Treatment

Dave Dub's The Treatment is hip hop at it's bare bones. It's the philosophical twin of wrecked stoner-rock bands like Sleep, a group Dave frequently shared unlikely billing with, in the early 1990s hometown of San Jose, CA. That's how bad his psychedelic hellride weirded out the rest of the San Hopless rap community (also the original home of Stones Throw itself). Later, he'd ooze into opening slots for black metal and punk bands, even joining a punk band shortly before recording The Treatment. Despite plenty of communication with the proto-Stones Throw crew Peanut Butter Wolf and Charizma, there was never any official deal, and Dub confined his particular brand of madness to cassette tape only. From '92 on, he says he abandoned even caring about commercial rap and detached himself from the genre. In '99, he abandoned the USA and split to Jamaica to ride out Y2K. He came back illegally and secretly, reuniting after almost a decade with his original collaborator and current producer Tape Mastah Steph. Steph convinced him to go back not just to the roots but down to the actual dirt and record an album with nothing but what they used back in the day - an SP-1200 and a vintage Ensoniq EPS. The result is The Treatment, Dub's full-length Stones Throw debut - a horror film as refracted through the mind of a man who's seen it all and knows too much.