Nightmare On Elm Street raps, part 2

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(Second video of all-original Halloween content on the new blog.)

Happy Halloween, everybody!

Nightmare On Elm Street raps, part 1

^Video blog!!
(First video of all-original content on the new blog.)

Part two will be posted on Halloween day...

Pos K Report

Hey, guys. Just a quick post on the new Positive K CD (yeah, CD only) that's just dropped. Not to be confused with the mp3 compilation of 12" cuts and stuff from the old First Priority Basement compilation, etc. (misleadingly titled, The Gentleman, The Rapper: The Lost 1988 First Priority Album), Origins of Hip-Hop: Back To the Old School (kind of a clunky title, eh?) is an actual, legit release on Echo Records. It's fourteen tracks long, mostly of old 12" cuts and stuff, like the mp3 comp. I'm gonna go ahead and guess that "Echo Records" (here's their myspace) is actually Echo International, the same label that put most of these tracks out on vinyl in '99.

But, unlike that mp3 comp, which features none, this CD also seems to feature three two genuinely previously unreleased tracks! Here's the track-listing, broken down by me (a "disambiguation" as it were):

1. Talking Positive <---1999 12="" br="" echo="">2. Feel Good Bout Myself <---1999 12="" br="" echo="">3. Listen 2 the Man <---1999 12="" br="" echo="">4. Raggedy Man <--- apparently="" strike="" unreleased=""> actually the song "E&J" featuring Raggedy Man mistitled, from the 1999 Echo 12"
5. Never Too Much <---1999 12="" br="" echo="">6. Black Cinderella <---1996 12="" br="" his="" label="" on="" own="">7. A Good Combination <--- strike="">1988 First Priority 12" "Good Combination '95" 1996 from his own label, see the comments
8. Ain't No Stoppin Me Now <---1987 12="" br="" first="" priority="">9. Better Know About It <--- apparently="" span="" unreleased="">
10. How You Livin'? <---1997 12="" br="" his="" label="" on="" own="">11. It's All Gravy <---1995 12="" br="" his="" label="" on="" own="">12. Mr. Jiglyano <---1995 12="" br="" his="" label="" on="" own="">13. Right About Now <--- apparently="" span="" unreleased="">
14. Sweater Girl <--- 12="" 1987="" first="" from="" gram="" just="" mistitled="" p="" pam="" priority="" the="" uarter="">
Of course, you can always check out my Positive K discography page to see all the stuff on his 12"s and stuff explicitly laid out. So, what the heck. Three Two previously unreleased Pos K songs is still worthwhile, though - I'll be getting this. Wish it would come out on vinyl, though...

Update 8/30/08: Ok, I got suspicious of the song title "Raggedy Man," since it's the name of an artist Pos has worked with in the past, so I went back to my old 12"'s and sure enough - that song turned out to be "E&J." What screwball put this track-listing together?

Word To Your Mutha Ship

Some of you may remember this blog as the one you never got to read ages ago because AOL ate it... well, here it is, with the second half freshly rewritten:

Here's a weird, little collector's edition 7" single from a label that specialized in weird, little collector's edition 7" singles - including the Object Beings' debut I covered in a previous post. Weapon-Shaped Recordings was owned and run by Eric Steuer, music editor for Wired magazine. They later changed their tactic, signed some in-house artists (Substance Abuse, The Forest Fires Collective) and became a bit more of a "legit" label. But this, their first release, came out before all that started in 1999.

"Werd To Yer Motha-Ship" was the single off of The Shape Shifters' self-released (not on Weapon-Shaped) album, Planet Of the Shapes. It was limited to 550 copies (mine is #5) and came pressed on clear-orange vinyl in a regular paper sleeve and a folded piece of cardboard with the artwork on the front & back, and came with a little, yellow lyrics sheet. Few MCs are so well served by coming with printed lyrics, let me tell you, then Circus, who provides all the raps on this single. It's a dope track, produced by the late DJ Rob One and Mr. Fung (an alias of Shape Shifters crew member Mek One), featuring a popping beat underneath a really addictive bassline and a plethora of bizarre sounds and samples. It's one of Circus's best flows, with just ill freestyle lyrics, drifting from "MCs step off" into crazed, sci-fi nonsense and back again.

