Puff Daddy & the Tuff Crew

You probably weren't expecting a Puff Daddy record to pop up on this blog, were you? But hey, two verses by Biggie and Busta Rhymes on a hook over a track lifted from the Tuff Crew? Even I would have to call you a "hater" if you couldn't appreciate that.

This is "Victory," more specifically credited to Puff Daddy & the Family, dropped on Bad Boy Entertainment in 1998 (from the '97 album, No Way Out). It's produced by one of Bad Boy's regular "Hit Men," Stevie J. But like I said, it's a big shameless lift from the Tuff Crew. The Tuff Crew started out their second (or third, if you wanna count Phanjam) album with an epic sounding instrumental to signal their triumphant return. They called it "Going the Distance," because the bulk of the instrumentation is taken from the soundtrack to Rocky, specifically a track called "Going the Distance."

Now, you might say, okay Werner, granted the Tuff Crew sampled it first, but lots of great rap songs have sampled the same records over the years. Or, to quote GURU, "rap is an art, you can't own no loops." But these guys didn't just coincidentally use the same song as a sample source, they both used it the same way, rather boldly playing the whole first minute of it through rather than a standard short loop, but still chop it at the same point. But even more importantly, Stevie J paired it up with essentially the same drums that the Tuff Crew did. He removed the handclaps (after all, this wasn't 1989 anymore), but otherwise he completely just lifted Tuff Crew's track and played it whole for Puff.

But I'm not mad at that. First of all, because the hypothetical naysayer above would be right in pointing out that lots of great songs got to samples second (or third or twenty-eighth), and that doesn't make them any less dope. And secondly because Tuff Crew underutilized it, making it an introductory instrumental, whereas Bad Boy turned it onto a proper song with vocals. And finally, because on some mixes (more on that in a sec) Stevie J does add a few extra elements, most notably some operatic female vocal sounds, that enhance the experience even more.

By the way, a quick aside while I'm on the subject... this record credits the wrong sample in the liner notes [see the label scan above]! It says it uses Bill Conti (he's the guy who did the Rocky music)'s "Alone In the Ring." But that's wrong,they're using "Going the Distance!" "Alone In the Ring" is a very subdued piano solo that sounds nothing like "Going the Distance" and doesn't appear even momentarily in the background of "Victory." It's all "Going the Distance."

Now, there's a couple mixes here, but they're essentially minor variations than whole-hog remixes. There is no version that doesn't feature the same "Going the Distance" music or the same verses by Puff and Biggie. The mixes only vary by about 20 seconds in length. And the radio edits also remove Puff shouting ad-libs through a loud-speaker-like distorted mic effect ("it's all fucked up now!"), which was pretty annoying anyway, so that's no great loss. The most distinguishing characteristic is that only the Drama mixes feature the opera chick.

An interesting aspect to the censored versions, by the way... while they just silence every curse word from the raps, rendering them pretty unlistenable, it's worth noting that the chorus has been completely redone. Busta energetically curses up a storm on the original, and I guess that was just too much to cut out for the clean versions, so he re-does it, saying things like "we've got a real live hit" and "where my soldiers at?" instead of "we've got the real live shit" and "where my niggas at? where the funk my bitches is at?"

There are actually multiple US 12" singles for "Victory" (four, by discogs' count), but if you ask me, this is the ideal one. The only thing it's missing is Nine Inch Nails' remix that's featured on a couple versions. But that remix is just a noisy, unappealing sonic mess, so you're not missing anything there. As far as I'm concerned, the non-Radio versiono of the Drama Mix is the definitive version, as it features all the elements, and that's on here. Plus, this 12" also includes the Instrumental, which is absent from most of the others.

One more thing, and then I'm out. All of the mixes - even the non-Radio mixes full of cursing - censor Biggie's line where he refers to himself as "the Son of Satan." Unfortunately, however, I believe this stupid edit persists on every 12" version of this single. And it's that way on No Way Out, too, so don't blame the singles. You know the one place where it's left intact? The Nine Inch Nails Remix. Fucking Hell, there's just no winning with "Victory."

InstaRapFlix #33: Tupac: Uncensored and Uncut: The Lost Prison Tapes

Here's one that doesn't suck! Ha ha That feels like a relief to say considering how many InstaRapFlix entries have been pure dreck. I try to check for the rarest and most overlooked, obscure hip-hop films, and I wind up discovering that they're not rare or passed over enough! And this one could've easily been the same... How many bajillion caash-in 2Pac releases have their been since the man died? Countless. And, in all honestly, this is sort of a cheap cash-in, too. But that's okay, because it's actually pretty good. So Tupac: Uncensored and Uncut: The Lost Prison Tapes (Netflix rating 3 stars) gets a pass.

So, what've we got here? Well, the title (a title with 2 subtitles separated by colons seems a little out of control, by the way, but we'll let that go) is a little misleading. I mean, it is 2Pac, and he is in prison. But the title suggests these are some kind of important tapes 2Pac somehow managed to record while in prison... like a mini self-doc or a secret message covered up by the FBI. I mean, you'd have to be pretty naive if you thought you're gonna wind up solving 2Pac's murder by picking up this DVD at Walmart; but nonetheless, this title definitely suggests and promises (but does not deliver) more than a single, sit-down interview of 'Pac promoting his latest album to some random journalist. And I don't know what could be "lost" about this prison tape, except that maybe the journalist put it in his closet and forgot about it until 2Pac died and became more marketable.

But it certainly is uncut, however. When a poster falls over, we watch as they stop, turn around, and stand it back up. When the cameraman zooms in to find focus, that's left in the film for us to see. There is really zero editing whatsoever except to put little title graphics at the beginning and end. This is just a single the interview tape uploaded directly into the computer from the camera, unaltered.

Wait a minute... I said this was good, though, didn't I? Yet I'm making it sound almost as bad as Lil Jon: Uncensored. But here's the thing: in this age where every rap interview is a repetitive, minuscule soundbite, this is actually a straight-up, unfiltered interview without a million cuts, computer effects, and all the substance removed. If you want to hear 2Pac speak for himself, at reasonable length and be able to make your own judgements, then here it is. Where most of these low-budget rap DVDs are a lot of bullshit trying desperately to cover up the fact that they have no substance (for example, see Trick Daddy: Thug Holiday Uncut, this is a DVD with just the substance. How refreshing. :)

Now that it's amazingly deep. When the interviewer keeps asking him about 'Pac's Thug Life ethos versus crime and community standards, 'Pac acquits himself reasonably well (though when he says he fails to see how he glamorized thug life, I couldn't decide if he was being deliberately obtuse or borderline retarded), but ultimately we're just left with the sense of folly in asking a musician about weighty issues that are clearly outside of his expertise. The whole interview is only forty-minutes (what, you expected feature-length?), and a lot of the time is devoted to stating the obvious - 'he loves his fans and thinks they shouldn't shoot people and generally do what they can to avoid going to prison' sums up the majority of it. Finally, it ends with him rapping along to a walkman of his latest song "Can U Get Away," which wouldn't've even been an exciting preview back in 1995 when it was filmed, because Me Against the World was already out.

