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Artist:	NADANUF
Title:	"WORLDWIDE"
Label:	Reprise Records
Reviewed By:	Jim Jehs
Rating:

It's, "Worldwide!" The debut album from "Nadanuf!" Coming to you live from the Midwest, to the Eastside to the Westside, to the Northside to the Southside. Skwert Diggety and Phor-One-One wanna rock your world, literally. A female rap duo from Cincinnati, Ohio, Megan Standifer(Phor-One-One) and Deena Philpot (Skwert Diggety) take a large step from the "Cincinnati School of Creative and Performing Arts" into the wide open hip hop spectrum. It wasn't until several years after "SCPA" that the girls got hooked up again and ultimately formed "Nadanuf." While both were into the music scene around Cincinnati, they were in two different groups. A chance meeting, at a time when the pair were experiencing minor problems with their own groups, they got together on a one-shot deal to enter a local talent show. It was at that talent show that they were discovered by producer Aaron "Babyboy" Griffin (En Vogue, Jody Watley and Myron), and the rest, as they say, "is history." "Nadanuf" had solid talent for the production end of the album, including Howie-T, Soul-G, and Luis Harris, who also is their nineteen year old Los Angeles based manager. Everyone involved agrees that "Nadunuf" has broken into a niche that only sheer talent can obtain, in a rap world that's been leaning toward the hard core ghetto scene. "Nadanuf" uniquely has an old school, 70's funk base, mixed with a 90's hip-hop sassy charisma that reaches a following of three decades of music. From Aretha Franklin (who just put out a new album herself) to rap pioneer Kurtis Blow, to Salt-N-Pepa, "Nadanuf" displays their versatility and promotability. "Worldwide" is an effort to send a mesage of fun, liveliness and entertainment value that will reach and connect the masses. One can't help but be attracted to the sexy, sassy smooth grooves of, "6AM (We Be Rollin')" and "Single Life." "Reminisce" is also a romantic, new school flavor of turnin' a playa. "Now that you feel brand new/ Reminisce on the love we had/ Doing things you thought you'd never do." The two elementary school buddies graduated to a teenage hip-hop tango, ready to spread positivity in "Worldwide," the title track. The girls do stick to their roots, evidenced by their rendition of "The Breaks," a tribute to Kurtis Blow, who appears in the single's colorful, energetic video seen on MTV in August. Sport those goggles ladies! There's also some expert sampling from home, as the girls get funky with their version of of the Isley's "Caravan," another Cincinnati group. The ladies actually use words like thesis, osmosis, mental health, fatigue, and others mixed into tracks with a street flavor, like "Many Emcees, On A Mission, and Under Pressure" - an education given in lyrics, style and pump. "Lookin' Out My Window," "Losing You" and "Talkin' Shit" each address the issues of Black Americans. "What a shame/ This crazy mess I see/ When I look outside my window pane/ I must maintain/ Remain sane in the game." "Nadanuf" points out the hypocracy of spouting prejudice, when brothers are taking out brothers more than ever, as was the case with Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G./Biggie Smalls. "Nadanuf" wants to promote positive influences and the reality of the troubles the world faces today. "Like It," "Good Life" and Single Life" all promote the benefits of being an independent woman, educated in books and the street. Well rounded women that don't take no shit from no one, that take care of business and family. Each song has a smooth hip-hop groove that most everyone can dance to, whether you're in a club, your family room, or jiggin' in your car - and go ahead and pump up the bass all the way to the Outro. "Nadanuf" intends to live up to the title "Worldwide." Skwert Diggety and Phor-One-One are keepin' it clever. The girls are developing a fashion line, including goggles, and are looking to approach the movie scene, building on their success in the music business. "We're young, and we're hip, and we know what's going on today, but yet we still have that old school show, where we want to get up onstage and dance and rap and entertain you, and not just walk around." "Nadanuf" has all the tools. They got sexy, they got sassy, they got spunky, and they damn sure get funky. The lyrics promote education, evaluation and stimulation. So go get it ya'll. Note: Because of the girls' schedule, and recent trip to Europe, we were unable to connect to do a live interview. However, Warner Bros. graciously supplied us with an interview they did with "Urban Network Magazine," and some of the interview follows. UN - Did the School of Creative and Performing Arts have a lot to do with your definition of being a performer? S - Yes, I think it did, because we were there at a young age, like nine, ten-years-old and we learned a lot about backgrounds and all the Fine Arts as well as academics. Even back then we had to maintain a "B" average to stay in the school. Besides, you had to audition to even get in the school. But that kept us on our toes. P - It was a lot of discipline. A lot of discipline. UN - Do you think a lot of artist are limited in their ability to entertain a crowd? P - I truly think everyone could benefit from learning how to properly entertain an audience. It would definitely take the show to the next level. I know there are a lot of rap artists who feel that they'd rather "keep it real," but in a way that's what we're doing because entertain is what we really want to do. UN - How did you come to develop this album, "Worldwide?" S - We're positive people, so of course we came with the positive energy. There were things going on between the East and West Coast and we, being from the mid-west, didn't want to get caught in the middle of that because it's a shame that 2Pac and Biggie got caught in the line of that. But we wanted to bring you some songs that could be played world-wide; dance tracks, tracks to make you think and we just wanted to express ourself and have fun and energy so you could just see a happy performance . UN - What's your favorite song on the album? S - I like every one on the album. You know, this is the first album and I like 'em all. But if I have to pick one then I would say it was number five on the album, "6 A.M. (We Be Rollin')." I like this song because it's not your ordinary "rollin' in the jeep" track. It's more melodic and we're singing. We got a chance to flex our vocals a little. P - One of my favorites that I really like would be number 12, "Talkin' Shit," because I really like songs that tell you something and and give something to feed off of and maybe leave with some kind of information that you didn't know before. And I think this song does that. UN - Tell me about the goggles? S - The goggles are kinda like a vibe. It's like our head gear or more like our armor to take on a crowd. P - Just like our bright clothes; if it's bright that's just Nadanuf. It has to be extra or it's just Nadanuf. UN - While the album was in production, were the songs already written or did you listen to beats to develop your songs? S - We were like, "let me hear that track," and we'd pick and choose between the beats and when we found something we liked we'd go write and record the song that same day, or some of them. Five of the songs were on our demo we brought to Denise Brown (Warner Bros.), and we did them over. P - We had a lot of other material that was written, but that's kinda like a pet peeve of mine, to use ideas I already had in mind for one song then trying to make it fit into this new song. I'd rather write something new for the new song. UN - Tell me about the single, "The Breaks." S - Babyboy just came up with the idea to re-do the song and at the time we were working with Def Jef because we had just finished recording "Worldwide." Def Jef said, "I know Kurtis, he's just right around the corner. I can call him up." Kurtis came by the next day. At first we were just going to ask him to do his original "Clap ya hands everybody." Then he asked could he do them all. So he re-did the whole song with us. Afterward we ran to 7-Eleven and got a disposable camera to get our pictures with Kurtis. UN - "Single Life?" S - That came about when Denise Brown hooked us up with the "Living Single" soundtrack from Warner Bros. for the movie. At one point, they talked about even using our track for the television series' theme song for the new season, but I don't think that they're going to use it. But it's still on the soundtrack. On the song we just wrote about our lives, how we're living single. We moved out here from Cincinnati on our own, not depending on anybody to live our dream. We had each other's backs and stayed true. Quote from UN: "With their debut album now under their belt, Nadanuf hopes to live up to the album title and go worldwide."

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