So I was listening to a cassette tape (that’s right–cassette tape) I made of the 1997 Wake Up Show Countdown when “Making a Name for Ourselves” came in at number seventeen.

Canibus:

“Niggaz be diggin my styles like fossils and Pterodactyls. Who wanna battle? I’m bad to the bone marrow.”

The word Pterodactyls is hard enough to spell, forget about rhyme with (or near rhyme with, anyway).

and then

The Canibus is an animal with a mechanical mandible. Coming to damage you, spitting understandable slang at you.

I mean “mandible?”

Common (Sense was still lingering at the time):

“Move crowds with kinetic wisdom. It’s like a Malcolm X-orcisim.”

plus

“Relaxed like Dru Down’s hair.”

That just took me back– and now back to the countdown. Hope my tape player keeps working.