Exhuming Latee

(Your Youtube version, sirs and madams. patiently awaits you here.)

JVC Force, Hot Damn!

Remember when The JVC Force returned, after their masterful run on B-Boy (and Idler) Records, with a new single called "Bix Trax" in 1992?  Remember how it was on Big Beat, with big ads in The Source, etc, and we all thought, now they're on a major, the new single is sick, and this album's going to be incredible? And then... nothing. Eventually Curt Cazal came out on the indie tip with his new partner Q-Ball, and they had a fruitful indie career; but the Force had just vanished from the map like they flew into the Bermuda Triangle.

Well, hey, here ya go. Look what just dropped! The 1992-1993 Unreleased EP on Chopped Herring Records is five choice cuts that would've come out after on Big Beat/ Atlantic had the group not split up (AJ Rok cites "creative differences" in this interview for Platform8470) and gotten themselves dropped. We only had to wait twenty years. But I'll tell you what: it one hundred percent lives up to my expectations I had back in high school, expecting to see their album appear in stores any day now.

Let's start from the bottom up. The B-side isn't quite as compelling, in my opinion, though it's all good stuff. "Pump It Up" has some nice drums and subtle cuts, plus a few simple samples and an okay bassline. Actually the bassline's a little soft. But the Force just don't quite sound like themselves on this joint. In fact, one or two of the verses almost sound like an uncredited guest spot by some new kid who didn't come up in the JVC school. More likely, one of the original's just updating his style in a less than preferable way. But either way, it's a good song, but nothing to get excited about.

Then the other B-side track, "3 Ways To Rip It," is their reggae-influenced track. It's mostly to their credit that the JVC were always exploring different styles and sounds on their albums, but it did usually wind up leading them astray from their best work.  Plus, everybody had to have one in those days, and this is theirs. Not that they get all crazily raggamuffin on here, mind you. They pretty much stick to their standard, American flows; but the bassline and the little horn sample are pure reggae flavor, and B-Luv does some straight-up reggae chanting on the chorus. It's good, it works, and it could fit right in with the music on their past albums... it just wouldn't've been one of the stand-out cuts on those albums, like it isn't here.

Now we come to the A-side, which is the material we're really here for. First up is "3 the Hard Way" and NOW they sound like the JVC Force we know and love. They come with the voices and flows that made them great over a tight break beat and some scratchy jazz samples. When the bass notes come in, they dance with the drums and the MCs voices in that funky staccato style JVCs pioneered. There's some cool cuts on the hook, and once B-Luv gets on the mic for the second verse, it's over. We're in JVC heaven.  =)

And we don't come down for the next track. "Fun" actually uses the same I Dream of Jeanie sample Jazzy Jeff used for "Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble," but they chop it shorter so it sounds more raw and purely hip-hop. If you didn't recognize it, you'd never guess it was from some campy 60's sitcom. Plus the big drums they lay it over, and the way JVC kick their signature flows, this is Greatest Hits material, dammit; I can't believe this has been sitting on a shelf gathering dust. I didn't even mention the points where the beat changes up to entirely different sample sets, which sound brilliant. This is even better than the last song.

Finally, "An Episode of My Favorite MC" isn't quite as great as the last two songs, but it comes close. Once again, they're really on a different tip here, definitely embracing some more modern 90's styles - at the beginning it struck me as being very Funkdoobiest inspired; and B-Luv has a Phife thing goin' on for his verse. And this track definitely DOES have an uncredited guest rapper on it - an early appearance by Q-Ball! In fact, I'm not so sure he isn't on one or two of the previous songs I mentioned (although this is the only one he has a writing credit on)... While all composition, arrangement and production here is solely credited to JVC Force, he's certainly shouted out as being "behind the boards" on "Pump It Up." But if his influence was a contaminant there, it isn't on this track. This is a different style song that completely works. It's an upbeat, catchy song with light-hearted rhymes, playful flows, and an addictive horn sample that sounds like it's been lifted off some serial or cartoon from the 1930's. But somehow that adds up to being kinda smooth at the same time.

