I have always wanted to do a Classic Material style post about RBL Posse‘s debut album A Lesson to Be Learned. Funny thing is that while I love that album and played the hell out of it when I was a youngster, I never really learned much about the group even though it seems like there is a bigger story than their hit song “Don’t Give Me No Bammer” (Which was recently and appropriately sampled by Wiz Khalifa). When RBL Posse followed up Lesson to Be Learned two years later in 1994 with Ruthless by Law, I noticed it was only two people on the cover (Down from five). Then later in 1997 with An Eye for an Eye, it was only one person on the cover. I later learned that two of the group’s members, Mr. Cee and Hitman, had died due to gun violence since the group’s debut (R.I.P.) and the lone member was now Black C. And he now wore a patch. As I said, the is a story there.
Another thing I always wondered was how in the hell did RBL Posse clear all the samples on their debut album? The title track (and Song of the Week) is a good example of this. It has samples from “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang and “You’re a Customer” by EPMD. That’s not all, A Lesson to Be Learned is packed with big samples like “Fly Like an Eagle” by Steve Miller Band (“G’s by the 1,2,3’s”), “Groove With You” by The Isley Brothers (“Outro”), “If You Don’t Know Me by Now” by Simply Red (“Sorta Like a Psycho”), and “Sweet Thing” by Rufus & Chaka Khan (“Remind Me”). Just to name a few.
But enough of my rambling, I’ll save that for the eventual Classic Material write up one day. Below listen to the Song of the Week, “A Lesson to Be Learned” by RBL Posse.
