Rap audiences can be a fickle lot. In 1994,
Craig Mack was riding high on the success of his debut album,
Project: Funk da World, and a hit single, "Flava in Ya Ear." Three years later, his
Operation: Get Down follow-up would have more appropriately titled Operation: Fell Off. So what happened? Two things: First,
Mack was backed by a rising
Sean "Puffy" Combs on his debut, a relationship that was strained by the meteoric rise of
the Notorious B.I.G. -- who incidentally had his debut on the ear-popping remix of "Flava in Ya Ear." Second, three years is a looong time in the pop world. If
Operation: Get Down had appeared sooner, it's possible that "Drugs, Guns and Thugs" could have broken out as a single and
Mack would never have had to write "Jockin' My Style" -- a song attacking all the MCs who had taken on his style during the long absence.
–
Wade Kergan, Rovi