1994-11-08
The Main Ingredient
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
By Maeve C.
Short instrumental passages open and close many songs on The Main Ingredient, a device Pete Rock carried over from Mecca and the Soul Brother. His beats draw on soul and jazz samples, with crisp drums and vocal scratches mostly drawn from Biz Markie.
“Sun Won’t Come Out” is built on Harvey Scales’s song of the same name. “Take You There” and “Searching” were among the duo’s singles from the record, and “Take You There” reached the Hot 100. Elektra’s release peaked at number nine on the R&B albums chart and number 51 on the Billboard 200.
Sources
Rights-holder Apple Music metadata (℗ 1994 Elektra Records, marketed by Rhino) lists release date 8 November 1994.Independent: released on November 8, 1994 (Elektra 61661); production approach, interludes, Biz Markie scratches, Harvey Scales sample, singles and chart peaks.
The Source ‘Today in Hip Hop History’ piece dated 8 November 2019 marking the release 25 years earlier (URL cited by Wikipedia).