Where's Disco Rick At? (Part 2)

[Continued from Part 1. It didn't fit all in one post, so I had to split this one up.]

"Take notice that: This album is based on 3 subjects. Sex, politics, and violence. That is real life on the streets of Miami and LA," pronounced the jacket of The Dogs' debut, self-titled album, released by Joey Boy that same year. Of course, 90% of it was based on the first subject, but you really lose a little piece of your soul every time you nit-pick a release by groups like The Dogs… It was co-written, and of course produced, by Disco Rick, although, again, the scratching was left to somebody else - this time DJ FM. The album followed the same themes as Disco Rick's, but with a less angry/ serious bent, except for the first track, where Disco Rick rapped about his not-so-amicable separation from the GCII, using an exchange from the intro to "Show Bizz" (off of What Time Is It? It's Gucci Time) on the hook:

"Where's Disco Rick at?"

"I think he's in the booth."

"Gettin' ready to cut it up?"

"Word."

…with Disco Rick shouting out his retort, "NO!" over the last line.

He trashed the crew, dropping lines like, "they do records that make people laugh; and when I hear it, I break it in half," and, while technically a Dogs album, Peanut and Ant "D" really just served as back-up to Disco Rick the whole way through. Rick still sometimes got serious on tracks like "Ten Little N…..s" (a song about being afraid of the local, inner-city children) and "F..k the President" (self-explanatory). Even on the generic shout and call songs, like "Lets Go, Lets Go" and "Lick It," the production set this album slightly above most of its contemporaries. This was also the record that features the infamous single, "Crack Rock," with a group of kids calling out, "your momma's on crack rock" to one little boy vainly trying to stand up for himself, “Uh-uh; no she ain’t.” Only "Who Gives a F..k," a litany of Disco Rick saying, "Who gives a fuck about ____ [The Guardian Angels, teachers, killing a bitch, Queen Elizabeth, etc]” to the constant response of "We don't, we don't!" and "Dog Call," Rick's misguided stab at lyrical respectability, were genuinely embarrassing (though perhaps not without camp value). Between this and The Negro's Back, Disco Rick managed to jump free of a derailing train and find his way back into the realm of dope hip-hop, at least for a short while.

That train, meanwhile, took one more shot at recording before finally crashing into that big, inescapable boulder painted to look like a tunnel. With new member Hollywood, the Gucci Crew II dropped G4 on Gucci Records/ Hot Productions, an album that was pretty terrible by anybody's standards. G4 was at its best only on tracks like "Pushin'," where they used samples and beats made popular by other, better hip-hop albums of the past, which, by that time, had gotten pretty seriously played out themselves. Even "Project Girl," a perfunctory sequel to "Sally - That Girl," and "Gucci Gumbo (Mega Mix)," a medley of Gucci Crew II's early singles, managed not only to suck the life out of their past hits, but to serve as a keen reminder that you were listening to the wrong, damn album. Besides missing Disco Rick, the crew had shed their trademark sense of humor, which made records like "Gucci Broke" and "Dating Game" worth their while, and replaced it with virtually nothing.

In 1991, Rick and The Dogs dropped Beware of the Dogs… like the hardcore answer to G4, they came off more like hacks doing a poor imitation of their previous efforts. The best song, amid a myriad of "Work that ass, baby"-type songs, was "I Know That Bitch," about a girl named, notably, Sally. Switching up to a more playful delivery, The Dogs actually managed a sort of engaging sense of humor they'd never been able to muster before or since. They took further cue from the Gucci Crew II to make a poor rehash of one of their biggest hits: this time, an obviously substandard follow-up to "Crack Rock" called "Life About Crack." Beware concluded with "Dogga Mix," a mega mix of The Dogs' earlier records, which was a hell of a lot better than "Gucci Gumbo," but, honestly, The Dogs didn’t really have enough dope singles to fill a mega mix with.

No doubt sensing another looming disaster along his current recording path, Disco Rick was on his own again the following year. No longer down with The Dogs, Rick started a third crew, and in 1992, Disco Rick and The Wolf Pack dropped Back From Hell on Luke Records. At that time, it was an impressive alliance. The underground producer behind some of the hottest, most influential Miami artists joining with what was becoming the leading hip-hop label of its day (this was right before MC Shy D's lawsuit effectively toppled Luke's empire). …Well, this was no masterpiece, but it was a Hell of a lot better than Beware of the Dogs, with Rick grabbing the mic to set it off on The Dogs, Joey Boy Records, and his own lawyer on the opening track, "F--k 'em Up Rick." A follow up to "Lets Go Lets Go," called "Let's Go Some Mo'," was reasonably entertaining, "Yes She Did" was a cheery throwback to records like "La Di Da Di" and "Just Swingin'," and "Let Me L--k U Girl" was a really cheesy, but inadvertently bemusing, attempt to be sexy.

The lead single, "Can U Feel It" was a hype, classic Miami record for the '92 era, featuring a collection of infamous hooks like "Don't stop; get it, get it" and, yes, "Whoop! There it is" over afast, semi-techno-bass track. And the follow up single, "Wiggle Wiggle" is a fun dance track, with the sort of bouncy, 50's guitar loop that Mr. Mixx brought to the hip-hop table a few years earlier. This album has its missteps (like a lame-ass reinterpretation of The 2 Live Crew's infamous "Fuck Shop" called "The F--k House"), but it's still a really strong entry in the Disco Rick oeuvre.

Left to their own devices, The Dogs stuck with Joey Boy and dropped K-9 Bass, sans producer/ guiding force Disco Rick - even going so far as to thank the Gucci Crew II in their liner notes. This was the lowest branch in the family tree to feature the "traditional" bass album cover, with a girl in a thong standing behind a brightly colored airbrushed logo. It featured some well-produced, effervescent tracks, but had anybody really been waiting to hear Ant & Peanut take the mic for themselves? K-9 Bass was a procession of silly, bass-driven, shout-hooked dance tracks (except for a dirty little ode to anal sex called "Dookie Shoot" and an endless, 4 minute skit called "Broamin"), but it was still a lot better put together than their last album.

