The story of The Symbolic Three doesn't end with "No Show." They returned the next year on a new label, Public Records, with their new single "Extravagant Girls." And once again, they came with the same producer (Arthur Armstrong), DJ (Dr. Shock) and even the same special guest (MC Mikey D - Public Records was also the home of his singles with The LA Posse)."Extravagant Girls" starts out with Shock and Mike talking about how materialistic girls are. Could the Symbolic Three be any better? No, actually, they're far worse - they're EXTRAVAGANT GIRLS! The concept here is to mock materialistic girls by playfully upping the absurdity level. While materialistic girls want you to buy them a new dress, the Symbolic Three want you to buy them a house and an airplane. Then Mikey D comes back to give the male counterpoint. It's nothing brilliant, but it's fun.
And like their last record, it's the B-side serious heads will probably prefer. "Bite It If You Wanna" is the fairly self-explanatory, harder flip to the more radio-friendly A-side. No Mikey D this time, just a simple beat with plenty of handclaps and constant scratches by Dr. Shock. As the song progresses, a few other, harder samples blend into the track, as well as a super cheesy xylophone-like riff. Apart from that riff, though, it's all dope and makes for a pretty rough track by '86 standards.
If you consider that these girls were putting out records while The Sequence were still together... these were easily some of the hardest girls in the game and definitely deserve more credit than they get. Okay, granted, they had a team of guys writing all their stuff; but we should at least try to distinguish between them and Super Nature.
By the way, before I sign off, I just heard today that Mikey D has a new 7" coming out on King Of the Beats with Craig G. Between that and Heat Seekers, Mikey D seems to hard on the comeback trail this year. Then again, it seems like he never really leaves, just keeps doing interesting projects slightly out of the spotlight, like these Symbolic Three records.
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"but we should at least try to distinguish between them and Super Nature."
ReplyDeleteYeah, we should, cause in 86 Super Nature bka Salt´n´Pepa, dropped heavy hitters such as "Beauty & The Beat" "My Mike" or "I Desire", being the first crew to rock over the "Amen Break" on wax! Oh yeah, can´t forget "Part II At Warp Speed", the sequel to "Beauty...", lightyears ahead of what the Symbolic Girls were kickin at that time.
Yeah, I wasn't saying that to disparage Salt N Pepa... I liked their first two albums, even some of the stuff that heads might consider too crossover/ pop like "Shake Your Thang." I was just making the point that The Symbolic Three were also dope and deserve to be recognized, as opposed to being just a footnote in the S&P story ("by the way, there was also another answer record to "The Show").
ReplyDeleteAnd that's cool about them being the first to rhyme over the "Amen" break. I didn't know that.
Hi Werner --
ReplyDeleteNever forget:
There was Be-Bop before Hip-Hop ;)
If the Hip-Hoppers know that, or not.
Keep up the good work, and feel free to check my blog.
Best,
Brew
No offense Werner! Had the feeling it was about time to take a stand for the girls, too often they get discredited for their later pop success. The first album "Hot, Cool & Vicious" is a certified hip hop classic in my book, great production with incredible sample/break selection (I wonder who out of Herbs camp did the beats), dope cuts by the Original Spinderella (later replaced by Deidre Roper) and great back´n´forth routines by the 2 emcees. Another lil known fact: Kool G Rap wrote the lyrics to their first single (as Salt´n´Pepa), called "I´ll Take Your Man". Great blog Werner, keep it up!
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