Def and Defiance

Sometimes this will show up on EBay with the dubious label of "random rap." But, in fact, "Wild, Wild West" by Def and Defiance is actually the first record by Big Dad (Darryl Pierce) & Muffla (Dwayne Simon) - better known as the group they later recorded as, The LA Posse - after they went solo from Uncle Jamm's Army. This record came out in 1985 and they still very much had that Uncle Jamm's early west coast sound... as Muffla said in an interview at WestCoastPioneers.com (that's a really good, in depth interview on a really good, in depth site, by the way... for instance, I bet you didn't know that Big Dad and Muffla were originally two of the first Critters of Bobby Jimmand the Critters, dancing for their first ten shows), "If you had a keyboard, an 808 drum machine, and a vocoder; you could make any West coast record you wanted."

And that's what this record is all about. A fast, 808 drum track, keyboards playing various riffs on Enrio Morricone's infamous whistling theme from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, accompanied by various sound effects and whoops from Western films (some sampled, and some I believe made by the artists). Muffla was Def and Big Dad was Defiance (still in the act of finding themselves, Dwayne and Daryl, or Def and Defiance, put out their next record under the name Double D). They do use a vocider machine at times, but other times rap in their own, distinctive voices, and this is when you really get a sense of, "yes, this is that LA Posse." The lyrics are pretty simple and kept to short verses like:

"You wanna dance?
You want romance?
The wild, wild west
Gives you that chance.
From San Diego to the Bay,
We're talkin' Cal-if-orn-I-A.
Not New York City or DC,
LA's the home of Double D.
Our message here?
Our point across:
Everyone knows,
LA is boss.
From sea to shore?
We rock hardcore.
We lead the pack -
East coast, bust that!
The west is wild;
Fresh LA style.
Get off your butt
And dance a while,
Baby!"

Despite the similarity in name (and use of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly theme), forget about Kool Moe Dee's record (not dissing, though... that's a classic)... this is really like a cross between some early Egyptian Lover and Jonzun Crew's "Space Cowboy." Now, tell me, with a combination like that, how could you go wrong?

Both Big Dad (here) and Muffla (here) have myspace pages, but they're both set to private at the moment. There are also a couple of LA Posse myspace pages here, here and here, none of which are set to private. So check out what they're up to today, while you rock to some of their tunes from yesterday.

Tags: Def and Defiance, LA Posse, Double D, Uncle Jamm's Army, Muffla, Big Dad