MC Creep Dog (who would go on to put out It’s a Diggy Dog World with Joey Boy the next year) dropped by to steal the show and kick a verse on "Mutt Them Ho's," while "Dogga Mixxx II" was now twice as unnecessary as the lastone. They concluded by dissing Disco Rick in their shout-outs.

In 1993, one of The Dogs went solo (more or less), cleaning up his act and dropping Top Dog by Ant "D" & The Puppies on Joey Boy Records. The Puppies (Big Boy & Tamara Dee) are actually the son and daughter of DJ Uncle Al, the prolific producer with a string of successful albums and a pirate radio station (BASS 91.9) to his name. They went on to drop their own, self-titled album with Joey Boy later that year, and there it is. The legacy of Disco Rick and the Gucci Crew II ultimately eclipsed by a pair of kid rappers.

In 1994, Hot Productions put out the richly warranted album, The Best of Gucci Crew II. The only disappointing aspect of the record was that it lacked the scope to include the best of Disco Rick and The Dogs as well, and felt compelled to add tracks from G4, none of which were good enough to merit inclusion. Ant “D”’s path, tragically, took a far more serious turn. In 1999, he was convicted and sentenced to death for beating to death his ex-girlfriend and mother of his child Timwanika Lumpkins, as well as UM reserve linebacker Marlin Barnes, with the head of a shotgun at a post-Super Bowl party in Atlanta. …Curiously, Disco Rick never put out another release, though he has kept working as a producer, with his name occasionally turning up in the album credits of a few independent artists, a handful of Luke Record's projects, 2 Live Crew's The Real One, and even some releases by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. The Puppies returned, backed up by The Pup Pound, for a follow-up album, Recognize, on Pandisc Music in 1996.

So, that’s where the story ended back then. Now, in 2007, I can update you guys with a bit more: Disco Rick increased his cache again producing for Lil Jon, and yes, he has his own myspace at: http://www.myspace.com/discomuthafuckinrick, which you should definitely check out. DJ Uncle Al was tragically murdered in September of 2001. There’s a tribute myspace to him at: http://www.myspace.com/ripdjuncleal.

Tags: Disco Rick, The Dogs, Gucci Crew II

Where's Disco Rick At? (Part 1)

[This is going to be a long post and not quite in the style of my usual blog entries, because this is actually a (slightly modified) article I wrote for The Vinyl Exchange some years ago. It was accepted and it was going to run, but then things got held up and help up again; and it was always “going to be posted” on VE for a very long time (that’s why my tag on the VE boards is “Disco Rick Historian.” Hehe), but it never quite happened. That sort of thing happens to me a lot, by the way… I was accepted to write for Six-Too’s terrific little indie hip-hop site Tryple-Bypass right before it shut down, and RebirthMag and UrbanDigital have both closed... it’s possible I’m cursed. Anyway, years later now, I’ve got this blog and this old, unpublished Disco Rick article… it was a little more informative at the time, before some of these artists had wiki pages and listings on discogs, but I think most oif you guys will still learn a lot from it, so let’s have at it!]

See it all began in 1986, when the Gucci Crew II (Gucci M.C.V. a.k.a. Gucci Man and TFS a.k.a. 2-40, w/ DJ Disco Rick) released their debut 12", "Gucci Bass" on their own label, Gucci Records. Thus began a succession of kinda fresh/ kinda novelty-value hit singles, including "The Cabbage Patch" and their seminal hip-hop classic: "Sally - That Girl:"

“One, two, three…

And I woke up early this morning

And I went to the five and dime;

I saw this pretty young lady

That was real, real fine.

I tapped her on the shoulder

And said, "Mmm, mmm,

Excuse me, ma'am."

She pulled down her pants

And said, "Splack these hams."

In 1987, these were collected onto their debut album, So Def, So Fresh, So Stupid. The Gucci Crew II came with light lyrics and a quasi-hardcore style over cool, bass-heavy tracks (before "Miami bass" had that stigma attached to it), and a bevy of fresh scratches by Disco Rick.

In 1988, the Gucci Crew II came with their second album, What Time Is It? It's Gucci Time, featuring the marginal hit single "Truz 'N' Vogues," which kind of reversed the traditional gender roles of gold-digging: "I don't need a girl that's walking; I don't need a girl that's talking… I don't need a girl that's on her back; I need a young lady with a Cadillac." It also featured the delightful homage to Run DMC (clearly a huge influence on the trio), "Why's Always Got To Be Run," about their invariably coming in second to the kings of rock. There was "Shirley," a shameless but not-entirely-unsuccessful attempt to recapture the magic of "Sally - That Girl," and the more direct, "Fuddy Duddy," a silly parody of Doug E. Fresh & MC Ricky D's "La Di Da Di," with MCV performing as "Slick Vick," and TFS providingthe human beat-box.

They came again, the following year, with Everybody Wants Some and the single, "Five Dollar High." Say what you want about Floridian rappers from the 80's, but short of "White Lines" itself, those guys always made the most entertaining anti-drug songs. The beats were still pretty fresh, but with a decided bent towards sampling their flavor from overly familiar p-funk records. The Crew was getting better as MCs, but it was already the end of a brief era, with the magic's progressive seepage from each Gucci Crew release coming to a hilt as DJ Disco Rick struck out on his own.

Standing in flames, looking sweaty, relatively buff, and really pissed off, with a Ku Klux Klan hood in one hand and a noose in the other, Disco Rick was obviously tired of the jokey, self-deprecating attitudes of his former front-men. 1990 brought The Negro's Back by Disco Rick featuring The Dogs (Ant "D" & Amazing Peanut) on Joey Boy Records. This time Disco Rick took the mic - leaving the actual DJ work to a DJ Tony Tone - to vent a lot of anger, "like Ice Cube said, 'no sell out,' and if you do, get the Hell out the black race!" He decried social injustice, racism and "rednecks" on records like "Stopped In Mississippi" and "Babies In the Trash Cans." The flip side featured some more traditional Miami-style tracks, like "Hi-Ho," "S..k That D..k," and "Let Us Get That A.. Baby," featuring ‘shout and call’ hooks and the sort of scratched up Dolemite samples made popular by 2 Live Crew's early records with Luke Skyywalker. Those aside, though, The Negro's Back was a brilliant (in its way) example of the kind of 80's over-the-top, shamelessly unself-conscious hardcore rap records that I think we all, frankly, rather miss.