Still, 'Pac is engaged, and has thoughtful answers to every question. Personally, I would've liked some more questions about his music; and it feels like a missed opportunity to find out some new info about him as opposed to rehashing his generic talking points (the interviewer actually asks him if he feels sorrow for mothers who lost their sons to violence... is there anyone on Earth who would actually have to hear his answer to that to know what it would be?), but maybe that's just me. It's certainly worth watching as a free instant viewing if you care at all about 2Pac. But don't go overboard and buy this DVD unless you're a die-hard fan who has his posters covering all four walls of your room, because I doubt you're going to want to revisit this multiple times. It's a good interview, not a great film.

InstaRapFlix #32: Lil Jon Unauthorized

Have you ever used the program PowerPoint for work or something? Have you ever stayed up all night making a PowerPoint presentation and felt so proud of it the next day that you felt you just had to press it onto a DVD and market it commercially? Well, apparently somebody has! And if you're bored enough, you can even stream it on Netflix.

I'm talking about Lil Jon: Unauthorized (Netflix Rating, surprisingly: 2 1/2 stars). This is... I have no words. This only barely, technically qualifies as a film. First of all, it's not feature length, clocking in at less than an hour. And then... only about 10% of that time is made up of actual video footage. It's all still photos being slowly narrated by some guy who takes painfully long pauses between every other word to pad the running time. What's more, I'm sure all these photos are just lifted off of Google images... some even have tags on them from other websites still on them! And they're all photos you've seen before and they're often squashed into the wrong aspect ratio or heavily pixelated, because they've been amateurishly resized to fill the widescreen frame. Other times, only a fraction of the frame is filled and we're stuck looking at a tiny picture floating in an empty, black sea. When the narrator says Lil Jon's father was a welder, they don't have any pictures of his father, so they just show generic industrial pictures of men welding stuff. Oh, and the pictures recycle; so you'll see the same ones again and again.

Want to hear some Lil Jon music? Not here! These guys mean it when they say "unauthorized." And what little video footage there is? That 10% I mentioned? Well, there's two varieties. One is low-quality clips of his music videos (again, without his music), which must've been taken from Youtube... back in the early days when they were all tiny, compressed messes. What's more, the video clips are so short, they actually just loop... you'll see the same five seconds of footage replay four, five times in a row sometimes. Then the other kind of footage are these goofy interviews with a couple unidentified guys shot on the street somewhere. All together, they add up to less than two minutes of footage, and just offer inane comments like, "he's like the BeeGee's of 2000."

Then sometimes the narration just stops. You'll go a minute or two just looking at random Lil Jon images waiting for the narrator to come back and say something. And it gets sparser and sparser as the film goes on, until you're almost watching a silent montage of old photos. What's more, the narrator has an odd habit of speaking for the artist, saying things like, "working with Jay-Z was a big honor for Lil Jon." Like, huh? Is that your opinion?

But, no, it gets worse! Soon, the footage starts repeating! The guy who called Lil Jon the BeeGees of 2000? They play that same clip again around the 40 minute mark. And it's like that with everything. All the footage from the first half of the film comes back in the second. Silent, 5-second long music video clips filling just 1/5th of the screen just looping without their sound... it's fucking insane that this was released commercially! The narrator complete abandons the film about halfway through (literally, he's gone at around the 30 minute mark), and we just watch the same, low-quality photos repeat over and over again. Eventually, they start showing the same photos with flashing dots behind them.

Finally, at the 58 minute mark, the closing credits pop up and people actually put their names to this disaster, although I think (wisely) most of them are pseudonyms. Some guys just put their first names, like "INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED BY GABE." Oh, and they misspell the word narration, saying, "NARRIATION BY." And one last bit of sadness, just to bring the whole thing home... the final minute, actually over sixty seconds, is just static black screen. That's how desperate they were to pad this out to an hour (which they only make if you round up).

Here's something new for InstaRapFlix... a challenge! I defy any of you who have Netflix to watch this all the way through, from beginning to end, without getting up and walking away from the screen or fast-forwarding! And no reading a book or texting... just sit and watch the film while doing nothing else. It'll be like a vision quest; if you make through the ordeal, you'll automatically become a tribal elder.

Rare Yah Yah Appearances

I think a lot of peoples' appreciation of The Outsidaz (and their legacy of solo careers after breaking up) begins and ends with the more famous members... Young Zee, Pace, Eminem and Rah Digga. But really, some of the lesser-known members are at least as good (in some cases better) than their celebrity counterparts. Slang Ton was a brilliant freestyler. And Yah Yah (a.k.a. Yah Lovah; it's the same guy) is just as sick with his lyrics as his brother (Zee). So I'm always happy to discover a rare appearance by any of the crew members. And so now I'm gonna share a couple by Yah.

Whole Wheat Bread is a rock band out of Florida. They're not even of the Linkin Park or whatever variety, where they mesh hip-hop elements or sensibilities with their rock... they're pretty much just straight up, regular, plain old rock & roll. And that goes for their album, Minority Rules (Fighting Records, 2005), too - eleven songs of rock band. But then there's three uncredited, untitled hidden tracks, where instead of singing and playing guitars, they rap. How are they? Well, you could do worse; but you could easily do better, too. But if you remember, back in 2005, Yah Yah was living down in Florida, doing music with 5th Lmnt and Sage Lee... and guess who winds up guesting on the last of the untitled bonus cuts. That's right, Candyman! ...No, I'm kidding. Of course it's Yah Yah.

Despite the song not being on their track-listing or even titled, the CD liner notes do provide the credits for the song. It's produced by a guy named Brad Risch and Sage Lee. And Yah's credited as the guest, but you wouldn't need to read that to recognize him immediately screaming on the chorus. The production is a bit corny, and the members Whole Wheat can't hold a candle to Yah, but the song plays like a posse cut and everybody is at least full of energy and enthusiasm, a compelling combination of Outsidaz' signature style and dirty South representation, so the whole song gets a pass. But the highlight is obviously Yah's verse, saved for the end, "I'm everywhere the sun go and a few places it can't; bury you and your mans wit two cases of ants." Even if, like me, you don't care a lick about the album except for the one Yah appearance, you can get it used from Amazon for less than $2, so I think it's worth it, easily.

Now this next one, I first heard of in 2008 when Flakesays commented on my blog that he had an mp3 of a song called "No Return" by Critical Madness featuring Yah Yah. And like two years later, I found the song. "No Return" is off Creative Juices' 2005 compilation album, Endless Varieties. It's a sick duet between Yah and Critical, each one kicking a long, two-minute verse, with no hooks or filler, over a fresh beat. Critical holds his own nicely, but of course Yah wins, "I got issues,a whole lotta pistols, and I ain't hesitatin' to turn foes to fish food." The whole compilation is tight, by the way, with some great tracks by their stable artists, like Alucard killing it on "Short Cut," and then a lot of ill guests like Thirstin Howl, Heltah Skeltah and Shabaam Sahdeeq. And you can still get it direct from Creative Juices' site for cheap ($5 I think).

While we're at it, there's a follow-up, Endless Varieties 2, featuring another track by Yah, but this one's a mix-CD and the song's just a freestyle. It's called, "New Shit" and it's under a minute long. But Yah comes with a nice verse over a more west coast-sounding beat. The lyrics are more random and unfocused, he's presumably coming off the dome, so it feels a bit more disjointed: "Progressive, flavor like salad dressin'. Respect it, or it can get wild as westerns. Hoodlums, gallivant shootin'; I'm Gambit the mutant, Talliban family reunion." What is he saying there? Seems a bit incoherent, and before you know it, it's already over anyway. I can't recommend this one, at least not strictly for the Yah appearance, but it is also available from Creative Juices (for $10).

