Happy 30th Anniversary to King T’s second studio album At Your Own Risk, originally released October 2, 1990.
On a fall day during my sophomore year of high school, we had a “School Spirt Day.” Basically, the entire high school was split into six teams, and we spent the whole day taking part in various competitions. Since I wasn’t quite the jaded teenager that I would eventually become, I actually kind of enjoyed it. However, after it was over, I found that a few friends of mine had blown off the event and gone down to Leopold Records in Berkeley to buy Roger “King T” (sometimes stylized as “King Tee”) McBride’s sophomore album, At Your Own Risk. So instead of thinking about the fun I had that day, I ended up wishing I had gone to buy the King T album instead.
Though the pursuit of new music was a recurring theme during my high school years, I really was a big King T fan. I had been introduced to his debut album Act a Fool (1988) reasonably late, but loved it regardless. Then, after catching the video for “Ruff Rhyme (Back Again)” on a late summer afternoon episode of Yo! MTV Raps Today, I was especially amped that it appeared that he had a new album on the way. When I did end up buying At Your Own Risk, it didn’t disappoint. When King T and his producer DJ Pooh were locked in, they made some of the best music that dropped in 1990.
The album starts out with the catchy title track, with the “King of the West” celebrating his return to the spotlight, reminding his peers that he’s “the champ, smashing all contenders.” DJ Pooh hooks up a track the incorporates portions of West Coast standards like George Clinton’s “Atomic Dog” and Zapp’s “So Ruff, So Tuff,” with extensive live piano. King T would later enlist a post-Mama Said Knock You Out Marley Marl to remix the song, a higher energy track that would go on to become a theme song for BET’s Rap City, for a time.
The aforementioned “Ruff Rhyme” is some straight-up hip-hop shit. Though King T is Compton to the core, he has acknowledged that he was influenced by New York hip-hop and legends like Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J, T La Rock, and EPMD. So, while he’s one of the pioneers of gangsta rap, he’s always strived to cultivate impeccable rhyming skills. DJ Pooh hooks up a thumping track on his “hypso-change-o-calypso-beat-a-matics,” combining the sped-up drums from Southside Movement’s “Save the World” with the blaring horns from “The Grunt” by the JB’s. King T employs a syllable-bending delivery, rapping, “Some rappers are scared of me, they say when they dare to be / Threatened, well, keep on stepping, I’ll be prepared to be / Jacked, Jack, cause your rhymes don't match / You got bold when I left, now I’m back.”
The album falters once or twice when King T tries to leave his comfort zone to create more accessible music. “Diss You,” the album’s second single, is the most obvious example. Produced by Bilal Bashir, the song is built around a sample The Rolling Stones’ “Miss You.” King T dismisses women who pretend to be interested in spending time with him, then ignore him, resulting in a track that’s not offensively bad, but definitely out of place. King T has since said that he hates the song, conceding that he only recorded it due to pressure from Capitol to make something with the pop appeal of Tone Loc’s “Wild Thing.” However, a sample of a recognizable rock song alone does not a guaranteed hit make.
“On the Dance Tip” is a complete and total miss, even though, at least in principle, it’s not completely out of character for King T. Los Angeles rappers and crews had a longstanding history of recording dancefloor-oriented music. At the top of the spectrum was N.W.A’s “Something 2 Dance 2,” with “Let’s Dance” from Act a Fool falling somewhere in the lower end of the middle. “On the Dance Tip” sadly ranks pretty close to the bottom. Rather than being electro, disco, or funk influenced, it attempts to pander by going the cheesy R&B/New Jack Swing route. It’s arguably the worst song in King T’s discography.
Songs like “Take You Home” are much more indicative of the album’s overall quality. Originally appearing on the Return of Superfly soundtrack (1990) earlier that year, King T holds court while rhyming over a slightly eerie beat, as DJ E-Swift scratches Pleasure’s “Bouncy Lady” break on the two turntables. King T emits regality, portraying himself as a firm, yet ultimately benevolent ruler. However, he gives no quarter to wack emcees, warning, “So suckers, get your shit and get packed / Catch the next boat out, Supreme Tela’s back / And I’m funky once again, so run and tell a friend / They said I wouldn't last, but I'll be here until it ends.”
