Demo Week, Day 1: Ahmad

Today begins Demo Week here at Werner's! Where, obviously, we'll spend the week looking at demos by different artists. And we'll start the week of with Ahmad.

This demo dates back to 1998, which is the perfect era for some unreleased Ahmad material to originate, because it's after his early pop-MC days, when he showed us he could be really impressive with slick, complex wordplay when he wanted to be. And it comes before he started playing second chair to his crew, which gets more "neosoul" by the album.

Titled Call It a Comeback, this 8-song demo largely consists of what would become his crew 4th Avenue Jones' debut album, No Plan B, which, like this demo, came out on his own label, Look Alive. But this has more of an emphasis on Ahmad the MC... this was an Ahmad demo, featuring his crew, not a 4th Ave album. So while many of the songs here are the same as on No Plan B: "I Know," "Move the Crowd," "Truth or Dare" with Pigeon John, "All I Have" and "Betcha Bye," a couple of the songs are exclusive and were never subsequently released.

"Where You Go There You Are" features a hard drum track and piano riff, with fellow Jones member Senoj kicking the second of three verses, and their R&B singer Tena Jones doing the hook and some back-up. The hook is a little sappy, but it's all about the MCs rapid-fire flows, spitting syllables over the punchy drums. And of course, with it coming from Ahmad, it's got a message along with the clever wordplay.

"I got a question, Senoj,
How can I win if I never race?
Say I like it if I never taste?
How would I catch it if I never chased?
Our people running in place
When we shoulda took a leap forwards;
And when we got it,
God created us like him
With talent allotted,
Like an apple 'till it's been rotted:
Coulda been great,
Coulda ate it,
Had it sliced up;
Coulda been baked.
Man, you get outta life... whatever you make."

"Rules of the Game" is off of No Plan B, but here it has a different beat. The demo version has a very distinct (flute? slide whistle?) sample over the entire track. I'm not sure which version I prefer, actually... the album version has grown on me somewhat. But if nothing else it's a cool remix for fans of the official version. It's hard for me to hear the album version without hearing the demo version in my head though! LOL

"The other demo-only track is called "No, I" and again features Senoj. It's got a fast based beat... the samples and Senoj's flow actually sound more like the kind of hip-hop that's in vogue at the moment. It's also a short song, with each MC only kicking one verse, and a short hook in between. It's definitely not a favorite, but it's not bad and Ahmad kills it again, so it's definitely worthwhile for Ahmad's verse, and Senoj's flow is nice, with some clever interplay from Ahmad doing his back-ups. I'd like to hear this one remixed over another beat, but I guess I'm lucky just to hear it at all. :)

A Tribute to The Vinyl Exchange

I first read about The Vinyl Exchange in this hard-to-read (click to enlarge, but I think you'll find that it won't help much) article in Subculture Magazine. Oddly, Subculture doesn't date or number their issues, but I'd say this one came out in late '96. The article read, "One of the few, true DJ Newsletters out. Every issue is a gem. Vinyl Exchange is basically targeted towards DJ's, but non DJ heads will catch themselves reading it too. The newsletter has everything any DJ would want each issue. The best thing is Vinyl Exchange is from the heart and doesn't get caugh tup in the politics. Vinyl Exchange is one of the few things I live for in life... and I'm not even a DJ." All you had to do was mail them a stamp and receive a free issue - who could resist that pitch?

Now, every issue was free if you could find one (you probably had to live in Cali), but the rest of us could get a yearly subscription for $7. Put out by DJ Stef (I've got her 80's freestyle mix on my iphone!), each issue of The Vinyl Exchange, the "newsletter for deejays and vinyl junkies," was eight pages and featured news, reviews of dope underground releases, a classified section, and a New Wax list, which listed every hip-hop record that dropped that month, by label. You've gotta remember, the internet was in its infancy, and info like this was crazy rare. There were also cool sidebar articles, where DJs would list their top ten vinyl releases, or there'd be a review of a new mixer or a column from P-Minus. The last issue I've got has a dope interview with Lord Finesse.

