One Step Ahead of the Spider is the third album by MC 900 Ft. Jesus, released in 1994.[2][3] According to some advance CD copies, the album was originally titled Loony Tunes.[citation needed]
The album includes "If I Only Had a Brain", for which a music video was made that showed MC 900 Ft. Jesus reading an advertisement on selling brains. It peaked at No. 25 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart.[4] The video was directed by Spike Jonze and was included in a Beavis and Butt-head episode.[5] MC 900 Ft. Jesus promoted the album by touring with Consolidated.[6]
Production
MC 900 Ft. Jesus was influenced by the Miles Davis album Bitches Brew.[7] He employed more of a band sound on One Step Ahead of the Spider; he spent six months listening to all the takes before adding vocals to his favorite tracks.[8][9]Vernon Reid played guitar on "Stare and Stare".[10] The album cover art is by graffiti artist Greg Contestabile.[11]
Trouser Press wrote that "Griffin's connection to hip-hop is gone: the music of 'New Moon' and 'Tiptoe Through the Inferno' are free-flowing jazz in which voice serves as just one of the instruments."[17] The Calgary Herald likened the album to "a spoken word Burroughs meets Don Was when he Was (Not Was)."[13]
The Los Angeles Times determined that "the record's balmy and organic grooves are far from the electronic dance pulse of previous records, and now he steeps his hip-hop sensibilities in minimal, goatee-stroking jazz."[15]Rolling Stone called MC 900 Ft. Jesus "desperately wack, browbeatingly outre."[16]The Indianapolis Star concluded that "while Griffin's hip-hop sensibilities may run closer to New Age, he delivers lyrics with a cadence that shifts between those of a finger-popping, beatnik poet and a world-weary commentator on race relations."[14]
Track listing
(All songs written by Griffin, except where noted.)
