Royal Renegades Week, Day 3 - Madness Comes Back

The same year MC Boo made his Ocean Records come-back, MC Madness made his solo debut on Ocean: Come Get This $ Honey. T. Isaam is on-hand as well, as executive producer and kicking a guest verse, marking his last appearance on record ever. There are a couple other guest MCs here as well: MD, producer Shake G and his new DJ, Domain. It probably would've made more sense to for Madness to add the "And the Crew" surname to his album than MC Boo, since he has a whole, visible team here; but I guess Boo's name rhymed.

So, how is it? Not bad. Like with Boo, the production lacks the touch of Magic, but there's still some pretty solid, hard, hip-hop tracks. And while Madness was never a brilliant lyricist, he has a strong, lively presence that definitely elevates this several notches above Back To Bass-ics. It's just more enjoyable.  It certainly helps that half the tracks aren't instrumentals. I was a bit more impressed by DJ Ray Swift (perhaps partially because he was tasked with making more out of less), but Domain's additions are definitely a welcome enhancement.

The single for this one was "Booty Wave," which is a pretty typical "make ya booty wave" kinda dance track, but it's got an interesting sitar sample, a pretty full track, and Madness's energy is able to sell these kinds of songs a lot better than most. The best part, though, is easily the DJ breakdown, and a guest verse by MD, who has a much higher voice, adding some contrast. Even if you don't like these kinds of songs, you'd have to admit a lot of time was clearly put into making this one better than the average. In general, that might be what sets it apart the most from MC Boo - whereas it felt like he made a few decent songs and then called in sick to work for the rest of the album, it feels like the people making this album really cared.

The B-side to the single is also on-hand here (the 12" only offers clean and dirty mixes of the two album tracks, nothing notably exclusive): "Don't Touch Them Dirty Hoe's" (or "...Dirty Hoe's" as it's interestingly titled on the album artwork). Again, it's like the A-side, very energetic and catchy. It's got some great horns and another guest verse, this time by T. Isaam.

So, they picked two really solid, well-made dance tracks for the single, but heads today will surely prefer the harder, more traditionally hip-hop tracks. "As I Come Back" is the album's opener where Madness aggressively reclaims the mic, and "Buckin' Shots" has a surprisingly indie Philly kinda vibe to it. A definite highlight is the posse cut, "Blakk i Klan Jam" (I think the Blakk i Klan stuff was T Isaam's thing), which features some tight production, again very un-Miami. Yeah, the prerequisite Planet Patrol samples are on hand for some songs, like the title track, but they're still done well, while other tracks, like ""Nuff To Go Round" don't give away their Miami origins at all. If there's one flaw to this album, it's perhaps that he spreads himself too thin trying to cover all the bases... there's songs with west coast vibes, R&B hooks... everything that was popping off in '93. But most of it works, at least enough to pass. The CD version also features a bonus track, "Gut Patrol," which is another successful dance track with a really effective piano loop.

Now, you remember on Day 1, when I mentioned that Madness had a line calling out Magic on the opening track? Well, that's true and all. but it barely registers compared to the song "Final Words" that appears after the album's closing shout outs.

He chooses a surprisingly low-key, smooth track and a very simple delivery... like he wasn't going to come out all super hardcore "Fuck Compton" style, but didn't want anyone to miss a single syllable of what he had to say. He lays out his grievances and why he split from Cheetah and Magic, and also gets homophobic on a level only topped by G Rap's "Truly Yours:"

"'89 is when the episode started off;
I had a book full of rhymes ready to set shit off.
Looking for a chance at a record deal and
Drop a hit of fly shit and make a killin'.
I hooked up with the punk named Magic Mike;
He said, 'it\'s a new label, and shit is gonna be right.'
So I signed on the dotted line,
Not knowin' at the time that he was gazin' at my behind.
He and his partner was slime, Tom Reich,
Suckin' each other's dicks late at night.
Our first hit was 'Drop the Bass,' shit was kinda fly;
But I started havin' to ask the question: why
Wasn't I gettin' paid,
When their pockets were blowin' up like in them were hand grenades?
Was I gettin' swindled, played like a sucker
By a punk motherfucker who said, 'I love you like a brother?'
What the fuck has love got to do with this?
Come with my flow or I'm takin' it to your shit;
And that's the way it's gotta be.
You better check your bitch if you're lookin' for some pussy.
And I don't even know why you go that route,
'Cause you know you want a dick to rip that asshole out.
Perpetratin' like a man, but you ain't foolin' me,
'Cause in your heart, you're an F-A-G.
You just had a son and that makes me sad,
'Cause yo sweet ass don't make no decent dad.
I hope you don't make him a punk, too.
Is that what ya gonna do, you fuck nigga you?
Yeah, the court case is over, got my cash in stacks,
And I put your life on contract."

And that's just the first verse!  Domain's got some nice cuts for the hook, and Madness comes back, with lines for half the Royal Posse, "Infinite J and Daddy Rae, ya both gay. Smooth J Smooth, ya blood is gonna ooze. Do you get used to the smell of shit when you brown nose? Mike dissed yo' ass on 'Ain't No Doubt About It,' need I say more? [there's a skit on that album called "The Boo Boo of Rough J. Rough" where they call him "that Orlando rappin' sucker who made one 12" and is now history"] But enough about those sidekicks that ain't shit, they won't add up to a hill of beans in a conflict." And the voice they use for whenever Mike speaks would make Michael Jackson sound threatening. It's a ruthless diss that even delves well into low-blow territory, telling the world his side of the story regardless of who wanted him to remain silent.

His last line is, "you know Madness had to have final words." But you know Royalty had to respond...

Royal Renegades Week, Day 2 - MC Boo and the Crew

I almost bought this album when it was new. I was on vacation with my family, driving to Florida, and we stopped at some Southern in-between state - forget which one now - and I saw a music store specializing in rap and hip-hop in the phone book at the hotel.  Of course I made my parents swing by, and it was like this little house, full of mostly cheap mixtapes.  Behind the counter, I saw MC Boo and the Crew, and I remember asking the guy if that could possibly be McBooo from BDP. And he was just like: nah, this is just some wack Miami bass shit; you don't want that. So I left without it. It happened that one of the tapes I'd brought with me on the trip was the first DJ Magic Mike and the Royal Posse album, and in the car I'm looking at the liner notes and I see MC Boo! Well, by that point it was too late to go back and I didn't get this album until many, many years later, when I finally ordered it from Amazon as an adult, filling the little gaps in my collection.