It's followed by a brief instrumental interlude produced by Transducer and entitled, "Transcend & Evolve," with a vocal sample of an exchange between Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson's characters in Easy Rider discussing the people of Venus, "Why don't they reveal themselves to us is because if they did it would cause a general panic. Now, I mean, we still have leaders upon whom we rely for the release of this information. These leaders have decided to repress this information because of the tremendous shock that it would cause to our antiquated systems. ... So now the 'Nooshins are meeting with people in all walks of life in an advisory capacity. For once, man will have a god-like control over his own destiny. He will have a chance to transcend and to evolve with some equality for all."

The B-side, "Happy Birthday Nimrod" was originally an exclusive, but later found itself on the Shifters' double album, Know Future. It's a crazy Circus solo joint, co-produced by Circus and Transducer, with a grungy guitar loop, keys by Nico "the Funky Greek," and a crazy patchwork of weird sound effects, being cut up by Actual Jae L.A. over a slow rolling beat. The lyrics are just Circus ranting insanely to the beat; here's an excerpt (note: the punctuation is how he's written it on the lyrics sheet):

"ZOG IS COMING SOON !!! THAT'S WHY WE GOTS TA HURRY HOME
BY 11:30 P.M....... SO I CAN BE DECEIVED NY MY T.V.
HOW THE WORLD WILL BEGIN ???
IN 1997 ? ONLY 42% OF THE THE UPS.PEOPLE ........ VOTED FOR THE DEVIL !!!
FOR WHAT SHALL MONKEYS DO , WITHOUT JET PACKS OR SOLAR POWER?!
YOU ARE ALL THE SAME... YOU ARE ALL THE SAME.... YOU ARE ALL ON RITALIN INDIGNANT WITH ? FEELINGS OF ABANDONMENT
READING LEVEL WELL ... RUB STICKS ?? TO START A FIRE .... 'CAUSE
ALL THE USED UP LIGHTERS ? ARE BROKEN ... LAYING IN THE GUTTER
CLEAN UP ON AISLE SEVEN !!
THERE IS A ROBOT ... AND A CAVEMAN ... HAVING A FIST FIGHT
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TARGET
PREESTABLISHED SOCIAL SKILLS .... OF GREED AND VIOLENCE !?!?
NOW THE TIME HAS COME !!!! FOR YOU TO BUST A MOVE !!!!!!!!
AND RESERVE YOUR VISIT TO THE * GOD MACHINE *
SHIT IN THE URINAL ..... OR NAME THE CAT ROVER
NOW YOU'VE GONE AND DONE IT !!
THEY HAVE COME TO TRY & FIT US WITH ???? RESTRAINING BOLTS
AS BUG EYED ANGELS OF A SUBSTITUTE GOD ARRIVE
TO WITNESS THE UNVEILING OF THE 7th CHOCODILE ..... WHILE ?
PEOPLE GATHERED THEIR MOST VALUABLE ITEMS ... FOR THE ARRIVAL ?!
OF THE FLYING SAUCER !!!!!!!!"

...And that's just a small sample of this crazy rant of a song, co-written by Circus * the Robot Impostor * 1997 (as he credits himself here in the liner notes), Jovian * MC Jackalope * and Sean Steele. It also plays backwards (i.e. you put the needle closest to the label and it plays to the outer rim - so be ready to grab the needle at the end before it skids around your player and breaks!).

So, all of the music on this (which was all recorded on an analog Tascam 8 track by the way) has now seen wider release, but you can't say this isn't still a pretty neat collector's item.

Now, the Shifters have a myspace, naturally; as does Circus... in fact, he used to do a lot of blogging on his, but has since deleted it all after a big, messy thing with his ex-wife in the comments. :/ I'm not sure what's next for the Shifters - they seem mainly to be focussing on their solo projects; and Circus hasn't announced anything in a while. I don't know about you, but I'm very ready for some new Circus material. ...And RadioInactive, too, for that matter. What's he been up to?

Is It Live?

Yes, it is ...assuming "it" is referring to my new website home, wernervonwallenrod.com! That is very live. As you've heard me yack and blabber about before, my old AOL webhost is shutting down. So after 11 years of Werner von Wallenrod's Humble, Little Hip-Hop Site being on AOL, it's now at it's own URL: http://wernervonwallenrod.com/ (I'm still working on it, so pardon any broken links or graphics... they'll all be sorted soon). The old site should be up for a few more days, but come November 1, it will be gone. But nothing will be lost - just moved to the new site. And I have plans for some new coolness there as well, once I finish fixing up all the old stuff.

