The Cactus Al/Bum is the debut album by hip hop trio 3rd Bass, released on Def Jam Recordings on November 14, 1989. The album received positive reviews from the hip hop press. It was certified gold by the RIAA on April 24, 1990, the same day as Biz Markie's The Biz Never Sleeps, which was released two weeks prior to The Cactus Album. The Cactus Album peaked at #5 on Billboard's Top Hip Hop/R&B Albums chart and at #55 on the Billboard 200 chart. In 1998, the album was selected as one of The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. A decade later, Rhapsody included The Cactus Album in its list of "The 10 Best Albums By White Rappers".
Background
Most of the music was produced by Sam Sever alongside members MC Serch and Pete Nice, except for the Prince Paul-produced tracks "The Gas Face" and "Brooklyn-Queens," and "Steppin' to the A.M." and "Oval Office" by The Bomb Squad. The album generally features songs that are lyrical showcases or are about women. The song "Sons of 3rd Bass" can be viewed as a diss to the Beastie Boys in that it references them in many lines such as this one uttered by MC Serch in the first verse. The song "Wordz of Wisdom" was recorded while the group performed under the name "Three the Hard Way." Their name was changed after they signed to Def Jam; however, the recording made its way onto the album. The group had a minor hit with the single "The Gas Face". The accompanying video, which featured a bevy of humorous cameo appearances that included Gilbert Gottfried, Flavor Flav, Salt-n-Pepa, and Erick Sermon, garnered respectable MTV airplay. The song also features Daniel Dumile in his recording debut. At the time, he was recording under the alias Zev Love X, a member of the rap duo KMD, but would later come to be known as MF DOOM. KMD were mentioned several times on the album, and they appeared in the music videos for "The Gas Face" and "Steppin' to the A.M."
The Cactus Vidie/Yo is a collection of 3rd Bass music videos, which was released in 1991. The video, which was distributed by Columbia Music Video, contained music videos of the album's singles as well as short skits featuring Gilbert Gottfried that appeared between the selections. The "Wordz of Wisdom" and "Triple Stage Darkness" videos were not full-length and only contained the first couple verses of the song. The video was only released on VHS and is now out of print. The videos featured are as follows:
