In Full Gear
1988 studio album by Stetsasonic
In Full Gear is the second studio album by American hip-hop band Stetsasonic, released in 1988 by Tommy Boy Records.
01Music and lyrics
In Full Gear is a double album that draws on various influences in its hip-hop style, including R&B, jazz, dancehall reggae, and rock influences. It also incorporates beat-boxing, sampling technology, and live band performance. "Freedom or Death" and "Talkin' All That Jazz" discuss credos of revolution and sampling, respectively. On "Float On", a remake of the Floaters' 1977 song of the same name, rapper Wise envisions "a woman with a realistic imagination, a woman who thinks for herself, whose thoughts are bold and free".
02Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Q | |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| The Village Voice | B+ |
In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau found the "well-meaning" band merely competent musically and said that their cover of "Float On" is "even ickier than the original". He was more enthusiastic about "Freedom or Death" and "Talking All That Jazz", and felt that In Full Gear succeeds on "a camaraderie that reaches deeper than the usual homeboy bonding". In his own list for the Pazz & Jop critics poll, Christgau named "Talkin' All That Jazz" the seventeenth best single of 1988.
03Track listing
| # | Title | Producer(s) | Performer (s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "In Full Gear" | Prince Paul | Daddy-O, Frukwan, Wise, Delite |
| 2 | "DBC Let the Music Play" | DBC | Daddy-O, Frukwan, Wise, Delite |
| 3 | "Freedom or Death" | Daddy-O | Daddy-O |
| 4 | "Float On" | Vincent F. Bell | Daddy-O, Frukwan, Wise, Delite |
| 5 | "Stet Troop '88!" | Wise | Daddy-O, Frukwan |
| 6 | "Pen & Paper" | Prince Paul | Daddy-O, Frukwan, Delite |
| 7 | "Music for the Stetfully Insane" | Prince Paul | *Instrumental* |
| 8 | "We're the Band" | Prince Paul, Daddy-O | Daddy-O, Wise, Frukwan |
| 9 | "Rollin' wit Rush" | Prince Paul, Daddy-O | *Interlude* |
| 10 | "This Is It, Y'all [Go Stetsa II]" | Daddy-O | Daddy-O, Frukwan, Wise |
| 11 | "Extensions" | Daddy-O | *Interlude* |
| 12 | "Sally" | Prince Paul | Daddy-O, Delite, Wise |
| 13 | "Talkin' All That Jazz" | Prince Paul | Daddy-O, Frukwan, Wise, Delite |
| 14 | "It's in My Song" | DBC | Daddy-O, Frukwan, Delite |
| 15 | "The Odad" | Daddy-O | Daddy-O |
| 16 | "Miami Bass" | Prince Paul, Daddy-O | Daddy-O, Frukwan, Delite |
| 17 | "Showtime" | DBC | Wise, Frukwan, Daddy-O, Delite |
| 18 | "Talkin' All That Jazz [Dominoes Vocal Remix]" | Daddy-O | Frukwan, Daddy-O, Delite |
| 19 | "Talkin' All That Jazz [Dominoes Instrumental Remix]" | Daddy-O | *Instrumental* |
| 20 | "Talkin' All That Jazz [Dim's Radio Edit Remix]" | Dimitri | Frukwan, Daddy-O, Delite |
04Charts
Weekly charts
|
Year-end charts
|
Singles
| Year | Song | Chart positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R&B | Rap | Dance Sales | ||
| 1988 | "Sally" | 25 | , | , |
| 1988 | "Talkin' All That Jazz" | 34 | , | 25 |
| 1989 | "Float On" | 56 | 24 | , |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “In Full Gear”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Infullgear.jpg by Unknown author, Fair use
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