The Wraths Of Kane

(Youtube version is here.)

Spyder-D's Jazzy Break Dance Fusion

So in 1984, a jazz/ Caribbean/ Latin fusion kinda band headed by Matt Bianco released an instrumental called "Matt's Mood," which was a pretty big success for them. They've stuck together over the years and released sequel songs "We've Got the Mood (Matt's Mood '90)" and "Matt's Mood III" in 2004. Yeah, this kind of music doesn't interest me either. I think it sounds like what plays when you call your college and they put you on hold for fifteen minutes.  But it's got a catchy little riff in there I guess; and anyway the point is that it was a big enough record for a hip-hop crew to make a break-dance version of. The group is The Breakout Crew, The Breakout Krew, or The Breekout Krew. They've released records under all three spellings. And even though most pressings don't credit him, including my copy, the MC they got for it is none other than Spyder-D.

Frankly, I'm not even convinced The Breekout Krew is an actual crew. They're all basically produced and performed by one guy, Tony Carrasco, who's done a ton of dance record under his own name and others. I suspect, at its core, The Breekout Krew is just Tony plus whoever happens to be in the studio with him whenever he's in the mood to make a breaking record. I don't know; maybe somebody will cough up a glossy press photo of like four guys posing with different instruments and we'll know that's the official line-up; but I'll believe it when I see it. All their stuff has Carrasco's sound.

Of course, "Matt's Mood" also has Bianco's sound. If you've heard the original, this version is instantly recognizable. The same bassline and basic instrumentation... it's the same groove. This one just has bigger drums and hip-hop elements laid on top of it. Oh, and of course it has raps by Spyder-D.

I've seen some references to this song that imply Spyder's only on the Rap - O Version released in Germany. You can see why people would get that impression, because it's the only pressing that actually credits him on the label or cover, spelling his name Spider-D. So if you were going by discogs or something, you'd just see him on that version. But if you listen to the song, that's his very distinctive voice on all the more common versions. It's the exact same vocal track... In fact, the Rap - O Version doesn't sound any different than the US version. I think that was just what they called it to distinguish it from Bianco's original in Germany.

Anyway, Spyder-D sounds pretty great over this track (and for the record, he spells the crew's name with an "E-A-K"), and the chintzy instrumental sounds pretty decent as a slightly harder hip-hop dance track. It's kinda corny, maybe, and but it's actually pretty cool. Spyder's lyrics don't particularly help, he lets his delivery carry all the weight. But he always sounds great, especially on these early 80s style tracks, so it works. There's a little bit of singing on here, too; which is cool but by someone who is clearly not an accomplished singer. I actually think that might be Spyder, too; but maybe not [Confirmed by Spyder himself on twitter. He also posts a couple other fun facts about the song, so click here and here!].

There's a B-side, which is a pretty cool, more traditional break dance track called "Break, Break." It's basically an instrumental, with just a few sporadic vocoder lines. It's pretty funky and typical 80s break dance stuff, not based on any jazz fusion kinda stuff. Both songs also have Dub mixes, at least on the Next Plateau US pressing I've got. If you're in the mood for an upbeat, fun time that doesn't call for a lot of analytical brain power, throw this one on. It's pretty neat.

Big Daddy Kane's Two Additional Gunmen

Alright, so we just looked at the best single from the Gunmen single, now let's look at the second best: Big Daddy Kane's "Gunman." Now, Rakim's single was a wide, general release; but Kane's is promo only. This single definitely came out single, because Rakim's 12" and the full soundtrack are both from 1993, and this is dated 1994. It's interesting to note that Kane's last single for Cold Chillin' was in '93, and he started coming out on MCA in 1994, so this single may've played a part in that transition - maybe it's even what got him signed.

"Gunman" is produced by Kane himself and co-producer Michael Stokes. Stokes is an old funk/soul producer who got his start working with Kane on "Groove With It," so uh, not a good sign. He also produced that Patti LaBelle record Kane, which was also on MCA, back in 1991; so yeah, I'm sure we're seeing the hints of how Kane switched labels in here. Anyway, fortunately, "Gunman" is not a poppy dance record like "Groove" was; it's a pretty hardcore track. It's got a shout chorus: "gun 'em down, gun 'em down, gun 'em down!" and some old west-style samples over a slow drum track. That old west sound kinda reminds me of "Road To the Riches" or "The Symphony" vibe, though I wouldn't hold this record to those standards. But it's a pretty cool record with Kane in hardcore more; his voice sounds great here.