...They also put out the 12" only cut called "Rap Protest" that same year, showing their support to The 2 Live Crew, Public Enemy and MC Lyte(huh?) in their fights for their first amendment rights.

[Ok; I've just found out when attempting to post this that I'm limited to a certain length in blog entries. So this will be immediately followed up in a Where's Disco Rick At (Part 2) post.]

Mobbed Up

West Street Mob is actually a fairly mysterious little group in the history of hip-hop; virtually nothing is ever written about them. Best known for "Break Dancin' (Electric Boogie)," they actually put out a bunch of singles and had a succession of modest hits, but it's not even really known just who the heck was in the group. None of their liner notes ever really say, or apparently give proper credit even when they do say (more on that later), and there are no MCs helpfully name dropping themselves on each track... These guys were among the first hip-hop (if not strictly rap) groups putting out records, and they stayed in the game, putting out pretty high-profile releases for several years, all on the infamous Sugarhill label. So I'm gonna take a look at one of their more overlooked releases, their debut, self-titled LP from 1981, and see if we can't shed at least a little light into this dark corner.

There's a great old school hip-hop site (really, it's one of the best, and I'm adding it permanently to my links column) where host Jayquan interviews a ton of hip-hop pioneers... I still haven't finished reading through all of them. Well, in one interview, one of Sugarhill's in-house producers/musicians (and later one of Melle Mel's Furious Five), Clayton Savage had this to say about the West Street Mob, "But the West Street Mob, whatever their last album was [I believe that would be Break Dance (Electric Boogie) in '84 - Werner] - that was most of my work. They may have sang, but the music was me. I was more West Street Mob than they were." [Click here to read the whole thing - I'll be quoting from one or two other interviews on that site a little later on, because it's really the only place anything is written about the West Street Mob at all.... and even then, only in tangents drifting from other topics.]

Anyway, the album opens with their first single, "Make Your Body Move." The writing credits are given to, "Pleasure, W. Henderson, A. Johnson and J. Peters;" and the production credit for the entire album is to Joey Robinson Jr. It's a great jam by the Sugarhill band, with very few vocals (basically, a few hooks sung by the girl of the group or repeated on the vocoder); and it's probably the only one most readers would be familiar with off this album. Duke Bootee, of the Sugarhill Band and who would later make a name for himself as a solo artist, was asked about this song and replied, "Joey [Robinson Jr., son of Sylvia Robinson, then president of Sugarhill Records] might have tried to do the vocoder on that. He didn’t play on anything, but he was involved in the song selection. Craig Derry, Sabrina Gillison & Cindy Mizelle sang on those West Street Mob Records. They were all talented people." [Click here to read the whole thing.] Master Gee of the Sugarhill Gang had even more to say about Robinson's involvement in the Mob, "Joey Robinson – no talent at all. I don’t give a damn what anybody says. He is a duplicator and that’s all." When Jay agrees that he'd also heard that Joey didn’t do anything in the Mob, Master Gee went on, "He didn’t. He will tell people that he and his mother produced those songs but he didn’t produce that sh*t, his mother did! He was there in the studio, and may have pressed a button 1 or 2 times, but his mother produced those songs on all of us!!! Was he smart enough to be a student, and be perceptive and learn how to make moves? Yes. But as an artist he didn’t touch those West St Mob records. He didn’t perform on that West St Mob sh*t. He is not even on the tracks!!! The vocoder on 'Make Your Body Move' is done by Reggie Griffin!!! Then he is on stage with a fake vocoder, that’s not even hooked up!" [Click here to read the whole thing.] Of course, Master Gee is in a better position than anybody to speak on the fakery of Joey Robinson Jr., (see my previous post for that story).

Now, a lot of Sugarhill acts (and other hip-hop artists of the time, like Kurtis Blow) seemed to feature a lot of ballads on their albums that were never - or hardly ever - released as singles. Sure, harmonizing was a key component to early hip-hop performances; but this was something different: some straight, non-hip-hop sung R&B tunes. It's hard to say if this temporary phenomenon was a case of rappers wanting to show they had more musical talents than just rapping, for when the rapping fad blew over, or labels pressuring them into something safer and more generic to hedge their bets since rapping was so radical in the beginning. At any rate, it sure filled some great, early albums with a lot of real clunkers. And it's worth noting that all but one of the songs on this album that weren't already released as singles fall into the category. This is that one. "Get Up and Dance" (writing credits: T. Armstrong and J. Smith) is another primarily instrumental, but definitely hip-hop oriented, jam. It does feature some female vocals on the chorus, but otherwise it's all about the Sugarhill Band rockin'. It's my favorite song on the album, and you'll immediately recognize the breakdown in the middle of the song as it was used in Grandmaster Flash's classic, "Adventures On the Wheels of Steel."

And now we get into the ballads... and "Natural Living" (writing credit: Sabrina Gillison) is probably the hokiest, cheesiest example of corny ballads in all of hip-hop. This sounds like the sort of song a ride sponsored by a wheat germ company in Epcot Center would play to you over a made-in-the-70's video about happy nuclear families eating healthy and breathing clean air. Not that there isn't talent on display... Sabrina (I'm assuming she's the one singing here, given the writing credit; but of course, there's no real reason to assume she who wrote it sung it) has a great voice, and the chorus actually sounds pretty nice when the vocals double up. But for most, this is more the sort of song you endure rather than keep in heavy rotation.

"Never Again" (writing credits: Joey Robinson Jr. & Gary Henry) is a more traditional, and a bit more enjoyable, R&B tune. It's still a little bland and not the sort of West Street Mob most fans are after, but it at least has more soul than "Natural Living." And pretty much exactly the same could be said for "You're Killing Me" (writing credits: Eric Thorngren, B. Hocer & J. Tori). The tunes are pleasant enough, and the musicians are certainly capable, but there's a reason these songs are pretty well forgotten.