Honestly, I wasn't missing all that much over the years. I mean, it's not bad. But you see that blurb on the front cover? "THE BEST BASS ALBUM EVER RECORDED...!" Well, yeah, it's not that.

You would think the biggest issue would be the loss of Magic's production, and yeah... the production is weaker. Still okay, but weaker. But the most disappointing aspect is MC Boo. After "We're On a Mission," I expected more from him. He's not terrible or anything, but he's just... generic. Average. Good enough to get by without embarrassing himself, but never saying anything slick or compelling or kicking a delivery that stands out at all. Same with the production.

Now, at this point you may be asking, "who is The Crew?" No, there's not another team of junior MCs on hand or anything. It seems to just be referring to his DJ, Ray Swift, T. Isaam and the Ocean Records production team. The DJ, in fact, is the real star of this album. Even though they left Magic, they still had somebody on hand who could provide some really nice cuts, which definitely breath some energy into an otherwise dull album.

Unlike MC Madness, T. Isaam, and even Jan Hrkach or DJ Lace, MC Boo hadn't been working on Mike's albums since the first one. He'd been out of the picture for a few years. So, in a way, this is a bit of a comeback for him (which he raps about on one of the strongest cuts on here, the opener "Freeze"). But it also means that he doesn't seem to share the same hostility towards Mike or Cheetah Records, so there are no diss cuts. There is one song with a line about how he "used to kick rhymes with my so-called friends," which seems like it might be a Royal Posse reference, but the song's about how he grew up as a hustling youth, so he could just be talking about kids he went to school with or something. He's basically going for a "I'll just do my thing," live and let live career move here, which is respectable. But on a generally plain, disappointing album like this, a diss or any kind of statement with stakes would've gone a long way towards making this interesting at least.

A bigger part of the problem is that, despite this being an MC Boo album, a bunch of the tracks on here are strictly instrumental, so Boo's not even involved. Frankly, that shit bores me on Mike's albums, and when your production is weaker than Mike's... yawnsville. One song features a big sax solo instead of vocals, which is interesting on paper, but in practice, it's just not enough to hold a whole song together. At least not when the rest of the track is so flat. And we get a song called "Bangle Sluts" on side 1 and "Bangle Sluts (Re-Mix)" on side 2. First of all, the song's alright I guess, but it's definitely not compelling enough to warrant two versions on the same album. Secondly, the Re-Mix is actually just the instrumental.

Amazingly - and I don't mean "amazingly" in a hyperbolic way, my mind was literally blown by this when I first heard it - one song, at the end of side one, consists of nothing but a loop of a ticking clock for several minutes. Not even a bass hum! Yet, bizarrely, it's titled "Back To the Bass." I mean, if you were looking a moment that perfectly emblematizes everything that's wrong with this album, here you go.


Again, though, don't get me wrong. If you're a Royal Posse completist, this album has moments that will at least get a pass... Some decent samples, and again, it comes to life when Ray Swift gets on the tables (primarily the DJ cut "Go Crazy"). Wisely, "Freeze" was the single, b/w a boring but passable instrumental called "Let the Bass Go," which actually doesn't have much of a deep bassline. "Kickin' Rhymes To the Rhythm" would've been a better choice, it's actually the best song on here, with a funky sample, nice drums, killer scratches, and a naturalistic emphasis on Boo's rhymes.

But things are about to heat up in Royal Renegades week, as tomorrow we unleash the Madness...

Royal Renegades Week, Day 1

On "Through the Years," a song he liked so much, he included it on at least four of his albums, DJ Magic Mike breaks down his musical history, and talks about the extensive line-up of his crew, The Royal Posse, saying:


"I started my own crew,
I called it Royal Posse, and I start with twenty-two.*
Now the posse's on - dope DJs and rappers, G;
Finally made a name, but we're only known locally.
How many obstacles do I have to face?
My only solution was to head for Miami bass.
Everything I touched was a number one pick;
But wouldn't you know, I had to get the shitty end of the stick?
But I wasn't gonna let it stop me;
Back to Orlando to unite with the Posse.
But as time passes, people change like the seasons
And most of the posse changed for the wrong reasons
Everybody ain't true, everybody ain't straight;
I had to bring the posse down from twenty-two to eight."

Now, The Royal Posse's line-up was ever-shifting (MC Madness had a skit on his second album saying he'd send you on an all expense paid trip if you could name two albums where the personnel was exactly the same), but the biggest change happened essentially all at once, when a bunch of members openly broke it off and struck out on their own, most notably his best known partner, MC Madness. They were pissed at Magic for wanting to do solo projects after Madness started to get cornier, and at Cheetah Records over payment issues (Mike was vice-president of the label, and Cheetah's president, Tom Reich, was also Mike's manager and executive produced all their stuff... so the pair probably seemed pretty inextricable to the guys, even though Mike wound up leaving Cheetah and forming Magic Records a few years later), so they went off as a unit to the freshly formed Ocean Records.

So, just who went? Well, MC Madness, of course. He released his debut solo album, Come Get This $ Honey for them in 1993, saying in his first song, "I got side-tracked by a bogus brother: DJ M&M, that punk motherfucker. Now I'm back, the game I'm gonna win." In the Special Thankx[sic.] of their biggest album together, Ain't No Doubt About It, Magic Mike wrote to Madness, "YOU'RE MY BOY TILL THE END. FUNNY HOW I CAN'T SEE THE END. DAMN SURE COULDN'T TELL THIS 4 YEARS AGO. GOD WORKS IN MYSTE-RIOUS WAYS." That was in 1992 - things sure changed quick.

