''Don't Be Saprize'' is the debut studio album by American hip hop duo

Road Dawgs The Road Dawgs were an American hip hop duo composed of G-Luv and Swamp Rat. They started their career as associates of Naughty by Nature in 1993. They then signed a deal with Mack 10's Hoo-Bangin' Records in the late 90s and issued their only ...

. It was released on March 23, 1999 through

Noo Trybe Records Noo Trybe Records is an American hip hop record label established in 1994 by Eric L. Brooks and operated as a sublabel of Virgin Records. It worked with several independent hip hop labels including Rap-A-Lot Records and AWOL. History The label ...

. Production was handled by Mr. Payback, Greg Royal,

Binky Mack Allfrumtha I was an American rap duo from Inglewood, California that consisted of rappers Binky Mack and Squeak Ru. They first appeared together on Westside Connection's 1996 debut album, ''Bow Down''. Before dropping their self-titled debut al ...

Darren Lighty Darren Lighty (born April 6, 1969 in Paterson, New Jersey) is an American hip-hop and R&B record producer and songwriter. Lighty got his initial start in the industry as part of the group The Flex, which also included his brother Cliff Lighty ...

KayGee Keir Lamont Gist (born September 15, 1969), professionally known by his stage name KayGee, is an American DJ and record producer from East Orange, New Jersey, best known as a member of hip hop trio Naughty by Nature. He has won a Grammy Award ...

, Rick "Dutch" Cousin, and Road Dawgs themselves, with

Mack 10 Dedrick D'Mon Rolison (born August 9, 1971), better known by his stage name Mack 10, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and record executive. He was a member of hip hop supergroup Westside Connection along with WC and Ice C ...

serving as executive producer. It features guest appearances from Mack 10,

Ice Cube O'Shea Jackson Sr. (born June 15, 1969), known professionally as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor, and film producer. His lyrics on N.W.A's 1989 album '' Straight Outta Compton'' contributed to gangsta rap's widespread popu ...

, Squeak Ru,

Boo Kapone Hoo-Bangin' Records is a record label founded by Dedrick "Mack 10" Rolison in 1996. Its name is derived from the namesake song by his group Westside Connection, which was released that same year. The label operated as an imprint of Priority a ...

, Boobie,

MC Eiht Aaron Bernard Tyler (born May 22, 1971), better known by his stage name MC Eiht (pronounced "MC Eight"), is an American rapper. Many of his songs are based on his life in Compton. His stage name was partly inspired by the numeral in KRS-One's nam ...

Ms. Toi Toikeon Parham, known professionally as Ms. Toi, is an American rapper. She is featured on the Ice Cube song "You Can Do It" with Mack 10, released on the soundtrack albums for the feature films ''Next Friday'' and ''Save the Last Dance''. "You ...

, Q.S.-Bandit, Vernell Sales and Young Pretty.

Background

The Road Dawgs first started out in 1993 and, along with the

Rottin Razkals The Rottin Razkals were an American hip hop group signed to Motown Records' sub-label, Mad Sounds Recordings. Composed of three members, Chap, Fam, and Diesel (Treach's younger brother), the group was closely associated with Naughty by Nature, f ...

, were closely associated with Naughty by Nature. The duo appeared on several songs by Naughty by Nature and Rottin Razkals in 1993 and 1995 but were unable to get a record deal. In 1998 the duo began working with

and signed a deal with

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

, who placed the Road Dawgs in its sublabel Noo Trybe. The duo then began work on their debut album, ''Don't Be Saprize''. The album's lone single was "Bouncin'", it also had a promotional music video released for it. Mack 10 performed the chorus for the song and also appeared in the video.

Reception

''Don't be Saprize'' was neither a critical nor commercial success. It peaked at No. 91 on the ''Billboard''

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...

chart.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's Jon Azpiri thought that " e group seems incapable of creating a consistent album. Lyrically, many of the tracks on the album, like "Gangbang Shit" and "Murderfest 99, wallow in ignorance. Aside from the single "Bouncin," there is little to recommend on this album." Hannibal Tabu's review for ''

The Source The Source may refer to: Film and television * ''The Source'' (1918 film), 1918 American drama directed by George Melford * ''The Source'' (1999 film), a 1999 documentary film about the Beat generation * ''The Source'' (2002 film), a 2002 scienc ...

'' was more favorable. He called ''Don't Be Saprize'' "an enjoyable gangster rap album" that "shows some solid musicianship plus industry cred". He commended the group's vocal performance, highlighting unique delivery of each member.

Track listing

Personnel

*Jonte "G-Luv" Ray – vocals, percussion (track 11), producer (tracks: 2, 14), co-producer (tracks: 3, 8), mixing (tracks: 2-8, 10-12, 14), engineering (tracks: 6-8, 10-12, 14) *Omar "B.R The Swamp Rat" Williams – vocals, percussion (track 11), producer (tracks: 2, 14), co-producer (tracks: 3, 8), mixing (tracks: 2-8, 10-12, 14), engineering (tracks: 6-8, 10-12, 14) *Dedrick "

" Rolison – vocals (tracks: 2, 4, 7, 11, 13), executive producer *Toikeon "

" Parham – vocals (track 3) *Marcus " Squeak Ru" Moore – vocals (tracks: 4, 6) *Vernell Sales – vocals (track 5) *O'Shea "

" Jackson – vocals (tracks: 7, 11) *Aaron "

" Tyler – vocals (track 7) *

– vocals (track 7) *Boobie – vocals (track 7) *Sharon – vocals (track 10) *Q.S.-Bandit – vocals (track 11) *Young Pretty – vocals (track 11) *Dave! – guitar (track 12) *Clinton "Mr. Payback" Sands – producer (tracks: 3, 6, 8, 11) *Gregory H. Royal – producer (tracks: 4, 12), mixing & engineering (tracks: 2-8, 10-12, 14) *Kier "

DJ Kay Gee Keir Lamont Gist (born September 15, 1969), professionally known by his stage name KayGee, is an American DJ and record producer from East Orange, New Jersey, best known as a member of hip hop trio Naughty by Nature. He has won a Grammy Award ...

" Gist – producer & mixing (track 5) *

– producer (track 5) *Rick "Dutch" Cousin – producer (track 7) *Ryan "

" Garner – producer (track 10) *Adam Kudzin – mixing (track 5) *Ken Johnston – engineering (track 5) *Eddy Schreyer – mastering *Jason Clark – artwork

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1999 debut albums Road Dawgs albums Virgin Records albums Albums produced by KayGee