Fat Joe da Gangsta

It's DITC Week over at Diggers With Gratitude, where each writer is reviewing a classic DITC album. Mine just went up today... an album I hadn't played in a while, but enjoyed going back to: Fat Joe's Represent.

Masta Ace's Lost Tapes

(Youtube version is here.)

Sharper Than Your Kitchen Shit

You know a label is rugged when they misspell their own name on their record label. Well today we've got Stratus (or Sratus, depending where on the label you look) bringing us the raw with a dope, indie NYC 12" from the 90's. This is the first and I believe only release by Strippoker (and indeed the only release on Stratus), titled "Reign Supreme." To be honest, I hadn't heard of it until I stumbled across it being sold cheap online. It features Craig G, so I figured worst case scenario, I'd be padding out my Juice Crew collection a little more. But no, turns out this is hot.

It's a three-song 12", and all three are produced by Art Well Smart, a name I've never heard of and that does not inspire confidence. But whoever he is, he's provided three simple but solid street-level beats. The A-side, "Reign Supreme," features Craig G, DV Shines, and DJ Sinista - possibly Mista Sinista from The X-Men? Anyway, it comes in three versions: Street, Radio and Instrumental, and it's a winner. The beat features your standard hard drums and bass with a cool Spanish guitar loop, some atmospheric samples, and killer, creative scratches on the hook. All three MCs come nice, but Craig G steals the show with some surprisingly tough lyrics:

"My words are sharper than your kitchen shit.
I'm a Mac-11, fifty shot clip in it,
Hollow point rhymes blazed down your block -
Nobody witnessed it!"

The first B-side is "QB To CO" [I believe that's referring to Corona in Queens NY, not Colorado], which also comes in Street, Radio and Instrumental versions. It's not quite as good as "Reign Supreme" - it's short a killer verse from Craig and without the nice cuts from Sinista, the track isn't quite as compelling - but it comes close. It's got a dope piano loop which reminds me of some early Jedi Mind Tricks material, but with a nice scratchy old sax sample on the hook. The label doesn't credit anybody, but there's a second MC on this song as well (maybe DV Shines again?). Whoever he is, he and Strippoker actually comes a little tighter on this track than the last one, I think:

"I be where the crooks and the thieves rest,
Crackin' St. Thug and puffin' on mad bless.
If you got beef, we be comin' to your address,
Runnin' in ya crib with the gats, 'causin' madness."

The last song is a little bit lighter, and only comes in one version: "Black James Bond." In the tradition of classic songs like "I Go To Work" and "I'm Large," this is another hip-hop track that incorporates James Bond theme music into a hip-hop beat. Lyrically, he's mostly just busting more ill freestyle rhymes ("I wet niggas up like girls' drinks") rather than any crazy "The Mission"-type Bond stories, but it's a fun track regardless.

It's a shame this 12" seems to be so slept on, 'cause it's a definite winner. So it's a real disappointment there was no follow-up. But considering most people (myself included) didn't even know this one existed, I guess we should just add this nice sticker cover to our crates and be happy. :)

Juicy '89

(Youtube version is here.)

Malcolm McLaren In 1990

I just found out that Malcolm McLaren passed away earlier today... He's not necessarily "a hip-hop guy," in that he's surely better known for his work with rock, punk and pop bands. But thanks to his involvement with The World Famous Supreme Team, he does share credit for some cornerstone hits in the genre, including "Buffalo Gals" and "D'ya Like Scratchin'." But instead of the obvious, I thought I'd take a look at one of his more overlooked hip-hop projects.

Now, it's not news to say that a Malcolm McLaren project is kinda weird, but this one is really weird. It's an album he recorded on Virgin Records in 1990 called Round the Outside! Round the Outside! It's credited to Malcolm McLaren Presents the World Famous Supreme Team Show he title is of course a reference to the chorus of their 1982 hit "Buffalo Gals:" "all buffalo gals go 'round the outside, 'round the outside, 'round the outside!" The title is a throwback and the reference to the WFST is a throwback; but the throwback content of this album is relegated to just two tracks that come towards the end of the album, "Buffalo Gals II (Remix)" and "World Famous Supreme Team Radio Show (Remix)." Both are a lot of fun... they're never gonna replace the originals, but they're good mixes with some new scratches and breaks that make for fun alternatives. The most marked difference in "Buffalo Gals II" is the addition of an R&B singer (Seduction, apparently, from the credits) who enthusiastically belts out a epic rendition of the "it's a pity that you're so dirty" portion. It's a lot of fun.