And of course, Yah has some less obscure appearances on bigger Creative Juices releases... specifically he and Young Zee both feature on the song "Eyes Front" off of Critical Madness's CD, Bringing Out the Dead. And then Yah, Pace and Zee all feature on "Still In This" off of IDE and DJ Connect's Ideology album. Both of those songs are great. So, hey, here's an idea: why doesn't Creative Juices quit dancing around the obvious and just sign Yah Yah already? You know that album would be hot and be a great move for both the label and Yah's career. ...But I digress. If nothing else, at least there's these hot little cameos out there to be found and keep us occupied.

For Serious Curiosity Seekers Only...

"Whatever You Need" is an interesting, lesser known second single off of Doc Ice & R.O.S.'s Rely On Selph album. The first was "All Night Long," which he put out by himself, independently, and then again through Ichiban Records, who signed Doc Ice along with a grip of other old school artists (including Kool Moe Dee, MC Madness, Kwamé, Fearless Four...) in 1994, giving them all brief, low budget comebacks. I say "brief" because Ichiban only allotted them one album apiece before giving up on the whole venture. So, Doc Ice pretty much only had the one album and the one single in this phase of his career. But a small run of this unpromoted second 12" squeaked out the gate right at the last minute.

A lot of people dismiss most or all of the music that came out of this wave, and I can't say I blame them. Budgets were low, time was short, and it yielded almost uniformly lower shelf material from all of the artists involved. If you go to a Fearless Four show, everybody wants to hear them perform "Rockin' It," not "Getcha Thang On." But, on the other hand, a lot of interesting artists were involved, and so even when they're at or near the top of their game, I still find a lot of their material compelling. Or at the very least, interesting.

And it's certainly on this level that I appreciate it "Whatever You Need." Even though it's no "Roxanne, Roxanne" it's still a good listen in my book; and even those who'd disagree would surely have to admit it's at least interesting.

"Whatever You Need" starts out with a great, hardcore break, perhaps most recognizable X-Clan's "Heed the Word Of the Brother." You know, that incredibly aggressive, high-energy thumping bass, "thumb, thumb, thum-thum-thum-thum thump!" But Doc and his producer, Major Jam (who co-produced Whodini's "Freaks" years earlier) make the unusual choice of slowing it down and softening it up. And instead of squealing horns that railed along with Brother J's aggressive intonations, they've got subtle keyboard tones, an old school funk guitar sample and several R&B singers - male and female - softly crooning the chorus. I couldn't fault you if you didn't recognize it.

But don't be misled, it's not a love song. In fact the main verse is actually Jalil's verse from "Funky Beat!" Yes, the whole thing verbatim: "right here and now, I do declare, this to be the new funky beat of the year" etc. If you didn't know, Jalil, is Doc's brother, and he concludes with this explanation:

"Ya know him like I know him, he's my brother come to see me speedy.
You know his name, he's Jalil from Whodini!
I needed a verse to kick some phat shit to succeed.
He said, 'you need it, Doc Ice? Huh, whatever you need!'"

There's some more freestyle rhymes spread around the record, and Doc spends a lot of time in his "Dread Doc" persona, scatting ragamuffin style with the singers. It's really a pretty wacky, bugged-out song, but it manages to fly under the radar because it's been, as BBD would say, smoothed out on the R&B tip.

And the B-side is just as weird as the A-side: "I Keep Forgettin." On first glance, this one is a love song. It's actually a rather impressively produced love song - one of the best I've heard of hip-op's dubious subgenre in fact, with a tight sax sample and a genuinely touching and melancholic vibe to it, with a hook that whispers, "I keep forgetting... We're not in love anymore, but I keep coming back for more and more. I keep forgetting." And again, to most people who never bothered to scrutinize, that might be the beginning and end of the story.

But on closer inspection, there's weirder shit going on that makes this a more compelling little oddity. First of all, as unusual as it was to hear Doc Ice make the decision to recycle a verse from an old record on that last song (bear in mind, this was years before lazy artists like Common and Krs started recycling freestyle verses on their various guest appearances, so this was pretty unheard of), it's even more unusual that he's done it twice! This time, one of the verses here is taken from one of his previous love songs - the reggae one, no less - from his last album, specifically "Fever." But it actually blends in pretty well, and if you weren't familiar enough with Doc's catalog to recognize the lyrics, you'd never think anything was forced in or out of place in this sad song about a man being left by the woman he loves. ...But halfway through the song, the tone starts to shift from sad to goofy, as he sits alone in his apartment, crying himself to sleep when suddenly:

"There's a knock at the door, so who the Hell's there?
I loaded my nine so I could check. Yeah,
You know that I'm buggin' because that knock that I heard
Was my pet bird.
I got to get away like Bobby Brown - word!"

"Pet bird," what? Now, at this point, things could just be chalked up to awfully corny and just flat-out bad writing. There's a lot of that going around in the realm of hip-hop's token love songs, after all. But things get to the point where the it's clear that the silliness has to be intentional, as he starts illustrating that his drinking and heartbreak is so bad he reaches out for help, saying, "my name is Doc and I'm an alcoholic" and a roomful of people cheerfully rejoin, "HI, DOC!" But it's all oddly compelling, because it doesn't play like a joke song... the majority of it is played so straight-faced and earnest, and then it just turns defiantly irreverent. It probably takes a very rare combination of personality traits to appreciate a song like this, but for some inexplicable reason, it's right up my alley.

But that's not the half of why this 12" is so exciting! Both of those songs are right off the album, after all. And while you do also get both Instrumentals, it's two other tracks on this 12" that make this 12" essential ...if, you know, you go for this sort of thing. There are two exclusive remixes of "Whatever You Need."

The first one is just labeled as the Remix. It's got a whole new beat... another smoothed-out kind of track, with an emphasis on more keyboard riffs, sort of in the vein of JG's "Put Down the Guns," if you remember that record, or even an early 90's R&B song. Yeah, I know that doesn't sound too enticing, but it actually sounds good. There's also the addition of another guy singing off-key on the chorus, which doesn't add much; but at least manages not to get in the way of anything either. Most noteworthy, however, is an all-new verse by Doc. Lyrically it's okay, nothing amazing, but he comes off pretty nice with his flow, and shows off his personality and flow more than the original was able, what with it devoting so much time to old Whodini rhymes and raggamuffin breakdowns. Here, you can tell why Doc Ice is an established MC with a credible track record.

Finally, there's a version called the Sweet Stik Mix. It uses the same "Heed the Word" funk break as the original mix (and the funk guitar lick), but strips away the keys and R&B stuff, replacing the hook with Doc and his crew just talking shit between verses. Furthermore, it's a lyrical remix, with two more all-new verses, which I can only describe as playful, and this time it doesn't include any of the old material, like the "Funky Beat" rhyme. He also has refreshes the raggamuffin bits and ends with some extended shout-outs.

So yeah, between these two remixes, there's a lot of new, exclusive material on this 12". ...But probably for my fellow eccentric enthusiasts only.

Graffiti (New York/ Holland Style)

Errata: Whoops! As pointed out in the comments, they're playing records owned by Chris the Wiz, but the actual DJs on the mix CD are Ill-Co & Bart Fader.
(Youtube version is here; and check out myspace.com/bivakrecords if you're interested in picking up either of these releases.)

I'm Awfully Sorry About This, But It Seems I Must Destroy You

In October, I wrote the following about 2Mex's then upcoming album, "2Mex is super prolific. What that means in practical terms is: more albums than anyone can keep track of, with no quality control. Will Strange Famous be the label to focus him into one solid, consistent album of pure top-shelf material? Or is 2Mex becoming the next Kool Keith?"

So, as you can surely gather from that, I wasn't in too much of a hurry to pick up the album and put it to the test. Being disappointment in this time of hip-hop's already dwindling expectations is no fun. But I finally got around to it, and I'm far from disappointed - this album is fantastic! Released at the end of 2010 by Strange Famous Records, it's called My Fanbase Will Destroy You; and considering my reaction upon hearing this, I guess I can't deny that I'm a fan, and so apparently, along with my fellows, I'm going to destroy you (sorry about that).

So to answer my own question simply, then: yes, this album presents 2Mex focused into one, solid consistent album of pure top-shelf material. The production, provided primarily by Deeskee and BusDriver - is brilliant. And 2Mex is proving to be one of the few underground (or any "ground") level MCs capable of great hooks. The way he eases between singing and hyper-kinetic complex flows is like what Outkast only manages in their very best moments. And lyrically, well, he's sometimes lays it on thick with the pop culture name-dropping, but he frequently kills it.

There's so many great moments on here... 2Mex breaking down the history of rare west coast underground hip-hop on "What You Know About," only to be followed up by a surprising east coast twist with a guest verse from Prince Po. A just-as-insane-as-you-could-possibly hope-for duet with BusDriver called "Career Suicide for Dummies." He even winds things up with the traditional, massive Good Life-style posse cut with eight or nine guest MCs for the final song, "AFC West."

I'll grant you that there is the occasional misstep... Guest producer Nobody delivers one of the most annoying, shitty beats in recent memory on "Press Your Luck." And "There's a Way," which is some kind of misguided attempt at crossing into the emo-folk genre or something, just doesn't work at all. But if you just skip over these two unfortunate messes, it's a surprisingly, strong, dramatic and engaging album with a lot of vibrant layers. Don't make my mistake and leave it dangling at the bottom of your to-do list, check it out!

Previously a Dawg?

Recently, during E-40 Week, I talked about how E-40's debut album featured a sing "Tanji II" which begged the question, where was there a "Tanji" part 1 (click here for the answer)? Well, here's a similar mystery I had even a couple years earlier... AMG's debut album was called Bitch Betta Have My Money on Select Records in 1991. And on that album was a song called, "Once a Dawg (Janine 2)." Now I was (and still am) a fan of that early DJ Quik scene... so I caught on pretty quick that the precursor to a song from that camp didn't have to necessarily be on an album by the same group. For example, "Niggaz Still Trippin'" on Quik's album Way 2 Fonky is a sequel to "Niggaz Trippin'," which did not appear on Quik's previous album debut, Quik Is the Name. Instead, it was on 2nd II None's self-titled album. But I had every album the whole crew put out, and there wasn't a "Janine" between them.

It wasn't until years later, thanks to the internet, that I found out where the original was hiding out. It's an exclusive B-side to AMG's "Bitch Betta Have My Money." Now, it had of course occurred to be that "Janine" might be the B-side to another single, but the "Bitch Betta Have My Money" wasn't such a widespread single. "Jiggable Pie" (which, in fact, features "Once a Dawg" as its B-side) was the big debut that they had the video for and everything, then there was "Vertical Joyride" and finally, in 1992, "Bitch Betta Have My Money" was later paired with "I Wanna Be Yo Ho." So that was the "Bitch Betta Have My Money" single that I and most of America knew; I had no idea it was actually released as a single twice... and it was this earlier, less widely-distributed version that featured "Janine."

If you've never heard "Janine," it's a fun song... assuming you're not put off by AMG's usual, vulgar misogyny, of course. You'll recognize the instrumental, because it actually does appear on the album, used as the background to "When She Calls," the skit that introduces "Once a Dawg (Janine 2)." But while "Once a Dawg" then switches the beat and goes into the "Microphone Fiend" music, this one uses that crazy flute loop and echoing drums for the whole music. The memorable, screamy hook is pretty much the same for both songs, but it's all new verses about AMG's girlfriend and her affinity for giving head, "lickin' my dick is a specialty to my girl Janine, oh what a dick fiend! She likes to suck and suck but no stickin'." Like everything else AMG put out at the time, it's self-produced, with Quik and Courtney Branch and Tracy Kendrick listed as additional co-producers.

This first "Bitch Betta Have My Money" 12" also includes the album "The Booty Up," which features Quik and 2nd II None cheerfully singing the hook over the "Double Dutch Bus" break, and instrumentals for "Bitch" and "Booty." It comes in a picture cover, so you can have the song title printed in nice, big letters and everyone in the record store can judge you and the issues you surely must have with women. And even though it wasn't promoted as heavily as his subsequent singles, it's still a Select Records release, so it's not at all rare or hard to find these days.

MC Player vs. Bon Jovi

(Youtube version is here.)

InstaRapFlix #31 The Industry

InstaRapFliz is back, baby! It's been a long time, but I figured we needed some more movie reviews around here, so here we go. Today's entry is The Industry (Netflix rating: 2 out of 5 stars). Netflix doesn't tell you this, but apparently this is a part of Russell Simmons' Hip-Hop Speaks Series. Other videos available in this series include, uh... nothing. Hmm. That isn't a good sign, is it?

So, okay, what is this? It's not just some video-taped lecture by Russell Simmons (though, of course, he's featured in this); it's a little documentary that's ostensibly about the managers, executives and label politics behind the scenes of modern-day hip-hop. One of the reasons I say "little documentary" is because this runs just an hour long, which isn't really feature length. Anyway, it thrusts us into the middle of Outkast's drama with Arista over their Speakerboxxx/ Love Below double album as scene from the PoV of their manager, Blue. The whole first 15 minutes is basically just a short bio on Blue, then the second is on Ludacris' manager, Chaka Zulu. Then we come back to Blue for two minutes before going to Def Jam record exec Tina Davis. She gets a little less then ten minutes, and then we're onto a long interview with Kanye West. And finally, we're back to Blue for the remainder. If that sounds sloppy, it is.

This DVD seems to just be a patchwork of owned footage melted into one shapeless blob and sold as a single DVD documentary. But the good news is, much of the footage is compelling and interesting. I mean, the Kanye interview is kinda boring and self-aggrandizing, but for the most part, it's all interesting little bits. They just don't add up to a movie. The editors seem to have tried in post... MC Lyte narrates the whole thing, and I guess the idea is her narration would smooth over the bumps and make things feel a little more coherent. It doesn't though. She just winds up being seriously over-used, futily dolling out info to set up scenes and segues to bridge them. And the way the movie keeps coming back to Blue seems like an attempt to give this movie a consistent through-line... not an actual consistent through-line, but an attempt at one. I actually think it would've been better if they just left all of his stuff together as one longer piece, and just stuck the rest on as DVD extras or something.

