Important Femcee Hip-Hop Albums: Kollage

Posted On: March 23, 2010
Posted By: odeisel
Comments: 3

By DJ Fusion

The impact of any musicial release may not mainfest until years later. An album that gets slept on, during one period of time, could later be hailed as a masterpiece or be the start of a creative foundation for future musicians.

Philadelphia representative Bahamadia’s Kollage(released in 1996) is one of those albums. Its impact on the female MC landscape might not be as lauded due to the overall shift of mainstream Hip-Hop’s creative direction. The eventual shut down of label/distributor Chrysalis (under EMI Records) which has kept the album out of lots of hands over the past 14 years didn’t help matter either.

As the only female member of the legendary Gang Starr Foundation, Hip-Hop heads knew her credentials were to be respected. From that the cosign alone, people knew this lady MC was no slacker who who just lucked up on a record deal. The production and engineering staff on the boards for Kollage included some of the best East Coast Hip-Hop royalty at the time with DJ Premier, Guru, Da Beatminerz,The Roots, Carlos Bess and more.

The crew took the” jazz thing” aesthetic seriously, creating a high quality sound base of head nodding mid- to high-tempo joints that featured lots of Jazz samples along with some Funk, Soul & R&B influences. Bahamadia’s subject matter kept things lively as possible.

There were songs about being nice as an MC (“Wordplay”, “Spontaneity”, “3 The Hard Way”) and reasons why you can’t sleep on her (“Rugged Ruff”, “Total Wreck”). There were also creative joints on Kollage about the struggles and joys of single motherhood (“Biggest Part of Me”), hometown Hip-Hop love (“Da Jawn”), being open, ready & willing to kick it to a dude (“I Confess”), the message that hoeing will get you nowhere fast at the end of the day (“True Honey Buns”) and the need for creativity (“Innovation”). In an age where sampling and respect for Hip-Hop foundations seem minimal, this album has to be appreciated for keeping any sort of old school female Hip-Hop vibes alive.

While it wasn’t picked up too much via the mainstream media and press, college radio, music websites, and mixtape DJs embraced Kollage. These outlets ran with its combination of soulful sounds and lyrics – not just for Bahamadia’s releases but other future female joints (and some by the fellas) as well.

There is an audience that wants an alternative to the tits and ass femcee. Bahamadia was that bridge. She made being the average woman who could think deep thoughts, yet who could still be that sis around the way ready to call heads out, a reality. She was the MC you could relate to and want to hang with; not just an image.

Some current female Hip-Hop MCs who exhibit Bahamadia’s influence in presenting dope and creative combo vocal aesthetics, identifiable everywoman subject matter and dope production, include Jean Grae, Floetry, Nneka, The Anomolies, Stahhr The Femcee and Boog Brown just to name a few.

Music Video #1: Bahamadia – True Honey Buns
[pro-player width=’425′ height=’344′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9X1LA1klno&feature=player_embedded[/pro-player]

Music Video #2: Bahamadia K-Swift & Mecca Starr – 3 The Hard Way
[pro-player width=’425′ height=’344′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIxNPJqKGS4&feature=player_embedded[/pro-player]

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