Eyes As Hard- Part Two

Saw through the eyes of the inflicted people
Their eyes are hard as a million tombstones
marked with the names of the millions of kin thrown
to the dust that gave them their colored skin
Fade to black is the scene they're embalmed in

From "Raining Revolution" by Arrested Development

Moving on to part two of my review of Eyes as Hard as a Million Tombstones (part one here), I quickly learned that I probably could've just tacked this on to part one as there isn't a whole lot to comment on for the last 20 minutes or so of the video.  But the choice has been made, instead of getting with this I got with that, and here we are.

We now move on to the video for "People Everyday," which is the video I'm most familiar with.  I think this video played every night on Yo! MTV Raps during the summer of 1992 (as did the previously referenced "The Choice is Yours Revisited" by Black Sheep).  We go from there to a little segment on Speech talking about his "sing-song" rap style that he used on "Tennessee."  According to Speech, he recorded "Raining Revolution" first and then later decided to use it on "Tennessee," which was an excellent decision.  I'm not an expert on rap flows or technique, but it seems to me that Speech was the first to really use this style, a style that would go on to be used by just about everyone at some point, but the names that really come to mind right now are Bone thugs -n- harmony at times and Nelly.

We then move on to the video for "Revolution."  At some point there is more discussion from Speech where he expresses his desire for a family, but laments it's incompatibility with a "revolutionary" lifestyle.  Obviously it's not hard to tell which direction he went, and one can't blame him.  Of course, there are ways to rebel besides becoming Che Guevara.

From here on out, you can basically describe the rest as filler material- these are the last 10 minutes of the video.  A few more shots of the group, some clips from Unplugged on MTV, and footage of the group accepting an MTV Music Award.  Realistically, from here on out mainstream rap music quickly deteriorated into the gangster era, so I get a little sad when I hear the group talking about how their music with actual content proved that you can succeed with a mainstream audience while staying positive.  Not for long.  Very bittersweet ending really.


To close the video out, there's some wacky stuff played over the credits of fans talking about the group that probably could've been left on the cutting room floor, but no biggie.   I've also seen that some copies claim that the video for "Natural" is included, and it probably is, but not on my copy.  Again, no biggie in this youtube age as we can look it up in two seconds now, but I would've been ticked if I had bought it back then looking for the video!

Anyway, that sums up my review of Eyes as Hard as a Million Tombstones.  If you've got a working VHS player, it can still be found pretty cheaply on the used market, and if you're an AD fan I highly recommend checking out this video as I think you'll enjoy it greatly, as I have.  It loses a little steam at the end, but before that it's filled with Speechy goodness....  :)