Those two remixes, however, mark the only appearances by The Supreme Team as we know them: See Devine and Just a Lot of Superstar [as their names are spelled here]. The rest of the album is a collaboration of a new hodge podge of artists, both known and unknown - would you expect anything less from Malcolm?

The first song was also the first single, "Operaa[sic.] House!" As you might not expect even though they're pretty upfront about it in the title, it's a house track with opera-style vocals provided by Mona Lisa Young, best known for her songs with The World Class Wreckin' Crew. Some of her vocals are original and kind of your typical club diva style, but further into the song, she gets into covering some actual, classical opera arias. But if that isn't out there enough, just wait! There's also a rap duet on this song, performed by none other than the great Grandmaster Caz and Sparky D. Yes, the original Caz and Sparky.

That's Sparky's only appearance, but Caz and Mona Lisa Young are actually all over this album, contributing to several songs apiece. The other most prominent recurring artist on this album is Low Profile's DJ Aladdin. He even has a solo song at the end of this album, "Aladdin's Scratch," and unlike Aladdin's own albums, this album really showcases why he's a world champion DJ, adding killer cuts throughout the album (for some reason, on his own albums, he never once touched the turntable!).

So that's your main line-up. Some other singers, a spoken word poet, and a rapper named MC Hamlet also appear. I suspect Hamlet may be an alias... he only appears on a song called "II Be Or Not II Be," and outside of this album, I've never heard of any MC Hamlet. Actually, there are short bios in the liner notes. Will that shed any light on this mystery? Well, his reads, "Dancin Black Indian Poet. II Be Or Not II Be!! From Alaska to Venice Cali that is the question: 'is it more noble of mind this decision to die and lie still for lifes ills and torture.'"[again, sic.] Yeah... sounds like a made-up bio for a made-up rapper to me; but who knows? It doesn't help that whoever wrote the bios doesn't seem to be terribly well-informed... did you know that Grandmaster Caz was "part of the TREACHEROUS THREE?" Me either.

So what else is on this crazy album? Well, there's the aforementioned "II Be Or Not II Be," where MC Hamlet turns a section of Shakespeare's Hamlet into a rap. There's "Romeo and Juliet" (which was the second single) a Grandmaster Caz solo song (essentially... there are some uncredited R&B vocals on the hook), which is basically a play on his classic "Yvette," but changing the name Yvette for Juliet. I mean, literally, he kicks the exact same lyrics including the infamous "somebody's comin'" line from "Yvette."

There's a song called "World Tribe" which has basically the same instrumental as Special Ed's "The Mission," but with female R&B singers and some extra instrumentation instead of any raps. And there's "Un Coche De Agua Negra," which is a combination of singing, spoken word poetry, Aladdin scratching a lot of records and none of it's in English (though I could male out another reference to "Romeo and Juliet" in the lyrics). Crazy.

The rest of this album is padding. In fact, if you count the classic Supreme Team records being remixed as padding (which really they are), more than half of this album is padding. "Diva Loves Operaa House!" is just another version of "Operaa House!" minus the raps, and "Wherefor Art Thou?" is another version of "Romeo and Juliet." Even "Aladdin's Scratch" is him getting busy over the "World Tribe" instrumental (Aladdin's version is awesome, though). So, really, basically, there's just five original songs on here.

So it's really not hard to see why this didn't catch on... a crazy mix of house, rap, and r&b with VERY pretentious, heavy-handed attempts to get the kids into opera and Shakespeare. Then add in the fact that most of this album is unnecessary remixes and filler, and you've got yourself a pretty tough sell. Oh, plus MC Hamlet is corny as hell.