And just so there's no confusion, this blog is staying right here at wernervonwallenrod.blogspot.com; I'm talking about the "hub" site with all the artist discographies and such.

Also, for those of you who're interested, yes I know my Todd Solondz website is all messed up. That also has to do with my changing server hosts, and will be fixed soon (after Werner's). Sorry about that.

So, yeah. No more "members.aol.com" or "journals.aol.com" or even "members.xoom.com" (remember that?) nonsense; it's all wernervonwallenrod.com now, baby!

Fat Boys: Disco 3 to 2008

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(First video of all-original content on the new blog.)

Stranded On Def Row

If you're into hip-hop history, there's a lot to be read about the compilation Boston Goes Def, the first full-length rap album of all new, original material released out of Boston. It's talked about in interviews with Slick Rick (of FTI; not that Slick Rick):
"If given the opportunity, everyone should get themselves a copy of the first rap albums to come out of Boston." 

Top Choice Clique: "When the compilation Boston Goes Def (EDO G’s debut) dropped, it showed people in the game that Boston was definitely an untapped resource." 

Ed O.G: "The song FTI played that night was 'Suzie Q,' and it was one of the highlights of Boston Goes Def -- the 1986 compilation that also featured Boston rap pioneers like Rusty the Toejammer and Body Rock... 'It was a beautiful vibe!' Ed enthuses. 'In the late '80s, you could do an all-local show and people would come out to see it. You could have a show with RSO, FTI, the BK [Boogie Knights] Crew, and RCC [Roxbury Crush Crew], and you could fill up 4000 seats! They did shows in all these grimy places -- places where you could smoke weed. It was an ill, ill time."

Cadence of Raw Produce (taken from a discussion we had in the DWG forums): "I remember hearing the hype about that record for months and getting really amped for it to drop. Then when it did, my main complaint about it was that the studio recordings lacked the rawness of the home demos--many of which literally sounded like they were made in one take standing in front of a portable tape recorder... hearing the songs in (relatively) polished studio form just didn't sound right to me at the time. But I remember being really proud on behalf of Boston area hip hop when it dropped. And I felt like from that moment on you could see the development of local artists taking off, from homemade demos, to studio recordings. From beatboxing to drum machines and samplers. And from demo tapes to records. In retrospect, maybe it doesn't represent the best music our scene has produced, but that record, along with Lecco's Lemma were such big parts of a movement that was going on in the mid-late 80's that laid the groundwork for the Boston scene that emerged in the mid 90's. And that's a scene that launched Guru, Ed OG, the Source Magazine (for better or worse), to name a few and paved the way for a whole raft of 90's indie hip hop that you all know and love. And those are the guys who made Boston area artists BELIEVE we could do this. So to me, it's one of those records that also has to be judged in it's historical context."

...and it garnered full articles in The Boston Herald and The Boston Phoenix.

But no one ever talks about the sequel.

Def Row came out the following year (1988) on the same label (Beautiful Sounds), though this time none of the proceeds seem to have been going to any charity. Once again, it's all produced by Mr. Beautiful and features some of the same artists, as well as some new ones. It gets a little confusing, though, because they don't always use the same names. For example, the White Boy Crew is back, but this time going by U.S.A. I wouldn't have even been sure it was the same guys (since there's another group that sounds just like 'em on this compilation called D.F.O.) except they helpfully refer to themselves as the White Boy Crew in the song. Ed O G (Edorock in those days) is back again, with not one but two songs. But this time, instead of his group being called The FTI Crew, they're credited as A-Train (which, extra confusingly, is also the name of the other MC who rhymes with Ed on one of the two songs).

So, why doesn't it ever get talked about? Well, partly probably because of that damn goofy album cover (credited to "D.B. Velveeta") scaring audiences away by making it look like a novelty joke album like The 2 Live Jews. The other reason is probably because a lot of it's, well... wack? But here's the thing about this album... have you ever tried to play a hip-hop classic to a younger head, like "The Show" or something off of Just-Ice's first album, and you can't really explain to them why it was so great at the time? It's like, "you don't understand what it was like when this first came out in the 80's; it was so new and wild. I guess it just doesn't age well as some other stuff." Well, this album ages wonderfully. Big, 80's beats, cuts, human beatboxes... stuff that when we heard it new we were like, "what is this? So corny!" now holds up in an era where nobody makes music like this anymore. It's like the Jurassic 5's concept, only genuinely authentic material.

