Rare/Obscure Single of the Week: Red Foo & Dre' Kroon - The Freshest / Hardcore Ish / Life Is A Game Of Chess (pt. 2)

This week's single is from the west coast duo of Red Foo & Dre' Kroon. Weird name? Yeah, I suppose so, but dope single none the less. I was introduced to this fine piece of work by my favorite 12 inch vinyl website, Twelve Inchers (where y'all at?), a couple years ago. Everything I know about them, I basically learned off that original post.

To parrot what DJ Espionage wrote and what I could dig up on th net about the two, the duo was straight outta Cali back in the day. Some might recognize Red-Foo under a different name, Kendall (listen to Evidence's first verse on "The Freshest, he refers to him as Kendall as well), as he produced the majority of Ahmad's self entitled debut album, including the gold single "Back In The Day". He would also work Coolio ("I Remember" remix), some early work with Dilated, and Volume 10. Toward 1996 or so he got together with Dre Kroon to form the duo. That same year, they would release the single "Life Is a Chess Game", which I can't recall ever hearing, but you get the drift.

In 1997, the duo would drop their second single "The Freshest / Hardcore Ish / Life Is A Game Of Chess (pt. 2)". The A-Side is strictly devoted to "The Freshest", which is a dope little ditty, that features early Evidence. Evidence kinda steals the show lyrically, although DJ Revolution challenges him with some wicked cuts toward the end of the track. Beatwise, Red Foo hooks up a dope beat, armed with hard drums, it's just "fresh" indeed. Also accompanying the clean version (sorry folks, that's all there is) is the instrumental and accapella version.

The b-side features two tracks. The first one is "Hardcore Ish", which has a totally different sound from the a-side's "The Freshest". If "The Freshest" is fresh, then "Hardcore Ish" is dirty, stinkin' and smellin'. Beatwise, I can hear someone like Redman dropping his nasty drawl over the beat. A fuzzy bass line is the backing, as Red Foo drops the first verse and it sounds like a marriage made in the Playboy mansion, just plain nasty. Hard funk drums also bless the track. The sing song style thats something between a cross of Domino and Warren G comes from Dre Kroon, that adds a nice little twist. It's just a great track from the mid/late 90's time period. The second legit track is "Life is a Game of Chess", which while isn't nearly as nice as the other two joints, it's still a nice little track that sounds like a DITC throw away track. Nothing mind blowing, but still nice.

The duo is back as LMFAO, and dropped a couple joints last year, which I haven't heard yet. Might be interesting to hear what the crew is on in the present.

Red Foo & Dre' Kroon - The Freshest / Hardcore Ish / Life Is A Game Of Chess (pt. 2) (Bubonic Records, 1997)

A1 The Freshest (Clean) (4:05)
Rap [Featuring] - Evidence (2) , Promise
Scratches - DJ Revolution

A2 The Freshest (Instrumental) (4:05)
A3 The Freshest (Accapella) (4:17)
Rap [Featuring] - Evidence (2) , Promise
Scratches - DJ Revolution

B1 Hardcore Ish (Clean) (4:00)
B2 Hardcore Ish (Instrumental) (3:55)
B3 Life Is A Game Of Chess (pt. 2) (4:20)