Al Sparks

Al Sparks's lone contribution to the comedy recording field came in 1972. A barber by trade, his off-color anecdotes found their way onto an album that sold over 25,000 copies with seemingly no promotion whatsoever. Sparks, working under the alias of O.B. Brown, has a delivery that makes Richard Pryor at his raunchiest sound tame in comparison. Almost entirely in rhyme, Sparks's unabashed style (with a porno-movie music soundtrack behind him) presages elements of rap and showcases true ghetto humor at its finest. Oddly enough, he never recorded a follow-up, and when last heard from he was still cutting hair in Detroit.