By the way, all this Gunmen talk got me curious to actually watch the movie tonight. It's not a western, which makes Kane's sample selection a little odd. It's also not a good movie, which I anticipated. But a fun surprise for hip-hop heads, all three guys from the soundtrack have cameos. Frost has a quick scene with Christopher Lambert improving some corny joke to him. Rakim is sitting next to Kadeem Hardison like, "yo man, we gonna do this business?" And Kane? Man, he's performing almost the entire "Gunman" song. See, Kadeem's character hangs out in some inexplicable American hip-hop club in the middle of South America or where ever this movie's supposed to be taking place. Ed Lover and Doctor Dre even cameo here ("yo, man, why does everybody here have guns?"). So yeah, Kane's up there performing, and not just in the background. The movie pretty much stops dead so he can do the first half of his song.

Later on, the characters return to this club and Rakim is performing "I Know You Got Soul" with Eric B! What? How did they manage that? Did they break up mid-film, so they shot those scenes and then Rakim was like, nah, I'm doing this song myself?

Well, anyway, back to "Gunman." The song's not quite Greatest Hits material, but it's a solid Kane track. But like the Rakim 12"s, the single doesn't have the album version on it (you have to get the full soundtrack for that). Instead, it's got an exclusive Remix Master Version. This version Kane did by himself, and it's an improvement. The original version was fine, and this one is still no masterpiece, but it's a little doper. It's still got some of those wild west instrumental elements in it - even new ones - but it's faster and tougher. It compliments Kane's flow a little better, too. There's some really cheesy voice saying something indistinguishable during the chorus which I could live without, but despite that, this one's better.

If you've only heard the album version, I recommend checking out the remix; it's dope. And if you've never heard either mix, while the album version isn't much worse; I'd say you can skip right to the remix and just cop the 12". It's got the Instrumental on here as well. So this and the Rakim promo 12" are the two to own, and then there's really no need to bother with the full soundtrack album.

Rakim's Three Gunmen

In 1993, Rakim released his debut solo single without Eric B. Their last record together came out in 1992, so this was pretty quick, and fans were obviously anxious to hear him come back after the controversial break-up. It was produced, surprisingly, by a Danish production team called Madness 4 Real. They'd already made a dent in the US end of the industry producing some of Eazy-Es and MC Ren's post-NWA material, though, so it wasn't so far out of left field. It was more surprising just because you'd expect Rakim to have come with a heavier hitting producer like Large Professor or somebody. Anyway, this came out on MCA Records, not because he'd just signed with them as a solo artist, but because this single was for the Gunmen soundtrack, a presumably cheesy action movie (I never bothered to actually see it) pairing Christopher Lambert with Mario Van Peebles.

Now, the cassingle version pictured here features two mixes: the main version and The Wiz Mix, produced by Gary G-Wiz. G-Wiz is one of those guys who wound up joining The Bomb Squad later on, but wasn't part of the original line-up, and was a member of one of Chuck D's pet projects, Hyenas In the Desert. He has co-writing and production credits on some heavy jams, though, like "Know the Ledge" and "Nuff Respect." Who's hard to call who's really responsible for what in situations with group credits (Hell, he can't even trust solo credits all the time), but I think he earned his right to be producing for Rakim's solo debut, and seemed a more fitting selection than Madness 4 Real.

G-Wiz certainly came with a funky bassline, nice cuts, a dusty horn look for a hook, cracking drums and a nice little piano loop. A solid mix. But surprisingly, those Madness guys handily top it. They've got a lot of the same elements, which I guess makes sense since they made the track and G-Wiz was just remixing it. But their bassline is so much deeper and jazzier on this version. It just sounds more raw, tough, and exactly what you'd expect Rakim to come with in 1993. In fact, it fits in perfectly with "Know the Ledge" and the musical style Eric B & Rakim were coming with on their fourth album. And the G-Wiz mix is upbeat and bouncier by comparison, feeling like he tinkered around with it way too much. I mean, he doesn't ruin it, it's a cool variation; but it's clearly inferior.