Now, the only other album Ocean put out was another Royal Posse exile: MC Boo and the Crew's Back To Bass-ics (though Madness and Boo also dropped a single each off of their albums). Among other things, MC Boo is the MC on the original "Drop the Bass" on the debut DJ Magic Mike and the Royal Posse album in 1989 (where he also has the intriguing credit of being the "Rap Consultant"). Also, the liner notes are incomplete so he's not credited, but he did that incredible track, "We're On a Mission."

So that's two core rappers out. But who else left? Well, DJ Lace, the other half of Vicious Base, stepped off around this time. He went on to do a lot of stuff - both in Miami bass, and more in clubby techno kinda music - but didn't seem to get too caught up in the drama - though he did record an album with DJ Fury, the guy responsible for "Magic Dike" and all that other anti-Magic Mike stuff.  Mike dissed Fury pretty hard with "Fury Who?" on This Is How It Should Be Done.  Anyway, Lace didn't follow the guys to Ocean Records, though Madness does shout him out in the liner notes of his solo joint, suggesting who he sided with in the split; and I don't believe he ever worked with Magic or Cheetah again.  And I've just recently blogged about what Magic Mike did with the Vicious Base name years later.  Mike did diss him in the liner notes of his 20 Degrees Below Zero EP, though, for forming 2BMF with producer Beat Master Wizzy, who produced a couple early Royal Posse songs and was actually down with Vicious Base before the Royal Posse album, then left earlier on (I guess around the time Boo left). But they never recorded a Magic Mike diss or anything.

Another big drop out, though, was definitely T. Isaam. He was the new member of the crew on 1990's Bass Is the Name of the Game, and contributed to all the other albums before his parting. In fact, he was the only other Royal Posse member to get a full album with Mike: 1991's Southern Hospitality. The other core members, guys who were down for years and years, still never had the shot to put out any albums they could call their own, just verses on all of Mike's albums.  T. Isaam never put out an album of his own again, but was a major writer and producer on Madness and Boo's albums.

Also, perhaps less obvious to us hip-hop fans, but a major player to go was Jan Hrkach. Jan was a member of pretty much the only notable act on Cheetah Records besides Magic Mike (i.e. the only other ones to drop multiple releases), the techno group called Radioactive Goldfish. Jan was a big behind-the-scenes guy at Cheetah, engineering, mixing and even occasionally producing a song for Mike's albums. Well, he became president of Ocean Records... which certainly explains why Radioactive Goldfish stopped putting out records on Cheetah after 1992, and the label really became nothing but Mike's vehicle. Jan also did the mixing, engineering and some "electric bass" instrumentation on Boo's album.

Other members quietly drifted in and out of the Posse at different times, but this was the big rift. And we're gonna study it for the rest of the week.  It's been a while since I've done a "week." 8)


*Here's a fun trivia challenge: try to name all twenty-two!

Writing E Money Bags Back Into History

Early in 50 Cent's career, he wrote a song called "Ghetto Qu'ran (Forgive Me)." It's probably best remembered for being the song got him shot, because in it, he breaks down all the players, killers and victims of The Supreme Team drug dealing operation. So many names are dropped in that song, and so many of his fans probably had no idea who or what the Hell he was talking about - Hell, I don't pretend to know who all these people are myself. But one name I recognize comes up in the final lines of the last verse, "And if you watch the news, you see players in this game that lose. I'm forgetting Lefty and Jazz, Pretty Tony and Lance, Head Lou, Mel Son, Troy and E Money Bags." I only know who the last name on that list is: E Money Bags.

E Money Bags was the rap alias of Eric Smith, who released his self-titled album in 1999 on the indie Grand Imperial label. He was from Hollis, Queens, and worked with the biggest Queens cats, including Nas and Mobb Deep. He was also down with The Live Squad, who you should remember from the BQ In Full Effect EP that started off Percee-P's career. They became affiliated with 2Pac (though let's not confuse them with The Outlawz); and they even put out a final record with him and 'Pac after his murder.  Now, I'm not referring to 2Pac's murder, I mean E Money's.

E Money Bags was gunned down in July of 2001. This article from NYMinute details, "Law enforcement officials contend that Kenneth 'Supreme' McGriff ordered Eric Smith's murder to avenge the December 1999 killing of a friend, Colbert Johnson." Definitely one of those cases where a rapper's criminolgy lyrics turned out to be all too real and cost him his life.

Which brings me to this white label 12" I randomly came across: Nature featuring "Kool G" (Kool G Rap, of course). Every Kool G Rap record is worth having, so just seeing his name was enough for me to pick this one up, But... I know Nature did a couple things with G Rap, but I didn't remember this song. Of course, I didn't follow every tiny step of Nature's career... turns out G Rap was on Nature's 2008 album, Pain Killer, for example. But that's not what this is. This is some killer 90's shit. I even recognize G Rap's verse.

Remember when Sway and Tech had blown up to such a point that they had a label deal with Interscope even though they'd stopped being recording artists themselves? [Let's have a brief pause for their great, Flynamic beginnings.] They essentially commercially released a mixtape (This or That) of classics and new, original songs featuring some of the hottest artists in the game. One highlight was a little freestyle joint called "3 To the Dome" which had Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane and Chino XL spitting together, Now, Kane's verse was some dope but recycled rhymes he'd used elsewhere... makes sense, since it was just a quick freestyle for him. In fact, I was surprised Kool G hadn't recycled a verse for that song, too. But now I realize he had - it comes from this song, "Friends of Ours."

"Friends of Ours" claims to sport a Main Mix on one side and a Clean Version, but both sides are actually identical, dirty versions. And there's no production credits, which is a shame, because whoever made it did a fantastic job, flipping a killer soul sample Mood used a couple years earlier ("Karma") but speeding it up and re-doing the percussion. There's also no mention on the label of a third rapper who can be clearly heard kicking the first verse of this song. ...Well, if you read the first three paragraphs of this post, you're probably way ahead of me: the "mystery" MC is E Money Bags. This  is actually his song, a brilliant track taken from his album (which, no, doesn't seem to have any production credits either).

