Second Era Chill Rob

This is the first of Chill Rob G's comeback singles after his separation from Wild Pitch Records, The Flavor Unit and The 45 King's production. This dropped in 1996 on Echo International. I love Echo. I mean, it was terrible for its roster's careers. They had zero promotion, and every artist I've heard mention it has had horror stories about not getting paid, or even that their releases through that label were unapproved bootlegs. But they put out so much material by so many artists who had otherwise totally dropped off the map. And while it usually wasn't their best stuff, being low budget and all; it was usually on a nice, underground east coast boom-bap tip.

And that's what this is. low budget, raw 90's boom bap from a classic NY MC who'd long since disappeared. It's a two track 12", "Let Me Know Something" b/w "Know Ya Place." Both songs are produced by a guy named Storm who knows the right thing to do: provide solid but low-key beats. consisting of a hard, no frills looping drum beats, sparse basslines and head-nodding piano loop and one other subtle sample (a horn in "Know Ya Place" and a snippet of a female R&B singer on "Let Me Know Something"). The loops have basically no change-ups or deviations through the entire length of the song. The hooks are also just simple, lightly scratched vocal samples. They're good enough to keep you feeling the track, but small enough not to distract from the MC. If you've lost your access to classic 45 King loops, this is what you do. Keep your head down and do just enough not to distract. Anything corny or superfluous would just kill the whole song, as so many producers have been proving through the 2000s and 2010s.

But of course, that strategy only works if your MC is strong enough to carry the weight. This is fucking Chill Rob G, so of course he is. He's got the classic, deep voice that could carry a record acapella if he had to. And while he definitely keeps things simple here - really basic concepts and a straight-forward delivery with a true school aesthetic - he's also updated his rhyme writing just enough for the 90's. He's got some clever rhymes in there like:

"I ain't never been a fan of yours, I make a list and check it twice; I'm like an evil Santa Claus. And I ain't bringin' no gifts and toys; I got a bag full of hard times, black eyes and mad noise." 

He doesn't go full "punchline rapper." He definitely is putting some updated 90s-style cleverness into the wordplay, but still keeps it hard. He definitely proves that he's an artist with more than a couple classic Wild Pitch singles in him.

Several years later, he would include both of those on his very rare, self-released Black Gold CD. But this 12" has the added bonus of an Accapella, in addition to Radio and Street Versions of each track, plus an Instrumental for "Know Ya Place." And the nice thing is that Echo singles are hardly ever rare, so you can add this to your crates pretty easily, which I recommend. Chill Rob G should never have been allowed to drop off, he could've produced a much longer, richer and genuinely worthwhile catalog. But at least there was Echo to give us a little bit more.

Prince Paul + Chill Rob G = Greatness

Chill Rob G is definitely one of those artists who should've had more albums. It's one of those "the music industry screwed up" stories that he only put out one album in his heyday, because he definitely had the critical and fan following to support a fuller career. But because his output is so limited, it makes every rare B-side or remix all the more essential. Especially when it turns out he ventured outside of his safety zone of making incredible tracks with The 45 King to record with the one and only Prince Paul.

Yeah, this is his 1990 single "Let Me Show You," which features two tracks from his classic album, Ride the Rhythm. But they're not the album versions, they're subsequent remixes. It also comes in a fresh picture cover and includes instrumental versions, so it's pretty sweet.

So, yeah, the A-side: the "Let Me Show You Ultamix" is remixed by Prince Paul and Pasemaster Mase, a.k.a. Maseo of De La Soul. Now, it's hard to say that this is better than the album version, because we're talking about prime 45 King production here. But as you can imagine, their Ultamix is zanier, and uniquely fresh. While the original was tough with a killer horn sample, the Ultamix is upbeat, with a new horn sample, a piano riff that Paul used for somebody else and a crazy cartoon sound effect in the main loop. They two versions are totally different and don't feel like the same song at all... If Chill didn't have some memorable lines on this song ("the truth will set you free, let you see the light; there's no need to watch TV tonight"), they probably could've slapped a new title on this and nobody would've noticed (just like they did with "The Power!").

Now you're probably less excited for the B-side remix, the Midnight Remix of "Make It" by Nephie Centeno. That's understandable.  First of all, "Make It" is the album's token house track. And secondly, who the fuck is Nephie Centeno? But come on, you can't front on 45 King's house tracks. He had a way of making some of the few hip-house tracks that could stand alongside the purest of hip-hop tracks. Younger heads might not quite get it, but if you were their age back in the late 80s, I don't believe you were skipping over these tracks.

