New. Essential Juice Crew History

Masta Ace's Shelf Life Vol. 2 has just landed from Chopped Herring; and I think it's even better than the first one! There's three more tracks from that second Cold Chillin' album that never happened, a super early demo track, a late 90's joint and another unreleased Take a Look Around instrumental.

The first track is called "Scared Of the Dark," and it just seems unbelievable to me that a song this well written could ever have been shelved in the first place. Granted, even back when this track would've come out initially, I think that break and bassline had been heard before. But it sounds fresh, and Ace specially sounds incredible on it. And lyrically, it's a concept I'm actually surprised ahs turned up in hip-hop more often than it has: "I often wonder when I sit up on the train, what makes a white man so scared of me?" And it's done in the style of a classic Ace internal narrative, where we hear it through the thoughts of a black man taking the train home after work one night.

Interestingly, it's produced by The Young Disciples. an R&B, new jack swing kinda group from the UK. The connection makes sense, though, when you realize Ace also appeared on their album in 1991. And anyway, "Scared Of the Dark" sounds nothing their stuff; I'm almost tempted to think CH got the credits wrong, switching their production credit with Outloud's, who's credited with the next song.

Outloud's the guy from Blahzay Blahzay, of course. And his track, "Younger Generation" starts out with a deep, kicking breakbeat. But then over that is more upbeat singing and instrumentation, including a scratched in reggae chorus. This really stands out as something different in Ace's catalog, but it's undeniably dope regardless. And Ace comes off as strong as ever, "trying to hold me back is gonna take more than just a nation."

What else is on here? There's a DJ cut by Steady Pace. DJ cuts have been much too few and far between in our generation. You know, those songs like "Touch of Jazz" or "DJ Premier In Deep Concentration," where the DJ is given a track all to himself to show and prove. If this had come out, I think Pace would've gotten a little more recognition than he has in his career. It's not a total instrumental, though; Ace does come on for a real short verse towards the end of the song. But since when is an extra Ace verse a bad thing?

Masta Ace self-produces a slower groove called "One Two, One Two." This is the late 90s tracks. 1997 places it in the stretch between Sittin' On Chrome and Disposable Arts. That "Top Ten List" period. It's really a shame he didn't drop a full-length then, because he seemed in a great, darker lyrically inclined mode at the time.

The Take a Look Around instrumental this time is for the "Brooklyn Battles," definitely an impressive production. PreCISE MC also flipped it on her album for the song "Don't Even." "Brooklyn Battles" had been released as a single (the B-side to "Letter To the Better"), but it only featured the same album version. Unfortunately, the version here is a Dub mix, not a true instrumental (which the label does accurately stipulate), where every other line of Ace's verse is on the track, and then the next is absent. So I don't know how much people will get out of that, definitely the weak spot of the EP for me; but here it is for those who want it.

However, I've saved the most exciting song for last: "Sold Out." This is an unreleased demo by Ace from 1987; making it Ace's oldest known recording. And hell yes, it is a Marley Marl production. It's a pretty hype, fast paced number - it sounds like, after the song was completely finished, they might've gone back and sped things up a bit more. It's got a nice, deep bassline and the kind of wonderful sparse horn stabs we love Marley for. It's also got an interesting use of skit-style dialogue mid-song, which you really wouldn't expect in a song as old as this. The whole EP is pretty great, but this song
flat out makes it essential, serious Juice Crew history right here.

Once again, this is limited to 300 and comes in a cool sticker cover. Actually, most Herring releases these days are pressed at 350; but for some reason this one's back to 300. And again, some of those 300 were also pressed on colored vinyl, which you only stood a chance at getting if you pre-ordered this literally within the first 15-20 minutes it was listed on the Herring website. Specifically, the first 75 were pressed on clear (clear) and purple vinyl, the second 75 are black and purple; and the other 150 are on your basic black wax. Whatever version you wind up copping, though, you should be thrilled to own this.

And to end on an even higher note, I'll just point out that Chopped Herring's site says, "Next Volume 3..........."

Darc Mind

The 90's fucked up when they didn't put out Darc Mind. They were a serious NY duo; with the ultra-deep voiced Kev Rock dropping hard but intelligent rhymes over dark, ominous boom bap production by GM Web D. Together, their style smoothly bridged the gaps between backpacker, thugs and Dead Prez. Unfortunately, we barely heard them.

They had a song called "Visions Of a Blur" on LOUD Records' flagship soundtrack album, Soul In the Hole with a killer bassline that definitely managed to get heads attention despite being placed between many NY giants in their prime, including The Wu-Tang Clan and the solo debut of Big Pun. LOUD also released a promo-only single of theirs called "Outside Looking In," produced by Nick Wiz. But that was it. Darc Mind was on their roster, and they even recorded a full album for them called Symptomatic of a Greater Ill; but it never came out.

Until 2006, when an indie label got in touch with Kev Rock, recovered the masters, and pressed them up as a proper double LP for the first time. Which label? An early venture by Diggers With Gratitude? Or maybe Freestyle Records sounds like a better guess? No, believe it or not, it was Anticon. Pedestrian was actually - like most of us who had the Soul In the Hole tape - a fan since the 90s. He made it happen, and the rest of the album turned out to be exactly what we'd all hoped it would be: just as dope as "Visions of a Blur."  Dark and heady. Smooth yet hard. The album's still available on their site, by the way. I absolutely recommend it.

This isn't the only time Anticon's ventured into this arena, by the way. You know those Grimm Teachaz EPs that Chopped Herring's been putting out? You know, with Son Doobie and all? Well, if you're digging those EPs, you should definitely check out the cassette full-length album Anticon put out of theirs in 2011, also still available on their site.

Anyway, that's only half of this Darc Mind story. Thanks to the buzz around Anticon's release, plus the credibility GM Web D earned under the aliases of X-Ray and King Ceasar (yeah, they're both actually the same guy) producing for MF Doom and the Monster Island Czars, of which he's also a member, Darc Mind reunited and started putting out limited CD-only releases through their website (I think one also came free if you bought their album off of Sandbox or something). And in 2013, Dope Folks pressed up some more of their lost music on vinyl.

Now remember, Symptomatic of a Greater Ill, Soul In the Hole and all that was 1996-1997 era. This six-song EP, called Antediluvian vol. 1 [I assume that means there's a part 2 coming!], is all from 1990-1992. I mean, holy crap, who knew the pair went back that far?!

Well, we sorta had a hint that they went back at least a few years earlier than Soul In the Hole. A couple years ago, Dope Folks released another GM Web D production: the Legion of D.U.M.E. '94 EP. That EP was a sweet combo of the rare Legion of D.U.M.E. 2-song 12" on Darc Mind Records[!], plus six more never-before-released other D.U.M.E. recordings. In fact, Legion of D.U.M.E. consists of both Web D and Kev; the difference is just that it also includes two other members: Prime Time and Scott Free.

But still, Darc Mind material from as far back as 1990 is kind of a mind blower. Two of the songs - "Smooth Wit the Roughness" and "Fine Brown Frame" - are actually from those self-released CDs Darc Mind put out on their own. But this is still their debut on vinyl and the first a lot of us are really getting to hear them. And the other four, as far as I know, have never been released in any capacity.

Anyway, you'll be pleased to know that this material, even though it's way older, still has the same ethos as Symptomatic. Dark, smooth, hard. Kev's younger but basically sounds the same, and GM's production sounds pretty much the same, too; albeit with more recognizable samples than his later work. And "Fine Brown Frame." That song has a lighter, bouncier, more old school feel. It's still good, but it doesn't sound like the rest of their material. Overall, it's just different enough to be fun in a "isn't it fun to hear how they used to sound" kind of way; but similar enough not to disappoint any of their fans.

Like all Dope Folks releases, it's limited to 300 copies, and comes with a cool sticker cover. However, in this instance, there's also a cheaper, limited CD option available only through Darc Mind's Mindbenda site. So the 90's dropped the ball, but the 2000s and 2010s have once again swooped to catch it and score a slam dunk... or something. I'm not good at sports metaphors. All this Darc Mind material is quality stuff.

Hit Squad Lyricist: Nocturnal interview

(Youtube version is here.)

Second Era Chill Rob

This is the first of Chill Rob G's comeback singles after his separation from Wild Pitch Records, The Flavor Unit and The 45 King's production. This dropped in 1996 on Echo International. I love Echo. I mean, it was terrible for its roster's careers. They had zero promotion, and every artist I've heard mention it has had horror stories about not getting paid, or even that their releases through that label were unapproved bootlegs. But they put out so much material by so many artists who had otherwise totally dropped off the map. And while it usually wasn't their best stuff, being low budget and all; it was usually on a nice, underground east coast boom-bap tip.

And that's what this is. low budget, raw 90's boom bap from a classic NY MC who'd long since disappeared. It's a two track 12", "Let Me Know Something" b/w "Know Ya Place." Both songs are produced by a guy named Storm who knows the right thing to do: provide solid but low-key beats. consisting of a hard, no frills looping drum beats, sparse basslines and head-nodding piano loop and one other subtle sample (a horn in "Know Ya Place" and a snippet of a female R&B singer on "Let Me Know Something"). The loops have basically no change-ups or deviations through the entire length of the song. The hooks are also just simple, lightly scratched vocal samples. They're good enough to keep you feeling the track, but small enough not to distract from the MC. If you've lost your access to classic 45 King loops, this is what you do. Keep your head down and do just enough not to distract. Anything corny or superfluous would just kill the whole song, as so many producers have been proving through the 2000s and 2010s.

But of course, that strategy only works if your MC is strong enough to carry the weight. This is fucking Chill Rob G, so of course he is. He's got the classic, deep voice that could carry a record acapella if he had to. And while he definitely keeps things simple here - really basic concepts and a straight-forward delivery with a true school aesthetic - he's also updated his rhyme writing just enough for the 90's. He's got some clever rhymes in there like:

"I ain't never been a fan of yours, I make a list and check it twice; I'm like an evil Santa Claus. And I ain't bringin' no gifts and toys; I got a bag full of hard times, black eyes and mad noise." 

He doesn't go full "punchline rapper." He definitely is putting some updated 90s-style cleverness into the wordplay, but still keeps it hard. He definitely proves that he's an artist with more than a couple classic Wild Pitch singles in him.

Several years later, he would include both of those on his very rare, self-released Black Gold CD. But this 12" has the added bonus of an Accapella, in addition to Radio and Street Versions of each track, plus an Instrumental for "Know Ya Place." And the nice thing is that Echo singles are hardly ever rare, so you can add this to your crates pretty easily, which I recommend. Chill Rob G should never have been allowed to drop off, he could've produced a much longer, richer and genuinely worthwhile catalog. But at least there was Echo to give us a little bit more.

Graveyard Hip-Hop

(Spooky Youtube version is here.)

Have a Happy Halloween, everybody!

The Story of Ice Cube's Raiders' Cap

30 for 30 is some ESPN sports documentary series. Each episode is like an hour long and the topic's different every week. As a non-sports fan, I only know even that much because I just looked it up. But as a hip-hop fan, one episode is actually quite compelling, especially since each episode is sold individually as a stand-alone short film on DVD (although note that Amazon's currently replaced them with DVD-R versions), so you can pick it up with zero investment in all the golf, ice-skating, and whatever the rest of the series focuses on.

The episode/ short documentary film in question is Straight Outta LA (2010), directed (and narrated) by Ice Cube. And yeah, we all remember his sole past directorial effort was The Players Club; but don't let that scare you off. This is a tight, sincere film where Ice Cube gets to address the very noticeable connection between west coast gangster rap and The LA Raiders. But because it's got ESPN behind it, it also has the capital to bring in just about everybody from John Madden to Snoop Dogg for interviews. There's just tons of players, coaches, journalists, gang bangers, team owners and rappers on hand - and that's not even including all the vintage footage they've got to work with.

It's almost an embarrassment of riches. I can see a lot of smaller filmmakers putting something like this together, but this flick has the resources to really do a stand-up, definitive job. Breezing through topics from the history of the Raiders moving from Oakland to LA, to hip-hop's expansion to the west coast, some pretty names are brought in for some pretty short soundbites. You can tell Cube is struggling to fit the whole story into an hour-minus commercials. For the most part, that works in its favor, giving the film a very fast, watchable pace. But at the same time, it does make it feel a little too superficial. It would be great if we could just sit and visit with some of these interview subjects for more than fifteen seconds at a time.

It's too bad the DVD couldn't have included an expanded director's cut. But as it is, it still manages to plumb some interesting depths, like how the Raiders started making money just as a fashion brand thanks to gangster rap far beyond just team merch. We get to hear the Raiders' marketing guy talk about first meeting NWA and giving them team swag to wear in concert. Even people from other sports are introduced to talk about how their teams changed their colors to black and silver to get on that bandwagon. And we hear how it all started to slip away because the Raiders started losing games. Maybe it's a bit glossed over (Ice Cube talks so briefly about leaving NWA he doesn't even mention Jerry Heller), but it's all here. There's even a weirdo animated segment [right] on the origin of NWA's name.

The arc of the story is dramatically effective, too. Lawsuits, in-team disputes, schools banning Raider gear as being "gang affiliated." And as the film winds up showing us fiery footage of the LA riots, I had to admit, Cube did a great directing job. He introduces the film by claiming that even if you don't care about football or hip-hop, this doc will grab ya, which is kind of an obnoxious way to start a film. But he turned out to be right.

And it ends exactly the way I would've wanted to end the film!  ;)

Celebrity Internment Camp - Why Not?

Hi, guys. Today is a new day, right? It's a big, colorful world out there full of new experiences and stuff to try, or so I hear. So let's get outside ourselves. Let's listen to some hip-hop we'd never ordinarily check out, something totally off our radars. Here, I've been sent just the thing: Celebrity Internment Camp. It'll be just like taking one of those year-long train rides through all of Europe searching for the little places the tourists don't know about except you don't have to go outdoors.

So Celebrity Internment Camp is the name of both the album and the group. The group is actually a collective consisting of Urban Sasquatch, Red Carpet Hobo and Hindsight Genius. Never heard of any of those guys either? Embrace it! That's the spirit. Maybe they're individual up and coming beat makers, maybe they're groups, or maybe they're silly pseudonyms for other beat makers and groups we've never heard of.

Here's what I do know. This is an instrumental hip-hop CD put out by a traditionally punk rock label in Long Island called 86'd Records. It includes a big, fold-out comic book poster about... yaknow, celebrities being sent off to internment camps. Not bad for $5. I've been hearing for years that punk labels have better value just in terms of prices for their physical releases (looking at their site, the same label sells their 12"s with pic covers for $8), so I guess I know what they're talking about now.

This isn't punk, though; this is a strictly hip-hop album. And it's pretty good. I mean, I'm not feeling the drums here. I guess they're not meant to be rapped over, but just taken as backdrop for the rest of the instrumentation, which is pretty engaging. So it doesn't have the compelling head nodder swing of a classic rap jam; but instead feels sort of like a soundtrack for a movie that doesn't exist. Except it's a little too busy to be score; but you want that in an instrumental album. Otherwise it's boring. And like very few instrumental hip-hop albums, this album manages to avoid being that - an accomplishment in itself. The samples are many and varied, spread out over a lot of very short tracks. Honestly, this is probably the most absorbing hip-hop instrumental album I've heard in a long time that doesn't have any scratching, beat juggling or other forms of turntablism to keep it moving.

It's also surprisingly peppy for an album supposedly about internment camps.

Look, I'm a guy who only buys 45 King beat albums to skip to the songs with Apache and Lord Alibaski. But If instrumental hip-hop is your thing, especially something a little non-traditional, I recommend checking this one out. It's a healthy kind of different. And next month we'll all get the new Kool G Rap album.

