Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde – “Freshest Rhymes In The World“
from The Champagne Of Rap LP (Profile, 1985)

While the rest of the internets is sweating hard as fuck sounds-like-Kane-but-not-as-good fast rap, this week Cocaine Blunts focuses on cheese ball 1980s rapps. Hip hop growing pains records that are just a little bit corny in retrospect, no diss intended.

Jeckyll & Hyde were a duo of would-be Uptown Records mogul Andre Harrell and some other guy Mr. Hyde. “Genius Rap” is their significant record, I guess, but they also dropped a full length entitled The Champagne of Rap. They presented themselves as the sophisticated alternative to shell toes, they rocked suits and shit and may have been the first bougie rappers ever. But you wouldn’t know that to hear “Freshest Rhymes,” a surrealist diss record towards sharks, Darth Vader, Godzooky and uh Dave Winfield in the form of an 808 beat down. But rather than, or in addition to, using raps, they are armed with Steinbrenner contractual clauses (how topical) and guns that turn men into squirrels. Yes.