Bust My Style - Get Wild!

I first heard this song on 7L's '96 mixtape The Sure Shot, back when he was going by the name of G-Swift. The classic Rebel Alliance LP was out, the buzz about alla those guys was crazy, and everyone was searching Napster for "that song with the Transformers sample." When I contacted Esoteric in the late 90's about writing about them for The Source, and I asked about this song, he was shocked I'd heard of it.

A lot of people get confused about this record since it's clearly marked with a 1995 copyright on the label. That's when the song was recorded, but this 7" record was actually pressed and released in 2002. It was a freebie Brick Records made for Sandboxautomatic.com (back when they sold vinyl), for anyone who ordered $25 or more. Here's the write-up they posted in May of '02 (the same month God Complex member and Brick Records' graphic designer Karma released his solo debut 12", "Art of War" on the Australian label, Nuff Said Records):

"Laid down way back in 1995, these are previously unreleased recordings from the God Complex trio of 7L, Esoteric and Karma, produced by Fresno aka Madsol-Desar (best known for his work with Laster and Last Emperor). Only 500 copies were made of this release (numbered BRK000 - pre-Rebel Alliance!) and the artists have selected Sandbox to be the primary distributor of this highly collectable[sic.] 'big-hole' 45. While we can't guarantee 100% that this will be the only place that will have this record, we can at least say that a) it is not likely you will see this record available anywhere else anytime soon, if ever and b) even if you manage to locate it elsewhere, it is not likely that it will be FREE with only a $25 purchase like our copies are. Once these are gone, well, you know..."
After a quick sound byte from the movie Wild Style, "Bust My Style (Remix)" kicks into one of the hardest, catchiest beats from the God Complex catalog (we know this because Brick Records released an mp3-only album collecting all their material, entitled The Strontium 90 Years, which I believe was meant at one time to get a proper release, but sadly, it never happened). The original version was cool, too... more of a mellow, "intellectual" head nodder, with completely different lyrics... but this remix, with the harder beats and more intense scratching of some Kool Keith vocal samples, is clearly the crowd-pleaser of the two. The MCs go back and forth, with Esoteric (then known as Seamus the God Awful) kicking the complex, SAT word-heavy verses we know and love him for:

"My mind activates
To eradicate
A rapper's fate;
Done at a rate
You cannot calculate.
Sea captivates
Mental states.
Vocals penetrate
And multiply.
Result is:
Skulls get pulverized."

...While Karma kicks something a little simpler and more traditional:

"What's your mentality?
I wonder how you think
You see us when we bust;
Sweat our shit like calories.
You can't challenge me;
It's all a fallacy.
My talents be
Pervertin' your reality.
You can't retort
Once the punks get taught.
It just ain't for show,
Head to toe in the Lo, sport.
I fuck up kids like a pedophile.
All those who sweat a style,
Bust mine!"

The b-side is "Seek & Destroy," another bid for the more mainstream underground crowd (freebie for Sandbox... makes sense), using a deep bassline, piano loop and slow horn sample on the hook. 7L is scratching between verses again, but this time it's mixed lower, placing it more subtlety in the background of the driving bass and piano lines. The MCs are back to kicking more hardcore battle raps (as opposed to their more lyrically creative output, with more sci-references and what-not, a la "Strontium 90" or "Secret Wars"):

"Seamus is back in line,
Crackin' spines,
Wrackin' minds.
Attack the rap track;
Crabs get waxed from behind.
Hearts palpitate
At accelerated rates,
When I calculate
And take scalps of fakes,
I evaluate: They're faulty.
And the God Awful's more disorderly.
A judge stormed on me.
My style's crooked like deformities.
I'm chokin' raps with ropes,
Leavin' kids roped with slit throats,
Quotin' me; I'm schoolin' them like Cliffs Notes.
Rip folks out their cherished whip,
And tell them they will perish quick
From the terror stick of the heretic."

Today, Karma seems to have put his rapping behind him, but he's still down with Brick Records and doing graphic design for a lot of hip-hop artists. Here's his myspace page... and while we're at it, here's Brick Records' myspace, and here's their official (but woefully out-of-date) site: brickrecords.com. 7L & Esoteric have their own website, which is fairly substantive and definitely worth a look (though also out-of-date), at: 7l-esoteric.com, as well as the obligatory myspace page. And finally, producer Fresno has a myspace page, too.

Sole Bonus Disc

This is a bonus CD that came free when you ordered Sole's Selling Live Water album from Sandbox. I'm pretty sure this stopped being a part of the package even before they had their virtual collapse; but it was available for a while.

The first track is a joint from The Babylonianz' unreleased second album, Da Boom Baptism called "Keep It Raw." The Babylonianz were a gangsta rap send-up group consisting of Sole and Pedestrian (a.k.a. Blazefest & Whitefolk, respectively), following directly in the footsteps of Anticon's previous gangsta rap send-up group, Bludd 'N' Gutz. The album was never released because, well... I'll let Pedestrian explain it (from the SoleOne.org forums), "we never released the second album, Da Boom Baptizm, because it wasn't that good. The title track, 'Da Boom Baptizm,' actually came out on an Amoeba compilation. The problem was basically this: between the first and second albums, the Babylonianz were saved by evangelicals and became very conservative politically. For instance,Why Murder [Why?'s Bludd 'N' Gutz alias] joined Whitefolks and Blazefest on 'Attack Iraq,' which was prophetically finished a few months before the war began. The hook: 'You want jihad, come and get it, boy!' anyway, the problem... because every Babylonianz song is drunkenly freestyled, we found it really difficult to stay in character. freestyling in the character of a once thug turned militantly conservative Christian was fucking confusing." Here's a taste of "Keep It Raw:"

"The Palestinian poet,
The Israeli bomber,
Call yo' momma, or Osama,
You better pick someone for drama.
Rappers don't want it 'cause they flaunt it and they gonna (trick!)
Get bent. When I broke it,
Leave a mic and represent 'cause I spoke it (Ch-ch!).
I'm too dope it;
You can't diagnose it.
You better take some Novocaine,
Get over my name: Whitefolk.
I came to Blazefest like a rhyming death threat,
The best bet since death! (What's next?)"

Next you've got two "serious" songs: both unreleased Sole duets with Why? (though "Idiot's Guide," later appeared on Sole's Songs That Went Tin compilation as "Idiot's Guide To the Universe"). These songs came just around the time Why? was moving out of rap and into his more alternative/pop rock singing style, which makes for an interesting mesh of styles when put up against Sole's strictly hip-hop rapping (though he leans towards Why?'s direction on "I'd Rather Broil"), since neither goes for the obvious "I'll rap and he can sing the chorus" formula.

There are no production credits given for any of the tracks, but we know from the Songs That Went Tin notes that "Idiot's Guide" - a pretty cool, mellow track - was produced by DJ Mayonnaise w/ Why?. The lyrics are reasonably solid and straight-forward here, but take a turn to the kind of abstractions which seem to drive non-Anticon enthusiasts up the wall on "I'd Rather Broil," as Why? sings, "I'm going to the movies with a pair of parakeets in my pocket, one of whom has its mouth sewn shut, the other one a whistler; oohhh... Ohhhhh my god, I'm going." while Sole goes on about "the Hillary Clinton foundation posing as lesbian activists, selling tickets." The track's got a cool, heavily distorted bassline and some live guitar... Thanks are due to W_e_s on the SoleOne forums for finding an archived page from the old Anticon site (where the song is titled "I'd Rather Boil") that gives us the production credits: "recorded dec '99. produced by odd nosdam. mixed by an intoxicated why? 'I liked how the bass sounded and we ate brownies, dude.' - why?"

Finally, you get a 36 minute interview, with Sole answering questions that were submitted through the old Anticon.com forums in front of a "studio audience" consisting of some sampled laughter and applause tracks, Odd Nosdam, Baillie, Passage, Alias, Pedestrian and Colin. As the hand-written note that came with the CD explains, "people asked the internet questions as absurd as possible, and I answered as straight as I could. ...We left in between dialogue, and my frustration with the questions in, to give people a more in depth view of what went into the CD." It makes for a pretty weird listening experience... first a question is asked in a funny voice, then Sole stumbles for a while on his writing process or the war in Iraq, while a laugh track is cut into every pause, and his label-mates snicker and interject comments like, "you said Jose One!" Fake questions (like "is my television staring at me?") are thrown in, too, and there's some human beat-boxing and very half-hearted freestyles. After about the twenty-minute mark, your brain starts to warp... and you're only halfway through it.

And these are the kinds of treasures you people are missing out on if you don't buy your music off the internet. You've taken a good first step by reading this blog... now go get a Paypal account!

The Boyz Are Back In Town

Here's another one that very little has ever been written about... "The Boyz From da Hill" b/w "Here We Go" by The Sugarhill Gang, on Diamond Head Records from 1994. I don't know much about Diamond Head Records, except that they were based out of Englewood New Jersey, and the following year, they put out a solo 12" by Sugarhill Gang member Kory-O, entitled "One Never Knows."

"Wait a minute," you exclaim, "Everybody knows the Sugarhill Gang is three guys - Wonder Mike, Master Gee and Big Bank Hank!" Yeah, well, guess what. This is '94, and things done changed.

Back in 1985, Master Gee left the group, to release one solo 12" on Atlantic Records (called "Do It," and it's actually pretty good) and ultimately retire from the music scene. He was replaced, in turns, by Kory-O (he was featured on tracks like "Work, Work the Body" before the group initially stopped recording) and another MC who decided o call himself Master Gee: former West Street Mob member Joey Robinson Jr. - son of Sylvia Robinson, president of Sugarhill.

In an interview with AllHipHop.com (click to read the whole thing), Master Gee had this to say about his imposter, "What me and Mike are doing now is working to get out and let people see the real deal, because some people aren't even sure about who's who. They think that this other guy is Master Gee. ... First of all, you're not supposed to use someone else's name. There was never an agreement made between him and I. As far as performing, he didn't write the lyrics, he didn't record the songs. He's not really entitled to say that he's me. There's only one original member performing as the Sugar Hill Gang right now, and that's Hank. The rest are stand-ins and they're duping the public. When people go out to see them, they're not getting the real deal. ... With me stepping away from the group, [The 2nd Master Gee] felt that it was his opportunity to go on the road and take my place. He was involved in all the sessions, but he never performed on any of the hits, 'Rapper's Delight,' 'Apache,' '8th Wonder.' That's all me."

But on this single, Hank isn't the only original member. The line-up here is: Wonder Mike, Kory-O, the 2nd Master Gee and Big Bank Hank... hence the four people on the album cover (by the way, that's the CD single you're seeing pictured above... the 12" single is a plain, white sticker cover, with only text). They've updated their flows and styles somewhat, partially to keep up with the faster beat and partially with the times. It kinda works, though:

"Come get a damage[?] of more delight
Coming from the hyper than hype wonder, the Wonder Mike,
The party rocker, smooth hip-hopper,
Whole house shaker, big fly money maker
In the house. Yeah, you know the sound.
The original, lyrical, biggest on the mic around:
(Sugarhill) back in full effect,
Hits the spot, mic's checked and flexxed - next!
Yo, we took hits and start stackin' 'em...
We're the first MCs to go platinum!
Mad props to the crew first on the scene;
We set it off and went and got the CREAM.
The name's the same, the fame, the aim, the claim;
The tracks are fat, and it's all that.
We gon' take a strip and start pimpin' it.
Stand back as the boys start rippin' it!"

Perhaps even more interesting than the MC line-up is the musical line-up. Continuing Sugarhill's tradition of getting great studio musicians to lay their tracks, the first one is by Kool & The Gang(!), along with George Mena and Reggie Griffin (it's essentially the "Jungle Boogie" instrumental). And despite their label change, they're still produced by Sylvia Robinson, Joey Robinson Jr., and David Gunthrope for West Street Productions. All in all, it's a pretty lively, enjoyable tune, with a catchy hook: "It's the boys from the hill! The boys from the hill! With the pow pow boogie; Never ran, never will!"

The B-side, "Here We Go," is a bit of a more traditional, "smoother" hip-hop number, with all musical tracks performed by Reggie Griffin, and co-produced by Reggie Griffin and Sylvia Robinson. It's got that pseudo-g-funk sound that some indie midwest group might produce. There's also a "Jeep Version" of "Here We Go," which really isn't much different from the first. It's ok if you like that sort of thing, but it's the A-side that makes this worth the purchase for Sugarhill fans.

Today, the Sugarhill Gang is fairly broken up, though sometimes certain members (originals and replacements) will tour as the Gang. Wonder Mike and Master Gee have formed a new group called MG Squad, with some of their friends. Here's a link to their myspace page.

Don With Gratitude

OK; this is another rarity. Only 150 hand-numbered copies were pressed (plus test-pressings, ey?), and they all sold out before they shipped. So I apologize for posting another record most of ya's won't be able to get their hands on (especially since it's dope, and you'll want it); but, hey - it's still not as rare as his "Stuck Off the Realness" 12". ;)

Godfather Don recorded these songs exclusively for the Stretch and Bobbito radio show in the mid-90's, giving them the only DAT copies. A few of these songs have circulated among tape traders (and more recently file sharers), recorded off the radio. I had a couple of them, and the quality sounded like they were pressed on steel wool.

Well, this year, DWG (who are they? Man, check my links column to the right, already) got in touch with Don, tracked down the original tapes straight from the hands of Bobbito, and pressed up a top quality, mastered vinyl EP of six of those songs.

Don's style is straight New York, hardcore rhymes over great, self-produced beats (you won't recognize any familiar, sampled loops in his catalog); And the songs on this EP are just as good as anything he's ever done (none might quite replace "Seeds of Hate" as my favorite, but they're all on that level). Check the style he kicks on "Inverted," one of his more playfully, lyrically complex joints:

"Rappers get chopped like cheddar.
Let a cannibal test ta
Damaga ya vest.
A Hannibal Lector ravager,
Lyrically savager;
Necks are cut from the crazier,
Above the trachea,
For being lazier.
My raz-i-ah
Inside my Av-i-ah,
To surgically remove wackness..."

Sadly, it seems DWG destroys their masters(!) to all their releases, and so there's no hope this will ever be legitimately repressed. :( As for what he's up to now, I don't have an official website or myspace to link ya, but there's a great, new interview with him on the DWG site, and an interview you won't want to miss with the president of Hydra Records on Unkut (that's also in my links... why aren't you checking my links!?). Apparently, Don has plenty of other unreleased jewels tucked away (indeed, I've heard a few other taped-off-the-radios), so hopefully those will eventually wind up seeing the light of day as well.

NOT Slick Rick

Did eight blog entries in a row make you a little tired of reading about Slick Rick? Yeah, I don't blame ya; I kinda feel the same way. Well, how about a Slick Rick record that's not by Slick Rick?
There's no date printed on this record, but I'm gonna guess it's from '82 or '83. This Slick Rick's "Summertime Rap," released by Havana Productions is classic old school. The instrumental is provided by a live band - there's a lot of sax, piano, guitar... plenty of solos - though the only credit given is "Musical comment by: Sesy," whatever the heck that means. Is this record really from Havana?
There's very little info to be found about it... this Slick Rick isn't any of the three(!) Slick Ricks to be found on discogs.com, and there's nothing from Havana Productions in the Freddy Fresh book. Probably nobody ever bothered with this record, since it's pretty obviously not Ricky Walters.

It's in English, though, and he hasn't got an accent or anything (unlike the real Slick Rick... heh). The lyrics are primarily a medley of previous rap hits. He kicks verses from "The Breaks," "The Message," "Christmas Rap" and "Rapper's Delight," even to the point of saying, "well, my name is Wonder Mike and I'd like to say hello." The music will sometimes switch up to immitate the songs he's covering, too; but still keeping its own beat. He does, at one point however, kick his own verse:

"Throw your hands in the air,
And wave 'em around like you just don't care.
'Cause I'm Slick Rick, and I'm on the mic,
And I shock the house like dynamite.
I said a one, two... three, four;
I said get... your woman... out on the floor."

This is just a great, really fun old school, true school, gold school... whatever you wanna call it - record that you can't help but get into and enjoy. Don't let the fact that this guy was never a part of The Kangol Crew keep you from checking it out; it'd be your loss.

Unreleased Slick Rick, Epilogue

So, that's about it. Though, if you're keeping score, you probably noticed that still leaves a handful of undiscovered "Unreleased" Slick Rick tracks. Specifically:

1) "Captain Caveman" - I've yet to find this one, which is a shame because it's a fun one; but bbatson on the DWG forums reckons, "i remember one at armands in philly years ago. It had sleazy on one side and captain caveman on the flip and was just titled Ricky D." Considering the version of "Sleazy Gynecologist" on the "Lost Tracks" 12" is specifcially dubbed the "Triple X Version," could that mean there's also another version of "Sleazy" out there? A clean version, maybe? Perhaps this was an earlier 12" which only had access to a radio edit. Who knows. When I find it, I'll make a post all about it. :)

2) "He Kills" - (shrug) Still lookin'.

