Let's start with Captain Sky. Captain Sky was a funk/ disco guy most famous for "Super Sporm." He wasn't a rapper, though he did rap once on a song called "Station Brake" in 1982, and maybe one other time. But he was a singer, and known for wearing crazy disco outfits. However, this right here is his last record after a hiatus of several years, and his return to rapping. It's called "Thank You," and it's a rap remake of Sly and the Family Stone's classic "Thank You." It really liberally uses the music from Sly's version and he kicks lyrics like, "I got the beat, to move your feet." How or why they dragged him out of retirement to be a rapper for this project is anybody's guess.
But here's what we do know. The liner notes brag about assembling their posse "from the four corners of the land, from NY, LA, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Jacksonville, FL." Peters Records itself is straight out of Miami, and at least a portion of this album was recorded in Skyywalker Studios with Luther Campbell.
The album starts off with a pretty decent song by Queen D. I'm pretty sure she's the Jacksonville one, and she's not bad. I mean, her song "Queen D's World" is definitely on a poppy dance tip, closer to The Real Roxanne than MC Lyte. It's got a DJ cutting up a bunch of records like "Don't Want To Lose Your Love," James Brown, UTFO's "Bite It" and a liberal dose of "Tell Me Something Good" on the hook. It's one of the stand out tracks, and it even came out on 12" single with an extended mix and a disappointing B-side called "Rock It To Me Faster."
In fact, a bunch of these songs got 12" singles. News 4 You's "Good Times," which is actually a crappy R&B song, b/w "She's a Lady," which is more of a catchy new jack swing song at least, but still pretty weak. Then there was a corny rap duo named 2 La Jit. Their 12" said it was from the album Having Fun, but that never happened. Kenny B Devine is the only one to go on to a couple more records on other labels, as well as another Peters Records 12". He was from Miami, but all his stuff was pretty weak. There's a song by Money D and Wayne, which is a big improvement, although I can't decide if it's actually good, or just feels good by comparison. Finally a group called GQ Tab that combined R&B and rap had a corny anti-drug song on this album called "Stop the Pusher," and came out with a love song called "Teen Emotion" on a Peters Records 12".
So yeah, most of this album's pretty bad. A group called Satin does a Hip-Hop version of "The Name Game," which hits a terrible low, with all of the lyrics literally from the children's song. But there are some interesting moments. A song by 2-Real is rather listenable, with a couple interesting samples and a harder edge.
And Schoolly D's contribution? Yeah, he produced a song by a Philly girl group called Northside Alliance. Actually, it's just one MC, but I guess she had a DJ or someone to justify the "Alliance" name. Anyway, the song's called "Give My Regards To Broadstreet" and is unquestionably the jewel of the album. The title's kind of a pun, because Give My Regards To Broadstreet was a famous Paul McCartney film, but Broad Street is also a major urban boulevard in Philly. It's a hot track with a killer break, sick horn samples and a cut up Krs-One vocal sample for the hook. It's too bad this never got a 12", because I would definitely recommend it and it's the only song to really deserve it (although I'm actually pretty happy with my Queen D single).
So this album is still kind of a weird mystery. Someone (I guess Peters) sunk a lot of money into this lost cause. Not just this album but the whole label. They put out six 12" singles, five from this album plus another News 4 You single. But I recommend the compilation just for the Northside Alliance song. I've searched and have never been able to find out more about this group, which is a shame because an album of this would be fantastic. But take what you can get; this is hot.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment