bagel A-Go-Go (wgdaniel), Saturday, 9 April 2011 21:05 (fourteen years ago)

OH MY GOD IM SO HIGH

― teflon dawn (uptown churl), Saturday, 9 April 2011 22:34 (fourteen years ago)

complete classic

those guys were totally OTT even in their interviews but that just makes them even more classic

― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Saturday, 9 April 2011 23:11 (fourteen years ago)

Definitely a classic crossover track. Dudes had some killer album cuts too and its a shame they aren't remembered for much more then Slam. I still spin All We Got Iz Us every few months, some of the best bass-lines in 90s hip-hop on that. I always look to ONYX and MOP to get gassed for a workout or basketball game.

Already mentioned in this thread, but Shout is my favorite, Live Niguz second.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZwLHsd-o08

― Spottie_Ottie_Dope, Sunday, 10 April 2011 05:54 (fourteen years ago)

it's weird to see a rap video with no women in it

― j., Sunday, 10 April 2011 06:54 (fourteen years ago)

ha, just ran across this:

You’re telling me Onyx wasn’t hip-hop? Onyx in, what, ’95—very similar to Waka in 2010
— Wale

whale otm

― banjee trillness (The Reverend), Monday, 11 April 2011 01:33 (fourteen years ago)

"Slam" might be the last popular usage of that verb from '80s punk--it was "mosh" to most kids by the time the single came along.

― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 11 April 2011 03:12 (fourteen years ago)

two years pass...

After all these years they still sound so indefatigably Onyx, much prefer this to the Mobb Deep comeback album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpCU4isthso

― xelab, Thursday, 3 April 2014 15:32 (eleven years ago)

nine years pass...

anybody caught them on this farewell tour? worth it?

setlist seemed short to me from what I saw, but could have been incomplete.

kinda feel like I wanna catch them before they hang it up

― Trout Fishing in America (Neanderthal), Monday, 10 April 2023 14:41 (two years ago)

lol nevermind, they got pulled from the bill at all three FL dates (despite the promoter not publicly telling anybody and surreptitiously changing the FB event and ticket site to discreetly take them off.

― Will.I.Am's fetid urine (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 11 April 2023 21:54 (two years ago)

it's weird to see a rap video with no women in it
― j., Sunday, April 10, 2011 2:54 AM (twelve years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Why don't you wanna let the boys be boys?

― peace, man, Tuesday, 11 April 2023 22:22 (two years ago)

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