Monie Love - Down To Earth

What a strange career it's been for Monie Love. One of the first British rappers to get a major label contract in the US, she was a member of the Native Tongues crew and is well known for her appearances on Queen Latifah's Ladies First and the remix of De La Soul's Buddy, although her singles Monie In The Middle and It's A Shame (My Sister) are also fondly remembered. Her albums though are not remembered with such a joyous perspective, although that may have more to do with the changes in the rap community while she was making a name for herself. N.W.A. and other gangster rap was becoming very popular in the late eighties and early nineties, and while De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest remained popular, their contemporaries like the Jungle Brothers and Black Sheep were finding a steady decline in their popularity. Monie's aforementioned two biggest hits are fun and memorable, but their success didn't necessarily translate into record sales. It also didn't help that the version of It's A Shame that got radio and video play was a remix not featured on the album. Worse yet, by the time Monie's second album, In A Word Or 2, was released, the movement had moved on. The addition of two songs written and produced by Prince didn't help her credibility either. It's always been hard to be a hit in the rap community when your image isn't overly commercial and you stick to your guns, and Monie is a near definitive example of this.

Despite Monie's lack of record sales (at least in the US), her debut album, Down To Earth, is a classic early nineties/late eighties hip-hop record, owing more to the light psychedelia of De La Soul and their Native Tongues cohorts as well as the British dance scene. Ultra Nate makes a vocal cameo on the house groove of Ring My Bell (not to be confused with the Fresh Prince's identically named hit single) and the production duo of Cox & Steele, best known as two-thirds of Fine Young Cannibals, wrote and produced several songs on the album including Monie In The Middle. Afrika Baby Bam also lent his hands for production duty on several tracks, including the wonky Race Against Reality. Overall, Down To Earth is a lot of fun and a very enjoyable record that doesn't take itself too seriously apart from the ridiculous Swiney Swiney, a diatribe against eating pork and blaming it for any illness Monie could come up with, or the mind-numbingly dull Ring My Bell.

Down To Earth was released in abridged form in the US, dropping a few cuts and Monie's appearance on a thoroughly unnecessary response track for FYC's She Drives Me Crazy. It makes sense that these changes were made, but it's also funny since there were good tracks left over that never saw release in the US. So, today's post is the UK edition of Monie Love's Down To Earth as issued on CoolTempo in 1990. Everything from the US edition is here, including the finale, Grandpa's Party, which had it's remix label dropped from the US release. This is truly a great but slept-on hip-hop record that deserves to be heard, so grab it and enjoy, but be leery of 1993's In A Word Or 2. Even with Marley Marl on that album's production, it just doesn't cut it.


Monie Love - Down To Earth
UPDATE: Apparently someone at the DMCA thought this out of print and legally unavailable album is a hands off item, so I have to remove the link. Sorry.


01 Monie In The Middle
Produced by Cox & Steele, additional guitar by Bootsy Collins, additional vocals by Almond Joy

02 It's A Shame (My Sister) (feat. True Image)
Produced by Cox & Steele, additional guitar by Bootsy Collins, additional vocals by True Image

03 Don't Funk Wid The Mo
Produced by Afrika Baby Bambaataa, Kevin Maxwell & Jerry Callendar

04 Ring My Bell (feat. Ultra Nate)
Produced by Richie Fermie, additional vocals by Ultra Nate

05 R U Single
Produced by Afrika Baby Bambaataa, Kevin Maxwell & Jerry Callendar

06 Just Don't Give A Damn
Produced by Afrika Baby Bambaataa, Kevin Maxwell & Jerry Callendar

07 What I'm Supposed 2 B
Produced by Jerry Callendar & Richie Fermie

08 Dettrimentally Stable
Produced by Afrika Baby Bambaataa, Kevin Maxwell & Jerry Callendar

09 Down 2 Earth
Produced by Afrika Baby Bambaataa, Kevin Maxwell & Jerry Callendar

10 I Do As I Please
Produced by Cox & Steele, additional guitar by Bootsy Collins

11 Pups Lickin' Bone
Produced by Jerry Callendar & Richie Fermie

12 Read Between The Lines
Produced by Afrika Baby Bambaataa, Kevin Maxwell & Jerry Callendar

13 Race Against Reality
Produced by Afrika Baby Bambaataa, Kevin Maxwell & Jerry Callendar

14 Swiney Swiney
Produced by Afrika Baby Bambaataa, Kevin Maxwell & Jerry Callendar, backing vocals by De La Soul

15 Give It 2 U Like This
Produced by Afrika Baby Bambaataa, Kevin Maxwell & Jerry Callendar

16 I Can Do This (Uptown Mix)
Produced by DJ Pogo & Dancin' Danny D

17 I'm Driving You Crazy
Produced by Cox & Steele

18 Grandpa's Party (Love II Love Remix)
Produced by Richie Fermie & Dancin' Danny D, all scratching by Ju Ju, Remixed by Jazzie B & Nellie Hooper


PS - In case you're wondering, Monie is still a DJ and has a show on XM called Ladies First Radio. She lives in the Philly area but doesn't host any regional shows any longer due to some controversy over an appearance with Young Jeezy on her then show several years ago. I went to look up details but only found dead links, so if you know the scoop, drop me a line in the comments. I'd love to know if she was on point or off base.

PS 2 - Funny little detail for you. The US version of Down To Earth got a parental advisory sticker despite not having the F word spoken once throughout the album. Apparently someone was upset by the content of Pups Lickin' Bone, a message to people to be careful having unprotected sex. Oddly enough, her follow-up album, despite featuring plenty of obscenities including the aforementioned F word, features no parental advisory sticker. Ridiculous.