All the MCs come tight, with Kool G Rap of course stealing the show at the end with a brilliant verse. E Money's the weakest, with some solid bars overall, but a couple questionable lines... "who you gonna call? Toast busters" would've never made it past G Rap's quality control checks. And speaking of the Kool Genius, he came off on This Or That, but one listen to this one and you'll know this is the true home of that verse, where it sounds the best - pure killer Queens.

You know how I used to post myspace pages of rappers here, back when rappers were on myspace? Well, here's E Money Bag's. I'm not sure why E Money Bags' name was taken off this record... it could be because he has his fair share of detractors (check out this review on Amazon calling his album "snitch rap"). But history is history - it's his record no doubt, and you've got to honor the art of a great 12" like this.

Lord Sear

(Youtube version is here.)

Tommy V Isn't Dead

I got a new post for you guys - a double post even! But it isn't here. It's over on Hip Hop Isn't Dead. That's right, I'm back over there with another Reader Review (If you missed it, I did a Fresh Kid Ice review over there back in 2009). I like the short, track-by-track breakdown style he's been perfecting over there through the years, and it's really fun adopting it for a contribution. It's very different from how I normally write here; and, yes, that means I already have the bug to do another one for 'im.

Anyway, without further ado, we take a look at the classic, California 4-track era, with two (sub-) genre defining tapes from one of its most prominent and under-recognized contributors... and practically everybody else who was a part of the scene.  Right here.

I Put Off Listening To This Album for a Long Time...

So, this album came out in 2010, and I put off purchasing it for a long time.  Then, even after I finally found it cheap and bit the bullet, I had this CD sitting by my computer for months unplayed.   It would justs it there, staring at me with its bright, somewhat cheesy cover like, "are you gonna listen to me or what?"  And I'd put it off for another night...

Since you can see the picture clear enough, I won't milk the suspense: I'm talking about DoItAll's American DU album. I'd been a fan of The Lords Of the Underground since they first made a record name-dropping my hometown back in 1992; but just wasn't up to facing another "past his prime" disappointment. And LOTUG was already coming with a questionable batting average. And, ten years after "Funky Child," did I really want to hear anymore of that crazy, cartoon voice flow and punch-lines? This is 2012. But, finally, what pushed me over the edge was that I was curious about the Grand Daddy IU guest spot on track 14. If nothing else, he was going to kill his verse, so I might as well test the waters.

Now, this isn't DoItAll's first solo album; he released the very rare Eleventh Hour in 2003. I don't even have that, though I've heard some tracks and... eh. But I have to say, in the end, I'm glad I got American Du and have finally checked it out.

First of all, thankfully, DoItAll's coming with a more mature, relaxed steez. No silly, hyperactive, "can I slam like Bam Bam, that kid from Bedrock" raps. And while it's tempting to just say "needs some K-Def!" (which really would've gone a long way), the production by a collection of essential unknowns is actually often pretty full-bodied and interesting. Pete Rock (yay!) and Scott Storch (yeck!) drop by for one track apiece, but everything else is by cats named Jimmy Johnson, Kay Mason, Be-Life, The Real Focus, Tab, Lady Trauma, Ric Note, The Are*, Illastrate, Lexzyne, and Mel & D. I feel like he made all those names up, but I, no, I don't really believe that. It's just a bunch of tracks (this is a long album) by a bunch of unknowns.

If you're gonna give this album a go, though, I have to say, skip the first couple of tracks. There's bad spoken word poetry, talking intros, R&Bish skits and some crappy club beats. If you're feeling open-minded, you might jump in at track 4, his joint with DJ Kool, but discerning heads will want to hold out a little longer, even past Pete Rock's "Surrender," which is far descended from his best work, it's tempting to believe that there must be two Pete Rocks working in the industry - the one we all love and remember so fondly, and the new guy who's running around ruining his rep. But, sadly, no...

Anyway, wasn't I saying there's something actually good about this album? Yeah, just start in about midway through. If this were a cassette or LP, I'd say just play side 2 and forget about what's on side 1. Just... don't even think about it or question it. But starting with "Let's Go," we're into some compelling territory. It's a posse cut with Craig G, Masta Ace and Ed O G. And thankfully, they've got a good beat for 'em. They all come nice and sound really good. There are some quality scratches at the very beginning and ending by DJ Lord Jazz himself, and while they make the unfortunate decision not to use them on the hook, but have some guy named Probz do some LV-ish kinda hook, they still manage to pull it off alright.

But it's not just the guest spots (the rest include Treach, Shyheim, Mr. Cheeks and a bunch of unknowns) which are compelling. As the album progresses, DoItAll comes pretty nice over some solid tracks. "Surgeon General" and "Hi Def State of Mind" are some respectably produced reminders of why DoItAll's a name worth remembering. And "Flash Forward" is a really compelling, jazz sampled instrumental. Really, if you don't let side 1 tarnish your listening experience and listen to side 2 with fresh ears, it's a nice little record with only one annoying skit. No, it's not the an Illmatic or anything, but I'd give the second half of this album a genuine recommendation. Just make sure you don't hear the first seven tracks, or it'll ruin your opinion of the good stuff. I mean, it's at least worth giving it a spin if it's sitting there on your desk, staring you down.


*Actually, I know who The Are is; he's from K-Otix. Remember them?  I should do a blog on those cats one of these days.

Exactly WHICH Ghost Is Back, Exactly?

Sometimes I'll see an album and think: I probably won't like that very much. But I'm just so damn curious about it, I want it anyway. Well, I finally broke down and purchased one of those albums, so I figured I'd share my findings with all of you. This way you can make an informed decision, and not have to buy the album blindly to find out what it was like I did.

So, the album is The Ghost Is Back by Vicious Base featuring DJ Magic Mike. Streetbeat Records, 1997. Now, I quite liked the original Vicious Base album, so you might be wondering why I was so hesitant about this one. Well, I'll tell you.

See, Vicious Base was the duo of MC Madness and DJ Lace. They came out as Vicious Base (featuring DJ Magic Mike) before they started releasing some of their biggest hits as DJ Magic Mike and MC Madness. But, if you know the story, you know that Madness left Mike and the label (Cheetah/Magic Records) in the early 90s with a couple other members of the crew (most notably T. Isaam), and they spent the next several years writing vicious (pun sort of intended) diss records back and forth to each other, until Madness's career eventually completely evaporated. So, how then could there be a Vicious Base and DJ Magic Mike album in 1997? I was pretty certain they never made up and reuinted... and if it was just a Vicious Base album on StreetBeat, I would've thought, okay, Madness hooked back up with Lace as another venture after his solo albums didn't turn out to be such big successes. But featuring DJ Magic Mike again? Something had to be wrong with this project.

Actually, my first assumption was that it was just a compilation of past Vicious Base tracks.  But looking at the song titles, they're all new. Actually, two songs wound up getting released again, later, as bonus tracks on the Mo' Wax 3LP of The Journey in 1999.  So, just what the heck is going on here?

Well, I guess this is essentially Magic's ultimate "fuck you" to Madness. To answer the first question on everybody's mind, no, Madness isn't on here. Neither is DJ Lace. This is basically just a DJ Magic Mike solo project. I'm guessing he owned the rights to the name, and so ha ha, sorry, Madness. Vicious Base has a new record without its members.

It's also not a very good album by Magic Mike standards. I get the feeling he made this quick and cheap. It's a mostly instrumental album, and not many of them are very compelling or interesting at all. There is one vocal track, with Daddy Rae (another member of Mike's Royal Posse) and Mike rapping, but... while it's a highlight simply because it's a vocal oasis in a big instrumental desert; it's definitely one of their lesser efforts. Also, it's just a remix of a song off of 1994's Bass Bowl, and that version was much better. Mike also raps a bit on the intro and outro, which is fine but nothing to get excited over. And there's basically only one track where Mike really gets busy on the turntables: the redundantly titled, "Number #1." It's easliy the album's highlight. He also scratches a bit on "The Bass Will Go No Lower," which is the second best cut on this album.

So, yeah. This is a quick, mediocre cash grab, just like I knew it would be. But... I had to know. And now I do, and so do all of you. Not terrible, but definitely very low on the Magic Mike totem pole, for completists only.

I Don't Know Black

(Youtube version is here.)

A Bad Mama Jama

I just recently picked up Fresh Celeste's first album, and was surprised at how banging it was... except for side 2, which was all cheesy love songs except for one track. But side 1 was great. And probably my favorite number on that album turned out to be a single, and here it is: Fresh Celeste's "She's Bad" on JR Records, from 1989.

Now, I referred to this as Fresh Celeste's first album, but she'd really ben in the game already for a minute. She was originally one third of a group called The M-4Sers (like "enforcers" but with an M), who put out two albums and a bunch of singles from 1988-1989. But then they broke up (I'm not sure why, but she mentions on her album, "I had a group, but now I'm here all alone") and Celeste wound up putting out her own records on the same label. ...The M-4Sers did one more album, too, without her.

The M-4Sers always had bumping, up tempo beats - typical Miami, but high quality - and nice scratching. Well, Celeste kept the nice scratching, but (mostly) chucked the rest, and instead came with tough, bare NY-style drums and hard rhymes. She started with a political, pro-black song called "I Ain't With That," with a tiny chopped samples ans squealing horn sounds, a la Public Enemy.  Not exactly what heads were expecting from a Fresh Celeste solo record. But while that was a nice surprise, the next song is what really had be geekin' [what? Slang's changed in the last twenty years? Why no, I hadn't heard].

I mean, I suppose it's slightly more pop, because it's got a little electronic keyboard riff to the beat, but the drums are so perfect, and Celeste kills it. And yeah, she's got nice cuts all over this, with a DJ cutting up Keith Sweat's "I Want Her" (among others), like they're taking new jack swing to the streets of Miami. There's a little bit of singing on this, with a girl belting out "she's a bad mama jama," and that riff I mentioned before sounds fucking fresh combined with everything else. It's one of those rare, perfect songs where pop rap elements that shouldn't work on paper just perfectly combine with some real shit to make something better than either camp would on their own. And you don't have to be a bass-head to appreciate this either; heck, there isn't even all that much bass in it; just some thumping away behind the drums.

The production, like pretty much everything by Celeste, is by Calvin and Carlton Mills (who was also the show-stealing DJ, under the name Ready Rock C... no relation to Will Smith's human beatbox)- two producers who started out as a group called Rock Force, and wound up being the in-house producers who produced just about everybody on JR/Joey Boy Records, and generally, just about half of Miami bass in the 90s. They wound up getting pretty paint-by-numbers and frankly, seeing their name in the credits of an album can be more of a bad sign than a good one... it's easy to forget they were doing dope records like this back in the day.

The 12" just features the one song, but it's fully loaded in terms of pieces - you've got the Acapella, Instrumental, Dub, Radio (shortened edit) and Dance version (which is really just the album version). There was also a single for "Hardcore Rap," which was kinda cool too; but this is way better. This one's bad.

The Zone Of Zero Funkitivity

When hip-hop started sampling P-funk, it was awesome. Listening to X-Clan's first album, for instance, was mind blowing (though P-funk admittedly wasn't the only mind-blowing element to their debut).  When Digital Underground came out, damn they were cool. Then everybody started sampling P-funk like crazy, gangsta rap completely transformed into G-funk, MC Breed started sporting a giant afro and bell bottoms, and the original P-Funk all stars from back in the day were popping up in every corner of music media, collaborating with rappers of all types and quality, and the same samples were being used again and again and again until you just wanted to rock back and forth in your closet, covering your ears and wishing it would all go away..The mothership had dropped the bomb and damn near killed hip-hop dead.

Somewhere in middle of all that was Ground Zero. I don't mean metaphorically, in the middle of the devastation of P-funk's shock and awe... I mean, there was a short-lived group literally named Ground Zero. They came out in '90/'91 on west coast label Lethal Beat Records, home of MC Twist, and their big single was "Lettin' Ya Know" featuring Bootsy Collins. Yup, this was the beginning of those guys turning up everywhere. It wasn't Bootsy's first comeback appearance, mind you - he'd already made his super huge, attention getting cameo on Deee-Lite's "Groove Is In the Heart" by then - but for a rap record, this was still a big deal. Especially since Ground Zero seemed to be nobodies who'd come out of nowhere.

