My Discovery of the Year Thus Far

My discovery is that Ugly Duckling are actually really good.

They are the first truly good rap act, in my limited opinion since J5 in the post Native Tongues reign of gangsta and club trax rap.

Furthermore having presumed them to be a novelty band, its surprising to find they can put out rock solid albums, much like the Bloodhound Gang.

Thus far I've only heard their Taste the Secret Album which i'm told is not as good as their earlier work. That said I believe 'Opening Act' is one of the most important songs ever written, and if I had a band would insist it be played every time the sound check was being performed.

Likewise, 'Abigail Silk' is probably the best hip-hop song about a femme fatal that Q-tip or Black Sheep hasn't done. 'Daisy' is on par with De-La-Soul's 'Jennifer taught me' but as funny as 'Strobelite Honey'.

Then there's the more De La Soul-esque songs like 'Rio De Janeiro' and 'Goodnight Now' (As well as 'Opening Act') that remind me of Prince Paul style production.

The audio fortunes you follow of Meat Shake - the fast food franchise, and their rivals Vegie Hut are a slightly removed riff on 'De La Soul is Dead's' jeff and the Demo Tape narrative, but De La Soul ripped off 'Midnight Marauders' in Mosaic Thump so really it's all relative.

Anyway, I expected 'At the drive thru' to be at best what the album would offer, but bizarrely UD opted to make a film clip for one of the weaker novelty songs and left the much more substantial content (like 'Dumb it down') away from the market.

So as my title suggests, this is something I discovered for myself, I'm aware the album has been around for 4 years or so, but this is exceptionally recent considering I'm still trying to work through all the albums released in '96-'97. If nobody else cares about those years it falls on my shoulders of posterity to do so.