I Hate You With a Passion

The Bay Area’s underground rap scene saw something of a renaissance in the mid-‘90s. In Vallejo, rappers like Mac Mall, E-40, and B-Legit were pioneering their distinctive styles, while producer Khayree’s imprint Young Black Brotha had just become a subsidiary of Atlantic Records. Meanwhile, across the bay in San Francisco proper, the young rapper who'd eventually become known as Andre Nickatina was releasing idiosyncratic, often self-produced recordings under the name Dre Dog. I Hate You with a Passion was Nickatina’s second full-length as Dre Dog. It became something of an underground sensation on the strength of “Situation Critical”: a synth-laced crawl through the dark side of the Frisco drug trade that showcased Nickatina’s unstoppable flow. But the relentlessly grim “Situation Critical” belies Nickatina’s sly humor and playful inventiveness, which are more in evidence on cuts like “Killa Whale," with its bizarre aquatic-themed boasts and keening synth hook, and “Piece of My Mind,” an amazing a cappella diss track that finds Nickatina disparaging “carbon copy caterpillars” and running up on competitors “like a cheetah on an antelope."