In fact, just a documentary about Blue and Speakerboxxx would've been a much stronger film, but I guess they figured that would be harder to market. So, yeah, instead we get half of a documentary about Blue, chopped up and padded with a bunch of footage lying around the Def Jam offices. Why do take a long detour into the office of Tina Davis? The answer is obviously because she works for Def Jam, and this is a Def Jam DVD. Why does everything stop for ten minutes so Kanye can talk about himself? Cross-promotion. He's a big name who might helpfully sell a few more of these DVDs, and he's a Def Jam artist, so maybe the spotlight will help sell some more Kanye CDs, too.

Bottom line? This movie is too half-assed (again, it feels like the salvaging of one or several failed projects) and too much of a blatant commercial to rank as much of a film. But it's short, tightly edited and some of the segments are genuinely interesting. So don't buy this DVD - you'll watch it once and put it away feeling ripped off. For a free, Netflix instant watch though? It's worth throwing onto your que.

Before Them, Compton Rap Wasn't Shit

You want to be let in on a nice, overlooked and under-rated 12"? Ok, here's "Where You From?" by Dazzie Dee. Why is it so overlooked and under-rated? The answer is simple: because it doesn't list its guest stars. Look at that label and imagine you saw it in a record store bin for $5... you'd probably pass on it. But now imagine that label read, Dazzie Dee featuring King Tee, Toddy Tee & Mix Master Spade! Yeah, now you'd pick it up, 'ey?

"Where You From?" is the only single off of Dazzie Dee's second album, The Re-Birth (which is worth checking out in its own right), both of which dropped in 1996 on Raging Bull Records. But, in fact, its origins are a little more complicated than that. It's actually a remix of "Westside Hoodstas" on Dazzie Dee's first album, Where's My Receipt?; and that song's definitely worth checking for, too.

"Westside Hoodstas" was released as the B-side to his single on Capitol Records, "Everybody Wants To Be a Gangsta," where it was titled "West Side Gangstas." It's a very smooth (as is a lot of Dazzie's stuff), laid back duet between Dazzie Dee and Mixmasta Spade. They trade verses back and forth over a track produced by Battlecat, with some sweet crooning by a couple uncredited girls on the hook. Spade does his unique brand of sing-song rhyming that a few others have tried to emulate, but only Spade could do like Spade:

"Now all you big-time rappers with those big-time names,
You done forgot about the man who introduced this game.
King Tee, Eazy-E, Cube and DJ Quik;
Before me Compton rap wasn't shit.
Now way, way back before the cash and the deals,
I used to sell mixtapes out my truck for meals.
I kept the girlies rockin' on my jock,
Spade rhymin' about the streets, gang bangin' in Watts.
I sold to the blues and I sold to the reds,
Kept the whole damn hood scene bobbin' their heads.
So don't front when you roll like you don't know me,
(Why?) I'm OG and from the CPT."

But like I said, this new 1996 version introduces "The Compton Carr" into the mix. The girls are out, replaced by new verses by King Tee and Toddy Tee; and the track - this time produced by Dazzie Dee himself - is a little less smooth and a little more upbeat and funkier. Spade must've come back to the studio, too, because even though they just re-use his verses from "West Side Hoodstas" (mashed into one double-length verse here), his voice is unmistakable, contributing to the new hook with the other MCs. Dazzie kicks an all new verse for his part, and of course both of the Tees' verses are all-new as well. This is barely a remix (it's labeled like a whole new song here on the 12", but on The Re-Birth, it's given the fuller title, "Where You From? (Westside Hoodsta Re-Mix)") and essentially a whole new, entirely different song that just recycles a bit of Mix Master Spade material.

The 12" comes with the Vocal Album Version, The Vocal Radio Clean Version and the Instrumental Version. So next time you see in a bin, remember not to pass this historical collaboration up.

Double Tee Bass

King Tee's earliest records came out on DJ Unknown's Techno Hop label. Then he signed to Capital, and the rest is history. Except, actually, there was a brief diversion. In between his first singles on Techno Hop and his major label debut, 1987, he released one 12" on a label called Mack Daddy Records. It was "Bass."

Of course, you know "Bass." "Bass" is a great, speaker-shaking song, with fresh cuts (provided by not one, but two DJs), fun rhymes killer horns and of course some really dope bass. It was on his debut album, Act a Fool; there was a video for it and everything. Every King Tee fan knows "Bass." But if you pay attention to the album's track0listing, the version that's on there, in the video, etc. is actually "Bass (Remix)." The Mack Daddy 12" has the original version.

The original "Bass" isn't too far removed from the remix, which is good, because the original is great. The signature horn riffs (though not the sax solo at the finish), big drums and bassline are all there. All of King Tee's four verses are there, and so are the funky-fresh scratch breaks by Keith Cooley and Pooh. The main difference, besides sounding a little less polished with some some stripped down percussion, is that the original record uses a bunch more classic records on the breaks and hooks, like "More Bounce To the Ounce." That might sound like overkill, because the remix already uses a fuckton of records! But it works; it never sounds overly busy; it's just great hip-hop. It also winds up with a final shout-and-call portion, Miami style, with Tee leading the audience, which for an upbeat anthem like this, is pretty appropriate.

Now, again, "Bass" was a hit, and Capitol did eventually put out their 12" single of it in 1988. This 12" features both the Remix and the original version, plus the remix instrumental, acapella, and another album track ("Ko Rock Stuff") and its instrumental. ..>The Mack Daddy 12" only has the Original version on both sides. So you really can't go wrong with the Capitol 12"; it's got all your "Bass" needs covered and then some. But there are some interesting things to note about the Mack Daddy 12".

First of all, they both come in picture covers; but they're completely different. My copy of the Mack Daddy 12" came in a plain sleeve, so thanks to Rare Dave for the original cover photo on the left, and that's a pic of my Capitol picture cover (hole punch - boo!) on the right:
It's also interesting to note that all the Capitol stuff only credits Pooh as a producer for "Bass," but the Mack Daddy version also credits DJ Bobcatt[sic.] as co-producer, and dedicates the song to the memory of the late DJ Easy Money. KDAY legend Greg Mack is listed as an executive producer, so I'm going to take an educated guess that Mack daddy Records was his project. So yeah, like I said, musically, everything on the Mack Daddy 12", plus a lot more, is on the Capitol one (though you need to get at least one of the 12"s if you've only go the LP), making the Mack Daddy 12" more of a collector's item than an essential. But when a song's as classic as this one is, sometimes a collector's item is worth having.

A Cassette-Only Release In 2011?

A cassette only release in 2011*? Yup, and it's good! It's the debut EP from a group that's probably a one-off, known as The Motel Crew, titled simply Tape. The Motel Crew name probably isn't familiar to you, unless you managed to catch the occassional blog or twitter post last year promoting a couple of their advance mp3s; but you surely know most of its members. Luke Sick, frontman for the legendary Bay area group Sacred Hoop, and his longtime compatriate, the sick lyricist Z-Man are the MCs. The great DJ Quest (Bullet Proof Scratch Hamsters, Space Travelers, etc) is on the cuts and the music is by, uh, some dubstep producer named Doug Surreal.