The second single, "Got To Give It Up" (writing credits: Joey Robinson Jr., Billy Jones), finally comes in here. It's back to the lively, hip-hop instrumentals, and it's got a really catchy bassline and some nice horns. But the weak, male vocals still make this one of the West Street Mob's lamest singles. It's good, and you'll like it. But it's no breakdancing anthem like their best work.

Finally, the album ends with "Sometimes Late At Night" (writing credits: Carol Bayer Sager & Burt Bacharach) So Burt Bacharach was down with the West Street Mob? Ha ha No. "Sometimes Late At Night" is actually a cover, originally written and composed by Bacharach on ex-wife Carol Bayer Sager's last album, also titled Sometimes Late At Night. Interestingly, that album came out in '81, so the Mob sure didn't waste any time getting their version out. You can probably imagine what this one sounds like. Very dentists' waiting room. Certainly an odd choice for an already eclectic mix. But I guess that's what the West Street Mob sort of was, and why so little was ever written about its line-up: a sort of dumping ground for all the tracks that Sugarhill didn't have a place for anywhere else. Songs they wanted to release as singles without giving them to the Furious Five or the Treacherous Three to do, a chance to let various in-house musicians and vocalists do whatever they wanted to and get them out there in the music shops.

So, yeah. There's no myspace or anything, as the West Street Mob seems to have dispersed anonymously into the crowd a long time ago. Just who were they? Well, it sure doesn't help that the writing credits for each song name a plethora of different people, and the only recurring name is the most dubious credit. I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that the line up did NOT stay the same from record to record, either. A few years later (specifically, '84) Joey Robinson Jr. would be listed as a featured guest (along with Cheryl the Pearl, of The Sequence, who apparently produced a lot of the West Street Mob's later material) on a West Street Mob record called, "I Can't Stop," which certainly suggests that he wasn't considered an official member. But maybe he was for a while, and then for a while he wasn't. I don't know. But I sure would like to be able to interview somebody who was there (the only people who could know it all for certain), and find out for certain. Or, more likely, Jayquan will beat me to it. ;)

Tags: West Street Mob, Sugarhill

Something By U.T.F.O.

So, I was going through my tapes and thought I might talk about UTFO's Hits album. It's a bit of an oddity, probably stemming from the fact that UTFO was a talented group with a long running career (well, by hip-hop standards), a number of albums and a substantial fanbase... but not really many hits. Y'know, besides that one. They even wound up making a song about it on their last album, "Something By U.T.F.O.," venting their frustration, "Lethal was an album we had... It went to number two, 'cause number one was Michael Jackson with Bad... but I don't think y'all played it once!" During the chorus, fans call into a radio station to request UTFO and get various rejections like, "You mean UB40, don't you?" or "Uh, you mean something besides 'Roxanne, Roxanne'?" It's a fun song*, but I think they missed the point. Listen to Lethal. It's a nice album, but find the potential hit single there. ...Exactly. And the same applies to all their follow-up albums, too.

So, what do they end up doing? They make some pretty odd choices... After a brief intro (a sample of Don Cornelius introducing them on Soul Train), the album opens with... their token love song from their third album? Now, it's actually a pretty decent song, and it was released as a single and video in its day. But if that's your opener, you know you're in some kind of trouble.

They do manage to include some of the obvious choices... "Leader Of the Pack," their Krush Groove record "Pick Up the Pace," and "Split Personality." But "Masterbaby?" "The Ride?" Those're some weird album filler tracks only us hardcore UTFO fans probably even remember, and yet songs like "We Work Hard," "Hangin' Out," "Rough & Rugged," and others that were actually released as singles are skipped over. Not even their debut (and still one of my favorites), "Beats and Rhymes," makes its way on here.

The album also makes the strange choice of excluding any reference to UTFO's last album, Bag It and Bone It. Now granted, it's nobody's favorite (even down to the title choice), and they had lost core member Doctor Ice by that point (though that didn't stop them from including songs from Skeezer Pleezer, where they were missing EMD); but they don't even include it on the inside artwork showing all of their albums available on Select Records. It's like they're just sweeping it under the rug. ...And this Hits album came out in '96, a full five years after Bag It, so it's nothing to do with that.

One of the bonuses you get with this album are these "Hip Hop Props" numbers. They're seven recordings of different hip-hop celebs praising UTFO that sound like they were done over the phone, then laid on top of the "Leader Of the Pack" beat and spread throughout the album. I say "bonuses," but really, like any skit on an album, they're more like irritating detriments once you've listened to it a couple of times. To nail the "only one hit" awkwardness of the album home, pretty much every single one of the artists giving props (Vinnie of Naughty By Nature, DJ Red Alert, MC Lyte, Big Daddy Kane, and Prince Paul, who calls himself, "of the Gravediggaz," which gives you a sense of the period we're in) all just talk about "Roxanne, Roxanne." Only Tuffy of Video Music Box (man, I used to watch Video Music Box all the time... I don't remember any "Tuffy") and Run talk about anything else... and even Run starts out by name-dropping it. Run talks about how "Peter Piper" was actually inspired by "Fairytale Lover" (yeah, they even included that R&B song off their first album on this compilation), which was interesting... although neither was the first hip-hop song to fill their lyrics with fairy-tale references.

The album ends with a new song, "Lollipop," exclusive to this collection. It features a verse from The Real Roxanne with R&B singer Syncere on the hook, and the instrumental is based on Mtume's "Juicy Fruit." It's an ok song, mostly using moderately-at-best clever candy-themed sexual innuendos... Roxanne asks us to "taste her birth canal" in a way that ellicits a real "no thanks!" reaction she probably wasn't going for. But it's a fun song. Definitely not single worthy, but fitting as the token new track on a greatest hits album. Unfortunately, they're still missing Doctor Ice, which is a definite disappointment; but at least it features an EMD who, since Bag It, had really started to find a distinctive voice for himself**.

A couple of the "Hip Hop Props" (specifically Tuffy and Prince Paul), reference UTFO coming with new material... so it seems like a UTFO comeback was originally planned to follow this album. Sadly, that never happened, which adds another slight air of disappointment to an already offbeat compilation. Now, I already linked Doc Ice's myspace page in a previous post, but Kangol, EMD and Mixmaster Ice all have myspaces, too; and Mixmaster Ice has - or had, it seems to be down at the moment - his own site at: mixmasterice.com. There's also a myspace for the whole crew; so maybe that reunion album is still a possibility?

