Vocal Vision On Patrol

(Another fun one for April Fool's Day: The LA Dream Team get a little help from a human walkman.  Youtube version is here.)

Dream Team Adieu

the 12" label

Sorry if I've been overloading you with LA Dream Team posts lately, guys; but even before I started the DTP post, I knew I was going to follow it up with this one. What we have here is the final Dream Team record. There's no release date on either the vinyl or CD release; but internet sources place this at 1996, and that sounds about right. Now, Rudy Pardee had been keeping the Dream Team dream alive since the group broke up by releasing solo singles or with new collaborators. But the original pairing hadn't made a record together since they were dropped by MCA in 1990. But this is it: a proper reunion. A new and final LA Dream Team Record, back on their own Dream Team Records, before Rudy Pardee tragically died in 1998. Yes, Snake Puppy is back.

The A-side is called "Faces" or "Smilin' Faces," depending on whether you're looking at the CD or 12" record. Yes, the song title is different on the two versions. But the song itself is the same, a reworking, naturally, of "Smiling Faces" by The Undisputed Truth. Now, The Dream Team were hardly the first to discover this territory. Big Lady K and Whodini both released singles remaking this song in 1990 and 1991, respectively, and Kid Frost had one on his East Side Story album in '92. So this is well trodden turf, with a very familiar R&B hook (provided by Sharon Hall and Phillip Ray) and the famous, atmospheric bassline. Here, they tone the atmosphere down, though; going for a very calm, smooth and definitely west coast sounding track.

The B-side, titled "Got'ta Be O.G. Sometimes," is more instrumentally original, though it's actually very similar to "Faces." The bassline and R&B hook (this time by Tre Unique) are no longer patterned after "Smiling Faces," but every production element in this song is otherwise just like "Faces." The notes are just a little different.  And while both songs are produced by Rudy, and co-produced by Snake; this one gets a special credit saying that the music was written by Mike "The P" Perison. But, since they're so similar, your opinion on which is better will depend entirely on how keen you are for another "Smiling Faces" remake. If you're happy to re-experience that soulful bassline once again, "Faces" brings it and kinda sounds better objectively. But if you've heard it one too many times over the years, you'll be glad for the less derivative "O.G."

Instrumentally, this isn't bad but it's kind of a dud. They just play it so damn safe. It's not at all compelling, and yet too decently produced to be bad in an interesting way. This absolutely does not have that re-listenable quality of "Rockberry (Revisited)." But, the story of this record isn't really the music. That barely even matters... to the point where it feels like the Team specifically was trying to set it to music that wouldn't matter or call attention to itself. Anyone who cares about this record cares because it's Rudy and Snake back together again. How do they come off?

Eh. I definitely prefer hearing Rudy paired with Snake than any of those cats he brought in as substitutes. Snake brings a, yes, O.G. quality to his rhymes. This is his and Rudy's house, and the pretenders to the throne need to scat. And, lyrically.... well, they say pretty much exactly what you'd expect them to say. They don't really mention the break-up or reunion, except very indirectly, and mostly are mostly just concerned with establishing themselves as veterans. Here's a taste of "O.G.:"

"Welcome to Los Angeles,
City of Angels.
(No, city of the scandalous!)
But the O.G.s can handle this.
Four twenty-five's not my salary
But you know, I clock my dough
From my street mentality.
Reality's a mother.
I'm tired of gettin' judged by my color;
It's time to make somebody else suffer.
I'm a O.G. hustler,
I never had no love for a buster
Get to close and I'm gon' have to cut ya.
I'm true.
I'm down with my race and I'm down with my crew;
I'm down with my niggas smokin' blunts and a brew.
That's what we do everyday up on the streets;
Represent the real, 'cause you's an O.G."

So, you know, like that. Snake tells a little tale of being a youngster which pumps a little extra energy into things; and "Smilin' Faces" naturally incorporates the subject matter of the Undisputed original (though I like the line, "he snaked on a Pup and now I'm locked up"). But it ultimately all boils down to the same stuff.

The record label doesn't mention it, but the back of the CD promises that this is "From the fourth [sic.] coming album GUESS WHOS BACK?" Sadly, that album never came out. But I can't help wondering if it was ever completed, considering how much Rudy seemed to record and not release throughout the 90's (be sure to read the comments of my DTP post to find out even more of Rudy's underground saga!). The record comes in a plain sleeve, while the CD has the picture cover posted above; but both have the same track-listing: Street, Radio and Instrumental versions of both songs. I'd recommend this to long time fans of the Dream Team.  If you're excited at the prospect that they got back together for one last record on the underground tip, it's decent enough that you'll enjoy this. But anyone else can give this a miss.

Update 6/25/13: You know, I put that "[sic.]" in the phrase "fourth coming album," because obviously the word is "forthcoming."  But thinking back on it, I'm realizing that had it come out, Guess Whos Back would have been the LA Dream Team's fourth full-length album. Maybe I just wasn't giving them enough credit. What do you guys think? Intentional, punny double entendre, or stupid mistake? Bear in mind that their should also have been an apostrophe in "who's," so I may just be reading too much into it.

