Rap To Burn Your Flag To

I really don't understand why 2 Black 2 Strong MMG didn't last longer. I mean, don't get me wrong. I understand why they weren't embraced by widespread, mainstream audiences like MC Hammer. Angry, militant, extremist... these are not adjectives that appeal to the 10-13 year-old middle class market that had become hip-hop's primary market. Or their parents. But there's a wealth of gradients between Katy Perry and abject obscurity. And these guys had appeal... some of the hardest rap records going, solid production and messages that you could at least sometimes get behind. I'm just saying, if Professor Griff could have five solo albums; I'm surprised these guys didn't at least last long enough to put out two.

But, then again, they sort of did, if you're willing to split hairs between EPs and maxi-singles.  Before Relativity adopted them to their main imprint, they put out a little, controversial rabble-rouser on their sub-label, In Effect Records. It was a disco parody record about flag burning, featuring Chuck D! ...Okay, maybe I do understand why 2 Black 2 Strong's career was so short.

But, no, seriously, Burn Baby Burn is some good shit. I used the word "militant" earlier, but really, MMG had a way of being as no-holds-barred political as any crew to grace the industry, but always from a more authentic "every man" stand-point. There's more than a little Willie D mixed into their PE. As 2 Black told Spin magazine in 1990, "I don't consider myself a politician or activist, but when I heard all that controversy about flag burning, I was like, Fuck that, I'm burning the motherfucker."

The first track is just an intro - the "Joey Johnson Prelude" - but it's an interesting one. Don't feel bad if you don't recognize the name; it's a bit of an obscure reference in 2013. But it's one you should know if you want to fully appreciate this record. Gregory "Joey" Johnson is the guy who burnt a flag at the 1984 Republican National Convention, and whose case wound up going to the Supreme Court. He's the guy from the ultimate flag burning case, and this intro features Johnson quoting his own speech to the court, "we live in a sick and dying empire, clutching desperately at its symbols." That case didn't end until 1989, so bear in mind: this record was pretty much an immediate response  - a response which did actually include them burning a US flag with Johnson himself when they performed this in NYC. You can read more about that incident in this vintage interview with Bomb magazine, and this old Village Voice article on the incident.


Which brings us to the main course: the Club Mixx of "Burn Baby Burn." It's a pretty tight track, with the funky bassline Gangstarr used for "Positivity" but paired up with a rugged break, blaring horns, and a generally more Bomb Squad inspired production sound ideal for 2 Black's signature, forceful delivery. It 's really alive with ever-shifting samples and high energy elements, as 2 Black boldly declares his lack of allegiance to the flag. Eventually he starts to announce "the places we'll hit," and the mic is passed to Chuck D himself to list off a bunch of cities... nice to hear his voice, but kind of a waste not to have him actually rap.

Then, the rest of the tracks on side A are really just elements of the main song. Titles like "Strike a Match" suggest all new, unique songs, but they're really just the TV Track, Radio, Dub version, etc. of the one song. So, time to flip it over.

Did I mention "disco parody" earlier? You betcha! Now, "burn Baby Burn" did wind up appearing on the crew's 1991 album, Doin' Hard Time On Planet Earth, but this B-side is exclusive. "Imperialist Inferno." Amusingly, it's a parody of the old Saturday Night Fever stand-by "Disco Inferno." Yes, girls known as NP4R sing "burn baby, burn, imperialist inferno" in the exact key and tune of the original disco hit. The instrumental, however, is a house track, with some light cutting and a bunch of sporadic vocal soundbites. Guys like Jimmy Cliff and Shaba[sic.] Ranks are credited as appearing n this record, but I think they're just samples.

Anyway, you know who doesn't appear on this track? MMG. Yeah, it's easy to see why 2 Black 2 Strong left this off the album... it only makes me wonder why they recorded it and put it on their single in the first place. Not that it's junk; it's actually a lot more enjoyable than it should be, and its subversive message lets you feel like you're listening to something more substantive than your standard, brainless club track. I'd say this was the pet project of its producers Kurt Norval and The Dub Organizer, who were associated with Clappers Records, whose imprint also appears on this single. They produced the A-side, too, so I guess they insisted on this B-side (and on dedicating this project to Peter Tosh), which really doesn't fit in at all with 2 Black 2 Strong's catalog.

Then this second side does what the A-side did in terms of song titles. There's titles like "Could We Really Win?" and "Yes! Yes! Revolution To Pass," which imply additional, original songs, but are really just names for alternate versions. In fact, most of them are more versions of "Burn Baby Burn," not "Imperialist Inferno." So I really don't think you can call this a proper EP... essentially 2 songs with a brief intro. But it's a dope, fully loaded single with an exclusive (if silly) B-side. The liner notes feature quotes from Bob Marley, art by Keith Haring, and a full color picture cover... a pretty posh release for a group that were complete unknowns at the time. I like it. And I reckon they should've put out more records like it.

The Boo-Boo Of Smooth J. Smoothe?

Last year, I did a special week of posts about DJ Magic Mike's Royal Posse... specifically about the "Royal Renegade" members, including MC Madness and MC Boo, who left the Royal Posse to put out albums of their own. They dissed Mike, Mike dissed them, it was an on-going sage.  That's why I gave them a whole week.Today's post is about another Royal Posse member, whose story is a bit different... in fact, kind of the opposite: Smooth J Smoothe.

Smooth J Smoothe started out apart from the Royal Posse. He had a pretty hot record with DJ Nasty called "Hard Rhyme Composer." DJ Nasty had done a series of tight, slept on records with Breezy Beat MC, where his cuts and production really stole the show. Now Nasty had hooked up with a new MC who seemed focused on vicious flaws and hard rhymes. Instead of songs about light girls, this was raw hip-hop, flowing over a hype track while Nasty killed it on the turntables.

But for some reason, they ticked off Magic Mike.  In 1991 on his album with MC Madness called Ain't No Doubt About, they dedicated a skit to dissing him, "The Boo-Boo of Rough J Rough." I wish I knew what the story was there. I don't hear anything in "Hard Rhyme Composer" that could be taken as a diss to Mike or Madness. And they don't break down their reasoning on the skit, they just laying into him:

"Yo, this is going out to that Orlando rapping sucker (uh-oh!)... that sucker who made one twelve inch, and he is now history. (was always history!) Oh yeah, I got some shit to talk to you. (hey!) Your rhymes kickin' like a one legged man in an ass kicking contest."

And he goes on listing a litany of insults like that for another full minute.

Well, that was 1991. And it was true, by 1991, Smooth J Smoothe only had one 12" out. But that didn't hold true forever. By 1992, he had two more records out, including "Lick the Candy" on Magic Records. Magic Records, as in the label DJ Magic Mike formed after he left Cheetah. Then, in 1993, he was a full-on Royal Posse member, appearing on their posse cut "Royal Brothers In the House" on Magic Mike's This Is How It Should Be Done album, as well as Mike's "Rhyme After Rhyme." And he wrote Mike's famous DJ Fury diss, "Fury Who?"

In the credits, Mike sends a special dedication Smoothe's way, saying, "Thanks for being there in the clutch. You're a damn good person to have on your side. Glad you're there. I owe you a million, G. Now Let's Get Wreck." Madness even included Smoothe in his epic Royal Posse diss track, "Final Words," saying, "Smooth J Smooth, ya blood is gonna ooze. Do you get used to the smell of shit when you brown nose? Mike dissed yo' ass on 'Ain't No Doubt About It,' need I say more?"

But when it came time for the Royal Posse to retaliate with their 1994 EP, Represent, Smoothe was nowhere to be found.  He's not featured on any tracks, doesn't seem to be a member of the crew anymore... he's not even mentioned in the shout-outs, where extended crew family guys like J-45 still got upped. And he wasn't on any of Mike's subsequent albums either. He just kinda snuck out as mysteriously as he snuck in. He also never released anymore solo records, and neither did DJ Nasty.

Oh yeah. I was going to blog about a specific record, but I got so caught up in telling Smoothe's story...  Well, real quick. This is "Addicted" by Smooth J Smoothe and DJ Nasty on Maniac Records. I picked this one because it's the least known... it's not his famous debut, and it's not the one on Magic Records. There's no date on the label (not even a run-out groove), so we can't be sure exactly when this came out, but at a guess I'd say about 1991 - after "Hard Rhyme Composer" but before the Royal Posse stuff. He's still paired up with DJ Nasty here, after all.

This is also the only release on Maniac Records, which just makes it all the more enigmatic. So I ordered this online one day just to find out what the deal was... plus, I like both the artists involved, so I had high hopes. But yeah, I just wanted to know. So here's the scoop: it's pretty damn disappointing. It's a bland, R&Bish attempt to sound mainstream... you'd never know it was from Miami if you didn't recognize the artists' names. And yeah, Breezy Beat did a bunch of raps about girls and relationships, but Nasty always made them fresh and exciting. But this one isn't. It features an R&B hook with almost a gospel vibe, dramatically belted out by someone named Ezell Carter.  There are a couple different mixes with substantially different instrumentals, but they're all boring. Nasty doesn't get busy, Smoothe doesn't get busy... it sounds professionally produced alright. I guess this shows they were capable of making the kind of bland pop rap records that were coming out nationwide at the time, which may well have been the point. But yeah, it sucks.

So there, now you don't have to track this one down. At least I was able to save you the trouble. Even fans can skip over this footnote in their career. But it's still a pretty compelling story. I'd love to find out exactly what went on with them and the Royal Posse, and what became of these two after.

Fat Boy Back In Effect

In 1991, when FS Effect came out, I had no idea who they were or what their music sounded like. But I bought their album anyway. Why? Because this was after The Fat Boys had broken up. Prince Markie Dee said he was tired of being in a group people looked on as a joke. Also, he really wasn't so fat, at least compared to the other two - if he lost anymore weight, he was gonna stick out... but that probably wasn't so much on his mind. Anyway, he left, and we fans were left wondering what was he going to do now... We eventually found out that he was going to become a surprisingly successful, R&B-fused producer who'd even score a couple solo hits, more suited for Video LP ("kiss it or diss it?") than Rap City.  But this was in that void, between The Fat Boys and The Soul Convention. He made his first appearance doing a guest verse on FS Effect's debut album.

Well, the group turned out to be a decent but fairly generic new jack swing group; and the reason Markie Dee chose to start his comeback here is pretty easy to guess. He was producing them. He didn't do their whole album, but he did several tracks, including their lead single and, of course, the song he appears on. I found out years later that I could've just bought the single, because Markie Dee's guest verse is the B-side. Oh well. Here it is now.

So the A-side is "Your Luvin'." It was also the first song on the album. They did have a second single ("I Wanna Be Your Lover," which features Christopher Williams singing circles around them) and a some exposure on the New Jack City soundtrack, but you can really tell Giant Records figured all of FS Effect was predicated on this one song. The full-length, So Deep It's Bottomless, was really just a formality to make the single more official. If this song was a hit, then maybe they'd put some more money into these guys and maybe stick with 'em for a while. But it wasn't, and their story's a pretty short one.

So how is it already? It's not bad. It's certainly well produced, with a lot of keyboards and smoothed out funk guitars played over a solid break beat. And there's some really nice R&B vocals for the hook, which all blends together seamlessly. I mean, a lot of heads are going to outright hate this just for being a new jack rap/R&B hybrid; but if you're open to the style, it's certainly a well put together example of it. Really, the only weak spot is the rapping. But that's a pretty big weak point, because all the MCs have super simple, stilted deliveries, and weak, contrived rhymes: "I like to think back to the days when I used to be trippin' about bein' engaged at a tender age. That made me remember the stage of years, when I was still wet behind the ears." They're clearly all trying to be Father MCs (who Markie Dee would also successfully produce for), but they just can't do it like he could.

But none of that shit's what we're here for, anyway. Flip this over to the B-side and we get "Mentally Stable." It's the album's hardcore track (think of the title track to Father MC's Father's Day), and it's the one where Markie Dee shows all these FS Effect guys how to rap. If you're interested, by the way, there were four guys: Joeseph Brim, Rich Love, Amery Ware and Carmel DJ EZ Lee. Yeah, surprisingly, they had a DJ, and he was probably the best part of the group. Certainly, his scratching on "I Wanna Be Your Lover" was the highlight of that single.

So yeah, think "Father's Day." It's hardcore, but not "Protect Ya Neck" hardcore. It's hardcore within the parameters of new jack swing: rolling piano loop, funky horn stabs, plenty of scratching by their DJ. Everybody says "motherfucker" at least once in their verse. And Markie Dee grabs the mic first to kill it. True Fat Boys aficionados will know that Markie Dee was always the beast of the trio in terms of rhyming. Granted, times have changed, bars have been raised... this surely isn't as impressive to fresh ears as it was back in '91, corny references stand out more now that everybody isn't doing them quite so much; but it was a genuinely exciting verse at the time. It was also still genuinely shocking to hear one of the Fat Boys declare "I'll kick your fuckin' ass" on a record. And the FS Effect guys... well, Markie clearly left them in the dust, but they do manage to pull their own weight at least enough to fill up the song without having it feel like it's hit any lulls or soft spots.

Now, the 12" features several mixes of both tracks, with promising titles like the Down Low Mix, Hip Hop Show or DK EZ Lee's Jeep Style... but, disappointingly, they're just overly fanciful ways to describe really basic radio, street and instrumental mixes. I was excited to hear the Bald Head version of "Mentally Stable" when I first brought this 12" home, but oh well. The song itself is still worth having, and the 12" single at least saves you the trouble of getting the whole album, which I'd reserve exclusively for die-hard new jack swing fans. Though if you like that kinda stuff, there are some well-sung hooks, fresh cutting and old school samples on there.

Bootleg Special: Big Daddy Kane Vs. Ultra-Magnetic M.C.'s!

Remember when amazing, one-of-a-kind Ultramagnetic MCs acetate of a classic, unreleased Ultra jam from the 80s popped up on EBay and blew everybody's mind?  And how, shortly after, a bootleg 10" of it appeared, giving us drooling fans a chance to own that killer cut on wax? And then, remember how another one-of-a-kind Ultra acetate appeared featuring another amazing unreleased 80's jam popped up on EBay?  Well, guess what's followed!

Yes, now "Simple Metaphors" has surfaced on bootleg vinyl, and this time it's not alone. We also have a killer, vintage remix of "Ain't It Good To You" ...the original of which was on Critical Beatdown, not to be confused with "Ain't It Good 2 U" from their vastly inferior Best Kept Secret album. And that's just half of what's included! The sticker cover labels this record as Big Daddy Kane Vs. Ultra-Magnetic MC's because, yes, there's two Big Daddy Kane joints on the flip! First we get "Sing My Song," a terrific unreleased Kane track that's been floating around the internet for years. And secondly, we have "Give a Demonstration." "Give" was recorded back in 1991 (we know because they say so in the song), but was only released on CD in the 2000s on a greatest hits CD. This 12" marks the song's debut on wax, albeit illegitimately.

The 12" starts with the Kane side, so let's go there first. As I said, "Sing My Song" has been floating around the 'net for years, and it's been included on a couple mixtapes. I'm not sure of the song's actual origins, but I'm happy to report that this hasn't just been lifted off a mixtape with radio blends n either end and some DJ shouting his name out over the song. It's the full, unabridged song. Kane is just flexing fun but rugged freestyle rhymes over a cool, New York track with some subtle scratching on the chorus.

"Give a Demonstration" has a big and dark, atmospheric beat, that only relents for a fun and funky "Mr. Big Stuff" hook. Unfortunately, the song's ultimately kind of a gimmick, where every single line rhymes with "demonstration." It wears thin pretty fast, and Kane's flow is really simple, basically a complete rhyming line on every bar followed by a pause. You keep waiting for him to finish with that and finally spit for real, but he never does. The whole song just goes plodding on like that, until the very end, when Scoob Lover kicks a couple lines. It's interesting, and nice to have for the serious Kane fan; but you can see why they didn't feel that it needed to be included on their final album in '91.

Now, if you've been following my blog closely, you probably already heard the snippets of "Simple Metaphors," so you know what to expect from that jam. It's exactly the kind of banging track we wish they'd still make today. Kool Keith kicks a sick, broken flow over thumping break drums and a constantly scratched in sample. I think the audio that's been going around from the EBay auction only included Keith's first verse, but TR Love actually gets busy on here the most, with two verses. And he kills it. They shout out Kiss FM on here, too, so I guess the song was recorded to be another Chuck Chillout exclusive.

The "Ain't It Good To You" is an awesome mix. It's pretty busy with a lot of samples, but still huge beats and deep bass notes quaking through. It's really high energy, like the original. Unlike the original, it's a complete lyrical remix as well, with all new verses. Damn, what a jewel! It's hard to believe that music this good has been sat on, unheard for all these years. On the one hand, one doesn't want to promote bootlegging, but clearly nobody else was going to do right by this music, and a track this amazing needs to be heard. And on wax. XD

So, how's the sound quality? Pretty good. Obviously, these aren't freshly mastered off of original DAT tapes. So temper your expectations. But for bootlegs, these aren't disappointing. The Kane songs sound better than the Ultra ones, with "Simple Metaphors" faring the worst, distorting at the level extremes, sounding like it was taken off of a tape... or a worn acetate. Unless the original artists and/or labels come out with the original recordings and give them a fully professional remastering, I daresay these are all presented the best we'll ever get. The wax is on a nice, thick grade. The labels are completely blank (draw your own!), but it has a cool sticker cover. This can be tricky to find [link removed because it's sold out anyway]. Unless you have a die-hard, "I will never allow any bootlegs into my collection, ever" policy, though, this is an absolute essential piece.

20/20 Hindsight

Last year, Jamille Records reissued a rare, old school single by Milwaukee's 20/20 Boys  (or two thirds of it, anyway). That was a really fun, if sort of rudimentary single, and you can go back and read about it in an earlier post. But it's not the whole 20/20 Boys story. The Boys returned as simply 20/20 a couple years later to release one more single. I don't know whose decision it was to print pale gold writing on an even paler gold background; but if you can't read the label there, it reads: "Underground Railroad," on SOTS Productions.

SOTS is an acronym for Students Of The Struggle, and the label gives thanks to Southern University, so I think it's safe to assume that at this point in 20/20's career, the Boys were college students. And clearly, they were looking to do something more mature and higher minded than "My Position" for their second outing... likely also why they dropped the "Boys" from their name. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a historical diatribe about the struggles of Harriet Tubman. The "underground" of the title refers to their status in the music industry. But they're definitely looking at it from a sociopolitical - and dare I say "collegiate?" stand-point than their first outing. I mean, no one was warning the listener about the dangers of "wind[ing] up in a racist jail cell" on "Burger Bounce."

The production sound has also changed in tone along with the subject matter. The instrumental's funkier in a way, but more subdued, almost west coast sounding. It's got a familiar bassline and some samples we've heard before (and a tried and true "Funky President" vocal sample for the hook); but I've never heard them fused together the same way they are here. And the MC's vocals have an echo effect, which definitely brings to mind Chuck D. This doesn't have the wild fervor of a PE record, though... but would fit in nicely alongside their second string acts like Chief Groovy Loo and the Chosen Tribe or Prince Akeem 

Does it work? Yes and no. It does sound like they've progressed, both lyrically and production-wise. They've not only changed with the times, but have mastered new techniques to make more "advanced" hip-hop records. But there's also sort of a muddiness to the whole thing. Part of that might boil down to just low budget mastering; but it's more than that. It lacks the vitality of their earlier work. It's a cool record, I like it; but despite its raw, amateur vibe, there's just something compelling about "My Position." You can see why Jamille brought it back. Somehow I doubt Jamille will give this one the same treatment.

This actually reminds me of Success N Effect. Remember them? Their first album was like a straight-up Miami bass album, with silly songs about girls and "Cruisin." Good times. Then their second album slowed it down, and stripped away all the light-hearted stuff to deliver anti-drug messages and stuff. Finally, they came back with their third album, Drive By Of Uh Revolutionist with Chuck D, a hard, militant, banging album. So,applying that story to the 20/20 Boys, this is like their awkward, growing pains middle record... not bad - hey, I'll still revisit Back-N-Effect. But I'm saying, if they had only stuck it out for one more record, they probably would've come up with their best music of their careers. And it would've had Chuck on it.

Swollen Matrix

(Youtube version is here.)

Modern Milwaukee Rap

We've been getting a rich taste of Milwaukee's surprisingly flavorful hip-hop history from our looks at the musical restoration work of Jamille Records and Dope Folks Records' of recovery of Rock La Flow, but how about something contemporary? Not too long ago, if you pressed me, I could probably only have come up with The Rusty Pelicans... and I only really knew them because they scored an early collaboration with Slug (who, just to clarify, is from Minnesota, not Milwaukee) back in the day. But I've recently stumbled upon an artist whose work is definitely worth the spotlight, Kid Millions. His most recent album, Recession Proof Rap, is a nice, single LP (and CD/ digital release) from 2009.

So let's just jump right into it, because that's what I did: didn't know his history or his reputation or anything, just dropped the needle on the first groove of side A. As I did that, not expecting too much, I knew immediately this album was going to be a good time. Kid Millions isn't his own producer (though he co-produces two songs later on, when we flip this over for side 2), but the production on this album is distinct and... effective isn't strong enough a word. It's really compelling - and even though it's provided by a rotating roster of mostly unknowns - has a cohesive, original sound. It's the opposite of low-fi, rough production (Kanye could rap on this... and he'd get a lot of praise for it), but is still based in a sample-rich sound. That is to say, I don't know how these tracks were made, but it sure sounds like a lot of old records were involved, and not the old stand-bys we've heard a million times before.

"I Won't Help You Up," sounds, just instrumentally, like a Galactic-era Beastie Boys track, and "Trouble," produced by one of the aforementioned Rusty Ps, features some brilliant turntablism over a funky, ska-influenced base. This album has a cool, "what if hip-hop had been left to evolve free of outside, commercial interference" vibe. But evolve it still did, with a lot of layers and elements coming and going throughout each song. And, in contrast to that, Kid Millions keeps it all down to Earth. He's good at matching his voice and flow to the music (and could teach a lot of MCs today how to do hooks), but keeps things grounded with a pure, traditional hip-hop delivery. In other words, thankfully: no fancy shit.

And lyrically? Well, I didn't say this album was perfect. After spinning this album a few times (yep, right after finishing this album, I flipped it back to side A and started playing it again right away - how many albums can you say that about?), I started delving into Kid Millions' history, and apparently his older, self-released bio references being known for his, "often hilarious storytelling rhymes." Well, I'm happy to report that we've caught him matured past that. This album is gracefully free of juvenile story rhymes and contrived punchlines that plague so much our genre. The last thing I want an artist to tell me about the rap song he's about to play me is that it's "hilarious." But... I don't think Kid Millions has quite discovered what to fill his songs with in place of that kind of stuff.

If you asked me what most of his songs were about right after I listened to 'em, I'd just have to shrug. He's not saying much and he's not kicking complex wordplay. It's all very simplistic, oftentimes just describing the music you're listening to, or how hard he worked to make it. Grown man rap isn't just about excising all the silly kiddie shit, but replacing it with substance.  "I Made a Mixtape" is an exception, with a real anthemic, relate-able kind of concept... it didn't do it for for me either; but at least it's an example where it felt like he wrote a song, as opposed to just a lot of generic raps. I'd say that's typical of "a producer who raps," where the emphasis is just on vocals that support the musical soundscape he's creating, except, like I said, other people produced almost all of this. Weird, but oh well. Recession Proof Rap still works on a lot levels, and I definitely recommend it openly.

There's a single, too, on 7". The A-side is right off the LP, "Victim To the Beat." I'm not sure I would've chosen it as the single, but it does have a damn catchy old school vibe. It's got the exact sound later era Grandmaster Flash albums should've had. And on the flip is an exclusive B-side called "X-Files" by JTODD, who's the other half of a two-man crew with Kid Millions called Minus After, and who produced one of the songs on Recession Proof Rap. It gets some points for creatively minimalistic production, but for the most part it just kinda sucks. He's rapping with a funny, altered voice, with a style that feels like a bad attempt to be trendy, as opposed to listenable. And the parts where he actually brings in X-Files references (the song's just about himself repping Milwaukee, but the hook calls out "Mulder" and "Scully" over an interpolated riff from the show's theme song) brings the whole Lil B nonsense full circle.

So skip the single unless you're an absolute collector. Kid Millions has a couple other albums, too, though, dating back as far as 2001 and still available on CDBaby. I haven't heard those, but can vouch for an earlier 7" he did with the Rusty Pelicans in '06; that's quite good. Overall, as a rapper, I think Kid Millions needs to carve out more of a distinct identity for himself (listening to this album, I kept daydreaming how Luke Sick or any number of other MCs would've sounded on these songs); but for those of us who can appreciate good hip-hop without it being dressed up in a perfect, marketable package; there's more than enough quality here to get genuinely excited over. Seriously, put this one in your crates.

Melonistic Theory: Not As Stupid As It Sounds

I remember seeing this album when it first came out, back when I was in high school and checking out pretty much everything. I was curious, but never actually bought this one because... it looked so damn stupid. I'm talking about Watch Ya Seeds Pop Out by Bustin' Melonz on Nuff Nuff Music/ Continuum from 1994. The use of the corniest slang ("busting melons" meaning blowing minds), with the cheesy watermelon colors, the giant pink sticker across the cover... I was certain this was some goofy fake hip-hop junk directed at kids. If somebody had told me this was some raw Flatbush shit with an uncredited appearance by Special Ed (the Buskwackass turn up, too), I would've bought it in a heartbeat. But it took the internet to clue me in to that years later.

Had I noted the record label at the time, things would've made a little more sense. Nuff Nuff is the same label that put out Raw Breed just before this. Remember, when their album was called Lune Tunez, and they had all those wacky cartoon images and samples on the album? Clearly, the same guy who marketed that was behind this. And also like Raw Breed, it's got that mix of crazy and the authentic. Just about about all the pros and cons from that album apply here.

Lyrically, they're okay, but nothing compelling. Their deliveries are nice, though, flipping a variety of lively yet grounded styles, at times very Leaders Of the New School-inspired. Freestyle rhymes that are meant to sound good, but not make you think (though "Unchain My Mind" tackles some serious subject matter). The hooks are kinda boring, but the production (mostly credited to random first names, like Karl & Will or Darren & Becky) is both gritty and funky, a few tracks in particular will especially have your head nodding. If you're big on 90's nostalgia, this is the perfect album for you.

There's only two guys on the cover, but the crew seems to consist of five members: MCs Squeechie Automatic, Freddy Dee and Tiquan,with DJs Kaze and AD. The guests are uncredited, I guess, because they needed all the room for their crazy liner notes. Besides a bunch of crew photos and thanks, there's a fold-out section that explains their "melonistic theory," which essentially boils down to the importance of "holdin' your melon." There's also a glossary (or "melonary") of slang terms, which I don't think they even really use on the album.

Still, fortunately, most of the silliness is confined to the liner notes and artwork. The songs can maybe be a bit silly in moments, but essentially, it's just some fresh, occasionally even jazzy, hip-hop. Overall, I like this better than Raw Breed's first album. The album has a couple of annoying skits, but others are actually some nice freestyles with fully produced instrumentals. They're essentially full songs except that they're short and fade out before they're finished. That manages to be a little irritating, but only because they were dope enough in the first place that I didn't want them to end so early.

There was one single off this album ("Flippin' Off the Tip"), but I never saw a video for it. I think there were the standard half-page Source ads, but that's about it. Like I said, I basically just saw it in the stores with no idea what kind of hip-hop it really was. And that's too bad, because I think some exposure would've helped these guys. I mean, I doubt Bustin' Melonz would've gotten a second album no matter what; but listening to it now, I'm surprised one or two of the members didn't at least go on to other groups or projects. They were clearly adept creators of hip-hop music.

Candyman's EPMD Diss Record (and Super Lover Cee Gets It, Too)

(And here's the Youtube version!)

Labteknology #7

Here's somebody I haven't talked about on this blog yet! Labtekwon. And this here is the 7th volume in his Labteknology series of full-length albums, Da Helpless Won, self released on his own label, Omar Akbar Breakdance Music in 1996. It also says Piankhi 7 on there because that's an alias he sometimes uses (named for an Egyptian king)... the fact that there's a 7 in his name and that this is volume 7 is, I believe, just a coincidence. There's going to be lots of little explanations like that in this post, because Lab has a long, complex and relatively undocumented history. Part of that's just because he's from Baltimore, a hip-hop scene that hasn't tapped much into the mainstream. His first release was in 1993, though he once put out a compilation of earlier recordings dating as far back as 1986; and he's still active today. I think he comes in second only to Infinito 2017, in all of hip-hop, for the greatest number of truly obscure self-released albums... you have to become a sort of dedicated biographer if you want to attempt to catalog his daunting music career.

So let's just stick to this one tape. In an interview with an indie Baltimore vinyl site (I'd link it, but sadly the site's no longer with us), Labtekwon described his album this way: "'Da Helpless Won' is an exotic journey into some of the most avante garde and abstract styles of Hip Hop. This album is a classic representation of true school 21st century Hip Hop, literary genius combined with sonic surrealism. This is definitely an album for the sophisticated listener. From the inspirational spiritual thesis 'Big Kid' to the strange Taoist jewel 'Shakra Rocka,' 'Da Helpless Won' is the epitome of next level Hip Hop, a precedent for the poetic generation of postmodern Hip Hop emcees. This album is Hip Hop’s answer to Coltrane and Sun Ra." One thing I took from that interview is that this man is not shy about digging his own stuff!

This album originally came out on cassette only, but it was rereleased, with his other Labteknology albums, in 1999 on CD-R. It features one of the tracks from his 1995 12", I Am Here." Several of the songs from this album appeared on other releases as well... "Wasteland" and "Rivah" were included on a CSD 12" single in 1997 (CSD is Lab's crew). "Get Down" was featured on 3-2-1 Record's Connected compilation album... I think they had plans to release future albums by his as an artist on their roster, which never wound up happening. "Sands" was featured on his 2003 vinyl EP Hustlaz Guide To the Universe. And finally, "Speak On It" and "Big Kid" (again), appeared on Labtekwon's 2002 retrospective album, Song Of the Sovereign on Mush Records, who I think also intended that to be a lead in to releasing new music by him as a roster artist; but that also didn't happen.

So, even if you've never heard this album, there's a decent chance you may've heard at least one or two of its ten songs. I think it also shows that Labtekwon regarded the material he recorded at this point pretty highly, even compared to his other stuff (I should point out that the interview I quoted above spoke equally glowingly about all of his other albums, so we probably shouldn't read too much into his self admiration there, other than taking away that he's a conscious self promoter) and continually felt it was worth featuring. This is a period he was proud of.

And with good reason. Right from the jump, Lab hits with you with dynamically intelligent rhymes and boom-bap beats with trippy, creative instrumentation on top of it. Yeah, a lot of it sounds budget and even amateurish... the keyboard horns on "Wasteland" make Slick Rick's "The Ruler's Back" sound like it was recorded by The London Symphony Orchestra. But if you just accept that - whether it's quite true or not - however it sounds is exactly how it's supposed to sound, it results in a damned compelling listen. The energy of the production coupled with the "next level" vibe of his lyrics leave the low-fi origins way behind.

Not that all the lyrics are mind-blowingly impressive... the punchlines and similes go way overboard, with the constant grabs for cleverness (some successful, some not) drawing heavy-handed attention to themselves. Stilted lines like "you're confused like dykes in drag" abound. But, hey, this was the 90s, and everybody's favorite rappers fell into this trap. All you staunch 90's diehards who express absolute contempt for any hip-hop recorded after 1999 have to at least admit it's a good thing the kids today aren't forcing, "you couldn't be blessed if your name was Ah-choo[get it? like a sneeze]"-style quips into every other line. And, yes, that's a real quote from this tape.

But if you can stop wincing long enough to get past those, it's worth it. Because there's plenty of (genuinely) clever wordplay, twisting rhymes, and thoughtful, even mystical, lyrics. Lab makes tons of albums not because he found he could make more money the thinner he spread himself (I'm looking at you, Hiero and Living Legends cliques), but because he has a lot of things to say, and he's not going to compromise to avoid alienating anybody in the audience. He's defiantly challenging, which is either going to put you off or be a big part of his appeal. And I don't mean challenging in the sense of being impenetrably abstract and esoteric, like Dose One or early Aesop Rock; but in the unapologetic way he tackles tough subject matter and expresses his opinions like, "back in the 60s, blacks wasn't scared to start a riot."