*It's not on Hits, though, so don't get too excited.

**The cassette version of Bag It and Bone It is the one to own, by the way... it features like four or five "bonus cuts" that aren't featured on the LP, most of which are better than the main ones. In fact, my favorite song on that album, "Beef Pattie" (that's not the crass sexual innuendo you might guess it is from looking at the album cover), is a cassette only bonus cut.

Tags: UTFO, U.T.F.O.

All Brooklyn Hard Rocks Go 'Round the Outside

Frog Style is one of six underground/demo tapes that Thirstin Howl III sold me when I met him in '99. Most of the tracks on all six later found their way onto his "official" CD debut, Skillionaire; but each tape has at least one nice exclusive, too.

This one opens with what's still one of my all-time favorite Thirstin songs, "Still Live With My Moms," an anthem for every rapper who's music career isn't paying the bills for an Ice-T-style LA mansion. Surely you remember the interviews with Ice sitting at his home office desk showing off his grenade in front of a giant glass water tank with a shark swimming in it; then cutting to King Tee and the Rhyme Syndicate playing full arcade games in his basement. Well, there's certainly been enough hip-hop songs touting that lifestyle, but this is a song, with a little help from Master Fuol, representing those of us still living a little less glamorously... with Thirstin ripping LL Cool J's classic "Big Ol' Butt" instrumental:

"I always say
I'll move out next year,

But it'll be sooner

If welfare finds out I live here.

Yo, it's cheap by my place...

I ain't scared to open bills,

'Cause ain't none of them in my name.

Got kicked out,

But my mom said I can move back
If I can prove that

I didn't steal my sister's food stamps.

...

So I throw out the garbage,
And wash the dishes;

And I can't go outside

Without my mom's permission.

Even though my flow

Is uncomparable,

I'm an Unsigned Hype

With nowhere else to go."

"Frogstyle," is another banger, a showcase for some of Thirstin's best craziest rhymes and punchlines, with Rack-Lo on the George Clinton-inspired hook. And "Guess On the Mix" is a Thirstin Howl (backed up, as ever, by Unique London) mix-tape freestyle over the infamous (and overused... but this was one of the earlier ones, and Howl really makes it his own) "Tried By 12" beat.

But it's the next track that's the real jewel of this tape. "Brooklyn Hard Rock" - of course a song I'm sure even the most casual Thirstin Howl fan is familiar with... but this is the pre-Rawkus remix that's never since been released. It features DJ Spinna mixing up the "Buffalo Gals" instrumental (though most, if not all, of the dope scratches you hear are just from the original Supreme Team's track) and Thirstin spitting what became his signature record. Don't get me wrong, the remix is definitely nice, with some very cool, period jazz samples that's pretty impossible to resist, but this totally uncleared version is still the way "Brooklyn Hard Rocks" was meant to be heard. Perhaps an even greater, if more subtle, reason this is really the one definitive version is because, though the lyrics are the same, Thirstin redid the vocals for the remix; and clearly the strongest performance is here. It also helps that he didn't give his strongest punchlines to Unique, which you wouldn't realize how much that undercuts them until you hear the way he does them himself.

The tape rounds out with the song "Bad Things" and a "Morning Show Promo" (originally recorded for Hot 97), both of which are the same as would turn up on his Skillionaire disc (on the CD, it's "Morning Show Part 1"). But, yeah. It's all about the O.G. "Brooklyn Hard Rock"... the song that immediately comes to mind anytime Thirstin's name comes up.

And that's the end of this blog entry which means, yes, it's MYSPACE TIME! Of course Thirstin has one, and here it is - there's a crapload of Thirstin Howl CDs and DVDs you can order from there, and some new songs. Pretty much everyone in his crew(s) has their own myspace, too; but they're all linked in his Top Friends, so I'm not going to hurt myself trying to link every single one of them. He also has his own, official website at: thirstinhowlthe3rd.com, which is pretty much just a store. But you won't be disappointed by how much product he's got to offer, that's for sure. ;)

Tags: Thirstin Howl III, Master Fuol, Rack Lo, Lo Lifes

And This Is the Way… We Rock the House!

This is a good 12" from a good group who's time has unfortunately passed. It's unspectacular - it's essentially a compilation of horn samples, basslines, and Public Enemy wailing sirens you've heard multiple times before... but all mixed into two undeniably agreeable instrumentals. And the lyrics aren't exactly what we used to call "next level:" "the hard rhymer, known for one-liners and puttin' skins in the Lay-Z-Boy recliner." But "This Is the Way We Rock the House" is just a solid hip-hop 12" for anyone who loves hip-hop (casual fans can skip over this and keep waiting for the next Gnarls Barkley).

The Kings of Swing debuted with a minor, late 80's classic called, "Stop Jockin' James" and wound up getting signed to Virgin Records and being produced by The Audio Two and King of Chill in 1990. It was definitely the formula for a nice, hip-hop record, if not a mainstream hit, and they scored bigger big with their single, "Nod Your Head To This." But not big enough for Virgin to back a second album (a shame, of course... but also not difficult to understand from their perspective). A couple years later, though ('93), I caught the Kings of Swing on a local NY hip-hop video show (WNYC 31) showing they were still in the game to win it. They had a black and white video to go with their first single (co-produced by themselves, Ismael “Ish” Allen, and DJ Master Tee, who’d done some stuff with MC Lyte and the First Priority crew) from their upcoming, self-produced album on their own label, K.O.S. (try and guess what it stands for!) Records. And they even changed their names from Sugar Kay and Mike Master to M.K. and Slash Boogie, to go with their new, rugged image. Well, apparently they never got as far as the album, but there were a few nice, hard-to-find 12"s going around of that single.