Sleuthing For the Rhyme Inspector

Percee-P's catalog is way too goddamn small. He first appeared on vinyl in 1988, and didn't put out his first full-length album until 2004. And nine years later, that's still his only album. So we're starved. We're starved for his sparse but killer 12"s, and his at least reasonably bountiful supply of guest appearances. Because of this, we wind up buying records we'd never ordinarily give the time of day to by artists we don't really know or care about just because he drops a verse on them. Records like this one.

Here's a single by a guy named Koushik. He's one of those guys who you see album after album by on sites like ughh, but you don't look at because they're barely hip-hop (and holy crap are there a lot of those). Discogs lists Koushik's first album under: Electronic, Hip Hop, Rock, Breakbeat, Abstract, AND Psychedelic Rock. I didn't bother looking up the rest of his albums, because this is not Pitchfork. But I still bought this record... because Percee-P is on it.

This came out in 2006 on Now-Again Records. The label [pictured] is a million little circling eyes to tell people like me that this is not the kind of artists who makes music I would care to listen to. But fortunately the other side has proper writing on it, telling us the track-listing and the fact that this is "12" #2 of 2 from the 'Cold Heat: Heavy Funk Rarities 1968-1974' pretentious." Sorry, that last word should be "series."

Anyway, there are nine tracks on this 12" including an Intro, Interlude, Instrumental, Drumapella, Megamix, and three(!) Bonus Beats. Skip them all. The last remaining track is called "Cold Beats" and it's a full-out Percee-P song. That's right, not just a single verse, it's a proper Percee track. And instrumentally, it's pretty dope, too. It's got a nice chunky horn sample, interchanging loops and a dope, banging breakbeat. I guess that's what all that "1968-1974 Rarities" talk was about.  Hell, I'm not a guy who's big on instrumentals, but even some of the versions without Percee actually rhyming on them might actually be worth your time.

And perhaps best of all I'm... pretty sure these are not recycled verses from Percee. You know how you'd hear him drop a rare guest verse on one song, then he appears on another artist's song a year later, and it's the same verse? Well, I don't recognize any of the rhymes here from any other song. I'm almost certain this shit's exclusive.

So, it's really a whole new Percee-P song. The production's quality, plus it's a nice match for the rhyme inspector - albeit still a little out of left field for him. I'd actually rank this higher than a lot of the Madlib stuff. So add this to the list of records by artists you don't know and don't care to know that end up in your crates because of this guy. But Percee's Percee, so you'll be glad to have it.

Tech(Nology) Of the Flexis

(Youtube version is here.)

Further Around the Outside

I didn't really tell the whole story in my last post. That Rakim mix of "Buffalo Gals" was followed up by a full-length album, chock full of remakes and sequels to Malcolm McLaren's hip-hop work, including yet another "Buffalo Gals" remake. It's got a couple interesting names lined up, including Krs-One, De La Soul, and of course Rakim from the single we already looked at. But it's mostly handled by unknowns (who remained unknown after this project) and lots of filler.

It's hard to decide where to begin with this album. Like everything McLaren's released, it's a total mixed bag that at least manages to keep you guessing. It's 23 songs long, but a good half of these are skits.

There's basically two kinds of skits on this album. One is an interview with McLaren, broken up into a bunch of short audio clips spread throughout the album. He talks discovering hip-hop in the Bronx, meeting Afrika Bambaataa and wanting to make the first record where scratching was the lead emphasis. It's all set to music, which mostly just serves to cover up background noise, because it doesn't sound like this interview was recorded for this album, but instead is some found footage recorded out on a city street someplace with lots of traffic noise. But I'm not knocking it. It's a compelling story, told succinctly by the man himself. The only problem is that - as with almost all skits - once you've listened to the album through the first time, you're not going to want to hear it again and again. Interviews don't work like songs where you want to keep replaying them. So you wind up having to keep your finger on the skip button or just endure them.

The other kind of skits are proudly proclaimed right on the back cover: "clips from the legendary radio show WHBI. 105.9" (meaning the World's Famous Supreme Team Show, of course). That sounds pretty neat. Until you realize that the clips from the show are the same clips McLaren sampled and put into his songs back in the 80s. And since the original songs AND their remakes are present on this album, you wind up hearing the same soundbites over and over again. I can only assume somebody was deeply confused when assembling this album.

And did I mention the original songs are on this album? Yeah, this album is 50% new album and 50% greatest hits compilation. Like the 12" included the original "Buffalo Gals," this includes that plus "Hey DJ" and the rest. Of course, McLaren didn't have all that many hits, so space is further filled up by including the instrumental versions. And again, when you include the skits, it's really more like 33% greatest hits and 33% new album.

So never mind the bollocks, let's get to the new stuff! Well, after the first interview skit, the album starts off with the world's most boring spoken word piece, by a guy named Da Boogie Man, that basically just strings along a series of old school names and catch phrases. Then, after the Rakim mix, there's the first proper new song, called "Bring It Back" by Soulson. I've never heard of him before or since, but his name's all over the album credits here, so he was clearly an integral part of this project.

It's a bid for credibility, actually. He name drops everybody from Grandmaster Caz and Grand Wizard Theodore to 2Pac and Biggie. He talks about "old school pioneers" and "true MCs" while dissing "fake gangstas" and "culture vultures." Really, this song is the thesis for the whole album. McLaren and co. are legends who really want you to respect them. That's why McLaren tells his origin story in skits throughout the album. That's why half this album is a greatest hits collection. That's why they hired the big names to cover their material. It's all to say, "we are important!" So, okay, point made. Otherwise, the song's just okay. The production is decent but a bit cheesy, with a girls chorus in the background that sounds like it something from a Conan soundtrack, and the MC dropping corny lines like, "you feel me like double Ds." But, the beat's alright, and he's got a decent flow and voice in general. It's nothing to run out and buy this album for, but it gets by alright.

But, oh boy. Talk about corny lines. After another skit, we get "Off the Top" by Hannibal Lechter. It's the most original song on here - pretty much the only one that has nothing to do with McLaren's old school hits. It's just a jokey freestyle session with this guy who songs like a cross between Doctor Ice and MC Paul Barman, if you can imagine that. Every line is delivered like a Catskill comic's punchline, and he's not credited, but Soulson appears on this one, too. It actually kinda works, in a weird way. The beat is kinda funky and head-noddery, Lechter has a ton of enthusiasm... the only problem is that so many of the punchlines are so corny, it winds up being the kind of song you'd be embarrassed to be caught listening to ("like playgrounds, I swing," "get up in you like vaginas," "squeeze me just like Charmin, I be harmin'" etc etc etc).

What else is on here, let's see... another boring spoken word song by a guy named T'Killa, which covers a lot of the same territory as the first one, and there's a musically set shout outs track by McLaren and two guys named Burn One and Forrest Gump. Let's skip to the big name stuff.

Krs One drops a song called "Let it Flow (Do You Like Scratchin'?)" The name implies that it's going to be an update of McLaren's original "Do You Like Scratchin'?" which is basically just a dub mix of "World Famous." And yes, the original versions of both those tracks are on here. But anyway, interestingly, Krs's track seems to have no connection to "Do You Like Scratchin'?" besides the title. The instrumental is completely different. Krs doesn't mention scratching or McLaren or the Supreme Team Show. It doesn't even have any scratching in it, nor does he bring up the concept. It's basically just Krs freestyling over a bass-heavy beat similar to Rakim's "Buffalo Gals." It's got a cool breakdown where he stops rhyming to kick a short spoken word segment which is actually really dope. It's just a good self-produced Krs 90s track. I actually wondered if maybe they just purchased an unreleased Krs track from his vaults, but he does shout out McLaren at the end, so he was genuinely involved.

Speaking of wondering if he was genuinely involved, it also occurred to me to wonder if Malcolm McLaren was actually personally involved with this project. I mean, there's an awful lot of names in the credits of these songs (though the full-length's credits are actually rather lacking), with all the producers, MCs and writers creating this album. Even the back cover says, "made by the New York hip-hop community in dedication to the pioneers who made this possible." This could just be a tribute album, not one of McLaren's own projects. I mean, sure, he has a lot of writer credits here, but since everything is a remake already, it's hard to tell if his credit applies to the new stuff or just the old material. ...But, no. We do actually here some new vocals by McLaren. He did actually work on this album first-hand. It's as much a McLaren album as any of his others, which are also generally crafted by the teams he assembles more than himself.

