Dead Serious (album)
| Dead Serious | ||||
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| Studio album by Das EFX | ||||
| Released | April 7, 1992 | |||
| Recorded | 1991-1992 | |||
| Studio | Firehouse Studios (Brooklyn, New York) North Shore Soundworks (Long Island, New York) |
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| Genre | Hip hop | |||
| Length | 38:43 | |||
| Label | East West | |||
| Producer | EPMD (exec.), Solid Scheme, Das EFX, Dexx | |||
| Das EFX chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Dead Serious | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |  |
| Robert Christgau |  |
| RapReviews | (9/10) |
| The Source |  |
| Spin | (favorable) |
| Trouser Press | (favorable) |
Dead Serious is the debut studio album of American hip hop duo Das EFX, released April 7, 1992 on compact disc and audio cassette on East West Records and distributed through Atlantic Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at Firehouse Studios in Brooklyn, New York and at Charlie Marotta's North Shore Soundworks studio in Long Island, New York.
The album was a certified hit, peaking at 16 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, topping the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for five weeks and reaching platinum sales by 1993. Well-received upon its release, Dead Serious has since been regarded by music writers as a significant and influential album in hip hop.
Group member William "Skoob" Hines was raised in the neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Andre "Krazy Drayz" Weston, born in Jamaica, came to the United States as a child, growing up in Union City and Teaneck, New Jersey. Both rapped during their high school years, Hines with the group's future producer Derek Lynch's brother Tony. However, Lynch was Hines' DJ first and wouldn't begin producing until later. Hines and Weston began performing together after they met at Virginia State University in 1988. Hines and Weston met their freshman year on a road trip to another college through a mutual friend. According to Weston, the two became a duo after winning a campus contest which Hines suggested they enter together. Hines and Weston began to work with Brooklyn-based producers Chris Charity and Derek Lynch, both friends of Hines' from high school, who'd formed a production team using the name Solid Scheme Music at the time. According to Hines, aside from "Klap Ya Handz" and "They Want EFX," which was produced by Weston and he, all of the other instrumental tracks on the album were produced by Charity and Lynch. Around this time the group came up with its name which Weston noted was mostly Hines' idea. The name stemmed from an acronym of the two's nicknames, Skoob and Dray, and EFX from their constantly wanting their producers to add reverb to their vocals when in the studio. "So it was Sad EFX for a minute, but that didn't really make much sense, so we changed it to Das EFX."
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