But most of it is wack/corny even for it's time. The 3D Crew feature a really sappy R&B hook (sung by "Special Guest" Meg Lyons) and keyboard hook on their love song, "Trust Me." The girl group China Down's rhymes on "Just Rockin' the Mic" sound like they were written by Mrs. Johnson's Third Grade English Class, with every word said in unison by both MCs:

"You know it's right.
Right?
Right.
Or do you wanna fight?
We'll battle you from dusk till dawn,
And even through the night.
The night?
The night.
Oh, go and fly a kite!
Because if you want to battle us,
You must have all your might.
Your might?
Your might.
Oh, sure you think you're right.
You battle us against your friend,
And it will be delight.
Your friend?
Your friend.
Oh, now it is the end."

And the Run-DMC-inspired "No Punks Allowed" and "The Boston Sound" feature embarrassingly rudimentary shouted rap lines over guitar-riff driven tracks. Actually, the guitar tracks (by Bruce Owens, P. Mullford and Mr. Beautful) aren't too bad, and hold up pretty well - that is until the breakdown, when the guitar player goes for his solo and kicks a little "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (seriously).

But hearing Ed O G or The Dilemma Crew kick some fun (if datedly simple) freestyle rhymes over old school beats the world will never create again is easily worth the price of admission. On The Rapmasters and DJ 2's "The Beat Please," a different, O.G. breakbeat is played over the hook each time.

So, some of it's great, some of it's terrible but in a great/fun way if you're prepared to not take it at all seriously... and some of it's just weird. First of all, between every song, there is a random soundbite, roughly 10 seconds long. There's a clip of classical music, a car chase, a porno movie, a country song, the signature theme from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly... and none of these clips have anything to do with the songs that follow. Like if the porno clip came before a song about sex, it would sort of make sense... but none of them do. It's like the producers said, "these rap kids like samples!" and reached into their bag of public domain.

Looking in the liner notes, the 3D crew dedicate one of their songs to Scott LaRock. Listening to the song, it's obvious why: it's a beat-for-beat, syllable-for-syllable remake of "The Bridge Is Over," called "The Battle's Over," where the lyrics have been changed to be about how Boston crews all get along now (or something). They even sing the same tunes Krs did in his song, in the same key; but they've replayed all the music on their own instruments and equipment, using light keyboards in place of BDP's classic piano loop; making the instrumental version sound like a Fisher Price remix.

And just like Boston Goes Def had the silly "Popeye Rap," Def Row also has a rap about children's material, this time about The Wizard of Oz. And it possibly takes the prize of the weirdest rap song of all time... ever... seriously. China Down return for a second song, this time with the Noble Villians, to record "Yellow Brick Road." One of China Down sings an acapella rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," but changes the lyrics to refer to MC Land; then they rap about the place, telling us it's "where the beats are always def... Where the party's always always thumpin'; and the MC's are the best." They talk about how a mysterious man materialized to stop time so their funky rap party could last forever. The beat features some keyboards, a kinda fun bassline, and a lot of vocal samples from The Wizard of Oz movie. They use the sound effect of the Wicked Witch laughing constantly - and it's not in the background. At one point, it comes between every line of an MC's verse, like an insane commentary. It also uses the theme from The Twilight Zone on the hook. And while China Down told us how fresh MC Land was, the Noble Villains have an entirely different take on the place. One of raps about how he was a superstar MC until one day he was pulled into a fiery pit during a party and sucked into MC Land, where he lost his soul and his mic skills ("I am a victim of a real crazy prank; first I was rockin' a party and somehow I got yanked. Fell through a big hole full of smoke and flame. The man with no soul would be my new name."). Why it's a great place for China Downa nd a terrible place for The Noble Villains I have no idea. It ends with him crying, disgraced, "with the word 'shame' written across my face." Then the other guy also raps (whispering his entire verse) about having no soul, in this case after getting struck by lightning in his apartment. He eventually encounters a troll and finds a monster's castle, and the monster tells him (in a fully processed, scary monster voice) that he can escape if only he can believe: "BELIIIEEEVVVVVVVVVEEEE!!!" Then the girl from China Down comes back to reprise "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Top that, if you can!

