Hold It Down (Das EFX album)

Hold It Down is the third studio album by American Brooklyn-based hip hop duo Das EFX. It was released on September 26, 1995 via East West Records. Recording sessions took place at Ian London Studios in East Islip, at Northshore Soundworks, D&D Studios, The Music Palace and Chung King Studios in New York, and at The Sewa. Production was handled by Easy Mo Bee, Solid Scheme, DJ Premier, DJ Scratch, DJ Clark Kent, Kevin Geeda, Peter Lewis, Showbiz, Soul G., Pete Rock and Das EFX themselves, with PMD serving as an executive producer. It features guest appearances from KRS-One and PMD.

Hold It Down
Studio album by Das EFX
Released	September 26, 1995 (1995-09-26)
Studio	North Shore Soundworks (New York, NY) D&D Studios (New York, NY) Ian London Studios (East Islip, NY) The Sewa Chung King Studios (New York, NY) Music Palace (New York, NY)
Genre	East Coast hip hop hardcore hip hop
Length	1:13:39
Label	EastWest
Producer	PMD (exec.) Das EFX DJ Clark Kent DJ Premier DJ Scratch Easy Mo Bee Kevin Geeda Peter Lewis Pete Rock Showbiz Solid Scheme Soul G.
Das EFX chronology
Straight Up Sewaside (1993) Hold It Down (1995) Generation EFX (1998)
Singles from Hold It Down
"Real Hip-Hop" Released: September 12, 1995 "Microphone Master" Released: January 30, 1996

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Muzik	[2]
Rap Pages	7/10[3]
RapReviews	7/10[4]
The Austin Chronicle	2/5[5]
The Source	[6]
Trouser Press	(Negative)[7]

The album peaked at number 22 on the Billboard 200 and number 4 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums in the United States. Its singles "Real Hip-Hop" and "Microphone Master" made it to the Billboard Hot 100, reaching No. 61 and No. 86, respectively. The song "Represent the Real" first appeared under the title "Represent the Real Hip Hop" as the B-side to KRS-One's "MC's Act Like They Don't Know" single, which was released during the summer of 1995, taken off of his eponymous album KRS-One.^[8]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Intro (Once Again)"	Andre Weston William Hines	Peter Lewis	1:08
2.	"No Diggedy"	Weston Hines Chris Martin	DJ Premier	4:03
3.	"Knockin' Niggaz Off"	Weston Hines Osten Harvey Jr.	Easy Mo Bee	3:24
4.	"Here We Go"	Weston Hines Chris Charity Derek Lynch	Solid Scheme	4:05
5.	"Real Hip-Hop" (Original Version)	Weston Hines Martin	DJ Premier	4:09
6.	"Here It Is"	Weston Hines Kevin Geeda Joe Bishop Gordon Jenkins	Kevin Geeda	4:59
7.	"Microphone Master"	Weston Hines Harvey Jr.	Easy Mo Bee	4:30
8.	"40 & a Blunt"	Weston Hines Harvey Jr.	Easy Mo Bee	3:17
9.	"Buck-Buck"	Weston Hines	Das EFX	3:12
10.	"Intro"			0:09
11.	"Can't Have Nuttin'"	Weston Hines Gerald Stevens	Soul G.	5:34
12.	"Alright"	Weston Hines Harvey Jr.	Easy Mo Bee	4:23
13.	"Hold It Down"	Weston Hines Harvey Jr.	Easy Mo Bee	4:47
14.	"Dedicated"	Weston Hines Rodolfo Franklin	DJ Clark Kent	3:46
15.	"Ready to Rock Rough Rhymes" (featuring Solid Scheme)	Weston Hines Charity Lynch	Solid Scheme	4:34
16.	"Represent the Real" (featuring KRS-One)	Weston Hines Lawrence Parker	Showbiz	3:19
17.	"Comin' Thru"	Weston Hines George Spivey	DJ Scratch	3:32
18.	"Hardcore Rap Act"	Weston Hines Charity Lynch	Solid Scheme	4:30
19.	"Bad News" (featuring PMD)	Weston Hines Parrish Smith Spivey	DJ Scratch	2:20
20.	"Real Hip-Hop" (Pete Rock Remix)	Weston Hines	Pete Rock	3:58
Total length:				1:13:39

Sample credits^[9]

• Track 6 contains elements from "Blue Prelude" written by Joe Bishop and Gordon Jenkins and performed by Nina Simone.
• Track 12 contains elements from "Different Strokes" written by John Andrew Cameron and John Zachary and performed by Syl Johnson.
• Track 13 contains elements from "Slum Creeper" by Quincy Jones.
• Track 14 contains elements from "Lock It in the Pocket" written by Richard Steacker and performed by Grover Washington Jr.

Personnel

• Andre "Krazy Drayz" Weston – vocals, producer (track 9)
• Willie "Skoob" Hines – vocals, producer (track 9)
• Lawrence "KRS-One" Parker – vocals (track 16)
• Parrish "PMD" Smith – vocals (track 19), executive producer
• Rodney "DJ Dice" Battle – scratches
• Peter Lewis – producer (track 1)
• Chris "DJ Premier" Martin – producer (tracks: 2, 5)
• Osten "Easy Mo Bee" Harvey, Jr. – producer (tracks: 3, 7, 8, 12, 13)
• Chris Charity – producer (tracks: 4, 15, 18)
• Derek Lynch – producer (tracks: 4, 15, 18)
• Kevin Geeda – producer (track 6)
• Gerald "Soul G." Stevens – producer (track 11)
• Rodolfo "DJ Clark Kent" Franklin – producer (track 14)
• Rodney "Showbiz" LeMay – producer (track 16)
• George "DJ Scratch" Spivey – producer (tracks: 17, 19)
• Peter "Pete Rock" Phillips – producer & mixing (track 20)
• Charlie Marotta – engineering (track 1), mixing (tracks: 1, 18)
• Eddie Sancho – engineering (tracks: 2, 5)
• Norty Cotto – engineering (tracks: 2, 5)
• Luis Tineo – engineering assistant (tracks: 2, 5)
• Ken Wallace – engineering (tracks: 3, 6-8, 11-15)
• Ivan 'Doc' Rodriguez – mixing (tracks: 3, 4, 6-8, 12, 13, 17)
• Mike Tuosto – mixing (track 3)
• Rick St. Hilaire – engineering (tracks: 9, 19), mixing (tracks: 9, 11, 15, 19)
• Kenny Ortiz – mixing (track 14)
• Gordon "Commissioner Gordon" Williams – engineering (track 16)
• Jamie Staub – engineering (track 20)
• Alli Truch – art direction
• Romon Kimin "Ro-Starr" Yang – design
• Butch Belair – photography

Charts

Chart (1995)	Peak position
US Billboard 200[10]	22
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[11]	4