Now, my understanding is that JVC's third album was completed before the split, so either Chopped Herring has just cherry-picked their favorite joints, or they're planning a volume 2 in the future. Either way, it's is an absolute must-have for any JVC fan.  And, really, isn't being a JVC fan an absolute must for being a hip-hop head? So this is an essential release. And one that makes me very happy - I'm smiling just holding it.

And, of course, Chopped Herring's consistently top quality presentation doesn't hurt. The sound quality is crisp and clear - it probably wouldn't have sounded as good on wax from Big Beat. It's limited to 300 copies, 75 of which are pressed on marbleized gold colored wax, 75 are platinum (platinum), and the remaining 150 are on classic black. It comes in a fresh sticker cover, and oh yeah - it also includes the Instrumental version of "Favorite MC" as a bonus.

The "limited labels" have been putting out many of the best hip-hop releases (in every way) in recent years, and this stands out as one of the best of those. Get on it.

It Takes Two

"It Takes Two" is a hell of a record. Over surprisingly street edged beats, it defined the concept of dopey but catchy lyrics, not just to rap audiences, but to the popular culture as a whole. Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds were able to bond over it 20 years later in a major studio romcom, and the writers didn't even have to explain it. It not only predates similarly effective crossover mega-hits like "Bust a Move" or "Ice, Ice Baby;" Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock frankly did it better. This is a song that had one of the earliest bleeped out curse words in MTV's history, just so Rob could say, "I like the Whopper; fuck the Big Mac." Not even Greg Nice or The Beastie Boys could make meaningless non-sequiturs so memorable.

It was such a success, Rob & Rock wasted their entire careers trying to sequelize it. Whether it was a pretty flat-out sequel like "Get On the Dance Floor," or just an attempt to recycle the rhyme pattern (on "Outstanding" - listen to the bit about how he showers with "soap on a long rope" - it's total flow xerox) or the the famous "woo! yeah!" vocal sample* (the remix of their "Joy and Pain" single). Even "I Wanna Rock" on the Rocky V soundtrack was sampling his famous line from "It Takes Two" (well, one of many) for the hook. But this is hip-hop; we don't want knock-off sequel records. We want answer records.

And for some reason, girls always seem to make the best answer records. From The Symbolic Three to Super Nature (later known as Salt N Pepa) to Dimples D to Pebblee Poo to Evette Money to Ice Cream Tee to The Real Roxanne to Rappin' Roxy to Tricky Nicky to The Ghetto Girls to The Glamour Girls to PreC.I.S.E. to the queen herself, Roxanne Shanté (just to name a few).  There's just something purely hip-hop in the way that one gender rises to challenge of the other. Whenever the guys get too big and full of themselves, the girls come out to tell the other side of the story and take 'em down a few pegs.

And entering the to square off against "It Takes Two" is Florida's Icey "J" with her debut response, "It Takes a Real Man" on JBM Records. She uses the same "woo! yeah!' break as Rob and Rock, but subtly adds some faster, hyper, Miami-style beat elements to the mix. And lyrically, she answers and parodies Rob line for line. "I wanna rock right now; I'm Rob Base and I came to get down. I'm not internationally known, but I'm known to rock the microphone," becomes, "I wanna rock right now; you're Rob Base and you tried to get down. Now you're internationally known, but you still can't rock a microphone." And she keeps it up the whole way through, it's a constant, direct line-for-line response.

I mean, damn, look at this brief comparison. There are more words that are the same between the two songs than there are that're different!


"My name is Rob;
I got a real funky concept.
Listen up,
'Cause I'm gonna keep you in step.
I got an idea
That I wanna share.
You don't like it, so what?
I don't care."

vs.

"Your name is Rob,
You got a real weak concept.
Listen up,
I'm gonna put you in check.
You had an idea
That you wanna share?
I don't like it, so what?
You better care."

That bit might sound corny, but more often than the disses are cold enough to be genuinely amusing:

"You don't like Buddha?
That's okay,
But you can't stand sex;
You must be gay!"

"You're nothin'.
Yeah, that's what I say,
Rob Base,
You and your fat DJ!"

"I heard you flirt
With DJ Red Alert;
Took off your shirt
And laid you in the dirt."