Another of King T’s underrated strengths is his sense of humor, which he utilizes on “Skanless” (as in “Scandalous”). King T boasts about his own shady behavior when it comes to women and especially friends, as he unashamedly bangs his homeboy Ken’s wife and mother over the space of two verses, running “that Compton drama” the entire time. The beat for the song is among the album’s funkiest, as King T rhymes over a bluesy guitar and bass, accompanied by a shuffling track and snatches of Isaac Hayes’ “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic.”
While similarly humorous, the largely instrumental, fairly brief “Do Your Thing” also suggests a deeper message. Here King T delves into cultural appropriation and subtle racism as he pokes fun at gangsta rap’s increasingly white audience, which was a fairly novel phenomenon at the time. The tone suggests some bemusement that gangsta rap was being adopted by these new faces, he’s also wary of his message being misunderstood and co-opted by those who favor image over substance.
King T shows he can also be heartfelt with “Time To Get Out,” his plea to gang-members to put down their guns and stop killing people within their communities, rapping over a slow loop of Jimmy McGriff’s “Blue Juice.” Beyond examining the pointlessness of fighting over colors and territory, he stresses a positive, pro-Black message, detailing the strength and diversity of African-American culture. “Black is love, black is divine,” he raps. “Black is first of all mankind.”
At Your Own Risk is at its strongest when King T focuses on being a dope emcee. As DJ Pooh incorporates increasingly complex production, King T keeps pace, rhyming decisively and with an authoritative presence. “King Tee Production” is one of the better showcases for both King T and Pooh’s improvement at their respective crafts. Pooh keeps things moving behind the boards, adding new elements, beat changes, and breakdowns, as the track progresses. King T busts his rhymes at a fast clip, packing three dope verses into the song’s two-and-a-half minute run-time, rapping, “You mess up the party with your wacky-wack rapping / The crowd starts booing as soon as you start flapping / Your mouth, Ralph, so go ahead, break south / I knew you was a chump when you walked in the house.”
At Your Own Risk is also notable for bringing E-Swift into the fold, as King T enlisted him as his DJ. Though his talents at scratching are apparent throughout the album, he gets a proper introduction and spotlight on “E. Get Swift,” a track dedicated to his ample abilities behind the turntables. “Your DJ’s had it, we’re terminating his membership,” King T raps over a bouncy piano groove. “E’s back, now come again with some different shit.” E-Swift gets his time to shine on the track not only as a DJ, but also as a rapper, where he proves himself to be perfectly enjoyable. E-Swift would go on to become one of the cornerstones of Tha Alkaholiks, along with J-Ro, who King T shouts out at various points on the album.
“Played Like a Piano” is one of the best and most overlooked album-ending tracks, and one of the absolute coolest songs ever recorded. Fellow Los Angeles residents MC Breeze and Ice Cube join King T on the deeply funky track, recording one of the strongest tracks in King T’s arsenal. King T is obviously inebriated, muttering “King T’s drunk again!” and mispronouncing “perpetrating” numerous times before delivering his verse. Despite (or perhaps because of) his high blood alcohol content, he puts together some primo drunken funk, proclaiming, “I’m just anxious to whoop some ass / I went to high school, but I flunked every class / So what makes you think I give a fuck about respect? / I’ll put your bitch in check.”
Though Breeze’s verbal dexterity is extremely impressive during his own verse, professing to “wax and tax the incoherent,” it’s Cube who ends up owning the song. When At Your Own Risk hit the shelves, it had only been months since Ice Cube had released AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted (1990), and verses by the former-N.W.A member were scarce. Cube is in rare form here, sounding like the baddest motherfucka on the planet here, boasting, “Ice Cube will clock the cash, rock the mass / And if you run up, I’ll sock your ass!” Cube’s vocal presence is simultaneously coldly commanding and effortlessly smooth as he raps, “’Cause where I’m from, the sun don’t shine / So One-Time hope I only bust one rhyme / But I bust one more for the suckers / Last year I was Ruthless, now I’m lynching (Lenching) motherfuckas.”
As sophomore albums go, At Your Own Risk didn’t reinvent King T as an artist, but it showed he could consistently create dope music. The few minor speed bumps have pretty much been forgotten when evaluating his career overall, and this album is still considered a solid entry into an excellent discography. When At Your Own Risk was released, it further established my belief that King T was one of the best emcees on the West Coast and that even when hammered, he still couldn’t be fucked with.
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