After publishing for several years (I believe it started in '95), The Vinyl Exchange eventually wound-up becoming online only. But it was still dope. I won some Z-Man CDs in one of their contests, and they had the illest, most knowledgable hip-hop internet forums ever. AJ Rok even became a moderator there! I really credit the VE forums for bringing together the right people to open the doors for the return of The Freestyle Professors, and all the terrific, limited vinyl releases by labels like DWG and Vinyl Addicts.

Unfortunately, a serious case of debilitating spam closed the forums to shut down, and the community essentially moved on to The DWG forums. But vinylexchange.com is still up and running, and DJ Stef also regularly updates her personal blog. Better yet, though, dig around archive.org, and you can find some classic VE interviews, like this one with DJ Evil Dee. ;)

Roxanne's Revenge's Revenge

(And here's the link to the YouTube version. I've started uploading them at the exact same second... it's a race! Which one will finish first??)

Rather Uneek

(And here's the link to the YouTube version.)

Tony D In The Original

Update 9/27/11: The HHC site seems to be down, so I've posted the article below... Click 'em to enlarge 'em to a readable size.

The first issue of Hip Hop Connection's old school and golden era mini-mag, The Original just went up today. It includes my four-page tribute to Tony D... it was a little tough to write (you'll probably see why when you read it), but I think it came out right in the end. Let me know what you think.

This issue has some other really dope features as well, including:
A short piece on Kool Herc by T La Rock
An interview with Tony Buttons by James T McNally
A dope Kool Kim interview by Robbie Ettelson of Unkut
And a really in-depth article on the movie Breakin' by Richard Watson

So, yeah, check it out. It's all new, original content. It's up now on the HHC site, but the link's a bit tucked away there, so here's a direct link to the issue.

InstaRapFlix 18: DJ Demp: Dirty for Life

I have to admit, I selected today's flick: DJ Demp: Dirty for Life (Netflix rating: 1.3 stars) for one reason... because it's by the same company as my last InstaRapFlix post (it was even in their trailer reel), and it's the essentially same running time. So was this going to be another example of a notorious trailer reel and a tiny short masquerading as a full-length film?

Actually, no. Thank goodness. All 53 minutes of this film's running time are actually the film itself.

And what is the film itself? It's footage of DJ Demp's birthday celebration! Who's DJ Demp, you ask? Yeah... I wasn't sure either. He's not even on discogs (I just checked). But from watching the movie, I now know he's a DJ in Miami, who has "scratched for Trick Dad," and also been on the road with Luke and Lil Flip. For the first several minutes, we follow Demp to a high school basketball game, where he meets some friends and they pose for a photo in "Demp Week" shirts.

Then we get a few soundbites by artists like Fat Joe, David Banner, Clipse and Ja Rule who give quick shout-outs like, "It's Crack, shouting out to my man Demp. It's going down in a major way;" and then they're out. I keep seeing these throughout my InstaRapFlix series, and I still don't understand why these guys making the DVD think we want to see 'em. If they don't have anything at all to say, what's the point?

Well, unless you thrill at them, then this movie isn't for you. Because apart from some low quality concert footage from a Trick Daddy show, which plays in such short snippets you never hear even a quarter of a song at a time - it's more like 2-3 sentences worth... Apart from that, you just get more and more of these shout-outs, many by people you'll never have heard of before.

We do get to see a little bit of footage of Demp at work behind the tables, and he's actually talented. He does a nice old school routine, juggling and cutting "Apache." But that lasts for maybe a minute and a half, all told. The rest is just random, digicam footage of shout-outs and shows, where the quality is at the level where you can't even make out what they're saying on stage. And they keep throwing ultra-cheesy "DJ Demp" logos in giant blue letters all over the screen. Finally. Oh, Demp does remember to take a minute to tell us to go buy his mix CD, coming soon, though. Yay for commercials. it ends with Demp telling us it's "time for the afterparty," but we can't see that. He's saving that for a whole seperate "part 2" DVD. Ugh; shoot me now.