She even opposes his bold fast food declaration: "I like the Bic Mac, fuck the Whopper!" Jeez. And just to seal the deal, Icey's brought along her own DJ to nimbly out-perform EZ Rock's closing cuts. Okay, admittedly, that wasn't tough to do... is he even using the turntable, or just repeatedly pressing the sample button? But Icey's DJ actually cuts it up really nice.

This 12" includes the full version, a shorter Radio Edit and the Instrumental. Better still, it features the all-original B-side cut "Icey 'J' Is On Wax," which really showcases Icey's skills, flexing her really impressive fast rap delivery over a banging beat and more nice cuts by her DJ. It shows she wasn't just a one-trick novelty rapper with an answer record; she and her DJ were the better artists (and Icey did go on to release a couple more records under the modified moniker, Icey Jaye). That's probably the hardest diss of all, and it also serves to make this record a lot more desirable even after the novelty of the A-side has worn off. ...Not that it's worn off for me yet, after 24 years. lol


*Not that Rob and Rock were the first to use it, mind you. It's part of a classic Lyn Collins break they borrowed from Shanté and Marley Marl's "Go On Girl."

A Nightmare On Elm Street rap, part 6

(Youtube version is here.)

Dualing Mountain Brothers

(Youtube version is here.)

The Thor Rap

You kids are all excited about your Avengers movie this weekend, are you? Well, how about a rap song to go with it? No, this isn't from the official soundtrack - in fact, there are two: the proper soundtrack by the composer, and a collection of pop rock songs that's actually intended to succeed commercially. And neither have any rap on it. So instead I've dipped into the vaults to find a suitable hip-hop companion, and decided upon this: "God of Thunder" by Virtuoso.

Now, this isn't the first or only rap record to reference a Marvel super hero, or even an Avenger specifically. When Ghostface Killah adopted the alias Tony Starks, he even titled his debut solo album Ironman, just in case we didn't get the reference. But despite using the Ironman cartoon theme song (and getting sued for it), he doesn't ever really rap about being a superhero in a giant robot suit, a la the famous Avenger. I wanted a song that was actually about an Avenger, not just borrowing some names, or slipping a reference or two into a punchline.

And this song fits the bill. Thor, of course, is the god of thunder. But this song doesn't ask the listener connect the dots. The hook consists of the phrase "I'm the mighty Thor" taken from The Beatnuts' "Off the Books," being cut up by producer Panik of The Molemen. And Virtuoso keeps it going with his verses, explicitly rapping about himself being Thor, "Virtuoso and The Molemen, lurking in the Trojan horse bringing the force of the Norse king Odin." I mean, granted, he seems to be confusing the Trojan horse, which is from Greek mythology, with Thor and the Nordic stuff; but he clearly means to be rapping about our Thor when hr refers to himself as the son of Odin and such. He even mentions, "when I swing Mjolnir" (that's his famous hammer).

And before you say it, let me respond. You might argue that Virt's rhyming about the original character from Norse mythology and not the comic book character. But first of all, the comic book is explicitly about the Norse god, from Asgard and the ancient mythology and all the trappings that brings with it. The comic just puts him in modern times,a nd so does this song, as he brags about "shifting the sands of California." Plus, in the song, he raps about "battling prehistoric dinosaurs" and shit that never happened in the old myths, but probably happened in the comics. Hell, maybe Thor even rode around in the Trojan horse at some point in the comics - a lot of randoms hit happened in the many decades Thor has been a super hero, especially in the 60's.

Anyway, let's not get too hung up on the tenuous connection I'm drawing between this record and the Avengers movie. This is a pretty cool, vinyl-only song that I've been meaning to blog about for a while anyway.  I've always felt that Virt never recovered from the time he changed his voice and flow between his Brick Records and Omnipotent Records releases. That's not to say all his later stuff is bunk - I still check for his newer material; but compare anything from the 2000s forward to "Incinerator," "Orion's Belt," "Omnipotence," etc and there's just no comparison.  Like he was replaced by a different guy. But this single is some of the best "second era" Virtuoso, and comes closest to capturing the lightning of his early work.

And The Molemen aren't really one of my favorite production teams. Part of my issue with them is that they seem to have one production sound for whoever they're producing. In other words they make beats that fit EC, but feel flat when it's, say, Grand Daddy IU. But here they've produced a track that's not only pretty good and energetic, but that really firs with the vibe Virtuoso was going for with this more dramatic, epic subject matter. These are the last guys I would've asked to produce this song, but it turns out they had it locked.

