The Fabulous Chi-Ali is the first and only album by rapper Chi-Ali, a member of the Native Tongues

Native tongues

Native Tongues is a book by the linguist Charles Berlitz.It is a list of words in different languages, etymology and questions with speculations far and wide about words....

.

Reception

It was released on March 24, 1992, on Relativity Records

Relativity Records

Relativity Records, often branded just Relativity, is an American record label founded by Barry Kobrin at the site of his company, Important Record Distribution in metro New York. Early on, as an indie label, Relativity released music in a variety of styles, including dance, jazz, punk, and...

 and was produced by The Beatnuts

The Beatnuts

The Beatnuts are a New York-based hip hop group and production duo from Queens, New York City. Its current members are JuJu and Psycho Les. JuJu is Dominican American from Corona and Psycho Les is a Colombian American from Jackson Heights...

 and Black Sheep

Black Sheep (hip hop group)

Black Sheep is an alternative hip hop duo from Queens, New York, composed of Andres "Dres" Titus and William "Mista Lawnge" McLean. The duo is from New York but met as teenagers in North Carolina, where both of their families relocated. The group was an affiliate of the Native Tongues, which...

's Mista Lawnge. The album managed to make it to #189 on the Billboard 200

Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

 and #8 on the Top Heatseekers

Top Heatseekers

Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical...

 and also produced three singles that made it to the Hot Rap Singles chart, "Age Ain't Nothin' But a #" (#6), "Roadrunner" (#9) and "Funky Lemonade" (#19).

Track listing

All tracks produced by the Beatnuts

The Beatnuts

The Beatnuts are a New York-based hip hop group and production duo from Queens, New York City. Its current members are JuJu and Psycho Les. JuJu is Dominican American from Corona and Psycho Les is a Colombian American from Jackson Heights...

, except track 6, produced by Mista Lawnge

Black Sheep (hip hop group)

Black Sheep is an alternative hip hop duo from Queens, New York, composed of Andres "Dres" Titus and William "Mista Lawnge" McLean. The duo is from New York but met as teenagers in North Carolina, where both of their families relocated. The group was an affiliate of the Native Tongues, which...

.

1. "Intro"- :24
2. "Maniac Psycho"- 3:15
3. "Step Up"- 3:06
4. "Funky Lemonade"- 3:38
5. "In My Room"- 3:14
6. "Age Ain't Nothin' But a #"- 4:27
7. "Shorty Said Nah"- 5:04
8. "Let the Horns Blow" (ft. Dres
   Dres (rapper)
   Dres is a rapper of the alternative hip hop duo Black Sheep. He formed the group in 1989 along with Mista Lawnge. On their 1991 debut album A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Dres has a smooth rhyme flow, with a dose of light humor....
   
   , Trugoy the Dove, Fashion
   The Beatnuts
   The Beatnuts are a New York-based hip hop group and production duo from Queens, New York City. Its current members are JuJu and Psycho Les. JuJu is Dominican American from Corona and Psycho Les is a Colombian American from Jackson Heights...
   
    & Phife Dawg
   Phife Dawg
   Malik Isaac Taylor , better known by his stage name Phife Dawg, is an American rapper of Trinidadian descent, and a member of the acclaimed group A Tribe Called Quest with high school classmates Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad...
   
   ) - 5:29
9. "Roadrunner"- 3:54
10. "The Fabulous Chi"- 2:43
11. "Looped It"- 3:29
12. "Check My Record"- 4:14
13. "Murder Chi Wrote"- 4:15
14. "Chi-Ali vs. Vanilla Shake"- 5:45
15. "Jump to the Rhythm"- 4:06

Samples

Step Up

• "Zimba Ku" by Black Heat
  Black Heat
  Black Heat was a 1970s funk band founded by King Raymond Green and discovered by Phillip Guilbeau. Their albums include Black Heat , No Time To Burn and Keep On Runnin. The group had one hit single, "No Time to Burn", which reached #46 on the U.S. Billboard Black Singles chart...
  
  
• "Fat Mama" by Herbie Hancock
  Herbie Hancock
  Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
  
  

Funky Lemonade

• "Dujii" by Kool & The Gang
  Kool & the Gang
  Kool & the Gang are an American jazz, R&B, soul, and funk group, originally formed as the Jazziacs in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1964.They went through several musical phases during the course of their recording career, starting out with a purist jazz sound, then becoming practitioners of R&B and...
  