So, to sum up, DJ Demp has skills. And a DVD of him doing some routines would be cool. But I think even if Demp had an obsessed stalker, she'd be bored with this. There's just no content; just a bunch of quick cuts oc low quality footage of basically nothin'. They never even say what age he was turning on his birthday. :P

Finally, on a technical note, let me just say that the video quality is terrible! To the point where you can't read the titles on the screen; they're lost in a pixalated haze. Now, I noticed they had me install an updated (2.0) player, so I thought "hmm maybe it's Netflix." So I tried another random flick (You Don't Mess With the Zohan, because it was at the top of the top 50 list), and that had the same affliction... so it is Netflix! So I guess Netflix's instant viewing has gone to crap??

What We're Gonna Do Right Here Is Go Back... Way Back

E.S.P. are a pretty cool - not exceptional, but consistently good - crew signed that were signed to Select Records for several years and worked regularly with producer Howie Tee. The name stands for each of the members' names: Elliot Ness, Mr. Speed and Professor Paul[I'm not sure if the P was technically for "Professor" or "Paul"]. This 12", "Back Rappin'," is their earliest release, dropped back in 1987, and as such has a more rudimentary, old-school sound... like early Whistle. By the time they released their album four years later, this didn't fit in at all with what they were doing, so the songs on here remain a nice little 12" exclusive.

The song is all about this new style they've invented, "Back Rappin'." They spend way more time talking about it than actually using it, but when they finally get to it, it sounds a lot like MC Marvelous's double word style (for the record, this one came first), where they basically say something and then rephrase it using almost all the same words backwards, like "Every time I rock, things get merry. Merry get things, rock the time every." So, yeah... it's a fun but not at all important record. Did I say the beat sounds like classic Whistle? Because it really does. Imagine something like "Buggin' Out" without the infamous "bug" sample. I believe this is also the first record Chubb Rock - who co-produced this along with Howie - ever worked on.

The same pair also co-produced the B-side, "Ready To Rock 'N' Roll." It's a fun ode to 50's rock ("yo, I'm Elliot Ness, not Wolfman Jack! We know it's not the fifties but we're bringin' it back"). The beat is really pure hip-hop, but they randomly drop some signature rock samples over the hook and a few other spots. This isn't about them trying to get on the Run DMC bandwagon, so much as them rhyming about jukeboxes and poodle skirts over a funky beat with the occasional guitar riff popping up.

ESP is probably better known for dropping a couple, fresh "random rap" joints. But this is different. It's a cool score, though, if you're in the mood for something a little more rudimentary and throw-back. There's also an acapella for the lead track (also an instrumental, which is cool because acapellas were pretty rare inclusions back in those days.

4 From the Nubians

This is a compelling, yet confusing, little release on a label that specializes in both compelling and confusing releases: a 4-track 12" by Brand Nubians featuring Grand Puba on Echo International in '99. Now, calling them the Brand Nubians may've been an error, or it may've been a creative attempt to circumvent legal hassles with BN's record label(s)... but in either case, there is historical precedent for use of the name. Their 1989 debut single for Elektra was actually "Brand Nubian" by Brand Nubians ...although that, too, may've been an error on the label's part. But I don't call this record confusing because of a niggling "s," but because of how random the track-listing is.

Two of these songs had previously been released, so let's get those out of the way first. The first song on side A is "Play It Cool." Ok, well "Play It Cool" originally appeared on Grand Puba's second album, 2000 (which, despite its name, was released in 1995). It was noteworthy at the time, because it was the first collaboration between Puba and Brand Nubian after he and Alamo left the group in 1991 - it's a duet with Sadat X, and it's over one of the nicest beats on the album, provided by Minnesota.