Oh, so yeah. The De La Soul song. Eh. They remake "Hey DJ," down to covering the original lyrics. "Hey DJ" has been covered by everybody over the years, from A Lighter Shade of Brown to Zhane; and most of those at least came up with some new words. De La Soul slows the song down, just like Rakim did with "Buffalo Gals," but "Hey DJ" slowed down with De La vocals doesn't pack the same punch as a dark Rakim track. It's just boring. That's all there is to say about it.

Finally, what would this album be without yet another remake of "Buffalo Gals?" Yes, they've done it againnnn. This time it's called "Buffalo Gals (Back To Skool Part 2)." It's by - you guessed it! - Soulson. So, like Rakim's Back 2 Skool version, it turns it into a more traditional hip-hop song with full rap verses and less upbeat craziness. The most interesting aspect of this is that it actually uses a lot of "Buffalo Gals II" from 1990, using the awesome R&B hook by Seduction from that version. Unfortunately, Soulson's contributions, and the instrumental changes along with them, don't really add anything, and I can't recommend this one at all. Seduction still sounds great, but you should just listen to "Buffalo Gals II" where it all works better as a more enjoyable song.

All in all, it's not a good report card. But I still have to recommend this album if you don't already have many of McLaren's hits. Duck Rockin' really just had two good songs on it (both of which are also on here) and a lot of experimental non-hip-hop junk. But this complies the few hits, and throws in some random bonuses like the Rakim mix and the random Krs One song. The CD booklet comes with trading cards you can cut out of all the album's personnel; so that's kinda fun. I mean, look, The World's Famous Supreme Team's album is definitely worthwhile, but as far as Malcolm McLaren himself? His hip-hop legacy can really be boiled down to just a tiny handful of 12"s, and all those songs right here on this CD (I think there's also a vinyl LP), so this album is as good a way as any to cop that stuff. And like everything McLaren gets involved with, it has a bunch of added curiosity value to at least keep you engaged.

Rakim's Buffalo

Malcolm McLaren's released a bunch of albums, singles and compilations, all built around very few actual songs. And of all the songs he's remixed and re-released over the years, the most egregious example is easily his biggest hit, "Buffalo Gals." There's about two dozen 12" pressings, plus it was featured as a B-side on his other singles "Double Dutch," "Hobo Scratch" and "Would You Like More Scratchin'." And there were a couple different mixes on those 12"s - like the awful Trad. Square Mix, which basically turns it into a straight out and out country square dance tune [seriously, avoid that one], the Special Scratch version, and even the song "Hobo Scratch" itself made liberal use of "Buffalo Gals."

On The World's Famous Supreme Team's classic "Hey DJ" Divine sings the chorus to "Buffalo Gals" until Just stops his partner, saying, "no, no, no! See, man, That's our last record. That's already been a hit!" How ironic; they clearly had no idea what was in McLaren's future. He featured it on his main album Duck Rock, which you'd expect, but then he also included another version called "Buffalo Love" on his second album Swamp Thing. He reprised it some more on 1986's "Duck Rock Cheer" and on his third album, Round the Outside! Round the Outside!, he made "Buffalo Gals II (Remix)."

Finally, by the mid-90's, he seemed to have worked it out of his system. He was releasing orchestral jazz music in France, singing [terribly] in a mix of French and English; and the words "buffalo" "scratchin'" or "World's Famous Supreme Team Show" were nowhere to be heard. He didn't have to keep recycling the same song - he finally had a new thing going on.

But those albums didn't seem to really sell [seriously, it was his singing], and that phase eventually ended. He put out a couple little house records but I guess he eventually had to stop and ask himself: what will sell? "Buffalo Gals," of course! So in 1998, he signed to Virgin Records and put out this record. "Buffalo Gals." Updated again.

