I was in Best Buy the other day and was walking past the music section. I was approached by a young burly black dude who offered the seminal Best Buy greeting, “Is there anything I can help you find today?”

Normally I just say, “No thanks, I’m just looking.” But today, for some reason, the guy reminded me of an old rap album I had been looking to add to my collection for some time. I asked him if they had The D.O.C.’s album No One Can Do It Better (affiliate link). He said they had one copy of it left and that he was considering buying it himself just the day before. We stood for about two minutes, examining the track titles and reminiscing about how hard “Whirlwind Pyramid” was and how smooth the bassline was in “The Formula.” And after he walked away, I went to put the disc back and something stayed my hand.

It would have been an insult to an enormously talented musician to put that disc back. So, I picked it up and haven’t regretted it since.

The D.O.C. was a major literary player in the formation of Eazy-E and N.W.A. as rap megastars, writing a lot of their lyrics (although he admits he never wrote for Ice Cube). Eazy-E reached enormous success in 1988, followed shortly by N.W.A, which gave the rappers prominence in the rap world and allowed Eazy-E to executive produce with Dre handling the beats and production aspect of No One Can Do It Better. The album went multi-platinum and The D.O.C. was set to be the next big thing until he fell asleep one night at the wheel and suffered a terrible car crash which crushed his vocal box and effectively ended his recording career (he is the scratchy-voice on Dr. Dre’s The Chronic).

He’s had a couple more albums come out since this one, but I haven’t had the heart to pick them up and listen to them. It would be too much like watching a champion boxer step into the ring at the age of 65.

But I was amazed at how well this album held up after sixteen years (my Gawd I’m getting old!). The beats are still there–the diction is flawless and the subject mattter still applies. As the D.O.C. says on the album, “You may think I speak of music but I speak of comin’ up.”

In a world before Tupac and Biggie Smalls, the name of the game was the lyrics you spouted and there were few greater than those of the diggy diggy doc. Consider these lines from the title track of this album:

Knowledge is the key, and hard work is the fee
For me to be The Great at the start and remain to be
A threat, til the opposition is warned
As long as a song, cause I was born
With instincts to kill, a grave mentality
Over the edge and you say you want to battle me?
At your own risk, approach and be hosted
And in the end you may win or be roasted
But seeing that it’s part of a game, you think if you hang
Close to The One and you’ll claim, but that’s lame
And I’m “Damn, another loser”
Without an apology, so next time I’m a use a
Little more force to get the message across
It’s the D.O.C. on the boss
Creating, demonstrate some realate to easy listening
But here’s a christening of what you’ve been missing
An exhibition, a hip-hop introduction
Smooth lyrical gab and I do the conducting
Drop it on a rhytm, suckers face it
But new to the masses, it’s like I’m starting classes
Better bet I understand the direction
That I’m going, in fact when I’m flowing
The news is a constant change from one minute to the next
I’m different cause I always show flex
And it’s essential, that’s why I got it together
To the letter and

No one can do it better.

I highly recommend you pick up this album.

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