3) "I Own America (Unreleased Version)" - A mix different than either version included on his The Art of Storytelling album. I made a post about this on the Vinyl Exchange boards a few years ago... sadly, that post is long gone (thanks a lot, spam botters!), but someone replied remembering they used to hear it on UK radio... or something. Sadly, my memory is pretty vague, but radio shows winding up with exclusive DATs isn't so unheard of in hip-hop (for example, the Godfather Don tracks that Bobbito had, which were finally just released as the Slaves of New York EP about 10 years later... or Ahmad's "Ahmad is Like" - one of his best songs, and the only copy is a master DAT in the hands of the Wake Up Show guys)... Still, in the case of a soon-to-be-album track of a major label artist like Slick Rick, it's hard to imagine Def Jam didn't keep copies as well, and probably distribute them to various people.

Of course, J-Love went about this quest the easy way. It's my understanding he just goes to the artists (or their management)and gets all this exclusive material handed to him (and guess who keeps 100% of the profits). As he explained himself in an interview on his site, "Shit, I mean some artists, if it wasn’t for the mixtapes they would be dead. The radio only plays like 30 to 40 songs a day; in 24 hours you gonna hear the same 30 to 40 songs – so that means that’s 30 to 35 artists, depending if a certain artist has two songs in rotation. So what can the rest do? They have to look for other outlets and mixtapes supply that avenue. The music game is very corny right now so a lot of artists are stuck and don’t know what to do."* It is a sad state. Hopefully someday, artists like Slick Rick will take their profits into their own hands and put out proper releases of their own music, and we won't have to listen to DJs without the talent or inclination to make creative or original mixes (see my Prologue) keep saying their names over our favorite songs.

*Before I sign off, let me just leave you with more fun (if you enjoy irony) quote from J-Love (also from an interview on his site), describing the current mix-tape scene, "DISGUSTING ....... EVERYONE IS A FOLLOWER OR JUST DOING WHATEVER TO GET MONEY... NO ONE ( EXCLUDING MYSELF) TAKES TIME AND CARES HOW THERE CDS COME TOGETHER JUST ABOUT MAKING A QUICK NAME OR BUCK FOR THEM SELEVS ALOT OF THEM CATS PLAIN OUT SUCK AND LEAVE ME DISGUSTED."

Unreleased Slick Rick, Chapter Six

Now we really hit the pay dirt. This Japanese EP on Arm Your Beats features five unreleased Slick Rick tracks and, oddly, one album track off of Behind Bars ("Get a Job"). Like the "Lost Tracks" 12" (see: Chapter Four), not much is known of its origins, like when it was released. And also like the "Lost Tracks" 12", these songs are better than much of his commerical material.

So, like I said, we don't know much about where this EP came from, but we can make some educated guesses about the actual songs. Russell Simmons always said in interviews when Slick was locked up that he was holding onto heaps of recordings he'd made before he went to prison... the plan was to slowly release them over time, so that while he was incarcerated, he would still be releasing albums on a semi-regular basis. But then Mr. Walters kept getting allowed out to record new music (he worked on The Ruler's Back while out on bail and Behind Bars while on work release, though he's said both were rushed and compromised), so a lot of the "on file" verses went unused.

As I said, that's partially a guess, but I do know that the third song on side A, "Gambling," was intended for the Behind Bars LP. The Pete Rock produced track was apparently included in press copies, and even named specifically in The Source review. ...Pete Rock also produced "World Renown," which had to have been produced while Rick was in prison. Pete even starts the record by saying, "we're counting the days until you come home." The vocals seem a bit low, and you can kinda guess that Slick Rick wasn't actually rapping to this instrumental when he recorded it, but the production is hot... among Pere's best work.

