Master Ace ‘Take A Look Around’ 25th Anniversary
This weekend (24th July 2015 to be precise) marks the 25th Anniversary of the release of Master Ace’s (later Masta Ace) seminal debut for the Cold Chillin’ label ‘Take A Look Around’. The second Marley Marl prodcued album we’ve mentioned in as many weeks, this album has a much lighter, more soulful feel than the likes of ‘Intelligent Hoodlum’. It’s arguably similarly varied lyrically however, with a bias toward social commentary, there are also a couple of straight up party tracks and a decent dose of humour (see Me & The Biz). The 15 track album is not short on singles: ‘Together b/w Letter to the Better’ preceded the album, released on Prism in 1989. A remix of the B-side appears on ‘Take A Look Around’. ‘Music Man’, ‘Movin On’ and ‘Me & The Biz’ were all released subsequently. ‘I Gotta’ (which formed the B-side to ‘Me & The Biz’ was released separately as an A-Side in the UK, with UK only remixes from London’s Brixton Bass.
The album comes in at #22 in Ego Trip’s Top 25 Rap Albums of 1990. ‘Me & The Biz’ comes in at #35 in Ego Trip’s Top 40 Rap Singles of 1990. The Brixton Bass Remix of ‘I Gotta’ features on our Classic Material Edition #4 mixtape.
No official Youtube stream for the album currently exists, although you can find a pretty reliable stream of the full LP on Youtube here.
[Purchase physical copies / check release details on Discogs here]