Is it a classic? Noooo sir. But it's a delightful, historic look into the 80's and Boston hip-hop scenes that's a lot of fun... just so long as nobody's around to overhear what you're listening to and laugh at you. ;)

InstaRapFlix 13: South Beach Raw

Wow... Beenie Man, Jay-Z, Doug E. Fresh, Wyclef Jean, Lil' Kim, Ja Rule, Chopperyoungcity (who?), Twista, Trey Songz, Naughty By Nature, Black Eyed Peas, Slick Rick, The Game, Trina, Aaliyah, 50 Cent, Mobb Deep, Usher, Diddy, Memphis Bleek, Timberland... all in one 60-minute movie? A movie with opening and closing credits and host segments? That must mean each artist gets about one to two minutes of footage each! Yeah... that should be your first tip-off about South Beach Raw (Netflix rating 1.5 stars).

What you get is a hostess, "your girl" Lola... who seems pretty inebriated. I think the producers just literally just picked her out of a crowd and got her to read some lines for five minutes. She does a funny ramble about "did you see my ring? it's real. I got it; it's mine. It's not fake. Girls ask me where I got it. But anyway." So, throughout the movie this Lola is taking us back with "vintage" (before L'il Kim's surgery, Lola points out) performances and interviews. Basically, very short clips of handheld concert footage (all from the same charity event, btw), sometimes with some very random IMovie effects added. Aaliyah's clip was so short, you don't even see her sing. She just walks across the stage and is like, "hey;" and that's her entire appearance in the film. The sound is off the camera's mic, so it's blasted into staticy feedback whenever a song starts.

There's also a four or five random music videos thrown in the mix.

Wyclef's dancers do a little fencing routine, which is kinda fun. Though from where the camera angle is, you can't see that it's Wyclef performing during their bit until the song's over. As for the "Raw" in the title, don't let the box art fool you. This is pretty sexless (about the most is Trina wearing a bikini in her "Pull Over" video). I think the "raw" refers to the fact that it's all shaky, amateur concert footage.

At the end, Lola tells us she'll be back. Maybe that's when she intends to show the rest of the artists listed on the box that don't actually appear in this film: Beenie Man, Ja Rule, Memphis Bleek... maybe they were standing somewhere behind Jay-Z during his clip? It's hard to tell, because the guy holding the camera was often pretty far from the stage, behind a bunch of other people. But, considering the write-ups this one has gotten online, they'll have to spend a few years hiding from angry customers before they can come out and start work on a sequel.

Darth Vader On the Mic

This neat, promo-only 12": Phoenix Orion "A Disturbance In the Force" was only made available as a freebie if you ordered over $50.00 from the Celestial Recordings online store. It came out in 1999, to tie in with the theatrical release of the fourth Star Wars movie, The Phantom Menace, and this song was never included on any of his albums.

Now, there have been Star Wars-related songs in hip-hop before... artists like Ultramagnetic MCs and 7L & Esoteric have used vocal samples, The Walkmen practically used the entire soundtrack to turn "Fortruss" into a Star Wars soundscape, and plenty of artists have thrown Jedi references in their rhymes. But Phoenix Orion was taking it to a whole new, literal level.

It wasn't his first release, but Phoenix really made a name for himself with his 1998 album Zimulated Experiencez, where each song featured a first-person narrative from the perspective of a character in a different science fiction film (yes, including Star Wars). Gimmicky, maybe; but for sci-fi/hip-hop nerds who were looking for some serious science fiction content in their raps, and not just cute punchline references or far-reaching sci-fi metaphors of life in the ghetto (a la "Planet E"), this was as pure as it got. And that's what this is.

After an opening vocal sample of Alec Guiness (that's Obi-Wan Kenobi to you) giving us the titular line, a fat, fast-pace beat by Hive kicks in. Hard drums, bassed up horn samples, some hot scratching (also by Hive, I guess, since no one else is credited) and a "Road To the Riches" style piano loop sound like they're laying the groundwork for a posse cut of rugged Bronx MCs. But instead Phoenix adopts the persona of Anakin Skywalker (that's Darth Vader to you) to kick a slick, Jedi tale:

"The federation
Got an entire android nation
Tryin' to over throw my nation;
They're really tryin' my patience.
The senator's a snake;
He ain't tryin' to make no peace treaty.
He already sold the empire;
His heart's dark and greedy.
Don't listen to him, Queenie,
His intentions are evil;
He sold us out,
He's tryin' to wipe us out,
And rule all ya people.
This corrupt communication's
Beginnin' the invasion.
Deathtoll is catastrophic;
Even the Force couldn't stop it!"

