Download from Bandcamp

10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition.
6 bonus tracks

(Liner Notes written by Dart Adams of Producers I Know/Bastard Swordsman)

By the time I first picked up “Dwight Spitz” back in 2002, I was pretty familiar with him already. I first heard of him via print interviews during the early 90’s from Pete Nice and Bobbito Garcia as he was signed to Hoppoh Records alongside Kurious (Jorge). In 1995, he released an album “Pre-Life Crisis” that quite a few music critics went crazy over but I didn’t hear for years. By 1996, he’d seemingly disappeared and I couldn’t find a copy of the same album music critics raved about just the previous year.

Fast forward to Spring 1999, I’d hang around Tower Records in Boston and directly across the street was another record store called Biscuithead Records. Biscuithead specialized in independent Hip-Hop 12’s and one of the signees Edan raved about this 12” from a Tennessee label called Spongebath. The song was “Violatin” by none other than Count Bass D. “The same dude who was on Pete & Bobbito’s old label?” I asked. Yep. Same guy. It turned out Count Bass D did a radio show with this kid Egon on Vanderbilt’s WRVU. I listen to the song & it’s dope. I wanted to cop a copy but I was broke as I’d just quit my job at Tower the previous month and I was unemployed. I went across the street to Tower to read The Source. Lo & behold there’s a feature on Count Bass D & Egon’s 911 Emergency Show at Vanderbilt!

I also found out from my boy Shaka (who owned SunMoon Recordings, the label that would later boast a roster that included The Electric Company & Edan) you could listen to their radio show online from a website called 113 Audio Resources. In 1999, this was a pretty big deal. By the time I finally had dough, every copy of “Violatin’” in the Metro Boston area was sold out. Months later there was another Spongebath Count Bass D 12” that made huge noise, “On The Reels/Piece Of The Pie/Violatin’ (Remix)”. There was a track “Piece Of The Pie” featuring local Rap heroes Esoteric & Virtuoso on it. Needless to say, I never had a chance in finding a copy. They were gone from the bins before they could be placed in them. Eventually, any copies ordered were already being held for people. Count Bass D also shouted out Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan & Edo G at the end of his verse so he had made quite a few fans in Massachusetts off of that alone.

In addition, Count Bass D dropped the EP “Art For Sale” that heads went crazy for later that year. As you may have guessed it also eluded me. Count Bass D was always a favorite in my hometown, he even appeared on 7L & Esoteric’s “The Soul Purpose” & “Dangerous Connection” LP’s. Then I heard that Count Bass D’s next LP “Dwight Spitz” was dropping via MF Grimm & MF DOOM and there was no way I wasn’t copping it. I bought it from a Newbury Comics location and I played it over & over. Count Bass D was already a sick producer but he somehow took his craft to another level on “Dwight Spitz”. He threw himself into the MPC 2000 & S-3000 (Thanks Akai!) and made a classic. Imagine the look on my face when I first heard Edan on “How We Met”!

My time with “Dwight Spitz” was short lived as my copy was stolen about a week after I got it. No matter. The album was burned into my psyche. The audio clips from “Raisin In The Sun”. The feature from his daughter Cana, Dionne Farris singing in the background while D rhymes about his kids and marriage when most rappers we KNEW were married with kids still rapped about pulling girls in the club. I couldn’t forget the way he bodied the theme from “Hill Street Blues” on “Blues For Percy Carey” or the collaborations with DOOM “Quite Buttery” & “Make A Buck”. The vocals on “No Time For Fakin (Part 2)’” predated Pharrell’s by years. While a few different editions of “Dwight Spitz” dropped I was shellshocked. It seemed as though the universe was telling me that I wasn’t meant to own physical copies of Count Bass D’s albums even though I was such a big fan of his. DAMMIT!

I’m ecstatic that this classic album is being re-released. I love the idea that people who enjoyed this music when it first dropped will get a chance to reconnect with those old feelings. I love the idea that new fans will discover Count Bass D’s music and get an idea of his overall progression & growth throughout his illustrious career. I’m just glad we have cats like Count Bass D in this current time to help us in the constant war between real music & bu11$#!+.

Dart Adams
August 2013

Count Bass began an extended and prolific release schedule in 2009 that includes his 2017 Snoop Dogg collaboration “Too Much Pressure,” praised by the New York Times for, “luscious, velvety, soothing, slow funk.”
After 30 years, Count Bass D is busier than ever, releasing his 10th vocal solo album CBD in 2020. Walter Dwight in 2023 and Player Programmer in 2025.

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