But disappointingly, neither of the two 12" pressings of this single feature both mixes. And worse, they don't leave off the remix, they leave off the original! So they only have the G-Wiz mix on it - what? Admittedly, you could get the original on vinyl by getting the Gunmen soundtrack album, but that only had three original hip-hop songs on it, and a Young Black Teenagers track taken off their second album. Not too enticing. One of the other songs was by Frost, which was pretty boring and released as a maxi-single anyway. And the other one is really the only other song that's actually worth caring about, "Gunman" by Big Daddy Kane. And there's actually a 12" of that with a superior remix, too. So it's kind of a waste buying the whole soundtrack just to get the one Rakim song on wax.

Fortunately, there's a promo-only 12" to save the day. It features the Album Version, the Wiz Mix, an Acapella, a Noise-A-Pella (the acapella with some of the sparser instrumental bits in the background), and the Wiz Mix Instrumental. And it's also got a third remix, exclusive to this promo, called the One For the Bronx Remix. It's also produced by G-Wiz, but makes the effort to stay harder and darker, like the original. It's not as good, though. It's mostly got kind of a dull, filtered bass sound and a couple samples used in the previous versions. It's mostly boring and sounds a little unfinished, though it's not bad and does manage to recover some of the mood. It's worth having, but again, nothing tops Madness 4 Real's original mix.

I think some heads only caught the G-Wiz mix (because, again, that was the only version included on the commercial 12"s), so they weren't quite as impressed with this single as they should've and would've been had they heard the original mix. Again, it really maintains the sound Rakim had on his previous work, which is more than you can say for pretty much any of his solo work after this. It would be several years before he'd actually get signed and come with some albums, and he had a couple strong singles in that mix. But "Heat It Up" really should've been the lead in to a killer album showing he hadn't missed a step after the split. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and he did wind up missing some steps. But do yourself a favor and at least get this 12", which despite outward signs is actually quite good.

The OTHER Other "High Rollers"

I got another "High Rollers" 12" to talk about. This time it's by Proof (R.I.P.). I've got a bunch of these white label 12"s by Proof and have been looking for an excuse to write about one, so here we go. After Ice-T released his "High Rollers" in the 80s and Father MC released his in the 90s, came Proof's in the 2000s. There's no date on the label, but we know from promo CD singles (plus the general release of the corresponding album and music video) that this came out in 2005.There's also no credited record label, but this is a single off his Searching for Jerry Garcia (I assume a combination of an arbitrary Search for Bobby Fischer reference, with Garcia added due to his penchant for glorifying pot smoking) album on Iron Fist Records, which was Proof's own label. It's actually the B-side, though, so let me briefly cover the A-side first.

Hmmm... Impressions of "Gurls Wit da Boom." Let's see... Oh, I got it! It sucks!

Yeah, it's pretty crap. If this was anybody's introduction to Proof, they'd be completely baffled as to how he got his reputation as D12's most credible lyricist. It's from pretty much the weakest period in his career, when he was trying to crack mainstream success as sort of a 50 Cent Lite. He's doing that soft vocal fry thing with his voice, and lyrically he's just telling us that he likes sexy girls for five minutes ("I know you suck dick. Well, that's my accusation. I'm really wonderin' if you're acceptin' applications"). I do like that he's making a L'Trimm reference almost 20 years after the fact, but he never really plays that up in the hook or anything, which might actually be for the best. I mean, vocally, it's not so much terrible or anything, it's just mediocre and sounds like the most crossover stuff of that period. It's really the minimalistic bip-boop-a-beep-boop instrumental that really brings it down. Say what you want about EDM replacing hip-hop aesthetics, but I'm glad it killed this kind of club beat everybody was rapping over in the 2000s.