As an added bonus, the flip side features instrumental and acapella versions. So this has been reasonably rare; at least since Celestial Recordings went out of business in 2002. But I see Atak seems to have inherited and is now selling the remaining copies, so if you missed this the first time, I'd grab one while they're still cheap.

InstaRapFlix 12: Brotha Lynch Hung: Ghetto Celebrities: Vol. 1

InstaRapFlix is back on the new blog! Disappointingly, Netflix has removed a lot of instantly viewable films, stating that those had been available for a limited time only (something they only thought to mention after the time was up), so sadly I won't be getting to some of the titles I had on my list... but they have added new ones.

So, I thought Brotha Lynch Hung: Ghetto Celebrities: Vol. 1 (Netflix rating: 2.5 stars) might be fun, if only for the pure outrageousness of the rapper.

Well, it's actually pretty tame, but not bad at all. It's largely centered around one interview with Lynch talking to the camera, telling his story, and sometimes cutting away to what what he's talking about... like a trip to see some of his high school basketball teammates, or recording in the studio. There's not a lot of graphics or zany MTV camera angling. Lynch just earnestly shares his story, from his childhood and family situation, to how he came up in the music industry.

Each member of his crew is given a change to speak, too, at one point, briefly saying who they are, what projects they have coming out, etc (and Zig Zag busts a freestyle). But, really, 95% of this 80 minute movie is just Lynch sitting in his chair, talking to the camera. So he gets to every question you'd probably have for him, from his influences, the references to baby killing in his rhymes, to why he split with Black Market Records, and how he disowns some of his albums that he considers incomplete, released without his approval. And he talks about the things you'd probably never think to ask him about, like his mother's passing, the times his personal studio got robbed, and his bouts with depression.

This is a good doc, and you'll probably come out with more respect for Lynch Hung having seen it.

Shorty'z Kaught In the System

Shorty Long is one of the lesser-known DITC-related Bronx MCs. He was discovered by Lord Finesse, who produced his first 12", "Shorty'z Doin' His Own Thang" in 1994. Shorty apparently had a falling out with Finesse, and stopped releasing music. But he did release one other 12" in 1996 before disappearing.

"You Know It's Good, Baby" b/w "Let's Get At It..." - like his first 12" - came out on his own label, Long Shorr Records. Both songs are produced by Finesse's DJ, Mike Smooth.

"You Know It's Good, Baby," for my money, is the better instrumental. Straight up hardcore, east New York style... sparse, banged piano keys loop over hard drums, and a low, rumbling bassline and an eery sound effect, with a brief, extra sample for the hook. As an MC, Shorty's not bad... he has a gruff voice but a lighter, more playful tone. His lyrics are his weak point, though. The song's about him kicking game to a girl (using the played out phrase, "pussy ain't nothing but skin on bone. I might suck it; or leave it alone" for the hook... was Luke having a close-out sale that week?). With a rugged beat like this, you wanna hear someone like Big Pun just rip it apart. Instead Shorty just kind of flounders around on it, leaving us with a final total of: "just ok."

The B-side (wins again) is the real compelling joint on this record. "Let's Get At It..." is his posse cut, featuring Timbalan, De La, Moet, C-Terror, Joe-Sex and Fanatic. I don't really recognize most of their names either; they're just his clique and/or loose DITC affiliates. No one kicks an exceptional, stand-out verse, but they're all nice over another ill, more subtle Mike Smooth beat.

There are clean, dirty and instrumental versions for both songs.

There's actually two versions of this record. Both seem to be original, US pressings that came out on Long Shorr in '96 with the same track-listing - both even have the same catalog number and run-out groove - but the labels are different. You can see the version I have, pictured above; but there's another with detailed production credits on it (check it out here on labelscans.com). Why are there two versions, and which came out first (assuming one did come out earlier than the other)? I don't know.

So this record is the last we've heard from Shorty... until now. A collection of Shorty Long's vintage songs recorded with DJ Mike Smooth and others (including production from Showbiz, Timbalan and Buckwild, and guest verses by Harry-O, Moet and others) from that era are being released as a limited (200 copies) EP on One Leg Up Records. It's up for pre-order now, so if you're interested, get on it. And hopefully he'll tell us in his 1LU interview about the two "You Know It's Good, Baby" versions.