I Found Love for Valentine's Day

No, I'm not talking about my personal love life (I'm not allowed to discuss that publicly until the trial is concluded and all my appeals have been exhausted); I'm talking about B-Fats. After all, this is Valentine's Day; so what better way to celebrate than by digging out an obscure 80's love rap?

B-Fats will always have a place in hip-hop history for creating the record (and the dance that goes with it), "Woppit," back in '86. But he did manage to parlay that success into a label deal to record a full-length album in 1989 called Music Maestro. And for some reason, he or the label decided to release the token love song on that album as a single. And here it is.

First of all, didn't Orpheus Records have one of the freshest label sleeves of any label? I had to leave the whole thing in the scan so you guys who don't any Orpheus 12"s could appreciate it. :)

Like all of his material, "I Found Love" was produced by Donald D (yes, The Syndicate Sniper correction (see comments): as in Donald Dee Bowden, who did records like "At the Party" and produced for Mike Gee and Cheryl the Pearl). So as a B-Fats/Donald D collaboration, it's got some nice bounce to it, especially for a love song. And that bassline is by far the best thing about this track, but the rest of it is ok. It's got a lot of instrumentation: horns, keys, synth-strings that follow the bassline - it's pretty well done. It features sappy but talented singing by Aleese Simmons and Brent Carter, mostly on the chorus (natch); but they're allowed to really go off with their own lyrics and stylings at the end.

The vocals are in that slightly-whispered, simple flow style you'd expect from an 80's love rap tune; and the lyrics are far from innovative and kinda silly:

"All that beauty,
Along with the brains;
She's a straight-up angel;
She's not about the head games.
She's so sophisticated,
Educated, soon to be orientated
Into my world,
With lots of
B... Fats... charm.
'Cause I got what it takes
To set off her alarm.
I'm all shook up,
Caught in the feeling.
She's my girl,
She's my friend,
She's my everything - word!"

...But if you're checking for this kind of record, surely that's what you're in the market for.

Don't get too excited about the 12" exclusive "Lover's Rap Mix" on the b-side, though. It's just the instrumental of the A-side (they should've called it the "Lover's Rapless Mix" or something).

Unfortunately, B-Fats never put out anything after this, but he's still around. He has a myspace here, with some new songs, as well as "Woppit," which he for some reason has titled "The Whoop" on his player. The new material features some other MCs (his new crew, I guess)... it's not bad, but for some reason the vocals are mixed way too low. Still worth checking out, though.