Ok, now let's flip this over to the second song on side B: "Kick Styles." This one's a little tricky, because they've changed the name on us, but this song was also previously released. "Kick Styles" is actually "I Flip Styles," a nice, 12" only-cut that was featured as the exclusive B-side to DITC's "All Love" 12". It features Puba, Sadat X and Diamond D over a track that Diamond also produced. Ha - you try to trick me, Echo International, but the Werner is too smart for you! :-D

Alright, but now let's get to the reason to actually buy this 12" - the exclusive stuff. First up is "Time To Put It On," a Grand Puba solo joint. It's got a funky, slow beat with deep horns and a hook that goes, "Grand Puba time to bag the dough. Stud Doogie and Alamo; time to put it on." A large chunk of the lyrics are lifted from his single "Amazing" (although it's clearly a different recording, since a few words are different... for instance what was "trippin' MCs up like astroturf" there is "trippin' niggas up like astroturf" here). So it's a new hook and beat with those old rhymes, but then when he reaches what would've been the end of the verse in "Amazing," he keeps rhyming new lyrics we haven't heard before:

"My lingo's like a Thursday night on the church bingo.
My props to Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Ringo.
If I was in South Africa, I'd be a mandingo,
Creepin' through the bush lookin' for a joint single.
So come on, give a nigga his. I'ma earn mine,
But I'll catch ya all on the next time."

And finally is another Grand Puba joint, this time entitled "Don't Change." Interestingly, he date-checks 1994 in the lyrics to this one, so I guess Echo is digging deep in the vaults here. It's a duet with a female R&B singer - essentially another follow-up to "What's the 411?" If you asked me to take a guess, I'd hypothesize that this was meant for 2000, but then they ultimately decided they didn't want another song of this nature for that album and left it off. The lyrics to this one are pretty much all new this time, although he lifts one of his own punchlines from the song "Amazing"... Yes, that line was used in "Time To Put It On," too! "It's the New York shocker representin' like a Knickerbocker; watch me get it cookin' like Betty Crocker," becomes "representin' New York like a Knickerbocker, shuttin' down MCs like a pair of Blue Blockers." It's a nice track with a smooth soul sample. He refers to his partner as "Mariah," and it certainly sounds like Mariah Carey... but it's hard to imagine his label opting to not release a duet with an mega-celebrity like Mariah! But it sure sounds like her to me, and he calls her "Mariah" more than once. So you make the call.

So this is another one of Echo's nice, may-or-may-not-be-a-bootleg releases. It's definitely worth any Puba fan's time to pick this one up for the unreleased joints. And even the two previously released ones are at least good selections. And it goes for cheap, which is nice. But it raises some good questions for anyone ever interviewing Grand Puba...

Big T'ings

Hey, guys! Sunday is a big day for Werner-related announcements and things, so here goes...

Firstly, I submitted a review to one of my favorite hip-hop blogs (you may've noticed it in my links column there), Hip Hop Isn't Dead, where Max is beginning Round 3 of his Reader Review series. I decided to give 'im a little Miami flavor. It was fun reviewing in his format for a change, though I almost feel like I cheated, reviewing an album with no skits! hehe Well anyway, it just went up today, so go check out my Reader Review! (I think you'll enjoy it.) =)Secondly, I have officially joined the ranks of Diggers With Gratitude's contributors (along with Drew Huge and Dudley J; we're like a crack commando unit of vinyl reviews)! As you know, I've gushed about pretty much all of their releases so far (and if you've dropped by their forums, you've surely seen me there), so I was honored when they asked me. My first DWG review has just gone up today, too, so check it out here!

Finally, if you haven't heard, Hip Hop Connection, the longest running magazine in hip-hop (yes, longer than The Source - I was surprised, too!) has gone digital. You surely caught the link in my "Best Blog Posts I Didn't Write" column to their first issue; but if missed it, this is it here (apparently whoever wrote that review of Bike for Three has never heard of MC Shan, but nevermind. hehe It's got a great Doom interview and more cool stuff). They're gonna be coming out with regular, all-new content in the style of a proper magazine (as opposed to a blog or what-not)... and it's relevant to this discussion because they've asked me to be a regular contributor to future issues. As in, like, a regular column. So definitely be on the look out for that.