"High Rollers" doesn't have a lame club beat at all, though. It's based on a real cool, old school sample... the same one that Poor Righteous Teachers used for "Word Iz Life," but this one chops it differently, leaving part of the vocals in the loop as well. It's also got some high profile guest verses by Method Man and B-Real. This time "High Rollers" is just a cheesy pun - they're high and they roll blunts, get it? And even the vocal in the loop is saying "I'm high," nyuck nyuck. But while the subject matter is old news, especially for B-Real; they come up with some cool wordplay and harder deliveries that sound great on the track. Predictably, Meth steals the show at the end, but everyone comes off well on this, even B-Real, who I'm not often swayed by.

The 12" is full of versions of "Gurls:" Explicit, Clean, Squeaky Clean, Instrumental and Acapella. But there's just the one version of "High Rollers," here misspelled as "High Roller." "Gurls" is also the one they shot the video for, again they were clearly shooting for the kind of audience Fat Joe and G-Unit were pulling in. But I think if they'd pushed "High Rollers," instead, they would've gotten more attention. Trying to blend in and sound like everyone else is how NOT to draw attention to yourself; not the best strategy for selling records. But if you're collecting today, this is worth getting cheap for the B-side.

The Other "High Rollers"

Ice-T's "High Rollers" was a triumph of style and mood in late 80s hip-hop. It was a trailblazer from it's street hustler lyrics set over a bad-ass blaxploitation loop (I think it was Larry Cohen's Hell Up In Harlem) to his ultra cool, naturalistic delivery. It wasn't the first time T had used that style, but it was the first to get heavy rotation on MTV and really break out of the California scene. It was one of pioneering records in gangster rap being smooth rather than shouty hardcore, which I'm sure heavily influenced everybody from Scarface to Dr. Dre. This, however, is not that record. This is a 1995 single by Father MC.

So let's place this in the Father MC timeline. This is very early in his independent, nomadic, post-Uptown years. He had just started putting the "MC" at the end of his name. "Hey, How Ya Doin'?" was the first single of his comeback, and I believe this was #2. It's hard to say exactly, because "Sexual Playground" came out concurrently on another label; and while all three were definitely 1995 records, it's hard to nail down the exact order. But until the president of Moja Entertainment comes here to tell us different, we'll assume this is his second single.

Now it says right there on the label, "From the title album 'This Is for the Players'," which is a curious grammatical structure. But it's interesting because if you'll remember, that was the album that was essentially released twice, with almost all the same songs on two different labels. But like "Hey, How Ya Doin'," "High Rollers" is only on the This Is for the Players version, which suggests it was recorded a little later than most of the rest of the songs.

Say what you want about Father MC, even on the later indie stuff, he had a great ear for old school samples. And I really like what he's done here. Tons of rap songs before him have sampled The Gap Band's "Outstanding," from Rob Base to Rich Nice to Shaq. It's got a really iconic, instantly recognizable groove, and many who use it go pretty whole hog, even singing the same chorus. But Father (and/ or his producer here, Fabian Ashe) uses the opening drums and some other elements, but not the signature guitar or more "musical" parts, and flips it into a slow, moody song that feels nothing like the other "Outstanding"s.

Lyrically, he keeps things pretty simple. So he won't impress anyone, but at least he doesn't say anything corny or dated. It just kinda floats there in the safe median. Unfortunately, the hook doesn't fare so well. It's kinda lame, with him repeating, "only players play this record; only G's got this joint.  All the high rollers know what I mean; you can be down if you're on point." It actually looks better written than it sounds. I mean, it's not terrible, but as clever as the sample flip was, the total of this song is not one that was ever going to last through the years or even get a lot of spins when it was new. Not a bad effort, but it didn't deserve to be a single.

Which is maybe why the 12" has an exclusive remix, Soni's Chronic Mix. It's clearly so named because it's heavily influenced by Dre's Chronic-era production. It's produced by Soni D (a play on the orange drink, Sunny Delight? And surely not the same Soni D who made "Soni D Is Fresh" back in 1987?), and... just doesn't work. I could see them thinking they'd ride that wave, hence making this the single (even the Radio Edit on here is a radio cut of this remix, not the album version); but it just comes off feeling like a cheap knock-off rather than a proper song. When the bassline comes in over the hook, it doesn't even match. It feels like somebody's playing two songs at the same time. I could see turning "High Rollers" into a g-funk track working, at least to some degree, but this attempt is a failure.

This 12" closes out with the title track, "This Is for the Players," which for the record, was on both versions of the album: Sexual Playground and This Is for the Players. It's very similar in tone to "High Rollers," with him bragging about his game in a low energy, smooth style over a slow, bass-heavy instrumental. It's got a much more effective, sung hook, though. Honestly, if the lyrics were just a little entertaining, I think this could've had the strength to even appeal to listeners outside of his core audience. But as it is, it's just another acceptable Father MC song for Father MC fans; but you could hear why he wasn't going to put himself back on top with anything from this period. It's not even one the lifelong fans probably revisit that often, but it's really not that bad.

Stezo's Unfinished Second Album

Stezo released his debut album, Crazy Noise on Sleeping Bag Records back in 1989. Since then, over the years, he's released a slew of underground singles, some guest verses with his crew and recorded a couple full-length demos, but to this day he's never had a second album. He did begin recording a second Sleeping Bag album, though, which was meant to closely follow the first in 1990. And Dope Folks Records has just released those tracks on their brand new, limited EP Unreleased and Rarities.

Soundclips for "Police Story" drew my attention even before this record shipped. It uses the same descending piano sample Biz Markie used on his third album and Gravediggaz used for "Constant Elevation." But this was recorded before any of those, so if the album had come out, Stezo would've had it first. Lyrically, he breaks down a real life encounter he supposedly had with a police officer, where an officer stops him thinking he's a drug dealer but then jocks him when he finds out he's Stezo. It's definitely not as dramatic a narrative as K-Solo's "Fugitive," and it's all very low energy; so it feels like it would've been a cool album filler track, but it's not really a single.

Now that I've actually got the record and have been playing it through repeatedly, "Here To School Ya" is my jam. This one is single ready. He's just busting freestyle rhymes over a sick drum track and a killer jazzy loop. And I love the horns on the hook; it all reminds me of classic DITC; I love it. The other song is "I Have a Dream," which is nice, too. It uses, obviously, Martin Luther King Jr. vocals for a hook, and I love speech samples as rap choruses; they always sound great. Lyrically, the song's kinda preachy and on the "I'll Take Your There," "Erase Racism" kinda tip. It's cool, and obviously a good message, but you probably won't drive around bumping it in your car like "School Ya."

So okay, that's it for Sleeping Bar era stuff, but there's still plenty more on this EP - the rarities of the title. Now, two of the songs on this EP were first released on an indie 12" in 1996 on a label called E&R Music. I wasn't up on it at the time, but I can remember buying some completely generic mixtape at the mall just because it had those songs on it. One of them featured K-Solo, who'd been out of the public eye since his second album for Atlantic in 1992 (this came out just before he appeared on Redman's Muddy Waters and wider audiences found out about his comeback). This was right at the heyday of the Def and Hit Squads, so I was pretty psyched to see Stezo coming back and with K-Solo to boot. Had he linked back up and joined Sermon's crew again? We didn't know. It made enough noise to get picked up and re-released by J-Bird Records in 1997. And that second version, which I ultimately picked up on CD, featured two other songs from another indie 12" Stezo had put out in 1996, this time on Funktown Flav Records. In fact, Stezo credits Funkmaster Flex for spinning that 12" and creating the buzz, which got him signed to J-Bird. So the 1997 record is basically a merger of the two earlier records stuck together, and this release is everything all combined. No B-sides or anything are left off, just instrumentals and an acapella.

Still, these songs are less valuable since they've all been released before... twice even. They're nice if you don't already have them - they were both hot singles, produced by Chris Lowe - but even if you didn't, they were still already available. But Unreleased and Rarities has one last little surprise on here: an exclusive DJ Funkdat remix of "Where's the Funk At?" This wasn't included on the '96 or '97 releases because, I'm pretty sure, it's newly recorded for this single. Funkdat is a younger producer from Slovakia, so I'm pretty sure he wasn't working with Stezo in 1996. And "Where's the Funk" is the only one of these four songs that included the acapella on the old records. But he does a great job of creating a very 90's-style instrumental that if I didn't know better, could easily have me convinced it's vintage.