Ground Zero was made up of two guys: E-Smooth and 1/2 PINT (Discogs thinks it's the same 1/2 Pint who later put out a bunch of bass records on On Top Records, but I really don't think so - they sure don't sound alike), and their whole deal was using P-funk samples (hooked up by their producer $ Makin' Mike). "Lettin' Ya Know" had a video which got huge rotation and media attention, and they wound up releasing it as a 12" single, a second 12" with a bunch of remixes, and including it on their EP, Future Of the Funk.

So, yeah, this is the main 12" pictured. It comes in a sticker cover and just features two versions: Radio (simply a shorter edit), and the Extended P-Mix, which is really just the full-length version of the song, and not a remix like its name suggests. These are the same two mixes on the EP, too - the "Radio" is naturally the same as the "Radio Mix;" and the "P-Mix" and "Extended P-Mix" are exactly the same, despite the extra extension implied in the name.

And there's not too much more to be found on Future of the Funk... it's really a stretch to call it an EP. The cover lists six tracks, but there's really only five (that's because a tiny intro, "Grim Reaper's Prelude," is actually blended into one of the songs, not separated into its own track like the cover says), and remember, they've put "Lettin' Ya Know" on here twice. One of the other tracks is just shout-outs, so there's really only two additional songs besides "Lettin' Ya Know." Three songs = a single, not an EP, in my book.  :P

Anyway, for all my complaining, I like this joint. The instrumental is made out of a commonly used loop from "Disco To Go" by Collins' band Brides of Funkenstein (and I think "Atomic Dog" drums).  In fact, I doubt Bootsy had anything to do with the music on this Ground Zero record at all, apart from being the sample source. But he does add some vocal ad-libs to the track, and it does add some extra charm to have him shouting "boooombs away" and stuff during the breaks; but really, for all the stickers and labels throwing his name on the cover of the single and EP, him starring prominently in the video and CD artwork; this record is basically complete without him. And, no, he didn't participate at all on the other EP tracks (except, again, as a sample source). It's all just a glorified co-sign. But, while neither rapper are particularly impressive, they at least have voices strong enough to carry a really bumping track. It bumps.

I remember being really excited to pick up this EP based on the video. But the rest was a let-down. The only song worth repeating was "Lettin' Ya Know." But still, it was enough to keep me eager for their upcoming full length, Zero Tolerance, and their promised future collaborations with Bootsy. But they never happened. There was going to be a second single ("Nuthin' 2 It," which is actually also on the EP, and... meh), but that never came, and neither did anything else. Check out this interview on Video Soul, where they talk about how they're going to do a bunch more songs together - see?

So, where did these guys go? Bootsy declared them "the P Masters of the Universe" and seemed pretty locked into a long-term working relationship with them. I mean... I guess the death of Lethal Beat Records is what happened, but really,m this single was big in the back of the day, and Bootsy and the gang weren't so over-saturated and played-out in 1991; his co-sign was a big deal then. I'm surprised no other label picked them up, at least for another single. I mean, okay, looking back it's probably not such a big loss as I thought of it back in the day, always waiting and expecting them to turn up again. But I bet there's a story there... just what happened after that Donnie Simpson chat? I've been wondering that for over twenty years now. But at least I got a pretty cool P-funk rap record out of it all. You know, one of the good ones before it all went to pot.

I'm No Fool; I Want My Record Played

There's a Doctor Ice record where he spends like, the last minute and a half or more doing shout-outs, including all the major DJs: Red Alert, Marley Marl, Chuck Chillout, and ends by explaining, "I'm no fool; I want my record played!"  Well the Def Con Crew had the same idea and they even took it one step further, by making the entire record a shout-out to all the DJs.

Def Con Crew only produced one record, and this is it. In 1988, this was put out on Ray Ray Records, the New York label that also dropped Sirocalot's killer single, but they get to DJs from all over, Greg Mack on the west coast, Ralph McDaniels on BET, and tons of presumably local DJs across the country from Philly to Texas. It's not all shout-outs, though. While they do a healthy dose of DJ naming shout-outs at the end, the bulk of the song consists of full rap verses praising the DJs - some famous, some generic. Conceptually, it's like a cross between "Hey DJ" and "Magic's Wand."

And it's funky, using a chunky sample of "Strawberry Letter 23" for the bulk of the instrumental, every so often bringing in that wonderful keyboard riff. The hook is a sung sample of the phrase "last night a DJ saved my life" from the Indeep record of the same name (famously copied covered by Mariah Carey). And the production's all by the Def Con Crew themselves... though it's worth noting that this is an early credit for Keyboard Money Mike, who engineered this record and is better known today playing on records by Ultramagnetics, Lord Finesse, BDP, etc.

So, this record's just known as the DJ praising joint, but there's actually a B-side as well, noteworthy for being the only other Def Con Crew song. It's called "We Came Here To Rock," and it's got a fun, throw-back rap style even for the time. They almost rhyme like The Crash Crew without the harmonizing parts, and a hard drum track instead of a disco band. It's probably more enjoyable now that its old school nature is nostalgic... at the time heads probably dismissed it as having a kinda cool beat but that's it. But now the super simplistic rhyme patterns have an extra "aww, remember when?" appeal.

Still, the A-side's the one you'll be buying this record for.  It comes with Vocal, Instrumental and Bonus Beat versions of each song.  And while it may not have you pining for a full Def Con Crew album or anything, but it's definitely a nice little 12" on its own terms. 'Cause "there's Mr. Magic, without no doubt, and the cool, cool brother called Chuck Chillout. I can't forget about the trooper, Red Alert. Yeah boy, you know the score, he goes berserk."  :)

The Return of Black, Rock & Ron

(Youtube version is here.  And the blog post I mention is here. And an important update/correction is posted here.)

Where The Hell Did Hi-Tech Go?

