DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - And in this Corner...

Original Release Date: October 17, 1989 Certified Gold The Billboard 200: #39 Peak Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums: #19 Peak Singles: I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson (Billboard Hot 100 #58) Jazzy's Groove (Hot R&B/Hip Hop Singles #70)

Tracklisting

Album Reviews

All Music Guide
3 stars out of 5

More wit and whim from Jeff and The Prince, this time with assistance from saxes, flutes, and trumpets. Though not as commercially successful as its predecessors, it's actually a more faithful rap work.

-- Ron Wynn

Q Magazine

DJ Jazzy Jeff/The Fresh Prince

With no new Salt-N-Pepa recordings this year, hip hop's been in grave danger of drowning in its own attitudes. NWA, Public Enemy, De La Soul and so on—everybody's got a point they're determined to labour. Except, it seems, DJ Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince, two cartoon-type characters hell-bent on mucking about. To a background of often unexpected samples—the odd toccata is thrown in with the James Brown and Sly Stone borrowings— solid bass hooks and crisp beats, they create a series of genuinely witty playlets about such nonsense as taking on Mike Tyson (I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson), going out with a vampire (Twilight Zone), cheap holidays (Everything That Glitters) and the panic when you discover your car isn't where you left it (Who Stole My Car) featuring a cast of characters from winos to preachers. To see a team as obviously hip hop-talented as this (the music and phrasing is everything anyone could want) willing to risk making themselves look silly and have a bit of fun cuts through the genre like a blast of fresh air

- Lloyd Bradley

(Issue #41)(February 1990)