So, this EP is limited to Dope Folks' usual 300 copies. 200 Are pressed on traditional black vinyl, or you could splurge a little ($5 extra) for one of the 100 yellow (yellow) copies, pictured. I think it looks particularly good, matching the yellow on the labels. Anyway, sound quality is excellent on these. I mean, the 90s tracks always sounded good, so Dope Folks would've had to have done something wrong to mess those up. But I was happy to hear the 80s tracks sounding so good. This record is a real win for Stezo fans.

Female But Not Friendly

(Youtube version is here.)

Beat Bop... Part 2?

So everybody knows the record "Beat Bop," or at least they should. It's most famous, I suppose, for having a picture cover painted by the famous artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. But it would have a place in hip-hop history even without it. It's known as being one of - if not the - first alternative hip-hop records. I mean, people will disagree because how do you define strict parameters for "alternative," but it's a very old school (1983), funky hip-hop jam with some far out, "experimental" sounds. Discordant sounds and "random," instrumentation, extreme echo sporadically applied to the vocals.

It's by an O.G. graf writer, MC and breaker famous for his appearance in Wild Style, Rammellzee. He used to create these crazy Voltron-looking costumes and repped an art movement called gothic futurism. So he was one half, and the other was this young kid (at the time), K-Rob. The record's actually credited to Rammellzee Vs. K-Rob because it's ostensibly a battle, but it's not a battle in the sense you think of today, where they're dissing each other and rhyming snaps. They're just constantly passing the mic back and forth, trying to show each other up, either with their skills or their weird deliveries, and it's all set to one of hip-hop's funkiest basslines of all time. It's also possibly the most repressed hip-hop record of all time.

But that's part 1. Far less well known is this 2004 follow-up. It's a 12" single, as you can see above; but it's taken from Rammellzee's second album, Bi-Conicals Of the Rammellzee with Shockdell. If you don't know Shock, Ram and Shock did records together all the time, dating back to the Wild Style soundtrack. But fortunately they didn't just replace K-Rob with Shock, they brought K-Rob back for this song. ...Not that K-Rob had totally disappeared between "Beat Bop 1" and "2." He stuck with Profile Records to put out a couple singles in the mid 80s. "The Day K-Rob Came Back" is pretty hot. But he did fall out of the public eye later in the 80s, so it was a pleasant surprise to see Ram bring him back in 2004.

Anyway, "Beat Bop 2" and the Bi-Conicals album were on Gomma Records, which is a German label. There never was a US release, so don't feel bad if you slept on it; but by 2004 we were all on the internet, so I doubt I'm blowing anybody's minds talking about this. But I'd say it definitely qualifies as slept on.

And it's actually pretty good. I mean, when I first heard of it, I was definitely be prepared for it to be self-indulgent and terrible. And the album as a whole is probably a little self indulgent. But the single's cool. It's produced by some guy named Jaws, and it does a nice job of harking back to the feel of the original without using the same bassline or otherwise just rehashing it. There's some hot samples, the beat changes up, and yeah they do go right back into the same style of short verses and occasional funny voices. I kinda wish they would've tried to match the length of the original (4 minutes vs 10), but what we've got is all good.

Honestly, if you dig the original, you should dig this one. I'd be more cautious recommending the whole album - I think it's probably only for the serious fans. But the single? Yeah, they sound pretty old school for 2004, but it all works as part of its appeal. Definitely check it out. It's also got a B-side, "Pay the Rent," which is also produced by Jaws with additional rhymes by Shock and a cool electro throwback vibe. It's not a song I imagine people giving regular rotation; but it's got a strong concept and a great hook, which is just some guy yelling at Ram to pay his rent and abusing him. "Pay the Rent" has all the extras: instrumental, acapella, etc. But I'm sure "Beat Bop Part 2" is the one everybody copped this for. If you're in an old school mood, or were just dreading being let down by this, I say give it a shot. It's actually a worthy sequel.

Werner's Epic: There It is!

(Whoot to Whoomph! If you made it all the way to the end of this video,

Congratulations! You've passed The Werner Challenge!

