X Chromozome - A Kindly Killer - 1995

 

Back in 1995, a dope cassette tape surfaced in the streets of Chicago, Illinois. Pressed in extremely limited quantities, "A Kindly Killer" by female emcee X Chromozome has since become one of those obscure underground releases that deserves to be dug up and talked about.

The tape features just 3 tracks : "My Debut","In My Own World" & "Undertaka" on the A-side, with all the instrumentals on the B-side. X Chromozome comes through with hardcore lyrics, touching on themes such as Black identity, fake MCs, street life, spirituality and Religion. Her writing carries the rawness and directness you would expect from mid-90s underground rap, while still revealing a strong sense of identity and purpose behind the mic.

On the production side, the cassette is equally interesting. The production is credited to the legendary Chicago production crew, the Molemen, but it was actually handled solely by Rick. This was still an early period for the Molemen, Panik was just getting started and wasn't programming beats yet, while Mixx Massacre was already doing some production, but very little. He was more focused on the mixtape side of things. At that time, Rick handled all of the production of Mack-A-Damien-Thorne's, Vakil's, Rebel X D's. Here, Rick's production provides the perfect backdrop for X Chromozome's rugged delivery.

That's all I know about that tape. It was X Chromozome's first and only release. She later became a Muslim at the age of 18 and disappeared from the Chicago hip-hop scene.