But the good moments: Aladdin getting busy, fun (if recycled) raps by the one and only former Cold Crush Brother (you hear me, liner notes guy??) Grandmaster Caz, and Malcolm McLaren's insane musical flourishes makes for a pretty enjoyable listening experience. I mean, you know what? Mona Lisa sounds pretty damn good singing opera over a funky house track. This album should be a huge disaster, but it's not. Quality production and genuine talent from the artists involved turned even this colossally bad idea into a damn enjoyable listening experience. And that was the magic of Malcolm McLaren.

Girl, You Know You Want It!

It's time for another DJ Magic Mike single, I think. Today's is "Get On It Dog Gon' It" from 1994 on Mike's own Magic Records. That's right, no more Cheetah Records. This is the year Magic Mike struck out on his own, releasing his music on his own label. This is the single off of the album Bass Bowl, a generally disappointing album overall, going a bit overboard on the speaker-testing rumblings and light on the incredible scratches and the rhyming.

Fortunately, however, "Get On It Dog Gon' It" has both. This is one of the few tracks not produced by Mike himself, but rather one of his Royal Posse members, DJ Chief, who also provides some of the scratching (along with Mike himself). Unlike a lot of the mainly instrumental content of the album, this song is a more traditional number, with three verses by Posse member Daddy Rae, broken up with a shouted hook ("Get on it, dog gone it! Girl, you know you want it!") and some nice scratching of Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It" ("Ow!"). For the most part, it's not a stand-out song in Mike's catalog... it's a very standard Miami bass cut, with very the staple samples every Miami bass artist had already been using for years... the bulk of the instrumental. In fact, is the same as The 2 Live Crew's "Move Something" but with ultrasonic bass notes. And Rae's rhymes dedicated simply asking the girls to shake their booty to the song. There's a fun moment, though, where Mike himself takes the mic to spit his own verse at the end ("I'm like Jenny Craig 'cause you know I knock off the pounds").

But the highlight comes on hook and especially the breakdowns. The cuts are are fast and furious - of the "holy shit!" variety - and he changes the flavor by bringing in some classic old school breaks. And the effect is amplified on the 12" exclusive Club Mix, which doubles the length of the song. This mix really turns a good song into a great song, sometimes just letting the beat ride, and other times providing extra cuts.

But if you're bored 'cause the beats are too familiar, the B-side has Mike's Funk Mix, which swaps out all the samples for ones you've never heard before. Personally, I prefer the original - there's a reason the old tried and true standbys became the tried and true standbys - but it's a cool alternative. The B-side also includes the instrumental of the original version.

This isn't necessarily one of Mike's best songs... the breakdowns are a real highlight but otherwise he plays it too safe. But hard drums, deep bass, competent rhymes, fast breaks and wicked cuts always add up to a winner. And Magic Mike himself must've liked this one a lot. Not only did he pick it for the single, but he returned to it a few years later with "Get On it Girl" on The Ghost Is Back album (his reunion album with Vicious Bass) and again with "Get On It ('98 Style)," on Scratch & Bass.

The Dream Team... Posse?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some More CD Only Bonus Tracks

Craig G's second LP, Now, That's More Like It, was really good. But the CD was even better... by three whole songs! Still on Atlantic Records, Craig and Marley Marl were back (with a little help from Salaam Remi) in '91 with a unique but fresh sound. Granted, two of the songs were more than a little too new jack swing-ish for many tastes ("Girls" and "I Want To Be In Luv"), but there's really nothing else to complain about on this album. And fortunately, the three additional tracks don't break that record.

All three are produced by Marley, and none of them are on swing tip. They're strictly freestyle battle-rap type songs over fresh but hard beats.

The first is called "Swiftness." The track uses some funky, unusual drums and a cool horn loop. There's a little scratching on the hook, and Craig dedicates three verses of skill flexing "to all the MCs who that I couldn't get with it."