And as for who's Nephie Centeno? I have no idea (though he has a couple other credits on discogs); but he plays it smart by not spoiling DJ Mark's work. While Paul and Mase essentially made a whole new instrumental for the acapella; Centeno keeps pretty much all of the original version's elements... same key sample, same funky bassline, same vocal sample on the hook... he just adds some elements, freaks it a bit, and makes an even more club-friendly version of the track. He also extends it by an extra two minutes, repeating the second verse (just like they did with "The Power!") to make it a proper, three verse song.

A fun note about the Instrumental version of this remix, by the way... While it's naturally missing most of Chill Rob's vocals (being an instrumental and all), they've included some new vocal samples to flesh it out, including Mel Brooks' sleazy "come on, do it... you know you do it" as King Louis XVI from History Of the World, Part 1 (plus, I guess if we're naming vocal samples, that "okay, chaps, take it from the top" line The Fat Boys used on "Rapp Symphony (In C-Minor)").

Now, how essential this 12" is depends on which pressing of Ride the Rhythm you have. The original pressing just has the original 45 King versions of both songs. But later pressings added the "Let Me Show You (Remix)," transferring a lot of the value from the single to the album (just like they did with "The Power!"). The "Make It" remix is still exclusive to the single, though. So if you've got an original LP, you'll definitely want the 12"; but otherwise, it depends how highly you rate a tweaked house track.

I Got (the) Power!

It's been a long time... sorry I left you. But I'm back! Hurricane Sandy decided to shut me, and the rest of the East coast, down for a bit. So I apologize for the lack of updates for a minute there. But let's not waste anymore time on that - I'm back online now; my power's been restored.

If you're into Hip-Hop enough to be reading this blog, you probably know some of the story of "The Power:" Chill Rob G did it first, then a cheesy, pop group called Snap! copied it and released it as their own, with a much bigger marketing budget, nearly erasing the original from popular consciousness. But it's even more complicated than that; and it doesn't help that nearly every source, online and off, seems to get at least one major detail wrong. For instance, did you know that the original recorded is actually by Power Jam featuring Chill Rob G, or that the whole song's really just a remix of an earlier Chill Rob record?

Reading the original 12" label turns out to be both enlightening and additionally confusing. "A Wild Pitch reconstruction of a Logic reconstruction of a Wild Pitch production by DJ Mark, The 45 King," it says. On one pressing. On another pressing it says, "A Wild Pitch reconstruction mixed by Nephie Centeno Original production by DJ Mark, The 45 King," So that's what that song is. But what the Hell did that actually mean?

Okay, let's go back a year. "The Power" was released in 1990, but we want to start with Chill's last single from 1989, "The Court Is Now In Session," specifically the B-side, "Let the Words Flow." If you've got it in your crates (or if you just have Chill's '89 album, Ride the Rhythm - it's on there, too), give it a listen. I'll wait. Okay, got those lyrics in your head? Now listen to "The Power." Oh yeah! "The Power" is just a glorified remix; it's the same vocal track.

"Let the Words Flow," was produced, like everything Chill Rob G had put out by that time, by DJ Mark the 45 King. That's the "Wild Pitch production by DJ Mark" they're referring to on the "Power" labels. Neither Mark nor Chill had anything to do with the creation of "The Power" besides recording their original song, "Let the Words Flow." Turning that underrated track into "The Power" was all Power Jam, who just used the Acappella off that 1989 12".

Now, Power Jam's not exactly a "real" group. There are no other Power Jam records out there. I assume the name is just a reference to the title of the song they created. So let's go back to the messages on the label, starting with the first pressing. Wild Pitch is obviously Chill's label who put this record out, but who or what is Logic?

Logic was an underground German label that specialized in dance music. There, two DJ/ producers named Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti created their new track. They used some elements of the original instrumental, like the wailing sax riff that opens up "Let the Words Flow" (it's actually not a sample, but played by Jack Bashkow, who winds up getting credit on both the "Court" and "Power" 12" labels), and the recurring refrain where Rob's vocals stutter, "it's getting, it's getting, it's getting kinda hectic" is just a line from the original acappella being played with. The rest of the instrumental, though still largely sample based, sounds nothing like The 45 King's work. And since the original Chill Rob G song only had two verses and an extended instrumental break-down for the final third, in order to make it a more traditional 3-verse song, Michael and Luca just repeat Chill's first verse a second time.