Hi-Tech was that dude. He was a master of that Queensbridge criminology style (even though I think he was actually from the Bronx) at its peak in the mid 90s, but was equal part backpack rapper; very few rappers could please audiences on both sides of fence at the same time. Even Nas has to visibly shift gears to reach both camps. Hi-Tech was a star artist on the indie label Mass Vinyl, and so he had killer production. His third single, "All Time Einstein," started a craze by sampling the theme to Hill Street Blues, and soon everybody was looking for television themes to sample. No, this wasn't the first record to sample a TV show - let us forget the days of Fresh Gordon - but his was an underground smash, and everybody from Lord Digga revitalizing his career with The Price Is Right theme to Timbaland and Magoo making a hit out of Knightrider. Everybody had to have a TV show theme, and underground rapper Hi-Tech was why.

This is his second record, though, and probably my favorite. "24/7" dropped on Mass Vinyl in 1996 in a pretty ill picture cover. The lead track is produced by the seriously underrated DJ Shok. Shok did a bunch of hot material for Mass Vinyl, and eventually went on to the Ruff Ryders camp where he kinda drifted off my radar. But his 90's stuff was terrific. Just listen to this track: it's got a perfect piano loop over a sparse beat and some nice cuts for a hook, and most producers would stop right there and declare victory. But Shok keeps breaking up the track, to add this dark, Wu-style distorted sound, giving the whole thing a really robust, dramatic life. This became one of those instrumentals, like "Tried By 12," where every MC had to freestyle over it at least a dozen times on mix-tapes, radio, etc.

The B-side is "Book Of Life, Page 2," a sequel to his first single. At first it sounds like it's just a remix, because the first verse is the same on both songs. But then the hook and subsequent two verses are all new. This version's produced by Jaybiz, and as great as the original was, this one's even better. It's deep and moody - the original was tight, a formula executed perfectly; but this one's creative. It's deceptively simple and brooding.

Meanwhile, the rhymes here bounce back and forth between personal reflection and throwback B-boyisms ("while taking my first fresh breath, the first words out my mouth was 'one, two, mic check'") and robust sincerity (when he talks about his father's drug addiction and says, "the more I think about it, I don't wanna talk about it," it's so damn genuine it doesn't sound like it can be a song lyric*). Some of the lines haven't aged so well and may sound a bit corny today; but you have to remember this was cutting edge lyric writing in the mid 90's, artists didn't really have a template of when a line got too jokey or contrived like they do today. Still, though, the majority of this is as strong today as it ever was, and puts your average Youtube rapper to shame.

So, really, what did happen to Hi-Tech? Well, I'm sure Hi-Tek's come up didn't help at all. Just as Hi-Tech was starting to solidify his name, here comes this other guy from Ohio and becomes an indie darling, hooking up with Rawkus. Sure, their names are spelled differently, but when you're standing around Fat Beats and you hear the phrase "hi tech," you know they're probably talking about a Black Star record. And when Mass Vinyl predictably went the way of all those awesome little NY indie vinyl labels, Hi-Tech seemed to vanish right with it. Dude put out a bunch of records, both his own and appearing with his crew, but never on another label ("Continuously" doesn't count, because it was an old track that was sitting on a shelf until Creative dusted it off and put it on his record years later); I guess he went down with his ship. Hi-Tech is one of those artists that represents the 90's so thoroughly he's practically an abstract symbol of it. And I could see some people then arguing that he's such an iconic 90's guy that it's just as well we haven't had to watch him fumble and chase terrible fads throughout the 2000s. But I don't know... I can't believe it's really a good thing to never again hear from any artist who was once so compelling.


*Okay, that quote's from the first "Book Of Life," but as far as the points I'm making go, it's the same difference.

The Biz Goes Schizo!

So Don Byron is kind of a big time, contemporary jazz guy, I guess. He's on (or been on) Blue Note, which is like the Def Jam of jazz labels, and he's been putting out albums for decades. I think his main instrument is the clarinet. I know hip-hop, not jazz, so that's all I got for ya on him.  Except for this: he released an album in 1998 called Nu Blaxploitation (on Blue Note/Capitol Records). I don't think it got much of a release here in the US (you can only get it from Amazon as in import) like it did overseas, but a promo copy found its way to The Source magazine, where it lived unwanted  But I saw it and asked if I could have it because look who's featured on it - the diabolical Biz Markie!

So, skipping right over the rest of the album (that's not a criticism or saying that it's bad or anything, that's just what I do when presented with non-hip-hop albums), we go right to track #6. It's called "Schizo Jam," and it's over fourteen minutes long, so this is a little more than your typical, negligible "he's only on one song" single verse cameo. It's a fucking jam, a... schizo jam?

To be honest, even being familiar with the long and having listened to it a bunch of times, I can't really figure out why it's called "Schizo Jam." The word is never used, the concept of schizophrenia is never brought up, and Biz isn't acting particularly erratic.  At least, no more than he usually does. At the beginning of the song, the Biz is introduced by saying, "in the whole history of African American entertainment, there is nobody like this cat," which is both absolutely true, and I guess the closest to an explanation for the song title as we're gonna get.

Like the title does suggest, though, the song isn't about anything... Biz just kicks freestyle verse after freestyle verse the way only he can:

"I'm the original,
Eatin' peanut butter and jelly.
Everybody,
Look at my big belly!"

And the audience reacts with perfect enthusiasm. Yeah, there's an audience. Usually, I'd be disappointed to receive a live track as opposed to a proper studio song; but for this jam, it's actually perfect. The live, free-form instrumentation, Biz's equally free-form personality, and the way the audience screams when he rhymes, "on my t-shirt is SCOOBY DOOBY DOO!" just couldn't be recreated in a recording booth.

Oh, and Don Byron raps, too.  Biz does most of the rhyming on this song, but Don gets on at more than one point, and one of his verses is actually really nice. He doesn't have the flow or naturalism of Biz, though, and he sounds like "somebody who shouldn't be rapping," but I actually really dug the lyrics to his second verse. The band is kickin', there's lots of nice horns and shit throughout the full fourteen minute jam, never getting redundant or repetitive. It's really a cool song, and you'll definitely want to track this CD (pretty sure there's no vinyl) if you're a serious Biz Markie fan.

