LIL BUT TRILL posted by O.W.

Lil Mac: Lyrical Midget, Your Days Are Over & I Need Wheels
From The Lyrical Midget (Yo! Records, 1989)

(Note: I usually have more to say, but my arms are tired from dropping down and getting my mock-eagle on. Dynasty, sons!)

As a tribute to O-Dad and his new addition, a PSA: Children are our future.

In 1989, Lil Mac represented the future, to some at least. At the time, Mannie Fresh, who had yet to be recognized as the future, was part of New Orleans' Ninja Crew, and they decided to hook up this lyrically-inclined 12-year-old from around the way. His album was titled The Lyrical Midget, which is somewhat inaccurate since Mac was merely young and not "an extremely small person who is otherwise normally proportioned." (Also see: "Psycho Dwarf" by the Beatnuts)

Hyperbole or no, Lil Mac's debut has its moments. Mac gets all bildungsroman on our fogey asses on the title cut, unleashing a sea of metaphors and sprinkling similes like they're bread crumbs - it's 1989, but with the unconventional door-knocker drums. "Your Days Are Over" hints, slightly, at Mannie's torque to come, especially those nice, counterweighing stabs. "I Need Wheels" pillages one of rap's all-time ballads, and it also stands as one of the strangest album openers ever.

Lyrical Midget is an essential addition to anyone's collection of kid rap.

Lil Mac eventually outgrew the Lil part, reaching an age when borrowing his dad's car and getting his cheeks pinched by older hotties no longer constituted the primary concerns of his life. He cut a frivolity-free album for No Limit in 1998, then ran into some grown-up troubles. Here's the last interview he did before getting locked up.

-Hua