So, yeah, as you might expect with the involvement of some kinda dubstep guy, the music is spacey and discordant. There are echoes, stuttering and distorted vocals, screeching sound effects and samples that come and go arbitrarily. And believe me, I find that kinda stuff even less appealing than any of you readers. But this isn't some Enter the Dubstep vol. 2 crap; it's got a much rawer, hip-hop feel, and with the help of the MCs and a healthy dose of old school samples, this feels more like a bugged out hip-hop experiment than some outsider club trash. It's nowhere near as engaging as six instrumentals provided by Vrse Murphy would be, but it's still listenable even to a purist like me. And thanks to the talents involved, it's more than worth your time - any opportunity to hear an album by Luke Sick and Z-Man is not to be missed. And Quest's cuts do help a couple of the songs (on others they get lost in the sonic mess).

Tape is labeled as Megakut #2, because it's actually the second cassette-only release on Megakut Records. The first was a mix by DJ Quest called Yole Boys Megamix, and that one's also still available.

This tape is limited to 50 copies (I guess they're figuring not many people still have their cassette decks up and operational), individually numbered (mine's #32) and only costs $8. When you order it (which you can do from their official site, megakutrecords.blogspot.com), they'll also send you mp3s of three more Motel Crew songs that were recorded but not included on the tape, "Teenage Scrapper," "Chop Shop" and "Return Of the Dope Fiend Beat." And there's a final song, "Style We Portray" (which might actually be my favorite of all ten of 'em), that's available for free download so you can complete your collection of the Motel Crew legacy.

There's some other interesting stuff to order there, too (plus more free downloads), including past releases by Grand Invincible and Sacred Hoop, original comic books and - surprisingly - a crime novel written by Luke Sick. Apparently, he started submitting short serial chapters to a magazine called Synthesis, and when that magazine went under, he kept writing them until he had a finished book. It's called Cleanhead, and is limited to 100 copies.


*Ok, technically, it came out in 2010. But I was slow to discover it.

The Milwaukee Illmatic

(Youtube version is back, too.)

Coordinating On Your Collaborations - Why It's Important

You probably won't find a guy less interested or informed about fashion than myself... but even I understand that if Pepa puts on the red elastic bodysuit at a concert, then Salt's gotta put on the white and Spinderella the black. It just wouldn't work the same if two of them walked out on stage in red elastic body suits. And it's even more important for artists to get in sync with each other within the confines of same song.

Case in point: Remember Luke's "Cowards In Compton" record with The Poison Clan dissing Dre and Snoop? (If you don't, check out the video I did about it in '09.) They were responding to Snoop's verse dissing Luke, and make particular reference to the following lines...

"If it ain't another ho that I gots ta fuck with,
Gap teeth in ya mouth so my dick's got to fit;
With my nuts on ya tonsils,
While you're on stage rappin' at your wack-ass concerts..."

Now, I'm not one to put hip-hop's awful legacy of homophobia on a pedestal; but JT Money sort of had a point about how suspect that quote was when he responded:

"Real niggas don't talk that gay shit,
Talkin' about lettin' another nigga suck ya dick.
Only punks talk like that.
I won't even bust ya; I'll slap you with my gat!
Frontin' like a gangsta, but you're a faggot."

I mean, let's face it. Machismo, rap boasting, prison talk... it can get jumbled into some oddly homoerotic talk sometimes, exemplified by Canibus's infamous line where he brags, "you don't have the skills to eat a nigga's ass like me!"

So, okay. Snoop sets 'em up, JT knocks 'em down. It all makes sense, typical diss rap exchange... But I guess Luke never bothered to actually sit down and listen to what JT was saying on his record before dropping in his own ad-lib parts of the record, because he comes on and says:

"Dre, you ain't nothin' but my bitch; I'ma make you my bitch! You look like you could suck a nigga' dick, hoe-ass motherfucker!"

Get on message here, guys! You don't talk that gay shit in Miami, or you do?

I don't see any distinction where Snoop's quote could be said to have any more of a blatantly gay underpinning than Luke's. They're both overtly saying they want to make the other guy fellate them. And I get that it's a power thing, asserting dominance; but that's still about as (homo)sexual as you can get. I guess JT had to walk up and slap Luke with his gat after he heard that, right? Mind you, I'm not supporting that kind of treatment of homosexuals, but those are the standards established on Loke's own record! You've already established only punks talk like that.

That's why it's important to work together with your guest rappers and pay attention to what's being said on your own record. Don't embarrass yourself. Coordinate, before you wind up the subject of your own disses.

DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince UNCENSORED!!

The above title might sound a bit funny, but it's for real. Have you ever noticed how the first song on DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince's debut album, Rock the House - their big, hit single "Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble" - is credited as a 1988 Extended Remix? Even if you thought, "ah-ha!" and ran out to buy the 12" single, you only got the 1988 Extended Remix and the 1988 Single Version. How can there be a special remix with no original version?

Well, the answer, of course, goes back to their pre-Jive Records days, when they first dropped "Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble" on Word Records, as far back as 1986. This is their first record... and the first pressing - the label subsequently changed their name to Word-Up Records for the second pressing and their subsequent releases. And while there's no difference, content-wise, between the initial two pressings of this single, both are quite different from what Jive put out.

First up on Side 1 is the Radio Mix. Right away, this has a much more raw, edgier feel than the Jive release. The beats are more stripped down and the bass is thumping much harder. The I Dream of Jeanie sample is still present, but the overall sound is still much more street than the version we all had on cassette as kids.

But what makes this even more street are the vocals. See, Jive didn't just polish the music a bit before they shot the video and put it out on their label... they made Prince redo the vocals to be kid friendly. In the popular version, when Prince meets Exotic Elaine, she "asks me did I like her. I said, 'well, kinda.'" But in the original she "asks me was I horny, I said yeah kinda."

In the remake, "she started grabbin' all over me, kissin' and huggin'. So I shoved her away and said, 'you better stop buggin'."

But in the original, "she started grabbin' all over me, kissin' and huggin'. I punched her in the chin and said, 'you better stop buggin'."

If that's not violent enough for you, the end of their encounter when he, "handed her my wallet and ran like Hell," originally had him react a bit more strongly... "I hit her with a trash can and ran like Hell!" He's also a bit more hostile about it all at the conclusion. On the Jive version, they stop his verse on so the cop character can radio in, "Yo Prince, we got him!" and he adds, "but it wasn't my fault!" But in the original, there is no walkie-talkie business, he just says, "but I didn't do nothin', it was that dumb broad's fault!"

Amusingly, Jive also felt the need to alter Prince's boxing preferences... at the start of the second verse, he originally says, "I was at the bar one Friday night, coolin', watchin' a Sugar Ray fight." But in the remake, he says, "Mike Tyson fight," instead. Perhaps this was the first step into the creation of their 1989 record, "I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson?"

There's plenty of other changes, throughout... when he meets Sheila, there's a whole section that's excised completely where "she bought my drink, I thought that was polite. So I walked out with her; I said, 'what's up for tonight?' She said 'just get in the car,' so I obliged. About twenty minutes later we pulled up in her garage." Really, the whole song has changed in a myriad of ways, right down to "those Gucci bed sheets" becoming, "those Satin bed sheets." I guess Gucci references were too hip-hop for MTV? lol

However, since this is a Radio mix, Word Records did a bit of low-budget editing themselves, flipping the sound backwards when he says the word "horny." But fortunately, that's not the case when you come to side 2, the Def Mix. But the difference between the Radio and Def Mixes don't just boil down to a little clean-up. The Def Mix features constant scratching by Jazzy Jeff throughout the song. So this makes it the superior, definitive version in all aspects... it's uncut AND the music's fresher.

