Freak Nasty

by Stephen Thomas ErlewineFreak Nasty was hardly a talented rapper — he was clumsy and often tripped over his rhymes — but he did manage to write an incessantly catchy song with Da Dip. After his first album, Freak Nasty, failed to make an impact in 1994, the Southern-based rapper seemed destined to fade away. Instead, he and his production team concocted the ridiculously simple and naggingly catchy Da Dip, driven mostly by a bass-driven groove and lyrical hook. The single was featured on Freak Nastys second album, Controversee...Thats Life...and Thats the Way It Is, which was released in the fall of 1996. Over the winter and spring of 1997, Da Dip became an underground hit, eventually crossing over into the mainstream in the summer of 1997. It stayed on the charts for weeks, but the album itself never took off. Dowhatchafeel appeared the following year, and in the spring of 2000 Freak Nasty resurfaced with Which Way Is Up.