R.A.N. Gotta Be Lyrical

• 1. Head Cutter (Intro)
• 2. My Mind Blinking Out
• 3. Sticking Up Tha Dope Track
• 4. Gimme Some’n
• 5. Gotta Be Lyrical
• 6. Smoking On That Mask
• 7. Life On Tha Dark Side
• 8. What’s Up Man (Campaignin’)
• 9. Dedication

Hailing from Memphis, Tennessee, Gotta Be Lyrical is the sole offering by Lil Ced and Big Syl, together known as R.A.N. (Ruthless Ass Ni**as).

Originally released in 1993 on cassette, this hazy southern horrorcore rap album hears its first release on vinyl, amounting to a rare contemporary Memphis rap full-length. Forming part of Now Again Records' multi-LP series on the history of the genre, R.A.N.'s contribution to the scene breaks new evental ground, sticking somewhat truly to the laid-back, smoke-out-the-droptop steeze most characteristic of this tape-bound rap style, while also bringing momentarily aggressive flows on consecutive tracks, such as on 'Sticking Up Tha Dope Track' or 'Life On Tha Dark Side'.

This is a rupturous slice of Memphis rap which - despite the genre's exemplarily grave thematic rigor-mortises and emphasis on bodybagging - breaks free of any *de rigueur* stereotypes of the sound. Closer 'Dedication' is an especially prescient proto-cloud-rap track, commanding a temporally unbound, fluxing flow from both rappers, as if to suggest a drug-induced brain fog of the deadliest degree.