393: The Flow

0(+> (1992)
You’re not left bemoaning the shortness of Arrogance for long because immediately after you’re thrust feet-first into this gangster rap parody, again attacking gutter journalism and the intrusion of the press. The soil it grew out of was a rap Tony M would add to the end of the Batman song The Future during the Nude tour, and an early version was originally pencilled to appear on Diamonds and Pearls. This later, released version is a much trimmed affair and after a verse apiece from Prince and Tony, the horns take the weight and see it out to its early conclusion. Arrogance and The Flow are brothers in arms. Two half-tracks keeping you on your toes and injecting a shot of testosterone into the heart of the album. Febrile and attack-minded, it ostensibly wears the LA Raiders mask of gangsta rap with Tony being told to “shoot that piece of sh-” and later embracing his inner mafioso with mentions of putting fools to sleep, but at heart it’s a boast track about how funky the music and their rap flow is. Another stylistic string to the album’s weighty bow and a contribution towards its hectic, epic and schizophrenic nature.