Next is "Live Off the Top." Like the title suggests, he rocks freestyle off-the-dome for the whole song. The beat is a solid head-nodder with rhythm scratches, hand-claps and a short but crispy horn sample. The rhymes feel a little looser than on the rest of the album, 'cause they're not written, but the production is layered enough that it really feels like a proper song rather than just a bonus freestyle.

Finally is "Going for the Throat." This is the one that gets the most attention, 'cause it's his infamous MC Shan diss. The track is cool - it uses a familiar old school funk-guitar sample, but changes up the drum and adds another sample, putting a new twist on an old standby. But of course, the first fifty times you listen to this, you probably won't even pay attention to the beat and just focus on Craig's vicious disses of Shan:

"It seems a brother that I went way back wit
Is coming out the woodwork, talkin' shit.
At first it didn't mean all that,
'Cause he was washed up and strung out on crack.
Freebase. His life was a waste to the rap world;
Nobody cared about him or his wack girl.
So, yo, I took it in stride,
And continued with the rest of my life.
Until recently, he showed some form of indecency:
Went in a magazine and tried to release on me.
Huh. But now it's the last straw;
I'm gonna wreck him and everything he stands for.
...
Go wash windows, that should be your career;
I could give a fuck about what you pioneered.
Straight up, that don't mean shit.
So won't you take your vine and swing the fuck off a cliff!
Yeah. I mean business;
Don't ever in your life try to diss this,
'Cause, punk, I'll rip you to shreads,
And mail your record company your head.
Hmph! I know it sounds a little graphic...
I heard your album's double plastic."

Shan came back at Craig on "Even If I Tore It," a B-side-only song from a 12" I covered recently, but Craig's disses were more vicious. Interestingly, though, Craig's second verse is the same verse he kicked on his classic duet with Tragedy, "Live and Direct From the House of Hits." It's essentially word for word, except Shan's name is occasionally added. So for instance, the line "slow down, kid, before you enter a speed trap" becomes, "slow down, Shan, before you enter a speed trap."

So these tracks aren't so obscure or overlooked as the Whistle ones I covered the other day. In fact, because of them, the CD tends to cost a pretty penny nowadays. But it's worth picking up, because they really enhance and already great album.

Word To Your Mother

I'm sure you're all at least passingly familiar (whether you want to be or not) with this album[left]: Vanilla Ice's To the Extreme on SBK Records from 1990. It's still one of the biggest selling rap albums of all time. The success of the lead single, "Ice, Ice Baby" led SBK to drop their entire hip-hop roster and focus exclusively on promoting the ice man for years, costing us some dope albums in lieu of lots of awful, awful Vanilla Ice follow-ups.

But how many of you are aware of the prototypical Vanilla Ice album that preceded To the Extreme and the break out success of "Ice, Ice Baby?" It was called Hooked[right] (named after the song "Hooked" which was also on To the Extreme) and came out on Ichiban Records earlier that same year. It's basically a rough, unpolished version of To the Extreme... When SBK signed him they rerecorded the music and added a bunch of extra songs.

So, yes, "Ice, Ice Baby" is on here, too. Ichiban actually originally released this as a B-side to what they thought was the hit of the album, "Play That Funky Music." It didn't take off, but as the saying goes, "B-side wins again," and "Ice, Ice Baby" started getting radio spins. And that's what led to SBK signing him.

It's actually my contention that "Ice, Ice Baby" isn't a bad song. Let's face it, the beat caught on because it was an ideal hip-hop sample (Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure")... which is why dope hip-hop acts like The UBC and The SCC used it since (and probably a lot more would if it wasn't tainted with Ice's legacy lol). The lyrics are freestyle, so while he's often criticized for not saying anything substantive on this track, that could be said of a lot of rap classics ("DWYCK," anyone?). And the delivery is actually pretty fun and effective... in fact, you may remember my theory that he lifted it from another, lesser known Miami MC named K-Ponce. So, it's a probably stolen rhyme scheme (at any rate, he certainly at least had co-writers, including his DJ Earthquake, who are credited)... but hey, I'd much rather hear a tested style that sounds good than something that's original but crappy. Unfortunately, he didn't keep stealing styles (or at least not any good ones), because he never made any songs one iota as compelling as "Ice, Ice Baby" since.