I'll be dropping direct links to any/every thing I write right here, though. So just keep an eye on this blog, and you won't miss a trick.

Dougie Understands Ghostbusting!

The Daily Diggers just posted a blog about Doug E. Fresh's dope 12", "Spirit" (an underrated, little record I made a video about last summer). [That's a lot of crosslinks in one sentence, but at least hit up the one linking to the Diggers' article!] In it, they praise the single but allege that the song "only loosely referenc[es] any kind of ghostbusting activity." Man, you guys may know a lot about records, but when it comes to films' mediocre sequels, you're out of your depth!

Flat out, you guys need to watch Ghostbusters 2 again. After a careful comparison of the events in the film and the song's lyrics, I believe you'll see that all three of his verses are quite specifically and consistently talking about the plot of the film:

Verse 1) The very opening lines set up the premise of the film: "There's a force that's dwellin' beneath the city, tellin' you what you need and need not do. And it's motion stirs up commotion, feedin' off the people's inner emotions." Remember the movie? Paranormal activity is at an all-time high. Why? Well, we find out it's because there's an evil slime running through the city's sewers that feeds off of the citizens' negative emotions. So of course, with "a problem like that, you call the Ghostbusters." Because the "people who just might look so happy but feel so uptight... can't handle the problem that they created. It's from the depths of their spirit!"

Verse 2) Now in this city where "an evil presence makes it unpleasant for every resident," we find Sigourney Weaver's character: "and Dana's the lady." If you don't remember what happens to her in the flick, that's ok, it's all in the song: this evil "takes the mother's newborn baby" to Vigo, the film's villain - or as Doug E describes him, "an evil magician on a mission." He's currently in a weakened state, trapped inside a painting, but "no condition, will stop him on the transition of makin' it in time, with the help of the slime." He plans to be reborn in the baby's body ("the transition") so he can take over the world; but Sigourney Weaver knows who to reach out to! "Who stand for all? Who you gon' call for the brawl? GHOSTBUSTERS!"

Verse 3) Ok, this one is more tenuous/ abstract, but stay with me here. Remember how the movie ended? Things were getting really hopeless throughout the city as the slime thrived off of the peoples' increasingly negative emotions. In fact, you could say as Dougie does, that there were "a lot of dimensions, and misconceptions, certain things done for the wrong intentions." The evil was too strong for the Ghostbusters to even get near, so they needed to raise the New Yorkers' collective spirit with positivity. Remember, they animated The Statue of Liberty and played "Higher and Higher" by Jackie Wilson?

Now granted, the lyrics to this verse don't really detail the plot of the this part of film... instead, I posit that Doug understands the core, underlying theme of the finale and is expressing that in his own style. In the third act of the film, Dan Ackroyd's character says, "I just can't believe things have gotten so bad in this city that there's no way back. I mean, sure, it's messy, it's crowded, it's polluted, and there are people who would just as soon step on your face as look at you. But come on! There's gotta be a few sparks of sweet humanity left in this burned-out bird. We just gotta find a way to mobilize it!" And Doug's pleas to "plant a foundation of newborn leaders, law book readers, career coordinators and poverty beaters," is a plan to do just that!

So Doug's positive message = the positivity generated in the people of the city. And this theory holds because, in the movie, that positivity proves too strong for the evil slime, which melts away, allowing the Ghostbusters to enter the museum and save the baby. Or, as Doug explains, the evil spirits "hear it and fear it. Know it's the truth so they scared to come near it." And as the film ends with the people of New York cheering the Ghostbusters, Dougie ends with, "and you cheer it as I share it, 'cause it's my spirit."

So, yeah. I daresay the song is all about the ghostbusting activity. In fact, the only way the lyrics don't come across as nothing but an insane jumble of incoherent nonsense is if you've seen the movie and recognize what he's describing.

Four Extra Sex Packets

(Youtube version is here.)