The original 12" also has instrumentals for both mixes (basically with and without scratching), and it's pretty much a must-have for anyone who appreciates these guys' stuff. But, still, the remix has a lot going for it, including tweaks to the music, a whole new verse where Betty makes him miss the Run DMC concert, and a strange summation by Jeff at the end, where he references their later records, which made it all the more confusing for suburban kids like me who were thinking, "but I thought Rock the House came out first!" Plus, frankly, while there is something gonzo and no-holds-barred about the image of Will Smith beating down a hooker in an alleyway with a trash can, the line "I handed her my wallet and ran like Hell" is just funnier. So you can't entirely rule out the remix... but you're definitely missing something if you've never heard the Def Mix.

Return of the Devil's Cash In

The latest of many posthumous Big L albums, Return Of the Devil's Son bills itself as a "brand new album with 21-unreleased songs." That's a pretty bold statement considering it... isn't. Let's break it down song-by-song, and then we'll come back to sum up and see how it compares to the many other Big L compilation albums.

Are these unreleased tracks genuinely [UNRELEASED], [OLD] previously released stuff, or just some readily available [FREESTYLES]s?

1. Return Of the Devil's Son [OLD] 1:46 - This isn't actually a properly recorded song even, but a clip from a live performance with Big L kicking an alternate verse for "Devil's Son." Specifically it's taken from a CD Sandbox used to sell called Live From Amsterdam, and it was also released as "Live in Amsterdam" and "Devil's Son (Europe Version)" from those Harlem's Finest releases.

2. Devil's Son From Lifestylez [OLD] 4:00 - This one was included on the initial, promo version of L's debut album (though at least this one admits it in the title), but it was more popularly available as a 12" single, which I reviewed here.

3. Zone Of Danger [OLD] 3:39 - The first of many (intentionally?) garbled titles on this album; "Zone of Danger" is actually a remix of "Danger Zone" by J-Love that was one of his "exclusives" a few years ago. At least this version doesn't have J-Love's vocal tags over it... I'm not sure if this was ever released anywhere without the tags on it, so that's nice.

4. Sandman 118 [FREESTYLE] 2:55 - This is an old freestyle off one of Sandman's 12"s from 1995, where it was originally titled "L's Big Freestyle."

5. School Days [OLD] 3:15 - Another one from the promo version of Lifestylez Ov da Poor & Dangerous, and later on vinyl on the Uptown Connection LP and various other vinyl boots.

6. Principal Of the New School [OLD] 3:54 - This one's from Lord Finesse's Rare Selections vol. 2 EP.

7. Unexpected [OLD] 3:36 - This is "Unexpected Flava," also from Lord Finesse's Rare Selections vol. 2 EP.

8. Tony's Touch [FREESTYLE] 1:55 - An old freestyle. On 2009's Harlem's Greatest compilation album, this was titled "139," and "Tony Touch '139'" on the Harlem's Finest vinyl from 2001.

9. Right To the Top Feat Royal Flush & Kool G. Rap [OLD] 3:27 -This is the one with the big name guest stars they hype in their press releases, but I hope you didn't get too excited, because it's really just the song "Double Up" masquerading under a new title... Remember that old Royal Flush 12" I blogged about here?

10. Once Again [OLD] 3:31 - This one's been on mixtapes (perhaps most notably by J-Love) for years. ...I'm actually not sure where it first debuted, but it's really just another remix of recycled material anyway, as the vocals are from "On the Mic" (which were also recycled for "Size 'Em Up" on The Big Picture... these rhymes have seen many a repackaging!).

11. Harlem World Universal [Freestyle] 1:22 - This was called "Universal Freestyle" on Harlem's Finest and 139 & Lenox.

12. I Won't [OLD] 4:01 - This is "How Will I Make It" from that Harlem's Finest vol. 2 EP.

13. Hard To Kill [FREESTYLE] 2:11 - This old freestyle was titled "Stretch and Bobbito '93" on Harlem's Finest.

14. Power Moves [OLD] 4:01 - More sneaky retitling... This is the song "Now Or Never" that's been on other recent Big L compilation albums like The Archives and 139 & Lenox.

15. If You Not Aware [OLD] 3:45 - Retitling of "Games Females Play" from The Archives, 139 & Lenox, etc.

16. I Should Have Used [OLD] 4:26 - This is really the song "Clinic," although it's been previously released on vinyl under this title as well.

17. Doo Wop #5 [FREESTYLE] 1:31 - Obviously a Doo Wop freestyle. This one was titled "Doo Wop 'My Niggaz'" when it was released on the Harlem's Finest wax.

18. Yes You Can [OLD] 3:55 - This is just "Hit It" (which you can find on The Archives album) under another fake title.

19. Audition [FREESTYLE] 4:48 - This was titled "Rock N Will Audition" on Harlem's Finest.

20. M.C.'s Whats Going On [OLD] 3:46 - A mistitling of "I Can't Understand It (Original Demo Version)" from Lord Finesse's Rare Selections vol 3 EP.

21. Slaying the Mic [FREESTYLE] 1:53 - And we conclude with one more old, retitled freestyle... you'll remember it as "Kay Slay Freestyle" from Harlem's Finest.

Oh, look at that! Not a single one of these songs actually got an [UNRELEASED] tag! And just to clarify, even the FREESTYLES are all OLD. This compilation does have the dubious distinction of throwing a lot of misinformation into the Big L fandom, though, by mistitling a lot of its songs to make it appear as though a lot of its content was new. You can't even say, "oh well, this is old stuff, but at least it's their first appearance on vinyl," because this was CD only.

There's really no distinction in sound quality between this and any of the past posthumous albums, so if you wanna pick one of these posthumous compilation albums up, I'd recommend 139 & Lenox on wax instead. Return Of the Devil's Son really has the least going for it of any of these albums (and did I mention it's a pack of lies?).

The quality is going down, not up, folks! ...Maybe it's time to stop releasing these things?

Check Amper Rock Out, Baby

"Generating my fan base on mixtapes in NYC, undergrounder surfaced, blessed by R-E-D."

What we have here is a rare, single-sided, promo-only 12" of one of the great exclusive joints from Red Alert's mixtapes that he released over the years on Next Plateau Records. Specifically it's King Amper Rock's "Check me Out Baby" on Not Productions (the label's only release, catalog # NOT-001). There's no date on the label, but smart money would put it right around the same year as Red Alert's album on which it appears, making it 1996.

This is exciting first of all because it's a great song. The mix of funky, old school conga drums with dark, atmospheric samples is pure New York. And so is Amper Rock, with a voice and flow reminiscent of Lord Finesse, with just a slightly rougher edge. Lyrically, he's just focused on some light flow flexing and representing where he's from - Uptown, emphasized by the DJ cutting up the phrase "Uptown style" on the hooks. The DJ is uncredited, but production credit is given to Big Will, a producer who did a lot in the late 90's/early 2000's, often with partner Heathcliff.