"God of Thunder" is the third and final single off his World War One: The Voice of Reason album, following "All We Know" and "Beatdown." But, interestingly, the song itself isn't on the album. The B-side, "Smashtapiece Theater" is, however - it's also one of the strongest album cuts, despite the cringe-worthy pun. So, what we have here is the rare "A-side exclusive."

"God of Thunder" in the full set of Clean, Evil (dirty), Beats (instrumental) and Words (Acapella) versions, and "Smashtapiece Theater" comes in Clean, Beats and Words - you'll have to buy the album if you want to hear the proper, unedited version, which is a bit lame. It also comes in a pretty wicked picture cover with some amusing "crazy credits" on the back.

Lean Invincible

Grand Invincible are back. And if that cover looks familiar, it should - it's the same image as their last single, "Winter 365." That was the limited single off of this, their just-released and even more limited CD EP, also titled Winter 365. "Even more limited?" Yup, the vinyl was limited to 300 copies, and this EP is limited to just 100 hand-numbered copies (mine's #19). It's not often the CD is more limited than the wax!

But the compelling aspect of this disc isn't its rarity; it's the fact that the vinyl was a 2-song single, and this is a 9-song CD. It includes both songs from the single, so 7 songs are all new. You might say 9 songs is a lot to be labeling this an EP as opposed to an album; but a lot of the songs are pretty short (five, more than half, are under two minutes long), and two of them are just instrumental. But the brevity works in its favor. It's lean, no filler - a tight, compelling listen straight through, which you'll want to start over again as soon as it ends.

A couple guests are on hand here. Besides the posse cut from the 7", there's "Gigantic," a fun duet between Luke and an MC named M.D. who seems determined to steal the spotlight with clever line after clever line. Then you've got "Eric Isley" by... Eric Isley, given a whole song to himself. I'd never heard of him before, but I felt compelled to check him out - here's his myspace - and he's pretty dope.

But the real stars are Grand Invincible themselves. Eons One's production just seems to be getting better and better with each release. And Luke Sick feels very at home over,, his style blending with Eons' production more naturally than ever. Tracks like "Undertaker of Mics" and "Detachable Hood" are at least as good as the two songs we already heard on the single.

Winter 365 comes in a stickered gatefold sleeve and includes some bonus stickers, a fold-out booklet and a "freight outline mini-zine" (uhh... just google "mini-zine"). They're only $8, including shipping, so I'd definitely move to score one while you can.

Caged Heat: Rappers In Prison

Rhyme and Punishment isn't really a good documentary film. If somebody came up to me asking for a good documentary recommendation, I wouldn't show them this. But, if a hip-hop fan specifically was looking for a quick rap doc to watch, then I might point them in this direction.

Rhyme and Punishment is about rappers who've committed crimes and been sent to jail. Strictly speaking, it may just be about rappers who've been to jail; but while many said they were unfairly prosecuted or excessively sentenced, I don't think anyone said they were strictly innocent. So it winds up being about both. So it's a series of interviews where each rapper - including some big names, so the documentary doesn't come up short in that department - tell their stories of getting locked up.

It's directed by the guy who did the Beef documentaries, and it is very similar in style and presentation to those. Except, where each story of beef usually involved a group (or at least two) artists telling their stories; most of these are solo stories, which make the proceedings less fun and engaging. The piece on Prodigy near the beginning is a little richer than the others... they interview him on more than one occasion, and also interview his wife and 40 Glocc. But most of the rest are quick, single interviews - some just recorded over the phone from the inside, which tend to wind up being the most interesting - propped up by a lot of narration (by Krs-One). A LOT of narration. One entire segment, on the Prison Industrial Complex, consists of nothing but Krs explaining the film's theories on the concept. Not that what he's saying is stupid or anything... but no interviews, no figures or research or footage or experts... the narrator just talks us through the whole chapter, like a lecture except we don't even get to see Krs talking. That's not really the way to do a riveting documentary.