This album isn't all Professor Griff territory, though. Labtekwon is clearly a battle MC at heart, with lots of skill flexing, pure hip-hop that anyone can enjoy. And for all the corny punchlines I took him to task for earlier, there's just as many that genuinely caught me by surprise and had me laughing like quickly spitting, "I sound freaky like squids mating." For all his yin-yang symbols and obscure historical references, this album is surprisingly accessible (except "Shakra Rocka;" that shit is a failed experiment like Divine Styler's second album). Whether he's being political or playful, I'm feeling it all. Labtekwon is more diverse than people give him credit for.

I never considered myself a huge fan of his back in the day; but the more I go back and revisit, the more I see him holding up better than most of his contemporaries. Dude's definitely been underrated for a long ass time, and I've certainly been as guilty of that as anyone. But in 2013, I'm really appreciating having this tape in my collection. 8)

Remember Foolblown?

Who remembers Foolblown? Apparently, it's a site about diabetes now (odd name choice for that!); but back in the late 90's, it was a key outlet for the best indie hip-hop, especially from the west coast. Yeah, you had the big guys like Sandbox and HipHopSite locking down the indie vinyl scene and the NY artists; but for  those amazing four-track tape releases... it was pretty much Atak and Foolblown. Foolblown was based out of Texas and got everything straight from the artists, on consignment. So if you wanted, say, all 200 of 2Mex's super obscure tour CDs, you had to cop it from there or catch 2Mex on the road.

I miss that site like crazy, but with the advances in technology (meaning: mp3s), those days are over now. But Foolblown's legacy will far outlast its operational time on our internet thanks to an one terrific album: Inside Out, on Blown! Recordings.

Yes, Blown! Recordings was Foolblown's move into becoming a little label, and it featured pretty much all the major players that they carried as a store. I'm pretty sure all the artists did it for free (though, to be clear, the CD wasn't free)... it was essentially a sampler. But it featured a lot of their best work, and almost all of it remains exclusive to this day.

Who's represented here? Project Blowed, Afterlife, Anticon, Atoms' Family, Shape Shifters... Yeah, that means it's a lot of "experimental" and artsy stuff that many heads will balk at. But if you appreciate challenging, creative hip-hop of this style; Inside Out presents some of the best the scene ever had to offer. And this was just at the cusp of these guys taking off. This was Cannibal Ox and Aesop Rock, for example, before Def Jux existed. In fact, if you look at Aesop's debut on Def Jux, there's a song called "Tugboat Complex part 3." "Part Two" was on his rare, self-made indie CD, Appleseed.  And where's the original from? Right here! And it's still one of his best songs in my opinion.

Anticon fans should consider "I Love Art!" a minor classic. It's essentially a cLOUDEAD song - though I guess technically you'd call it an Object Beings song, since it has a tiny cameo appearance by The Pedestrian mid-song. But it's Dose and Why? at their most avant-garde, over a terrific, constantly shifting, soundscape by Odd Nosdam that stands up as one of his best tracks.

Braille is here, again with one of his best songs, in the style of his first album. SixToo has a nice song about a twenty-something midlife crisis. Representing Project Blowed, you've songs from Ellay Khule and CVE. Really, like, everybody's on here: Illogic, RadioInactive & Subtitle, Greenhouse Effect, OddJobs, even the elusive Dragons of Edin.Vixin even has one of her only solo songs on here (Vixin's one of those femme MCs like Lioness or Penny, who had a lot of people fiending for their music based on a handful of nice guest verses, but for whatever reason, never capitalized on it by releasing a project of their own).

A couple of those songs have later turned up on mixtapes or "rarities"-type collections, but a lot of it is still unique to this album, and at the time, I think pretty much everything was except the Atmosphere song ("The Abusing of the Rib" was included on Seven the same year... it's still one of their best songs, too, though).

So, if you look at the spine of this CD, it doesn't just say Inside Out, but Inside Out Vol. 1. Yeah, Foolblown had big plans... not only a second volume of this series, but another series of compilations called Leaving Tracks, plus a Blockhead album, featuring Slug & Percee-P! A lot of songs were collected for those projects, but sadly, they never came to be. I don't know the exact behind-the-scenes story (though I bet the short version is "pirate mp3s killed the dream"), but apparently Foolblown stopped paying the artists, who I can still remember openly complaining about it on forums... Greenhouse and Atoms' Fam even rapped about it in a song called "Friction" (check it out... it's on their Life Sentences album). But, back in the days, I ordered many times from them and they always came correct. And, of course, I love their album.