"A Letter" is kinda cool, with some familiar but still engaging samples including a flute loop for the hook. And "Samson" (a dope track J-Love curiously decided to remove from his mix the second time around) features a fresh harmonica on its hook and a biographical story rap that feels like it could've come right off of The Ruler's Back, alongside "Moses" and "Bond," but it doesn't quite have that over-produced quality that hampered that album a little bit.

The best track for me, though, is "Star Trek." This is definitely vintage Slick Rick - it would sound most at home on The Great Adventures LP - with a modest but addictive beat, and Slick humming the original Star Trek theme for the hook. It tells a story of the crew of The Enterprise discovering a planet filled with beautiful women, who they immediately offend with their crass, sexual comments.

"Now, in a matter of secs, she went poutin'...
The master came and everybody start bowin'.
'I trust you know it's punishment for your words of lust.'
Said, 'welcome to Earth;' and Spock, 'Aliens-R-Us,'
F'in' around, 'so don't play me like you're deaf''
Couldn't eat no animal, and no sex until we left.
Said, 'who cares? It's better than having your ass had.'
'And don't eat nuthin' from The Tree of Good and Bad.'
Everything back to norm, nice weather, no storm;
Even fed a nigga veggies and made me feel warm.
Time passed peacefully, but how long would it last?
Scotty said, 'I want a hamburger and some fuckin' ass!'"

This might've just gone unreleased for copyright reasons... It's not hard to imagine Paramount Pictures objecting to a Mr. Spock who says, "let's rape the hooker!" But fortunately, this and the other tracks found their way onto a vinyl release eventually. The Ricky D EP is a must-have for any Slick Rick fan, more so maybe than even some of his official albums. Thank God for the hip-hop heads in Japan.

Unreleased Slick Rick, Chapter Five

Like I said in my last entry, it seems J-Love lowered his standards between the first and second version of his Legends vol. 2 CD as far as what can be considered "Unreleased." The second time around he included "The Sun," with Ghostface Killah, Raekwon and RZA as an "Unreleased" track.
 
"The Sun," along with another song that doesn't feature Slick Rick called "Good Times," was originally slated to appear on Ghostface's 2002 album, Bulletproof Wallets. Both were eventually removed from the final release version of the album, but not before the clean promo copies were pressed and released to the public.

Okay, so that sounds pretty worthy of being labelled "Unreleased," right? After all, it was only put on the clean, radio version of the album that wasn't really made available to the public. That was the thinking, I'm sure, when Archives Inc. rereleased this on vinyl one year later on their Ghostface Killah EP (which also features "Good Times" and one or two "original mixes" of songs that were different on the clean promo than the funal album).

So, now it's been released twice. Once as a promo-only vinyl pressing (though it's not terribly rare... you can still score copies of this online for less than the original sale price), and once as an independent (bootleg? just how legit are Archive Inc.'s releases, anyway?) vinyl EP, which is still easily available... pick it up from ughh.com if you're interested. But that's still pretty "Unreleased" as far as the average consumer is concerned. I mean, it's not like this was put out on a mainstream vinyl and CD release that's still in print and available wherever new music is sold, right?

Oh, wait. Actually, this song was included on Ghostface and Trife da God's double album, Put It On the Line, two years later. Go ahead and order it new or used from Amazon; it comes with a bonus DVD of a Ghostface stage show recorded live. Now, I don't know how much more released a song can get than all that.

The song itself is just OK. The beat and hook are kind of monotonous and most of the lyrics are a bit goofy, with each MC rapping about the sun. Ghostface says, "Yo, the sun can never be pussy; he always come out. He'll sit right there, even if you pull your gun out." Slick Rick steals the show with easily the best delivery; but lyrically, it's still album filler quality. And frankly, they should've removed RZA's bit all together.

And actually, in 2004, Wu-Tang producer/DJ Allah Mathematics released a mixtape called The Next Chamber with his own remix of "The Sunn" (as he spells it), where the instrumental - if not the lyrics, which are naturally unchanged - is far superior. So, really, there are a lot of other buying options for this particular song, all of which are preferable ...if you think it's worth bothering with at all.

Unreleased Slick Rick, Chapter Four

Ok, on the second version of Legends Vol. 2, Slick Rick's "Women Lose Weight" has been added as an "Unreleased" song. This song really isn't very unreleased... "Women Lose Weight" is a guest appearance track he did on Morcheeba's Charango LP, on Reprise Records (2002). It was also released as a single that same year. In general, J-Love seems to have loosened up his standards for what can be labelled "Unreleased" for this second mix.

