Crash! Boom! Here Comes Flynamic!

Here's a really rare one. Before becoming the hosts of the Wake Up Show, Sway and Tech were recording artists on Giant Records. And before they signed to Giant, they were known as The Flynamic Force, and released a classic EP on their own label, All City Records. Sometime between the Flynamic EP and Giant record came this odd, little 12".

Titled "Wild Style" (or maybe that's meant to be the name of the record label; who knows?), is a 12" single of mixes by Alexander (no, I don't know either) for On the Beat Productions. The catalog # is OTB001, which suggests the label is actually On the Beat, and that this is the first and - presumably - last release on that label. They're three instrumental mixes, blending instrumentals of its time like Heavy D's "Somebody for Me," Twin Hype's "For Those Who Like To Groove" and Technotronic's "Pump Up the Jam." And they're actually quite good; dude has mixing skills. And, notably, one track features some slick scratches by King Tech.

Which brings us to the real jewel of this 12"; an all-new Flynamic Force song called "Truly Funky." The song starts out as a mock radio show interview, with Alexander, Sway and Tech being interviewed by Michael Erickson, who hosted his own show on the same station as the WUS. But this isn't an actual radio freestyle pressed on wax, this is definitely a fully produced, original song. He starts out by asking them about their new movement, FFORM, Fighting For Organized Rap Music (I guess that idea didn't last very long, since I never heard it mentioned anywhere else), then Sway starts rapping as the instrumental kicks in.

When you think the song's about to end, Michael Erickson comes back on, "yo yo, man, that was truly funky, but uh... that was only three minutes. I paid you for five." Tech says he ran out of beats, so Sway rocks it over a human beat box. Then a fresh drum track blends into the mix. This is just a really good late 80's rap record, at least as good as anything on the Flynamic Force EP, maybe even a little better. The instrumental for "Truly Funky" is also included.

Because I'm utterly unable to break away from my own insignificant traditions, here's a link to Sway and King Tech's myspace page and their official Wake Up Show website. If you haven't checked my main page (and why haven't you, may I ask?), you might be interested to learn that this blog entry is being posted in conjunction with a brand new artists' page I made for the Flynamic Force, so you can see their complete discography (note: I didn't bother including any of the mix CDs and freestyle albums they host, since they don't actually feature music by Sway and Tech).