The NEW LA Dream Team

So, after The LA Dream Team broke up and Rudy Pardee brought it back as a solo act disguised as a Posse, Rudy and the Team dropped out of the scene again.  But they returned again, after some further retooling, three years later. This time they came out as DTP (not to be confused with Disturbing tha Peace), with some new members. It's a single called "100 Proof (To the Zoom)" on Excello Records, from 1993.

You might assume DTP stands for Dream Team Posse, like their last single... or maybe even Dream Team Productions or something.  But while I'm sure it's not just a coincidence that they have the same initials, apparently it stood for Diverse Thought Process, in honor of their newer, more diverse MCs... a white guy named Frenzy and a reggae rapper named Ragaman-T So unlike the Dream Team Posse record, it's not just Rudy rapping; all three cats are spitting here.

The first, opening track is "100 Proof," featuring DBS (Deep Brown Style) Mob. DBS is a group the Dream Team was going to produce and put out after their own project, but it never happened. So I'm pretty sure this is their only appearance on wax. I have to say, introducing the listeners to a new line-up of MCs with a posse cut featuring a whole other line-up of new MCs is kind of confusing. I had to listen to this a bunch of times just to sort out which verses were by who: who was a Dream Team guy, and which one? Who's one of these DBS cats? Is Rudy on here?

He is, but that's the other thing. Pardee has updated his voice and flow to fit in with the 90s, so his super-distinctive voice and flow is gone. It's a little disappointing, but he actually sounds alright like this, so it works for this record. The production style has also totally entered the 90s: harder, on the outer fringes of gangsta rap. Lyrically, they're weak; it's all substance-less just stringing words together for the sake of it, without even the clever wordplay of your average freestyle rhyme. I mean, none of it's really bad... it's just lyrical filler. But their flows are decent and distinctive; and the production - also by Pardee - is predictable (lots of samples we've heard before) but quite respectable.

Then we have the B-side, "Rockberry (Revisited)," a asequel to the Dream Team's oldest and still biggest hit, "Rockberry Jam." Old school artists making sequels to their classic hits on their comebacks pretty much never works (which doesn't seem to stop them from doing it), but this is actually not bad. It helps if you don't stress comparing it to the original and just take it on its own terms. The hook is almost exactly the same; with a girl doing her best impression of the original to the point where they might as well've just sampled the original. But apart from that, it's very different. The production isn't old school electro at all, it's another gangsta0ish track, including that famous horn riff from "Rump Shaker" and that N2Deep track. It does have a bouncey rhythm, so it's not totally dark or hardcore; but it's definitely inspired by the kind of sounds early Cypress Hill and the like were putting out back then.

There's a little reference to the Dream Team's break-up here... "What was the Dream Team now's DTP.. One minus one means you're funking with the three" [shouldn't that be "two minus one?"],  But for the most part, it's just more breezy freestyling.

So those are the only two songs listed on the cover; but there's actually a third track. It's a skit, just over 90 seconds long. that's, uh.... meant to be light-hearted and amusing, but it's more than a little bit racist against Indians. Anyway, it's really just a jokey ad for their upcoming DTP full-length, Foot Soldiers On Maneuvers. However that album never actually happened, and this is all we have of that project, or this new Dream Team line-up.

And that's actually a disappointment for me. This is no great, slept-on masterpiece I'm telling you guys about here, and it's no wonder this didn't blow up across the nation. Lyrically, it's riding on fumes and nothing here really stands out. The MCs sound like imitators of others who came before, and there's no fresh samples or catchy hook that's gonna get anybody excited. But I gotta say, this is endlessly relistenable. When I first got this, I had this in the car and just kept repeating it after it ended (except for the skit, once was enough for that). Rudy Pardee knew how to make a quality record sound good. And here he shows he could've done so with more styles than just the super old school throwback style he's always been associated with. I don't pine for the artistic loss to the hip-hop community that never got to hear this Frenzy dude or anything. But my biggest complaint about this single is that it feels short at only two songs long. If Foot Soldiers had come out, I would've gotten it, and I would've enjoyed it... which is more than I can say about most hip-hop albums being released today.

The Dream Team Gets Serious

Well, one half of The LA Dream Team gets serious, anyway. I already blogged about how Rudy Pardee kept the Team alive by releasing a record after they were dropped by MCA Records and Snake Puppy quit. But Rudy flew solo - or, at least, without his partner Snake - one other time; long before their time at MCA was up.

It was actually the year they made the jump from Macola Records to MCA. Freshly signed to a major, times were good for the Dream Team in 1986, but they were not so good for a large portion of the rest of the world. So Rudy agreed to lend his voice to a record that spoke up about it: "Apartheid (You Know It's a Crime!!)."