It was pretty rare, and I hadn't managed to find a copy, until The Sunz of Man's manager discovered a box of them (yeah, that’s about as random as it sounds), and sold them out through the Sunz' website. They had like 6 Sunz of Man vinyl and CD singles and one old Kings of Swing record. Well, I'd been looking for that for like a decade since I first saw the video, so you know I didn't waste anytime. :)

And I wasn't disappointed in the least. As I said, it relied on the familiar, and the Kings may've actually been lyrically regressing at that point (lines about having "more funk than comes out your ass-cheeks" could've just as well been written by Brian Austin Greene or somebody); but both the main track, and the B-side, "The Blunted" can still get your head nodding like they used to, and DJ CoCoa Chanelle steals the show with some nice scratching.

These guys were ahead of the indie 12" boom in the mid to late 90's, and it's a shame they didn't at least drop a few more rare jewels on KOS before calling it a career. Well, I don't know what's become of The Kings, but the Queen has been rather successfully DJing her own show on Hot 97 for some time. She's also apparently venturing into the rapping and production game, suggesting she's "the female version of Dr. Dre" on her myspace page, and hinting at an album, "like how Dre did on The Chronic when he came out and he's rhyming, he's producing, and then he's bringing new artists to the table." I suppose a couple Kings of Swing reunion tracks is too much to hope for... but, then again, if Easy Mo Bee can keep bringing out RIF on his albums, I can remain optimistic. :)

Tags: Kings of Swing, CoCoa Chanelle

We Went All Around the Planet, Pitchin', and No One Hit It

This is a nice 12" of a nice song that's not too hard to come by and definitely worth snagging. MC Hammer (of all people) put together a surprisingly nice compilation consisting of mostly talented, underground west coast artists like The B.U.M.s, Paris, Nas (back when he was still underground) and this stand-out posse cut featuring Ahmad, Ras Kass & Saafir, and produced by King Tech. It seemed like a slightly odd choice at the time... both Ras Kass and Saafir had both just made huge names for themselves with classic, lyrical debuts, but Ahmad... was that one hit wonder who made the minor crossover hit "Back In the Days" and then disappeared. Who knew he'd be competing for the illest verse with two legends, much less winning (though an equal case could probably be made for Ras's verse)?

"Gave it all that I had,
Just to have what I got.
Brothers tryin' to be bad,
And they mad 'cause they not
Gonna defeat the rapper
Who's who's got three ways to sack a
Quarterback and slaughter wack
MC's with ease.
These nuts:
whatcha get and a busted lip's
What ya have when you come at me
With busta shit.
Get it right
'Cause I get it night in and night out;
I am but a covering of wack MCs like white out.
Don't doubt
That they just be ok rappers: overrated,
Who hated
That a nigga from the West blew up and made it
...
They think they can defeat
The man that can't be beat;
I do the breast stroke, clown,
While you drown in three feet.
'Beep beep!'
Like robots on Buck Rogers,
Plus I bust
twenty-fifth century rhymes,
So you decline
To battle at any time.
Had skills since I was nine;
Dope rhymes
Are the only weapon that I brought.
I'm never caught,
Or cloned, 'cause biting's never condoned.
From the West side, 4th Avenue,
Crew: Jones."

Speaking of odd choices, by the way, here's the ad that ran for the Street Fighter soundtrack when it came out; definitely made me laugh:

Can you read it (again, AOL takes too much of a liberty shrinking these graphics)? The characters at the top are saying:
"Yo! Kid, did you peep that 'Street Fighter' movie?!"
"I'm sayin', though... that sh!t was wack!"
"But yo!!! Did you check for the album?"
"Man! That sh!t was dope!"
Ha ha! That was the official ad, from Universal Pictures, and they straight up said their movie was wack! I mean, it's certainly true enough, but they had home video sales coming up... what were they thinking?

Ahmad would go on to show his surprising, previously hidden skills on tracks for the Pump Ya Fist compilation and Jason's Lyric soundtrack and eventually make a full-fledged comeback with his crew, 4th Avenue Jones, which was good but not quite as lyrically impressive. Around the time of his best stuff, he also had a song out called "Ahmad Is Like," which I remember thinking was really dope. I asked Ahmad about it a few years later and he said he never put it out. He gave the only existing masters to Tech and Sway at The Wake Up Show, so if it's ever going to get released, it would have to be through them. So, yeah. Get to work on that, guys.

Anyway, back to the twelve-inch. This was the indy 12" (the commercial one was Hammer's duet with Dion Sanders *shudder*), and it featured three dope mixes by three hot, underground producers to match the 3 MCs on the track. One, of course, is the album mic by King Tech... Definitely a cool, slow but hardcore beat that gives you just enough to bob your head while keeping the focus on the MCs. Producer Joe Quixx smooths it out a bit, with an addictive, slow bassline you could just sit and listen to for hours, and a horn sample on the hook that sounds like it could be out of Diamond D's catalog. But it's Fredwreck Nassar's remix that's my personal favorite, taking the jazz feel from Quixx's mix several steps further... it's really nice, and to my mind, the definitive version.

Ahmad and 4th Avenue Jones are still together, though they've gone the Christian rap route these days. Here's their myspace, and here's Ras Kass's. Ras also has an official site at: raskass-central.com, with some good content. Also, Joe Quixx's crew has a website called oaklandfaders.com and, of course, he has a myspace. Fredwreck does, too, as well as an official site at: fredwreck.com. I already covered Saafir's in a previous post, so.... 'till next time: cheers!

Just a Summa Day

Here's another nice summer jam. Coming straight out of the House of Hits in '94, Sah-B put out her first single on Reprise Records on the strength of her cameo on The Lords Of the Underground's hit, "Flow On." With a distinctively high-pitched voice, hardcore flow and clever punchline-style rhymes, Sah-B was definitely creating a buzz, and this attempt at a mainstream crossover release may've been a poor choice for a debut to an audience who would've been hoping for a reprise (no pun intended, but it's there and we're all just going to have to live with it) from just that sort of thing at that time... but it's still pretty nice.