But if you want to sell a sixteen year-old song to a modern audience, I guess the move is to enlist the artists who are hot at the time. And Rakim was pretty hot. He was right at the peak of his post-Eric B solo career, having just released The 18th Letter and The Master just around the corner. "Guess Who's Back" drummed up a lot of fanfare and "It's Been a Long Time" was killing it on the radio thanks to DJ Premiere. Even Suave House put out their own version. Rakim was the man to get and McLaren got him, not just as an MC... but as a producer?

Yeah, Rakim raps on AND produces "Buffalo Gals (Back To Skool) (Rakim Mix) [two sets of parentheses?]." And you'd be right Rakim had never produced anything up 'till now. I mean, yeah, he's credited as a producer on "Juice (Know the Ledge)," and you might well say that's more than enough credential; but we all know The Bomb Squad (who're credited as remixers) made that track what it is.

But, with that said, it's not bad. It's remaking the original, so naturally much of the work was already done for him, as a lot of the major instrumental elements are carried over. What he mainly does with the track is slows it down considerably and lays in a thick, smooth bassline and some subtle, background keyboard tones. In other words, he turns it into the kind of beat you'd expect to hear Rakim on. Even the hook features cuts of his own voice from "Eric B Is President."

The rest of the hook is Rakim updating the original "Buffalo Gals" chorus. He changes:

"It's a pity that you're so dirty;
You're only dancing just to be friendly.
So pretty you drive me loco.
You're so silly you make me blush so-oh!"

to:

"You dress jiggy and you're so pretty.
Are you dancin' just to get wit me?
You're so jiggy, your style's original.
You're so pretty, your style's addictable."

Somehow Rakim makes "addictable" work, even though he's making up a word just to force a rhyme. After all, this is the man who brought us the lyric, "hello, good lookin'. Is this seat tooken?" But that's entirely too much "jiggy," especially since he repeats the chorus a few times. 1998 WAS the year Will Smith released "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It;" but I was really hoping Rakim would've risen above it.

But once the first chorus is over, we can get to the rapping. Yeah, smooth beat, Rakim's deep, serious voice... wait a minute. That doesn't sound exactly like his voice. No, actually the first verse is by somebody else, and if you look deep into the fine print, underneath the credits for the engineer, mixer and assistant, you'll see there's rapper credited: Hassan 7. As far as I've been able to tell, this is his only project. Now, maybe I'm being unfair here; but I honestly suspect that they're seriously trying to pass this off as a Rakim solo song; and they've got this guy doing his best Rakim-like flow so you don't realize they only got Rakim for one verse. Serious fans will recognize it's not his voice, but I'm sure nine out of ten casual listeners have no idea that it isn't Rakim there, and I'm pretty sure that's the idea.

So Hassan's verse is okay, but never manages to reach interesting. And once Rakim comes on for the second verse, you can really hear the difference in quality. his flow, the way he parses his rhymes... he's not saying anything more than "I like to dance with girls," but he says it so damn well. He's a real pro and his verse here is actually tighter than a lot of his later material. The cuts, which aren't terribly athletic, but just a nice, simple blending of "Buffalo Gals" and "Eric B Is President," add a lot. I actually have to really recommend this track. I mean, you could totally skip that first verse; but overall this is worth seeking out.

Also on this 12" is the original version of "Buffalo Gals," which was nice to have on there just to catch up younger audiences who didn't already have it in their crate. And there's another new version - this one called ""Buffalo Gals Stampede B-Gals Stampede." This is a Eurodance mix by Roger Sanchez. It mostly uses the original, but does also bring in pieces of Rakim's version. It's pretty bland and forgettable except for one thing. It's got scratching my Company Flow's Mr. Len; and he's actually getting pretty busy on the tables almost from beginning to end. He really comes off nice on this, so I recommend you listen to this track at least once just for that. But you probably won't revisit it much after that, because it's still basically a boring dance mix apart from that.

Overall, it's a pretty weird release, flawed but not bad and surprisingly catchy. What else would you expect from Mr. McLaren?