The record is actually credited to a pair of unknowns: C. Chris and Rich E. Rich, featuring Rudy Pardee. It's also produced by, as far as I know, a complete unknown named Pedie Cooper. In fact, it really seems to be Pedie's baby. Besides being the producer, he gets sole writing credit for the record, and the back cover writes out the lyrics where it again specifically credits that this is "by Pedie Cooper." As far as I know, neither Cooper nor the team of Chris and Rich went on to do anything else in the industry; and yet this was released on MCA Records. Did Pardee get his label to release this? Or is this record what wound up getting the Dream Team signed? I'm really not sure. But it's interesting to note that the lyrics are given a separate, earlier copyright of 1985, which means they were at least written before the Dream Team signed..

It all leaves us with a pretty unusual record. It's got a serious message, obviously; but the tone is pretty light. First of all, it's got a very 80's pop sound to it, not dissimilar from The Dream Team's MCA stuff, there's even an uncredited disco-style female singer who sounds rather cheerful as she repeatedly enunciates the title for the chorus. Rudy. Chris and Rich were doing that very popular in the 80s style of having all the MCs rhyme on all the verses, so they're constantly finishing each other's sentences or saying phrases in unison. And anyone familiar with The Dream Team knows Rudy's voice and flow are anything but somber; and he hasn't changed anything for this record.

And to top it all off, there's a silly Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood style opening, where a happy man tells us that "today's word is 'apartheid.' Can you say 'apartheid?' I knew you could..." This is all set to the whimsical notes of a music box until the big, punchy 80's production kicks in when the intro's over and it's time to rock.

I guess the idea was to combine a heaping dose of sugar with the medicine, so kids would buy this record and hear its message? If so, the dramatic, solid red picture cover doesn't seem to be in on the plan. The lyrics are effective and painting a vivid and very serious picture ("they have to carry passes just to walk down the street, and if they are caught after dark, you know they get beat"), but they're also clearly not written by an experienced songwriter, with stilted phrasing forced into the bars, and rhymes that just don't rhyme... You can hear the MCs change their pronunciation to try to make "you have heard" with "Africa" or "worse than dirt" with "to protest;" but there's no saving it. They're not even close to rhyming.

But for all those issues, there's just as much here that works. The production's actually good; and Pardee has a great voice, which is well suited for this kind of instrumental. Lyrically, it hits as often as it misses, and obviously its heart is in the right place. It's hard to know quite what to make of this 12" - there's nothing else on here but an Instrumental and Bonus Beats - except that it's the veritable dictionary definition of an 80's artifact, and another interesting little point in the Dream Team's saga.

The Dream Team... Posse?

Ok, to appreciate this one, you'll need to know the history of The LA Dream Team; so let me break that down real quick to start with. The Dream Team consisted of two guys, Rudy Pardee and Snake Puppy, who started putting out catchy hip-hop club records in 1985 on their own label, Dream Team Records, which was distributed by Macola (their label also put out some other early West coast artists). On the strength of their hits like "Rockberry Jam" and "Calling On th Dream Team," they got signed to MCA Records. There they put out a couple full-lengths and a bunch of singles, which are generally critically frowned on by the hip-hop community... They were like light, kid-friendly, with very pop-music production sensibilities. I think they're fun records, but it's all definitely dollar bin material.

Finally, in 1989, MCA dropped them, and that was the end of the LA Dream Team. Snake Puppy quit, and Pardee continued to perform solo as The Dream Team for a little while, but that was it. Pardee tragically died in a scuba diving accident in the 90's and there were never anymore records. Except there was. This one.

In 1990, Dream Team Records (and Macola again) released its final record, "The Bounce" by Dream Team Posse featuring Rudy Pardee. I'm not entirely sure who the "Posse" is in reference to, since this song is written, produced and performed by Rudy Pardee. He does credit a DJ for the scratches though, Black Caesar, so I guess he's one.

Anyway, you'll probably be surprised to hear that this record is actually good. I mean, if you hate everything from the Dream Team including their early stuff, this isn't gonna convince ya. But if you like their brand of old school west coast hip-hop, this is a solid entry. It's obviously a simple dance track, but Rudy steps up his lyricism as much as he was ever going to, and with a slightly harder delivery than usual. The track uses some fairly common (one might even say cliche) old school samples, but layers a bunch of them, combining the familiar into something new you haven't heard before. And it all fits; it never feels like a jumbled wall of disparate noises. The aforementioned scratches are about as barely here, there's only one or two little ones during the breakdown, but they do add to it all.

Given the chance to craft full verses on his own (with no back and forth, etc), Rudy shines here. And it makes me wonder what a full Pardee solo album would've sounded like. But, maybe this one single is enough.

I'm showing the cassette single here, but the 12" uses the same cover art. Both the tape and the 12" feature just the one version of the one song, no instrumentals or anything, on both sides. Don't put this at the top of your wish lists or anything, but if you're looking for an old school west coast single that you haven't already heard before and you can pick up on the cheap... you could do a lot worse than "The Bounce."