Tricks of the Shade is the debut album by rap group, The Goats

The Goats

The Goats were an alternative hip-hop quartet from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Their members included rappers Oatie Kato , Madd , and Swayzack...

. It was released on November 3, 1992 though Columbia Records

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

 sub-label, Ruffhouse Records

Ruffhouse Records

Ruffhouse Records is a record label founded in 1989 by Chris Schwartz and Joe Nicolo as a joint venture with Columbia Records. In 1999, Schwartz and Nicolo stopped the label. Schwartz and Kevon Glickman continued with RuffNation Records; Chris Schwartz has worked in the music and film industry for...

 and was entirely produced by Joe "The Butcher" Nicolo. The album earned some critical acclaim, but was not a commercial success and did not reach any Billboard charts. The polictally charged lyrics took aim at such figures as then-US President George H. W. Bush

George H. W. Bush

George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...

, Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...

, and were vocal about police brutality

Police brutality

Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....

 and those who they felt were victims of racism Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...

, Willie Horton

Willie Horton

William R. "Willie" Horton is an American convicted felon who, while serving a life sentence for murder, without the possibility of parole, was the beneficiary of a Massachusetts weekend furlough program...

, Yusef Hawkins

Yusef Hawkins

Yusef Hawkins was a 16-year-old African American youth who was shot to death on August 23, 1989 in Bensonhurst, a heavily Italian American working-class neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn...

 and Leonard Peltier

Leonard Peltier

Leonard Peltier is a Native American activist and member of the American Indian Movement . In 1977 he was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for first degree murder in the shooting of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents during a 1975 conflict on the Pine...

.

Two singles were released from the album, "¿Do The Digs Dug?" and "Typical American", the latter of which appeared on Ruffhouse Records' final release in 1999, the greatest hits compilation Ruffhouse Records Greatest Hits. The album is currently out of print.

Track listing

1. "We Got Freaks"- 1:00
2. "Typical American"- 4:36
3. "Hangerhead Is Born"- 1:24
4. "Whatcha Got Is Whatcha Gettin'"- 4:13
5. "Columbus' Boat Ride"- 1:17
6. "Ru Down wit da Goats"- 4:21
7. "Cumin' in Ya Ear"- 3:51
8. "Noriega's Coke Stand"- 1:30
9. "Got Kinda Hi"- 3:23
10. "Unodostresquattro"- 1:21
11. "Georgie Bush Kids"- 1:17
12. "Wrong Pot 2 Piss In"- 3:42
13. "Hip-Hopola"- 4:42
14. "Leonard Peltier in a Cage"- 1:24
15. "¿Do The Digs Dug?"- 4:31
16. "Carnival Cops"- 1:46
17. "TV Cops"- 4:23
18. "Tattooed Lady"- 1:36
19. "Tricks of the Shade"- 4:19
20. "Not Not Bad"- 3:29
21. "Rovie Wade, the Sword Swallower"- 1:09
22. "Aaah D Yaaa"- 3:26
23. "Drive-By Bumper Cars"- 1:48
24. "Burn the Flag"- 3:53
25. "Uncle Scam's Shooting Gallery"- 2:46

Track listing (Radio Airplay version)

1. "Typical American"- 4:36
2. "Whatcha Got Is Whatcha Gettin'"- 4:13
3. "Ru Down wit da Goats"- 4:21
4. "Cumin' in Ya Ear"- 3:51
5. "Got Kinda Hi"- 3:23
6. "Unodostresquattro"- 1:21
7. "Wrong Pot 2 Piss In"- 3:42
8. "Hip-Hopola"- 4:42
9. "¿Do The Digs Dug?"- 4:31
10. "TV Cops"- 4:23
11. "Tricks of the Shade"- 4:19
12. "Aaah D Yaaa"- 3:26
13. "Burn the Flag"- 3:53