To be fair, J-Love doesn't use the album version, but the impressive Alchemist remix, which is featured on every version of the single, but not the album. I've included a picture of my copy, with the sticker cover; but there's also a more commercially available picture cover featuring the Morcheeba logo over a shot of a subway car interior.

If you're not familiar, Morcheeba's kind of a funk sorta band, with two guys playing various live instruments, and a female vocalist (at the time of this song, Skye Edwards; but she's since been replaced by Daisy Martey), much in the vein of The Brand New Heavies. They've done a couple other songs with rappers, including Pace Won and Biz Markie, and the results have been consistently good. A lot of their songs feature guest instrumentalists as well... For "Women Lose Weight," band member Ross Godfrey (on guitar and keyboards) is joined by Richard Harrison on bass, Dan Goldman providing additional keyboards and Miles Bould on percussion. Skye sings the hook and Slick Rick provides all the rest of the vocals (it's really a proper Slick Rick song, not a single verse drop in). But all that live instrumentation is stripped away for a more traditional hip-hop track in Alchemist remix's... even Skye Edwards is replaced with various scratched vocal samples by Mobb Deep, Brand Nubian and MC Lyte (it's actually rather Premier-like), leaving no Morcheeba at all on the record.

It really is a great song, with Slick Rick at the top of his game. It's a funny, twisted first person narrative, where Rick decides his wife has gained too much weight and wants to leave her for his secretary... but since there's "laws which enforces divorces," he has to kill her.

"Screamin', 'who done took my heart?!' Acting shookin' up a lot;
At the funeral, thought everyone was lookin' at me odd,
Like I did it. Like I was the reason my mate's slain,
Murmuring, 'I heard he was displeased with her weight gain.'
While my secretary, sort of a sexy blonde, can’t cook -
All she does is order from restaurants.
'All of the sex you want'
I doubt could address: clothes not washed proper, and house look a mess.
And talkin' to detectives that was waitin' outside,
How I took a long lunch break day the wife died...!"

As with a lot of the best Slick Rick songs, he ends with a break from the narrative for the final verse, speaking as himself to tell us the moral: "desire is important... so watch your weight, it'll keep your mate smitten; it's a given. Though, lookin' back, I realize: I didn't have to kill her!"

There's actually a rarer, "Women Lose Weight (Spare Tyer Remix)," which keeps the original hook and sticks with original, live instrumentation. It's featured only on one, more limited 12" version from Reprise, and would've been much more deserving of the "Unreleased" title. I'm not sure if it's quite as good, though (I'd say it's about an even tie with the LP version... though the music is fairly different, and really all three are worth having), so you can't really blame 'im for going with the more common version. But I like how it gives the same vibe as all the old Sugarhill records, with the band and all. Certainly, if you're going to pick this up, it's worth holding out for the version with both remixes.

Unreleased Slick Rick, Chapter Three

Well, I already had the first version of J-Love's mix CD, but when I saw the second one had a track called, "VANESSA WILLIAMS ( UNRELEASED )," I had to hear the second version as well. I'd never heard of that one!
Upon hearing it (thanks, chr!s), I discovered it actually wasn't anything I didn't already have in my collection. See, back in the early 90's, a guy named Gregory Moore used to advertise in the "Tapes" section of The Source magazine. He sold 60 and 90 minute cassettes of old school live performances... here's a scan from the August, 1994 issue:

You sent away for the list and he had, I dunno.... maybe 50 live tapes (he later added almost a hundred more), of live performances like DJ Hollywood performing classic raps and mixes at Club 371 in 1976, the entire infamous Kool Moe Dee vs. Busy Bee battle (the full show, including performances by the Cold Crush, Force MC's, and even the separate amateur battle event that came first), or a tape of LL Cool J's birthday party, with performances by Ultramagnetic MCs and Afrika Islam. Dude had everything.

Eventually, in 1996, a commercial album was released (on Sounds of Urban London Records, co-produced by Moore) of his tapes, entitled Rap Archives vol. 1, which was made pretty widely available (I got mine on cassette at the Wiz here in my NJ hometown). It featured clips of performances by Run DMC, Master Don, Biz Markie & Big Daddy Kane, and a whole bunch more. One of the performances was Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh at the Lincoln Project, NY 1984, performing "La Di Da Di" and "The Show."