And a lot of the stories are frankly pretty similar. Spoiler alert: a lot of them broke parole, possessed guns they shouldn't've had, felt the judge was unfair, liked getting letters from the outside and hated the food. By the fifth guy making the same observations, it feels a bit redundant. So what winds up happening is whatever rappers you're a bigger fan of probably wind up feeling more interesting. But one or two do wind up being more interesting on their own terms, specifically Shorty and J-Dee of Da Lench Mob, one of whom apparently had a cheerful, fun time in prison, and the other who's mad at his crew for not holding him down (you'll have to watch the doc to find out who is which). And Big Lurch and his mom steal the show simply on virtue of how insane his story is - he ate his girlfriend's lungs while wacked out on PCP. Yeah, that's the bit that sticks with you long after seeing this film.

This isn't completist; in fact, some of the most famously imprisoned MCs aren't featured (Cool C & Steady B, X-Raided, Lifer's Group, etc; and Slick Rick's just here briefly in footage from some old interview seemingly taken from another source)... I suspect the filmmaker is thinking he'll get them in R&P 2, just like with the Beef films. But unlike Beef 2, I'm not sure I'm looking forward to a sequel to this. The stories just aren't as interesting. And in the Beefs, the stories of the battles are the glorious and historic stories of hip-hop art. Here, it's the crap they get into on their off time when they're not representing hip-hop. Like some celebrity gossip junk. So... I don't know. If you're a rap fan, it's worth a quick watch. But it's not worth adding the DVD to your collection or anything.

Mikah's Lost Love

In 1999, Freestyle Fellowship's Mikah Nine released his solo debut, It's All Love, on Pure Hip Hop, Inc. Like PEACE's debut, it's a very home-made release: a CD-R with Mikah's name sharpie'd on it, and artwork printed on color paper for the case. It was pretty limited, and even marked "ROUGH MIXES FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY." But these Fellowship cats were once major label artists, so again, like with PEACE's album, you know this had to get re-released, right?

And re-released it was! In 2001, Mary Joy Recordings (a Japanese label that specialized in lyrical, underground US artists) finally picked it up and put it out a professional version with a newly subtitled name, It's All Love: American Nightmare.  But Mary Joy albums could be tough to find in the states (most of us just ordered 'em off the internet), so The Goodlife collective's label decided to give it another release in 2002. And since all of these releases were CD-only, Twentyfour Seven Records selected seven choice cuts and pressed them on vinyl in 2003. That's a lot of It's All Loves.

But the Pure Hip Hop version had something none of the others had: a different track-listing and some unique songs.  Again, like PEACE's album, songs got switched around, making the original pretty essential.  Actually, wait... both versions (the Mary Joy and Afterlife versions are identical, content-wise) have 19 tracks.  So that means both versions have unique songs and are essential.  Clever marketing, record labels.

So let's look at what the later, more accessible versions have first.  Most of the songs on are the same across the board, naturally, albeit in a different order.  But two differ (and no, the vinyl EP doesn't feature any of the exclusives from either previous release... it does have an exclusive Bonus Beat, though).  On the American Nightmare version we have:

18. On the Line - This is a pretty fresh song, that's never been released anywhere else, with Mikah kicking a pretty non-stop flow over a really fresh beat by Joseph Leimberg, who produced all of the American Nightmare version, and most of the original version. You may know Leimberg better by another name, Dr. Soose. Yeah, he was the trumped player in Mad Kap! Well, apparently, his talents weren't limited to just that one instrument, because he laid down something nice and perfect for Mikah to flow over.

19. Outro - Yeah, this is a bit of a "who cares?" one. It's essentially a reprise of one of the album tracks, "Come Up Off My Love." Nice to have as a bonus if you're getting both versions, but "On the Line" is the only real reason to score hunt down the a later version.

Okay, so now let's look at the original's two exclusives.

4. Come Up Off My Love (FJ) - There are actually two mixes of this song on the original album, one subtitled "FJ" and on subtitled "JL." The initials stand for the producers - so "JL" is Joseph Leimberg, of course, and "FJ" is for Fat Jack. To be honest, both versions sound a bit different than what we hear on the later versions (remember, after all, these are rough mixes), and none of them stand out. They're all very low-key productions with Mikah doing some not-too-impressive singing.  Still, if you dug the later ones, you'll probably enjoy the Fat Jack one, too; as it captures the same feel.

