Release The Pressure

“Release the Pressure” is the debut album by Tacoma rap group Criminal Nation, released in 1990 through Nastymix Records in Seattle.

The story

Criminal Nation came out of Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood, led by rapper Wojack, who recorded as MC Deff, and DJ and producer Eugenius, known as DJ E. The group first performed as America’s Most Wanted, and Wojack had opened shows for Sir Mix-a-Lot and Run-DMC before Nastymix, the label Mix-a-Lot co-founded, signed them. The album was recorded as gang activity in Hilltop was near its peak at the end of the 1980s, and its songs describe gangs, guns, drugs and the police in the neighborhood, offering a local account at a time when news coverage of Tacoma focused on the violence.

Sound and production

Eugenius and Womack produced the album, with Nes Rodriguez among the executive producers. Its twelve tracks mix militant politics in the manner of Public Enemy with the street storytelling of N.W.A, set to arpeggiated synthesizer lines and heavy, growling bass. “Black Power Nation” carries the album’s political side, while “Mission of Murder”, “Criminal Hit” and “Definitely Down for Trouble” deal with street life. The single “Insane” is built on James Brown’s “Funky Drummer”. The album carried a Parental Advisory sticker, the first Pacific Northwest album to do so.

Legacy

“Release the Pressure” peaked at No. 73 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and spent 13 weeks on the Billboard charts. “Insane” reached No. 17 on the Hot Rap Singles chart, and the video for “Black Power Nation” received airplay; “Release the Pressure” and “The Right Crowd” were also issued as singles in 1991. The group followed it with “Trouble in the Hood” in 1992, but Nastymix folded soon afterward. The album is regarded as one of the first records to put Tacoma and the Hilltop on the rap map, and in 2020 Wojack revisited its story in a documentary about the group.

More from hip hop in 1990.