Like you'd expect from a summer jam, this Marley Marl produced song is a relaxed, take-it-easy type record with a brief flute sample, keyboard, light bassline and slow drums. A hook by Avery Moore that goes: "It's just a summer day... come out and parlay. Come out and parlay," sets up Sah-B easy listening rhymes (written by Mawiyah Britton. Sah-B's real name is Sakinah Britton, so who's this? Her sister? Mother?):

"People fake sick just to get the day off,
'Cause it's too hot to work; the heat'll make your head hurt.
The heat sometimes'll make you aggravated;
And those without ACs are really frustrated.
Mosquito bites just gettin' to ya,
And the sweat got your PJs stickin' to ya;
So you jump into the shower,
Stay about an hour,
And throw on the Johnson's Baby Powder."

Here's the cover of the cassingle, so you can see the kind of vibe they were goin' for:

But it's the b-side, "Some Ol' Sah-B Shit" that's the star of this show. Produced by K-Def, with nasty horn samples, intense scratching, a banging piano loop and Sah-B (this time writing her own material) ripping it ill and hardcore, this is Sah-B living up to everything her burgeoning fans were hoping for, and then some. There's a warning on the label, "Attention: Track B1 may not be suitable for on-air/in-store play." Yeah, it sure ain't. And it's better than anything the Lords or any of Marley's other acts managed to come out with at the time; she really just kills it over one of K-Def's best tracks.

Now, here's an ad that ran in a summer issue of Rap Sheet:

...Note (if you can... AOL seems to've shrunken it a bit) that it mentions her "forthcoming debut album on Reprise." Sadly, this never materialized. The cassingle credits go a bit further, mentioning, "the Reprise album Some Ol' Sah-B Shit, available on cassette and compact disc (4/2 - 45716)." Now I'm no marketing guru, but surely that title was shooting themselves in the foot. Sah-B did attempt an independent comeback a few years later (of course, as always, you can see all the specifics on my Sah-B page), and continued to appear on the subsequent LOTUG albums, but her increasing attempts to sound more conventional (read: boring) really worked against her.

As far as I can tell, Sah-B's no longer recording (though maybe when LOTUG comes out with another album, she'll return), and I can't find a myspace or anything... Here's K-Def's myspace page, though. And here's Marley's (not to be confused with this, unofficial Marley Marl myspace page).

Tags: Sah-B, Sakinah Britton, K-Def, Marley Marl

Tonight It's Summertime

Well, it's officially summertime, and once again that means it's time for all the hip-hop radio stations and video shows (if there are any left, that is) to break out everybody's favorite seasonal rap (and their last well regarded song), DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince's "Summertime." Once again, everyone curiously opting to overlook my all-time favorite summertime anthem, Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew's "Summertime."

Doug E's came out about two year's before Will Smith's, but it's not "Summertime" squatting rights that makes this my favorite - it's just a great f'ing song. Production is handled by The Get Fresh Crew (Chill Will and Barry Bee also get credit for cuts, but I'll be damned if I can hear any in any version of this song) and prolific dance music producer Todd Terry, but they've enlisted the help of the great 45 King for beat-programming and "Doo-Doo"s (dude, that's what the liner notes say... but once you hear the song, you'll know what they're talking about). Dawn Davis and Dave Bernard Wright provide the hook (there's also a childrens' chorus at the end, which is uncredited... a sample, perhaps?). Finger pops, changing piano loops, bouncing bassline... It's upbeat, dancable, jazzy and soulful all at the same time.

There was a video for this at the time, featuring a brief intro by DJ Red Alert over the radio as Doug E arrives and sets up to host a block party. Then it's Doug E rapping with everybody out dancing on the streets of New York on a bright, summer day. They even cut to cute little kids just like the Fresh Prince version would a few years down the road. Doug E kicks the sort of relaxing, easy listening type rhymes you'd expect from a summerday jam:

"Taking a trip down memory lane,
When me and the boys was playing a game
Of ball in the park;
Hangin' out at the block
Parties. You see a pretty girl you like?
She belong to somebody.
It ain't nuthin',
You keep on huntin';
'Cause sooner or later you'll run into someone
You like, or wanna be with,
Maybe just sleep with.
From that point, I think you'll wanna get deep with
Her or him or them,
Without a fear and a doubt.
Because it's summertime;
And that's what summertime's all about."

It winds up with a new piano loop kicking in for the breakdown, and Doug does a fresh human beatbox solo.

Granted, groups like The Sugarhill Gang ("Hot, Hot Summer Day") had touched on summertimesongs before; but to me this was always will be the ideal and pinnacle of hip-hop summertime raps, and it's a shame it hasn't been kept alive as much as it deserves.

Yes, Doug E Fresh has got a myspace page (Chill Will and DJ Barry Bee each have one, too); and he's also got a relly nice website at: dougefresh.com. According to his site, his upcoming album, Global Warming, with guest spots by Big Daddy Kane and Busy Bee, "will be available on June 15th." So far, it's still not available; but hey he's only a week late. Let's hope it does come out soon.

Tags: Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew

What I Call Produce

Now That's What I Call Produce was an 8-song "bonus disc" EP that came free with Raw Produce's Feeling of Now album from Sandbox in 2004. It's a collection of rare and unreleased tracks from Raw Produce. All the unreleased tracks (and even some of the released ones) later found their way onto Raw Produce's really nifty Selling Celery To Get a Salary compilation, which came out on Pro Se Recordings (Cadence's label) in 2006, but for a long time this was the only way to hear 'em. Well... all that is, except for one (more on that when we get to it). I'm not gonna write much about the previously released stuff, assuming any Raw Pro fan is familiar with this stuff, and this post will be long enough anyway... but I do have some great notes that Pitch wrote for each track that I'll share with you guys as we go.

The first track is "Fruit of Our Labor," which had been floating around on mp3 for years (I don't remember how it first came out on mp3... it's possible I got it from Insomnia and debuted it in my column in the late 90's... or not. I'm really not sure now. hehe), but this was its first proper release (allowing that a freebie bonus disc from a single online vendor counts as a proper release, which it really kinda doesn't). It's from their demo, before even their debut "Make a Mark" 12"... Here, I'll just let Pitch explain it, "from our first demo, it remains one of my favorite Raw Produce songs - points to anyone that can name that opening sound clip." And for the record, I cannot name that opening sound clip. ;)

Secondly we have "Make a Mark," which was first released as the b-side to their "Cycles" 12" in 1995. I'll jump right to Pitch's comments here... "from our first single because a lot of folks don't have it. A pain in the ass to mix." Good song; not as good as "Cycles." 'Nuff said.