And the hook is sung by Kim Davis. ...At least, on my 12" it is. Yeah; now it's going to get even more complicated. See, the hook everybody associates with this song is actually a sample from Jocelyn Brown's "Love's Gonna Get You." If you watch the video, you hear Jocelyn's sample. But not on this record; it's another singer, whose voice... frankly isn't nearly as arresting. Sorry, Kim. It's the same basic line being sung, but it's not the sample. The difference is pretty obvious to me, but if you're not sure, stick around 'till the ending, where she starts changing the line to "you've got the power" and even, "you and me and Chill Rob G." That's obviously not sampled from Jocelyn Brown.  It's also not Penny Ford. Who's that? Well, stick with me.

In an interview with Unkut, Chill Rob talks about how Wild Pitch came to put this out, "I think Stu Fine [head of Wild Pitch] probably had a deal under the table with Arista records out in Germany, and he actually licensed the record to them – but they didn’t have a deal for the US. So since the record was doing so big out there, Stu came to me as if he had no idea what was going on and he said 'Yo Rob, let’s put the song out. I mean it’s doing really well in Germany, we might as well make some money out this.' I mean it was me, it was my stuff, so I said 'Cool, let’s do it.'" I believe it was at this point that Wild Pitch commissioned the second version, which replaced the sampled hook with Kim Davis.

So to be clear, since nobody who writes about the dueling versions of "The Power" ever seem to acknowledge it - there are two versions of Chill Rob G's "The Power," not even including Snap!'s.

Wild Pitch put out both of Chill's versions on separate 12"s in 1990, and also included the song as a cassette and CD bonus track on Chill's album (it's not on the original LP). And like the second 12" pressing, the liner notes of the tape and CD credit production to this Nephie Centeno guy. I don't know too much about him; but he's a Hip-Hop writer and producer who also did the remix of Chill's "Make It" on his next single. So, I believe he's the guy who actually went in and replaced the Brown sample with Kim Davis for the second Chill Rob G version.

Because then, of course, you've got the whole remake version to talk about. The original German producers, Power Jam if you will, hooked up with Arista Records to put this single out as well. As you could probably imagine, now the song was caught up in an intricate web of uncleared samples, and different artists and labels claiming the rights to it. So Michael and Luca formed Snap!, under the aliases Benito Benites and John Virgo Garrett III. They didn't have Kim Davis in their camp, so they got a new singer, Penny Ford, to sing on their version.

They also got a new rapper. See, for Snap! to release this without Wild Pitch, they not only couldn't use Kim Davis, they couldn't use Chill Rob G, whose acappella started the whole thing. So they got this new guy, Turbo B, to record all new rap vocals. I mean, in a way, I actually kinda like his vocals. Certainly the way he keeps ending his verse with "or I will attack, and you don't want that" is charming in a very camp way. And even the rest of his rhymes aren't actually bad. But despite the fact that he's got a similarly deep voice, he's no Chill Rob G (though he still emulates the stuttering "it's getting kinda hectic" parts with his natural voice Correction 11/10/12: My bad; as pointed out to me in the comments, while Turbo lip-syncs that part in the video, interestingly, Snap! is still using Chill Rob G's voice even in their version for that clip). So the distinction was forever drawn: Chill Rob's version is the one preferred by Hip-Hop heads, while Snap!'s version is the hokier one for the pop music masses.

But Chill's version of the "The Power" gets the short end of that deal, too; since really discerning heads don't truck with any version of "The Power," favoring instead 45 King's not-remotely-euro-dance-themed production, "Let the Words Flow." I guess I'd have to go with that, too; but "The Power" is still a dope alternative. and worth having in its own right. And for my money, the version to own is the original Wild Pitch single with both Chill's vocals and the Jocelyn sample.

Time to get technical. As I've said, Wild Pitch put out two 12" versions of this in 1990, with the two differently convoluted production credit explanations. The first one has three tracks: Vocal, Instrumental and Acappella versions. That's the one that credits Logic. The second one[pictured], which credits Nephie, has four tracks: Vocal, Radio Edit, Instrumental and Acappella. The Logic one uses the sample; and the Nephie one uses Kim Davis. There's also a 2006 repress (you know, Wild Pitch's "When MCs Had Skills" series), and that's a repress of the original with just three tracks and the sampled hook. And the bonus track version on the Ride the Rhythm CDs and tapes is the Kim Davis version. So now you know. And Knowledge is power or something.

It's good to be back!