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Tone Loc: Cool Hand Loc (Delicious Vinyl)

Chuck Eddy, Spin, January 1992

TONE LOC could well be the guy that repossesses Melle Mel's car in 'The Message' (it really was his job once), and in a sense, he is — he's the rare '90s rapper who acts like 'The Message' never happened. You might think he scraped his great grody gravel-growl off the bottom of a garbage can behind a red-beans-and-rice restaurant (or from 'Ten Foot Pole', off ZZ Top's aptly named hashish LP, El Loco). But I suspect he got it from Frankie Smith, whose 'Double Dutch Bus' took the world by storm back in '81, and whose rap still showed evidence of vaudeville comics, carnival barkers, medicine men, AM DJs, and Dr. John.

Total word count of piece: 251

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