  
• "Dwyck" by Gang Starr
  Gang Starr
  Gang Starr was an influential East Coast hip hop duo that consisted of the late MC Guru and DJ/producer DJ Premier. Their style combined elements of New York jazz and hip hop.-Background:...
  
  

In My Room

• "Fightin' Fire with Fire" by The Bar-Kays

Ain't Ain't Nothin' But a #

• "We Live in Brooklyn, Baby" by Roy Ayers
  Roy Ayers
  Roy Ayers is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer and vibraphone player. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Polydor Records beginning in the 1970s, during which he helped pioneer jazz-funk .- Biography :Ayers...
  
  
• "Hope That We Can Be Together Soon" by Stanley Turrentine
  Stanley Turrentine
  Stanley William Turrentine, also known as "Mr. T" or "The Sugar Man", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.-Biography:Turrentine was born in Pittsburgh's Hill District into a musical family...
  
  

Shorty Said Nah

• "The Payback(Intro)" by James Brown
  James Brown
  James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
  
  

Let The Horns Blow

• "Don't Change Your Love" by Five Stairsteps
• "Handclapping Song" by The Meters
  The Meters
  The Meters are an American funk band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Meters performed and recorded their own music from the late 1960s until 1977...
  
  
• "Unhooked Generation" by Freda Payne
  Freda Payne
  Freda Charcilia Payne Some sources give a birth year of 1945, but this appears to be an error as all sources agree that she is older than her sister Scherrie, born 1944. is an American singer and actress best known for her million selling, 1970 hit single, "Band of Gold". She was also an actress in...
  
  

Roadrunner

• "Bitches Brew" by Miles Davis
  Miles Davis
  Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
  
  
• "Magnificent Sanctuary Band" by Donny Hathaway
  Donny Hathaway
  Donny Edward Hathaway was an American soul singer-songwriter and musician. Hathaway contracted with Atlantic Records in 1969 and with his first single for the Atco label, "The Ghetto, Part I" in early 1970, Rolling Stone magazine "marked him as a major new force in soul music."His collaborations...
  
  
• "Think Twice" by Donald Byrd
  Donald Byrd
  Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
  
  

The Fabulous Chi

• "You and Love are The Same" by The Grassroots

Check My Record

• "153rd Street Theme" by Larry Willis
  Larry Willis
  Lawrence Elliott Willis is an American jazz pianist and composer. He has performed in a wide range of styles, including jazz fusion rock music, Bebop and Avant-Garde...
  
  

Murder Chi Wrote

• "Epilog" by Jack Dejohnette
  Jack DeJohnette
  Jack DeJohnette is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. He is one of the most influential jazz drummers of the 20th century, due to extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians like Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett and Sonny...
  
  

Chi-Ali Vs. Vanilla Shake

• "Funky Vamp
  Different Strokes (The Nite-Liters album)
  Different Strokes is the fourth album by the Louisville, Kentucky group The Nite-Liters, the instrumental ensemble offshot of New Birth. Released in 1972 on RCA Records...
  
  " by The Nite-Liters
  New Birth (band)
  New Birth is an American funk and R&B group, originally conceived in Detroit, Michigan by former Motown songwriter/producer and veteran musician Vernon Bullock, and co-founded in Louisville, Kentucky by Vernon, with former Motown songwriter/producer Harvey Fuqua, and music industry veterans, Tony...
  
  
• "Blue(A Folk Tale)" by Gary Bartz
  Gary Bartz
  Gary Bartz is an American alto and soprano saxophonist and clarinetist.Bartz graduated from the Baltimore City College high school and The Juilliard School...
  
  
• "Overnight Sensation" by Avanlanche

Jump to the Rhythm

• "Jam on the Groove" by Ralph McDonald
• "Now That We Found Love" by Third World
  Third World
  The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
  
  

Charts

Chart (1992)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	189
Billboard U.S. Heatseekers Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical...	8

Singles

Year	Single	Chart positions
		US Hot Rap Singles Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
1992	"Age Ain't Nothin' But A #"	6
	"Roadrunner"	9
1993	"Funky Lemonade"	19

External links

• Chi-Ali-The Fabulous Chi-Ali at Discogs