This is more exciting because, since Red Alert's albums -even though they were pressed on wax - were mixed. As anyone who's longed for a proper version of Ultramagnetic's "Bait" on 12", with it's final verse can tell you, a good mixtape can be an affecting musical experience in and of itself, but it's far from a definitive way to enjoy a song you're a fan of. So only with this 12" can you hear it play through properly.

And it's exciting because this 12" has an exclusive remix. Actually, it has three, but the other two are just minor variations of the one. Basically you've the LP Version, which is the one you know from Red Alert Presents... Then you've got the Party Remix, which is practically a completely different song. The beat's a bit familiar, but it's completely different than the LP Version, even darker and smoother, with no scratching. And more than that, it's a complete lyrically remix as well! All three verses have been swapped out with three new, completely different verses. It's essentially a whole new song, with only the cue to "check me out, baby" on the hook carrying over from the original.

And even that similarity is stripped from the Harlem On the Rise Version. This one's the same as the Party Remix except that the hook has been replaced with a softer, "Uptown's gettin' money" hook, which was heard briefly as the intro to the Party Remix. So now there's really no connection to the original left at all. And interestingly, by the way, the label has an asterisk marked after this version, with nothing else on the label suggesting what that asterisk is supposed to mean. I expect it's there because this new hook is being provided by somebody other than Amper Rock (the voice does sound different) and they intended to credit him somewhere on the label, but then forgot.

Anyway, finally is the Party Remix - Radio Edit. This one's exactly what you'd expect: the Party Remix with the few curse words censored.

So, all in all, this is a pretty hot 12" with more exclusive material than you might think. And it's a nice display of a talented MC representing Harlem who should've gone on to a lot more. Amper Rock has stayed in the game for years (and an unreleased demo I found of his from 1998 shows some of his unrealized potential), but unfortunately, this was his only record. So seek it out; it's worth it.

Constant Utopia

Since they started doing interviews, The Constant Deviants have told people that they had two full, unreleased albums recorded: one from '95-'96, and one from '97-'99. This one, Concrete Utopia, is the '95 one and it's pressed and available now on double vinyl from Six 2 Six Records.

Like I wrote in my review of their "Problem Child" 12", their music has a real understated feel to. Nothing flashy, just smooth samples, fresh cuts for hooks, and a mellow flow from M.I.C. There's no party or danceable stuff on here, nothing remotely pop, and barely any guests. Only One Speaker Supreme appears on "Violence Interlude," which is pretty much a fresh single verse freestyle over a cool, atmospheric beat.

But that's not to say there aren't any surprises to be found. For starters, the album starts out with an uber-serious song on the horrors of war.

"If I get home, will I remember this?
Medics bag the body, send their names through the system.
My man got hit: grenade victim.
I'm laid in the cut,
Watchin' tears droppin'.
Me and him got drafted in.
Everybody else laughin';
To them, he died for his country.
I wanna know:
Would the president die for me?"

Concrete Utopia is a perfectly preserved time capsule of the mid-90's scene, so it does have more similes and generic punchlines than it needs: "I blow up spots like Cambodians," "I cut throats like Mexicans," etc etc. But being that it's a time capsule, it makes it almost as endearing as much as it's a drawback. And the quality production definitely smooths over any lyrical bumps the songs have. And DJ Cutt kills it on every single song! Really, at the end of the day, the smooth, head-nodding vibes and Cutt's masterful work are what I take away from every moment on this album. If this is your kind of hip-hop, you're gonna love this, because it's a consistently exemplary example.

And this is all unreleased, unheard material. "Problem Child" and their other singles are not on here. There is an exclusive remix of their debut 12", "Competition Catch Speedknots," though.

This is limited to 300 copies, which... for a double LP in a picture cover is barely any higher than the standard cost of a new album. If you've been a fan of Constant Deviants indie 12"s and radio rips, waiting for their shelved material to finally come out... or if you're just appreciative of the subtler, smarter side of 90's hip-hop, then this is absolutely it. The sound quality is top notch, and the music lives up to expectations. And it's still available (click here), so don't miss out. You'll want to support, too, because Six 2 Six have a lot more in their vaults that we'd all love to see follow in Concrete Utopia's footsteps.

One Man, One Hundred Dollars and a

I can remember when I first saw Stinky Dink's tape in the stores as a kid. I didn't know who he was and I laughed at his name (Urban Dictionary defines a stinky dink as, "a half-expose turd log that is so large it can be used like a cock." Go look it up yourself if you want to read how it can also be used as a verb). The fact that he appended his name twice on the cover (to Stinky Dink (The Rickety Raw) A Rapper Named Hawk) just made it more absurd. But Stinky Dink was actually an important figure in Washington DC scene of go-go hip-hop, performing with the likes of DC Scorpio and Rare Essence. And this was his hit record, "One Track Mind" on East 11305 Records.

The hook, "one man, one hundred dollars and a one-track mind!" is fun and memorable. Stinky Dink was no lyrical wizard, but he's got a good voice and rocks well over a fresh go-go beat, plus he sounds more like a real rapper than just a shouting DJ like, say, DJ Kool. He does have a penchant for forced, contrived rhymes: "kiss a few cheeks, females suck a few deeks, like these movie star freaks and you'll reach your peaks." At another point he also pronounces "gentle" as "gentile" just to fit the rhyme.

One of the most notable things about this song, though, is its use of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" sample. It uses the same piece and in the same way, bringing it in for the hook just like Large Professor did on "It Ain't Hard To Tell." But needless to say, this was years before Nas's Illmatic... this is where they jacked it from!

So, this single features three tracks in addition to the main version of "One Track Mind." First we'll look at the b-side, "The Rickety Raw Revenge." This is similar in tone to "One Track Mind"... both of course have go-go beats, and you could swap any of Stinky's verses from one song, stick it on the other, and it'd fit right in. It's a totally different song, mind you, just in the same vein. However, about midway through the song, another MC pops up to take over mic duties, a guy named Katoe. The music also has a bit more of a live feel, with a lot of hype horns.

Then you've got two remixes of "One Track Mind," both of which are substantially long... one is 8 minutes and fourteen seconds, and the other is six fifty. The reason they're so long is because they both merge "One Track Mind" with "The Rickety Raw Revenge" into one, longer monster jam. The "Hype Mix" is essentially just that... the two songs pasted and together, blended to smooth the transition. But then the "Radio Mix," the one you'd expect to stand out the least, actually changes the music... it's still essentially the same but replayed, with harder beats and they even replay the Michael Jackson riff louder and more dynamic.

"One Track Mind" was a big record in its small pond, but it never crossed over to the mainstream (personally, I blame the Stinky Dink moniker). He's still been a fixture in the scene, though, doing appearances on other DC artists' songs and even dropped his own record in 2003 called "Chic At the Bar." And just this past summer, in 2010, he's been a very public figure. He's been doing popular and controversial campaign songs for Washington mayor Adrian Fenty's re-election campaign. He first dropped "Five for Fenty," a play on The Luniz' "I Got Five On It." Click here to listen to it and read some reactions... be sure to read through the comments for some amusing confusion from non-hip-hop heads over what the phrase "I got five on it" means. Then, more recently, he recorded and made a video for "Oh You Fenty Huh" which is of course a play on Drake's "Fancy." Granted, Fenty just lost that election; but I hope Stinky Dink doesn't let that discourage him.