Daddy-O

  • Daddy-O
  • You Can Be a Daddy, but Never Daddy-O (Brooktown/Island) 1993 

With Stetsasonic out of the picture after topping out creatively with its third album (the brilliant 1991 Blood, Sweat & No Tears), Brooklyn rapper/producer Daddy-O made this upbeat, uneventful solo album. Over bumping jeep beats, he tells stories (“Come for Mine”) and hurls out good-natured party rhymes (some intriguingly structured in verse-chorus form) in an enthusiastic, articulate sing-song voice. The shoutouts sprinkled throughout the album (an entire track is devoted to Kid Capri) aren’t the only ingredient to stir in the old-school flavor; in “Brooklyn Bounce,” Daddy-O even acknowledges the direction of his flow. “And if it sounds like something you heard before/It’s all the more reason to get on the dance floor/And rock with the play by play I announce.”

[Ira Robbins]