Now, the highlight of this performance is when, at the end of "La Di Da Di" as we all know it, they announce they're going to "finish it," and Slick Rick bursts into an all new verse about what happens next in the song. And that's what "Vanessa Williams" on the Legends mix is - just a short (1 minute and 15 seconds) snippet of that exclusive verse.

J-Love's listeners might've found it a bit confusing, since he has it come randomly after "Captain Caveman." So, they didn't hear it in the context of the rest "La Di Da Di," where it makes considerably more sense. Here's the end of the classic verse we all know and love...

"I said, 'Cheer up!' and I gave her a kiss.
I said, 'You can't have me; I'm too young for you, miss.'
She said, 'No, you're not,' and then she starts crying.
I says, 'I'm nineteen...' she says, 'stop lying!'
I said, 'I am - go ask my mother.
And with your wrinkled pussy, I can't be your lover!'
And now the new material begins:
"She didn't hear, 'cause I said it kinda low;
And then I broke out because I really had to go.
I saw Miss America - she got millions!
Talkin' about that ho named Vanessa Williams.
She saw me, MC Ricky D.
She came up close and she grabbed my body..."

Unfortunately, I don't believe Mr. Moore is selling tapes from his catalog anymore, but at least Rap Archives vol. 1 is still pretty easily found on CD... Amazon has a couple copies up for about $7. Sadly, there was never a vol. 2.

Unreleased Slick Rick, Chapter Two

Ah, now we're getting into the goodies... This 12" hails from Japan, land of many alluring and exotic bootleg records. "How?" we ask, "when?" But I don't think we can ever truly learn the answers to these questions. They just exist... and when there are no original presses to be had, we are grateful.

We're offered two never before released Slick Rick tracks on this 12", better than most of the material on his later LPs. These are real treats.

The bulk of "Sleazy Gynecologist (Triple X Version)" (delightfully spelled "Gynacorogist" on the label), is a first person narrative of Slick Rick as a... well, sleazy gynecologist (not entirely unreminiscent of some Dr. Octagon lyics). Each verse is an increasingly dirty story of R.D. taking advantage of lady patients. In the first one, he gropes the breasts of a woman who comes in complaining of chest pains:

"'I hope it's not cancer, or I'll flip out.'
A pity. Well, lie on this couch and whip out your titty.
Let me see. With both hands startin' ta...
'Shouldn't you have some kind of gloves on, docta?'
No. And I do not do this for liesure,
Although it may appear an unusual procedure.
Now, relax and stop riffin'.
Meanwhile carressin' her nipple as they both start stiffin'."

In the second verse, a woman comes in complaining of hemorrhoid problems (at this point, one begins to wonder if Slick Rick is entirely clear on exactly what a gynecologist is, but never mind)... you can imagine what that might lead to. And in the third, he finally loses control with an underaged girl:

"Still pokin' in her poom-poom... what an easy score for me.
Until I heard, "stop, Rick; get off of me! Get off of me!'
Couldn't stop now; still poundin' in the stuff of her.
The police even found it hard to get me off of her.
Life. It ain't a sign to follow this.
Me, R.D., one sleazy gyneocologist."

Yeah. Like Kool G Rap's "Hey, Mister Mister," it's not hard to imagine why this song might've had a difficult time finding its way onto one of Rick's commercial releases. Finally, in the fourth verse, thie song reveals it's true nature, as SlickRick (now, presumably, as himself) tells his girl he doesn't like her seeing a male doctor: "I don't want no other man touchin' my girlfriend's bum up; unless some emergency of some sort come up." Not a lot of rappers have what it takes to pour their own insecurities so openly into a dope song like the Rickster.

The b-side, "Feels Like ~," is what J-Love titles "The Nutty Professor" on his disc. It's easy to see why, as the story of the song follows Jerry Lewis's plot pretty exactly, even down to the name of the character he transforms into, Buddy Love. But of, course, this version's told in Slick Rick's utterly unique style. No production credits are given for either track, but this one sounds decidely Pete Rock produced to me. Both tracks = much fun, and this 12" is definitely a must-have for any Ricky Walters fan, bootleg or no.