Pre-Life Crisis is the debut album by the American rapper and musician Count Bass D, released in 1995. Count Bass D played the majority of the instruments on the album. The album's only single, "Sandwiches (I Got a Feeling)", received moderate radio and video airplay, in addition to being released on vinyl and CD, along with the B-side "T-Boz Tried to Talk to Me".
Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club describes Pre-Life Crisis as "one of the strangest major-label rap albums of all time," but note that the rapper was dropped by Sony following its release.
Critical reception
The International Herald Tribune noted that Count Bass D's "raps are hard-hitting but mellifluous, minimum-expletive and laugh-sprinkled." In 2003, Rolling Stone wrote that the "hyperquirky debut ... imagined an esoteric, fully live hip-hop wonder world that transcended the generic boombap."
Retrospectively, Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club praised Pre-Life Crisis as "[one] of the most original debuts in rap history," writing that it "suggested the work of a loopy cocktail-jazz pianist who decided to replace his repertoire of Burt Bacharach favorites with goofy rap odes to T-Boz and Carmex." Andrew Martin PopMatters named it a "groundbreaking and original debut" on which "Count basically made it clear that hip-hop would not be pigeonholed as long as he’s around."
The album sold poorly, resulting in Count Bass D being dropped from his label, but gave the rapper a cult following.
Track listing # Title Length Songwriter(s) Producer(s) Performer(s) 1 The Dozens 3:38 Dwight Conroy Farrell Count Bass D Count Bass D 2 Sandwiches (I Got a Feeling) 4:39 Dwight Conroy Farrell Count Bass D Count Bass D, (Mark Nash (musician) on Lead Guitar) 3 T-Boz (Part 1/2) 0:35 Dwight Conroy Farrell Count Bass D Count Bass D, (Rod McGahaw on Flugelhorn) 4 Shake 4:08 Dwight Conroy Farrell Count Bass D Count Bass D, (Mark Nash on Lead Guitar), (Rod McGahaw on Trumpet), (Kismick Martin on Additional Background Vocals & Freestyle on Vamp), (Vincent Sims on Additional Background Throat) 5 T-Boz Tried to Talk to Me! 4:42 Dwight Conroy Farrell Count Bass D Count Bass D, (Rod McGahaw on Flugelhorn) 6 Carmex 5:17 Dwight Conroy Farrell Count Bass D Count Bass D 7 I Got Needs 4:24 Dwight Conroy Farrell Count Bass D Count Bass D, (Mark Nash on Lead Guitar), (Roger "Rock" Williams on Soprano Saxophone) 8 Broke Thursday 4:02 Dwight Conroy Farrell Count Bass D, Coolout (co-producer) Count Bass D, Herbie Hancock, M. Ragin, P. Jackson 9 Agriculture 4:47 Dwight Conroy Farrell & Vincent Sims Count Bass D Count Bass D, Vincent Sims (Roger "Rock" Williams on Alto Flute) 10 Brown 4:01 Dwight Conroy Farrell Count Bass D Count Bass D, (DJ Reggie (Reg) Mason & Vincent Sims on Background Throat) 11 The Hate Game 4:43 Dwight Conroy Farrell Count Bass D Count Bass D (Psalm 109 on inspiration) 12 Pink Tornado 3:15 Dwight Conroy Farrell Count Bass D Count Bass D, Jaco Pastorius 13 Sunday School 5:35 Dwight Conroy Farrell Count Bass D Count Bass D (Psalm 118:24 on inspiration) 14 Baker's Dozen (Instrumental) 1:01 Dwight Conroy Farrell Count Bass D Count Bass D
References
External links Count Bass D-Pre Life Crisis at Discogs