“Black Business by Poor Righteous Teachers (1993) [Mitch Nick’s Picks]

 Sometimes, when I bring up Poor Righteous Teacher, I feel like I am calling out into the abyss. I have known some ardent fans of hip-hop but there have only been two people whom I have met in person who already knew of PRT. That, still, feels crazy to me (although I am certain in this medium, I will encounter a few more fans – I see you!). I find it quite funny how I even discovered the album in the first place. I went out one fine afternoon for a “walk” and when I came back, I put my Spotify likes on shuffle. This went on for about ten minutes or so until “144K” came on and soon after I jumped up to check what song it was. At that time, I didn’t recognize the group or even remember when I had liked the song, but it all clicked at that moment and I listened to the whole album all the way through right then and there. That was years ago now and since then I’ve held the opinion that Black Business by Poor Righteous Teachers is a treat.

The group, a troika if you will, comprised of Wise Intelligent and Culture Free on the mic with Father Shaheed as producer and DJ, came out of Trenton, New Jersey with their first single released in 1989. The group would go on to release four albums and a handful of singles between 1990 and 1996. This post is about their third album, Black Business, which came out in 1993. Father Shaheed produced a fantastic twist of era boom bap with reggae undertones which gave the space for Wise Intelligent and Culture Free to absolutely F-L-O-W. Wise Intelligent was even named one of the ten most underrated rappers, an acknowledgement I, unfortunately, must agree with. In my opinion, he is a lyrical acrobat but that’s not to take away from Culture Free because PRT as a whole exhibited a ton of style all throughout their music and especially on this album. I recommend listening to it from start to finish so keep it in mind the next time you take a long drive, exercise, or just plan on chillin’ – whenever you typically have time to listen to music thoroughly.

I like that Wise Intelligent frequently has a message (though some you may agree or disagree with), giving the songs an extra ‘conscious’ feel.  These can range from tracks like “Get Off The Crack” or to one of my favorite verses on the album in “Ghetto We Love”. Of course, I can’t relate to their plight growing up in Trenton in the 80s and 90s but I can appreciate how they express their environment. Overall, it’s their style that does it for me and it feels totally unique when compared to what else came out during the early ‘90s. In my opinion, the track “None Can Test” is an example of this and for some reason the hook fascinates me a bit. “Mi Fresh” is another track where it feels like they demonstrate an exorbitant amount of style packed into 4 minutes and 16 seconds. Typically, if it’s not possible to play the album as a whole, then I’ll usually introduce people to “Here We Go Again” which can definitely get a party moving. I know “Rock Dis Funky Joint” put them on the map and it’s entertaining to hear Wise Intelligent talk about loading the bus for their first show in Norristown, PA where they opened for EPMD (who never got to perform due to a brawl which broke out between the PRT crew and some members of the audience). But, it is true that somehow they continued to decline in the charts after that single debuted so well. In my opinion, Poor Righteous Teachers were characters who had a knack for making music to be heard so go give them a listen.