The Taste Of Hip Hop When You Put It In Your Mouth

by Tia Ja'nae

Once upon a time in my college days I tended to slide through the odd Omega Psi Phi fraternity party. At one particular soiree, right in the middle of a dance battle, the DJ put on Put It In Your Mouth. The entire room stopped dead in its tracks as soon as the acapella piano intro led into a troubled tale of a conflicted but heartbreaking breakup from the female perspective. Almost instinctually the men and women separated to their side of the room; a tension built up rapidly like a storm on the horizon as the acapella dived deeper into the aftermath of the breakup that resulted in a woman scorned rectifying the situation with the best friend of her ex in a revenge tale of sorts that leads into the crux of the song. As soon as the infamous guitar chord drops the men passionately got into position to passionately articulate Akinyele’s part as if their life depended on it. On the flip side the chicks yelled to the heavens note for note Kia Jeffries’ part louder, harder, and more energetic.

All of it gave me life. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.

That unfortunately was easier said than done. Anything by Akinyele was hard to find in the record shop; his latest release at the time Aktapuss was nowhere to be found so I was forced to settle on the only album of his in the state of Illinois, the infamous 1997 hip-hop EP Put It In Your Mouth. The five track collection (which were re-released as part of Aktapuss) were a party sampler of the Queens lyricist offerings at a time where gritty street hip-hop was dead, buried, and cement poured on top of the casket.

This isn’t your typical hip-hop EP; Put It In Your Mouth has mixtape vibes. To its credit and despite the album title it isn’t a raunchy sex fest without substance but a well-rounded commentary on the gritty streets Akinyele is most familiar with. No topic is off limits as the album stands on business that Akinyele is the passionately angry ambassador for the New York thug life, for better or worse. More importantly, it’s an anthem; the title track is the most raw, gritty, visceral theme song message a red blooded American can have in their dating arsenal.

The incredible off colored raunchy title track hits harder than anything Millie Jackson can throw and then some. For those of you not hip to the cut, Put It In Your Mouth is the ultimate hip-hop battle of the sexes that fights dirty in the bedroom but ends up in a nasty stalemate. Akinyele’s beastly aggressive lyricism goes toe to toe with Kia Jeffries’ delicious conviction to where both sides are uncompromising on what they want out of the deal and the terms of agreement they are down with to get it. It’s scandalous as much as it is memorable, it is ruthless as much as it is hoodishly sensual.

The Robbery Song has an almost two minute intro but slaps hard on the first bar in a mad dash of fury that sounds like Akinyele didn’t take a breath until the end. The three minute hardcore aggression track is a commandment instruction manual of the various ways of getting your mind right into being a jack boy. In The World is another duet with Kia Jeffries that shows a softer side of Akinyele (which is an impossible task in the best of times) as he reflects on how far he has come off sheer determination and hunger to get to where he is and how hard he had to hustle to get what he has. His lyricism in a tongue twisting rendition of pain and gain, struggle and survival.

Fuck Me For Free is the craziest anti-gold digger song made, one that starts off so ruthless in soliloquy that Akinyele feels the chicks he fancies have to give him the drawers no matter how cheap he is (which he does mention buying them one slice and smashing for the privilege) but then sucks you into giving him a bit of sympathy in the second verse where he’s painfully honest about avoiding the pitfalls of going broke when the women in his life take it upon themselves to target his pockets to maintain their own lifestyles. It’s a conflicting song, mostly because Akinyele seemingly picks a certain type of shallow superficial woman he thinks he can make a woman sprung in a casual relationship only to realize that they actually are the ones running a different type of maneuver on him to turn him out for a price, even to the point of bankruptcy.

Thug Shit is the most humorously violent cut on the EP. It’s Sesame Street playful intro gives way into an aggressively melodic Wu-Tang Clanesque inspired sing-a-long that highlights all the most important tenants of Akinyele’s experience being a thug. The most unique thing about it is that its presentation sounds like a sober and articulate Ol’ Dirty Bastard giving a coherent dissertation on the thug lifestyle that has yet to happen on an actual Ol’ Dirty Bastard track.

Almost thirty years later the infamously classic EP still holds up just as hard as it did in its prime.

Many critics refer to Akinyele as an underground one hit wonder of sorts in part to the infamy of Put It In Your Mouth. The EP of the same name disproves that completely; had this EP come out around 2020 it would have won a Grammy and every song on the album would have been top ten hands down. Unfortunately, Akinyele was ahead of his time and too often marginalized as nothing more than a joke misogynistic rapper who was lucky India Arie wanted to sample him. It’s actually a tragedy that Akinyele’s later works are grossly overlooked, were not promoted correctly, and released on labels that just wanted him to do a reshuffled version of the songs of this EP.

Don’t take my word for it. Take this slice of hip-hop and Put It In Your Mouth.