Obscure Album of the Week: Arabian Prince “Brother Arab”
October 16, 2014 | Blog, Music,
By: Pierce Porterfield
Here’s our wall of vinyl at the KCOU station. Each week, one of our music staffers will listen to a random album off this wall and tell us a little about it.
Arabian Prince; Brother Arab
To be honest I picked this album from the library entirely off of its cover. I’m a sucker for overly 80’s looking fonts or any type of politically incorrect artist name. Thus Arabian Prince’s debut solo album Brother Arab was what fate had in store for me. Prior to my listening session I had no clue who Arabian Prince was, so I’m going to break down my experience with this album in a chronological fashion.
The first track on Brother Arab is seriously a sound check track; it plays a beat with a deafening 808 and tells the listener to adjust their bass and treble. As per the request of the Arabian Prince himself, I turned the bass way down (however this didn’t save me). The first track and pretty much every single one after that hit you with some pounding 808 bass kicks that don’t even let you think. There’s no way to sugarcoat it, Brother Arab is not a good album. But that’s ok – it’s an experience.
As I was laying there on my bed letting Arabian Prince’s lazy rhymes fill my world, I was transported back in time. I felt like I was reincarnated as 90’s Sinbad wearing a bright multicolored track suit. In my vision I hopped in my grand marquis and loaded my newly purchased Brother Arab tape to the tape deck. Fear not, for in this vision I did have a sweet sub bass system newly installed in my ride. I cruise around the mall parking lot playing my favorite track off the album, “Time to Bone.” I turn up the dial as I approach some cute young hotties entering the food court. Staring out the window I give them a casual head nod while this killer line comes on,”You’ll touch me and I’ll touch you get ready girl it’s time to bone.” Driving off into the sunset I smile as the unending 808’s rattle my grand marquis. This was the journey that I embarked on while listening to Brother Arab.
After my experience I looked into just who this “Arabian Prince” was. To my surprise he was actually one of the original members of N.W.A. Though it turns out that the Prince quit the collective the same year that Straight Outta Compton was released. Basically, Arabian Prince is the member of N.W.A. that you’ve never heard of. After going solo in 1988 he released Brother Arab in 1989, but it never quite caught on and his music career hit a downturn from there on out. Wherever Arabian Prince is now I hope he’s doing well, and I would wish that he has found other solo endeavors to be more fruitful.
Pierce Porterfield hails from the suburban utopia known as Plano, Texas. He strives to do everything and nothing at the same time, as much as he can. He currently studies Business at the University of Missouri.