Featuring The Dewey Cam™

Youtube version is here.)

The Marine Rap

In the mid 80s, when Melle Mel and Grandmaster Flash were splitting The Furious Five and everything was up in the air, Scorpio put out a couple solo 12"s: "Black Shades," his Air Jordans song and this weird collaborative 12" with a new wave rock band called Mondo Boffo. I vaguely remember this song from back in '86 (I was awfully young), but I didn't realize it was an actual record, as opposed to a recruitment commercial. It's simply called "Marine," and yeah it's about wanting to join the marines. The band sing the "I wanna me a marine!" chorus and play all the instruments, while Scorpio provides all the substantive lyrics by way of his rap verses.

If you're a fan of 80s nostalgia, hoo boy, will this be right up your alley. It's damn catchy and kind of a weird hodge-podge of period styles. Electric guitars, funky percussion, old school rap and a chorus that songs like it could be an alternate theme song for the GI Joe cartoon. I can naturally see a lot of heads avoiding this - I was pretty wary myself - because it's a cheesy rock band rather than a proper hip-hop production. And I certainly wouldn't stand it up against the classic breakbeats. But for 86, it's as good as a lot of stuff MCs were rhyming over. These are at least talented musicians.

But, while the music is quite catchy like I said, the real reason to pay attention to it is the lyrics. It's not immediately obvious whether this is pro- or anti-military; it's fairly subversive. Until you pay attention to the raps, it sounds like pure propaganda. But then it gets muddier and realer. He actually comes off really nice on here - dare I say on par with "The Message?" Maybe not, but you can tell some of the same talent is behind the writing of both. At one point he raps,

"Lookin' in the mirror and I'm thinking real hard
About the situation, and about my job.
Puttin' on my uniform, doin' my part,
And helpin' out the brothers in Lebanon.
I wanna be the best that I can,
And get Reagan's guns out of Iran,
Libya and Afghanistan.
I wanna show the world that I am the man!"

But then he follows that up with,

"Come on, now, they make it look like fun:
When you're swinging from a tree, shootin' off your gun.
You won't get hurt; you're not the one;
You're just another dead American!
It only makes me wonder why
Our boys sign up to fight and die.
I have the make of a good GI;
I have to live my life before I die!"

It's kind of a good expression of the duality of everyone who considers joining up for the military, whether they do or don't. Sometimes he seems to be clearly warning listeners away, but other parts of the song seem like fun moments left in intentionally for marine audiences, like when the chorus joking switches out to "I wanna use the latrine!" for one bar. Indeed, any of the sentiment that suggests maybe it's not the ideal lifestyle seems like it's best appreciated by actual marines.

Here's a little more history that only serves to confuse things further. This song comes from the soundtrack to an 80s Italian (but shot in Florida) horror film written by the controversial Umberto Lenzi called Primal Rage. It's featured pretty prominently, for a good couple minutes, in the bar scene where a double date turns into violence when the reporter who's been infected by a chemically altered baboon's blood crushes a fellow student's wrist. Is there an intentional use of irony in this scene of inappropriate, bubbling violence in the youth of the film and the content of the song? Or did the producer just like how it sounded for their student characters to dance to?

As you can see, this 12" comes in a colorful picture cover. It's an image from the song's music video, where the abstract graffiti is animated and created on-screen. There's a B-side version, called the Rock version (the A-side is specifically labelled the Rap one), without Scorpio. Instead, one of the rock guys half sings/ half raps Scorpio's verses. Obviously, he's not nearly as good, but the instrumental is entirely different, too, with some unique horns, totally different guitar tracks and even different drums. There's even a hint of kazoo, which ties it in to some other Furious Five cuts. It sounds like an entirely distinct, separate song, actually, until you realize all the lyrics are the same. So it's at least interesting.

The whole record is at least interesting. I'm not saying you should replace your copies of "Eric B Is President" or "Spoonin Rap" with it. It's obviously a pop rock song with rapping more than a proper hip-hop song; and to modern audiences, I'm sure it's especially corny. But it's still worth checking out, and maybe throwing it into your crates for cheap.