So, yeah. The songs are "remixed," but essentially they're the same. They use the same samples, lyrics etc. They've basically just been re-recorded with better technology, so the basslines sound smoother, the drums sound richer, etc. It was apparently a regular practice with SBK Records... you can read in my Keymaster Snow interview how they used the same process on Partners In Kryme's material. They also added several additional songs. The songs "Yo Vanilla," "Stop That Train," "Life Is a Fantasy," "Ice Is Workin' It," "Juice To Get Loose Boy" and "Havin' a Roni" are only on To the Extreme, not Hooked. That sounds like a lot, but a couple of those are just skits.

Hooked does have one exclusive itself, however (not counting the rough versions of all the songs as exclusives, which they really kinda are... and in some cases at least, like "Hooked," they are a little better): "Satisfaction." And it's actually one of the best songs on either album (for what little that's worth). It liberally uses the sample of The Rolling Stones' "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" married to a fun, very 80's drum track. That sample is why it was left off To the Extreme - couldn't clear it - but it's also what makes the song fun. A version without that sample would be pointless. They did eventually wind up releasing a live performance of the song on his live album, Extremely Live, but this is the only album with the original studio recorded version (although SBK eventually released a single with some studio remixed versions later on).

Anyway, it's Vanilla Ice, so it's hardly a must-have... But it's an interesting artifact, no?

Happy April First!

Some Overlooked CD Bonus Cuts

Today I thought we'd talk about... oh you read the title already? Ok, then let's just get on with the specifics. This is probably one of the last albums you'd expect to find out has CD bonus cuts on it (Hell, it's almost surprising there's a CD edition of this album at all), but sure enough, here they are. Whistle's second album, Transformation, was released in 1988 on Select Records. It's called Transformation because this is the album that really bridges the gap from rappers to singers. Sure they sang some on their first album, too; but they were known for their rapping. And this follow-up is the herald of their departure - after this, they'd be an all-singing group from then on - and it's split right down the middle. It features all R&B on side A, and all hip-hop on side B.

And like the blurb on the CD cover[pictured, above] says, it "INCLUDES TWO BONUS CUTS." Fortunately for us, the bonus cuts both appear on the hip-hop side. Both tracks are kinda short. And like most of the tracks on the album, they're produced by Kangol and Howie Tee and co-produced by Whistle.

The first is called "And This Is True," a reference to the hook of their biggest hit ("Nothing' Serious (Just Buggin')," that goes, "we're called Whistle/ And this is true/ We love to do the things that we're not supposed to do/ We don't be lyin'/ Stealin' or muggin'/ In fact don't take it seriously - we're only buggin'!" It's basically a Kool Doobie solo song, though the group croons in the background, over a super hard drum track (with the occasional heavy metal guitar riff). It's a single verse with a hook, but it's interesting for being possibly the most hardcore sounding track Whistle has ever done. The way he ends by declaring "suckers!" and all... I actually think this song may've been inspired by BDP's Criminal Minded.

The next is probably a little more in tune with what you'd expect from a Whistle song. It's called "Hello Skeezer," and has Jazz kicking some fun story raps about "a type of girl/ That's known throughout the country/ And half the world/ We call them skeezers/ For those who don't Know/ A skeezer's a pleaser/ Or hip-hop ho/ They go from show to show/ And place to place/ You might recognize the body/ As well as the face." It's definitely lighter, and features a classic old school sample set (it's buggin' me that I can't remember the hip-hop classic that used it first, but you'll recognize it instantly... especially the whistling on the hook) blended together with Howie's unique drum sounds. This is a fun song for any Whistle song, though it feels a little to short... it's basically two verses with a minimal hook and some shout-outs at the end. A third verse would've made it feel more full, I think, but fuck it. There's too few rap songs by Whistle in this world as it is, and I'm happy to find two more that've long been overlooked. So I'm just enjoying. :)

Another Jazz Thing 4 U 2 NV

(YouTube version is here. ...And another14u2nv.ning.com is the place to go if you want to pre-order.)