The third track is "Who's Right (Remix)." Ok, here's where we talk Japan. See, Raw Produce had been planning to release their first full-length album, The Feeling of Now (unless you count their Refrigerator Poetry EP as a full-length release, which I kinda do... but, whatever. You get the point) for ages. Seriously, it had been announced many years before it finally got released - Insomnia Records sent me a sound clip ofthe title track way back in '98 to promote the album; and it didn't wind up coming out 'till 2004. When they finally started making their comeback (as it were), and it looked like TFoN would finally be released, they made a deal with handcuts Records to put out an alternate version of the album, called Now and Then, in Japan. TFoN wound up getting held up even more, and the Japanese album managed to come out a good year before the US version (which threw the clever play between the titles a little off). Anyway, each album featured some exclusive tracks not featured on the other version (you can check my Raw Pro page for the specific track-listings, of course), and while TFoN featured the song, "Who's Right," NaT had the remix. Pitch says, "from the Japanese release of our record, it's a remix that Cad and I put together for fun."

Now track number four - "I Got a Rhyme" - is the never released one. Probably because it's just, as Pitch says, "a Cadence freestyle - definitely cool." But it's hot. The hook is based off of a fun Common Sense line, "I've got a rhyme; You've got a rhyme. But my rhyme is better than yours" from "Orange Pineapple Juice." Cadence raps over the same track, which has a pretty similar sensibility to Raw Produce's production sound, and kicks some slick, playful wordplay, which is the perfect blend of clever rhymes and a smooth flow that makes the material even better:

"My rhymes are better than
The next half-assed attempt.
MCs are reckless on mics.
I call their number if they slumber,
Servin' breakfast on mics.
But there's no need to get defensive.
The phrase turner Cadence rockin' the mic for my man, Pensive.
Bringing Deep Thoughts like Jack Handy.
Hand me the man of the year lyricist;
This is the way to the gym.
Buildin' and still I'm Poisonin' the Minds of Children.
A slaughter
Crossin' the front lines from South of the border.
Free delivery,
Bringing you the chaos that you ordered;
Hate when MC's are worth less like Canadian quarters.
Sort of insanity,
As if rockin' the mic was an embarrassment;
I came to bring some good old fashioned American arrogance!
I learned it from George - my man W,
Who said, 'I have no morals, fuck this.
I'm bombin' cats; don't let it trouble you.'
That's the example to follow; forget tomorrow.
If your ass can't cash the checks,
There's always trouble to borrow.
Fuck the world, right?
If it's no justice, no peace,
Then blast peace to pieces, then the need for justice will cease.
At least that's the plan,
The plan, the propaganda;
And it's a thin line lyin' between dissent and slander.
hand to hand, I stand to combat the hate;
Make no mistake, Cadence got proirities straight.
'Cause in these days and times of illegally wagin' wars,
Think I give a fuck, kid? My rhyme is better than yours!"

...Then Pitch comes in with some fresh scratching at the end. F'in' nice.

Track five was the first proper, never otherwise released, full song (until Selling Celery, of course): "Green Is the Color." Pitch writes, "from our first demo tape, this song is about naivete and jealousy. Have one of our first cut breaks that we would come back to in 'Mister Dope America.'"

Track six is "Nervous," a nice little number you probably remember from their Refrigerator Poetry EP. Pitch wrote, "my personal unreleased Raw Pro track (actually, it was on the Japanese-only EP) - this is probably one of my favorite overal RP songs."

If six is one of Pitch's favorites, seven is one of mine. "Mister Dope America" originally came out on 12" in 1998. It was (foolishly, IMHO) left off The Feeling of Now domestic release, but did find its way onto the NaT version. Pitch's notes: "the joke that just about no one got, or they got it and didn't think it was funny. Was originally supposed to have Pos from De La Soul on it but he backed out at the last minute. I think this song, and the reaction it to it cause Cad to write the immortal line "'Making real music for the six people who give a fuck.'" Of course, I'm as much a De La fan as anybody, but this is such a classic, I think we're better off without having Pos on the track... though I have to admit, I'm damn curious.

Finally, track eight is "Sink Or Swim," another debut at the time. Pitch wrote, "from our first demo tape, a downright silly song but still kind of fun. We were thinking of excluding it and then said what the hell. Definitely interesting for those interested in the evolution of the RP sound."

Today, sadly, Raw Produce is no more. Pitch has given it up, it seems. Their site, rawproduce.com, is still live at the moment, but it says right on the front page, "this site will gradually fade to black." :(

Cadence is still in the game, at least. He's put out two solo albums to date and produces for artists like Zimbawbee Legit who've got a new album coming out called House of Stone (due out on pH Music/Pro Se Recordings in late summer/early fall*). It's just not as good without Pitch (Cadence's solo output, I mean; not the Zimbawbee Legit album), though personally I think a large part of the blame for that can be put on the fact that he constantly passes the mic to guest rappers (some better than others) on his albums, since Cade is definitely still a very talented MC and producer, and his stuff is always worth checking for. He has a myspace page here (he's also been known to post on the DWG and VE boards). Heck, if we support him enough and he keeps building a following, then maybe he'll even be able to talk Pitch out of retirement down the road. ;)

ERRATA: (updated on 07/02/07) This correction comes from Cadence himself, so I'll just give you guys his exact words, "in the interest of giving credit where it's due, the cuts on 'I Got Rhyme' are from the original Common track. I did it for a mixtape (by a DJ form Canada named Pensive) and the lyrics ended as the cuts began, so I left them in. And Pitch--multi-talented though he is--never laid down a scratch--good bad or otherwise--in his life. Ask him h'ell tell ya the same, he knows my name..."


*And what's more, it's got a guest appearance by Chubb Rock. =)

Tags: Raw Produce, Cadence

SF12002 x 2?

^Video blog!!
(As always, this is pure, original content created for this blog; not just me posting some random Youtube link.)

Tags: Grand Daddy IU, I.U., Grand Daddy I.U., IU