Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Just a Summa Day

Here's another nice summer jam. Coming straight out of the House of Hits in '94, Sah-B put out her first single on Reprise Records on the strength of her cameo on The Lords Of the Underground's hit, "Flow On." With a distinctively high-pitched voice, hardcore flow and clever punchline-style rhymes, Sah-B was definitely creating a buzz, and this attempt at a mainstream crossover release may've been a poor choice for a debut to an audience who would've been hoping for a reprise (no pun intended, but it's there and we're all just going to have to live with it) from just that sort of thing at that time... but it's still pretty nice.

Like you'd expect from a summer jam, this Marley Marl produced song is a relaxed, take-it-easy type record with a brief flute sample, keyboard, light bassline and slow drums. A hook by Avery Moore that goes: "It's just a summer day... come out and parlay. Come out and parlay," sets up Sah-B easy listening rhymes (written by Mawiyah Britton. Sah-B's real name is Sakinah Britton, so who's this? Her sister? Mother?):

"People fake sick just to get the day off,
'Cause it's too hot to work; the heat'll make your head hurt.
The heat sometimes'll make you aggravated;
And those without ACs are really frustrated.
Mosquito bites just gettin' to ya,
And the sweat got your PJs stickin' to ya;
So you jump into the shower,
Stay about an hour,
And throw on the Johnson's Baby Powder."


Here's the cover of the cassingle, so you can see the kind of vibe they were goin' for:

But it's the b-side, "Some Ol' Sah-B Shit" that's the star of this show. Produced by K-Def, with nasty horn samples, intense scratching, a banging piano loop and Sah-B (this time writing her own material) ripping it ill and hardcore, this is Sah-B living up to everything her burgeoning fans were hoping for, and then some. There's a warning on the label, "Attention: Track B1 may not be suitable for on-air/in-store play." Yeah, it sure ain't. And it's better than anything the Lords or any of Marley's other acts managed to come out with at the time; she really just kills it over one of K-Def's best tracks.

Now, here's an ad that ran in a summer issue of Rap Sheet:

...Note (if you can... AOL seems to've shrunken it a bit) that it mentions her "forthcoming debut album on Reprise." Sadly, this never materialized. The cassingle credits go a bit further, mentioning, "the Reprise album Some Ol' Sah-B Shit, available on cassette and compact disc (4/2 - 45716)." Now I'm no marketing guru, but surely that title was shooting themselves in the foot. Sah-B did attempt an independent comeback a few years later (of course, as always, you can see all the specifics on my Sah-B page), and continued to appear on the subsequent LOTUG albums, but her increasing attempts to sound more conventional (read: boring) really worked against her.

As far as I can tell, Sah-B's no longer recording (though maybe when LOTUG comes out with another album, she'll return), and I can't find a myspace or anything... Here's K-Def's myspace page, though. And here's Marley's (not to be confused with this, unofficial Marley Marl myspace page).

3 comments:

  1. Hello mate,

    I stumbled across your blog via the shared items at Oh Word - nice work.  I may just be being stupid, but I can't see a link for this tune and I have been busting my arse to get it for ages.  I have even been in contact with Richard Ross who runs Ghettoman Beats with K-Def who wants me to e-mail him it if I find it: even he doesn't have it!

    I don't know what your policy with file sharing is and understand that if you do not provide links it is probably because you draw issue with it.  I totally understand this position and can assure you that this song would go no further than myself.  If you check the requests section of my own blog, you'll see that it is already there.

    If you feel inclined to oblige you can get at me via e-mail (danielmlove@yahoo.com) or stop by the blog (fromdabricks.blogspot.com).  I would seriously appreciate a copy of these mp3s and hope that you will end the turmoil I have been through to get them.  Perhaps that's a little exaggerated, but I'm sure you get my point.  Addiction to hip hop is a dangerous thing...

    Thanks,

    Dan

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  2. Hey, thanks for stopping by!  I know your blog; I've checked it out a few times and it was some good stuff.  It's refreshing to see hip-hop blogs that right substantially about a record rather than just rip a million CDs with no comment.

    Did Ohword link me or mention me?  I don't see anything on their site...

    Anyway, you're right (and not stupid  hehe), there are no mp3s to be found on this blog/site.  But the good news is that this record is easily found.  There's an EBay auction up at the moment with a BIN of just under $10, and there are many copies up on gemm.com from different sellers priced from $5.50-$10.  So, there's enough cheap copies for yourself, Mr. Ross, K-Def and everyone reading these comments now.  =)

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  3. Nice one mate.  I had checked on EBay previously but with little joy, so I'll make my way over there immediately.

    Thanks for the help.  BTW this was posted in Oh Word's Shared Items, check the left hand side of their blog.

    Thanks again,

    Dan

    ReplyDelete