Lost in the Shuffle: The UMC's

Undisputed Masters of Charisma
The UMC's: "Blue Cheese (Smooth Mix)"
The UMC's: "Blue Cheese (Instrumental)"
The UMC's: "Any Way the Wind Blows"
The UMC's: "Any Way the Wind Blows (Boom Mix)"

I was about to post these cuts off the Blue Cheese single, but O-Dub beat me to it, literally the same day. I gave it a few weeks to mellow out, and figured I may as well put em up here. Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists got it right: "Fruits of Nature" is one of the most slept-on rap albums of all time. The production by RNS throughout is the epitome of early-90's flavor, and their lyrics almost lived up to their acronym "Undisputed Masters of Charisma."

The pre-Wu Staten Island story has been told many times before, but the UMC's lack of success can't be blamed on the Wu-Tang Clan. Hass G and Kool Kim's whimsical approach had some appeal at the tail end of the Daisy Age, and by the time their sophomore album "Unleashed" came around, the entire East Coast rap scene had gone grimy. To make matters worse, the duo were on the Wild Pitch roster, then the poster child for rap labels you wouldn't want to be on ("you don't want to make a Pitch that's Wild"). In an interview I conducted with the UMC's back in '94, Hass's disappointment with his record label was not masked; when asked what the situation was over at Wild Pitch, he answered, "they are delete and void from my mind." In all fairness, their second album just wasn't very good, and their Ill Demonic Clique (read: weed carriers) were even worse.

Extrablogicular Reading
Soul-Sides.com UMC's posting
Review of "Fruits of Nature"
UMC's discography