14. Homegirl - An exclusive song, never released anywhere else. The beat has a really deep, soulful feel - I don't know if any of the music is live instrumentation, or if Joseph just did an excellent job of making it sound that way; but either way it works. Unfortunately, Mikah's singing isn't up to the track (his singing was a problem with a lot of his material at this phase in his career), but the beat manages to carry him.

So, in the end, it's pretty much all good news. Both versions give you some exclusives, so you can be happy owning either or both versions. But the exclusives on the original aren't so great that, if you're not a huge Mikah fan, you'll have to drive yourself crazy trying to hunt down an OG mix. In fact, the newer one easily has the best exclusive.  So casual fans can just pick up the later one and feel satisfied. But for the hardcore, there is more out there to be found; you can even pick apart the variances between the rough and later mixes, and maybe find a new preference among the other album tracks  And Mikah got to sell his album multiple times to many of the same people. Everybody basically wins.

The Viper and the Doctor

A couple weeks ago, I got a nice e-mail and a request for a blog post on Vandy C. Then I got distracted by other posts I wanted to make and forgot about it... but look, I've remembered! Yayy, me!

- Now, before I start, I'll point out that Fifth Element has recently gotten through with a terrific series of posts on Vandy C, including a pretty definitive video interview.  Some of the best hip-hop blogging of the year, so be sure and check that out, starting here. - 

So I decided to take a look at Vandy's very first record, "'V' the Viper."  I found out about this record pretty early.  By "early" I mean early for a kid in the suburbs who didn't have access to old school, underground vinyl and was just buying the latest rap tapes at the local Sam Goody's. But word of this record stood out because of one of the featured guests, Doctor Ice.  I was big into that whole Select Records scene, including UTFO and of course Whodini, too - so I was really curious about this obscure, old school record that featured an early appearance by the Doc.

And, not having heard it... I wasn't even sure if it was the same Doctor Ice. After all, there was a Doctor Ice who put out a record on Enjoy Records all the way back in 1981.  In fact, I'd bought that record thinking it was the Doc Ice I became a big fan of by the time he dropped his solo album, The Mic Stalker. So I was pretty disappointed when it turned out to be some other Doctor Ice. I didn't want to get burned again. Over the years, I started to see Vandy C's name come up as a producer on some pretty random projects (Kid Flash, The Don)...

So fast forward a bunch of years when I became older and more learned, and started picking up classic vinyl, etc. I finally got this, and was happy to discover two things. Yes, it was the "real" Doctor Ice like I was hoping it would be, and also this Vandy C had the talent and sensibilities to make a good rest of the record.

This is a two-song 12" from 1986 on Whop Records (and yes, we will be doing the whop before this review is out).  The first song is the song without Doctor Ice on it: "'V' the Viper."  It's an interesting blend of hardcore street and an upbeat dance record.  It's all about rocking the club, but with hardcore horn stabs, rough deliveries ...well, by 1986 standards.  It's not quite "It's Yours," but they were definitely one of the early groups ushering in the new, post-disco rap era. The rhymes are tight, and as super old school and low-tech as the instrumental is, unlike many records of that era, every element of the track holds up today - when you listen to it now, it works just the way it was supposed to back then. And it's not every record you get to here the MC brag about his Centipede score.  =)

So then track two is "Do the Whop." This was the era when everybody had a smurf or whop record, from Jalil to Blaq Poet. And so this is their perfunctory dance track. But they make it more than just another generic entry in a long line by A) just having some tight production chops with a big, infectious beat and some really catchy vocodering and B) turning it into a minor posse cut. You've got Vandy and his partner Bill Blast, plus fun guest verses by none other than the original Doctor Ice (I think I may've mentioned already him already?) - he brings all of his charisma and a sense of fun to the table, even kicking a little chorus of Dr. Pepper commercial.  And lastly T-Funk, who's got a funky deep voice - Vandy C went on to produce his record the following year.

Vandy C was a dope producer, and I can safely recommend pretty much every hip-hop record he laid his hands on (with the possible exception of The Don); and this, their first outing, is definitely right up there. It's a fun, old school party record, but considerably more street than you'd expect... and that's definitely a good thing.

The Devil and Dr. Butcher

(Youtube version is here.)