Heck, I'm almost tempted to listen to the rest of this album.

What Krs Knows

(Youtube version is here.)

The Untold Tale of E-Marvelous

When Latee's lost demos were given the crisp vinyl treatment this Spring, one of the songs on that EP - the best - featured two guest rappers, including a guy named E-Marvelous. Well, on the label's forums, Smoov pointed out that it could be a guy named E-Marvelous that was down with D-Nice. I said it probably was, because D-Nice was one of those already established artists who joined the second generation Flavor Unit when Latifah and co. changed the line-up and dynamic of the original crew. And Latee hadn't quite been phased out of it at that point.  ...So here's the whole E-Marvelous story.

Remember D-Nice's crew, The Rescue Squad?  What's that? No? Nobody does? Well, The Rescue Squad was the name of his posse at the time of his second album (1991), which is why it was called To tha Rescue, and why he had a big red cross symbol on the back cover.  The Rescue Squad consisted of: McBooo (a producer who was also down with BDP), Tone, Robo-Cop, J-Boss, L'il Lowe, our man E-Marvelous and of course D-Nice.  I don't know who most of those cats are, or what they've done, if anything... except that a lot of songs on "To tha Rescue" mention "backgrounds" by the Squad as a whole, so they must've just been the generic voices on some chanted hooks.

But E-Marvelous actually did something noteworthy on that record - he performed a duet with Nice at the end of the album. The track-listing only credits the big-name guests (Krs One, Naughty By Nature and Too $hort. who must've gotten lost while wandering around the offices of Jive Records that day), but there's one more MC who spits on this album, one who doesn't get his name listed on the back-cover. "And There You Have It" is co-written and co-performed by E, with D sharing the mic with "my man from Uptown," E-Marvelous.

E went on to appear on D-Nice's final single, the independently released B-side to "Nice, Let Me Know It," that Nice put out on his own label (Nice Records, natch) called "All Out" in 1994. And that same year, he appeared on a single by R&B singer Roz, who D-Nice was also producing. Don't remember her? Roz sang back-up vocals on the token love song off To tha Rescue called "Get In Touch With Me."* Roz's solo career lasted for two singles - one featuring D-Nice, and the other, called "U Can Be My Lover," which is more of a clubby drum 'n' bass kinda thing, featuring E-Marvelous.

And that's the whole story of this mysterious Harlem MC until those Latee demos were unearthed earlier this year. He just had verses on those three songs, but - oh no, wait!  E-Marvelous came out with his own, super rare record. It's not on discogs and no place else online seems to even make an off-hand reference to it. But I'm sitting here looking at it, so it exists.

It's a 12" single called "Let 'Em Know" on Grand Sounds Entertainment (who only seem to have done this one release, but from the credits, I gather it's run by McBooo) in 2002. That's a good chunk of time passed since the other music I've been talking about, but just in case you're doubting it's the same guy, read the label credits: "Mixed by D-Nice and McBooo." This is our man, no question.

So "Let 'Em Know" comes in three flavors: Street, Radio and Instrumental, and it's produced by some guy named Mike Wrecka. Flip it over, and there's a B-side called "Move To This," which comes in Radio, Main and Instrumental, and is produced by McBooo.

So, how is this single? Well, even all the way back on "And There U Have It" and the Latee demo, E came off nice enough, but he wasn't exactly a mind-blowing MC. He was pretty neck and neck with D-Nice. He has a solid voice and fine, basic flow which sounds good over super hot, 90's jazzy production. But this is a 2002 single, to its detriment. E sounds good, but none of his lyrics stand out as especially above average. Over a better track he has the potential to be a compelling MC, but the beats are, well, at least kinda underground style for the time, and New Yorkish.  They'll get your head nodding when you listen to this, but once it's over you're not going to be in a hurry to hear it again.  "Let 'Em Know" is dark and tough, but it's all sample-free studio sounds. And "Move To This" is more of a club track, with an uncredited male singer half-crooning in the background - interesting, but again compiled entirely from out-of-the-box studio sounds. At the end of the day, it's a good, respectable indie 12"; but nothing to get excited over.

 And now, finally, that's really the end of the E-Marvelous story.  An interesting, extended footnote in the history of - wait a minute! What's this? The one in the white suit who raps second. That's gotta be a different E-Marvelous... right?


*...which, amazingly, they chose to be his second single.

Unreleased Eric B & Rakim Classics!

(Youtube version is here.)

Ego Trippin' Part Zero

A lot of De La Soul fans were probably confused in 1993 when they dropped their single "Ego Trippin' (Part 2)." Where was Part 1? Did I miss it? You could pretty much separate the real heads from the mainstream by who actually knew that Part was actually the Ultramagnetic MC's classic single on Next Plateau Records in 1987. And since then, other artists have made their own sequels and homages... Tech N9ne did a song called "Ego Trippin," MCJ and Cool G did, Waka Flakka Flame did, Steady B did... Snoop Dogg titled one of his latest albums Ego Trippin', and there's some electronic band called Ego Trippin' that's been putting out records for years and years.  I've never heard 'em, but I keep seeing their records all over the place.  Kool Keith made his own sequel (and that's not counting that silly "Ego Trippin' 2000 (Rmx)" from Bootlegs and B-Sides), called "Ego Trippin' '99" on a Sway and Tech project.  The title first appeared as a 70s funk record with a little break in it called "Ego Trippin'" by a group called Please, though I think it's more likely Ultra got it from Marvin Gaye's later record "Ego Tripping Out" Ultra just made an incredible record, that turned out to be powerfully influential on the genre, something they surely never anticipated when they were recording it.

But it's not rap's first "Ego Trippin'" record.

Two years before Ultramagnetics or anybody else touched the title (1985), Super-Wolf and Company released "Ego Tripping" on Big Bad Wolf Records.  If you've ever heard of Super Wold, it was probably on one of Sugar Hill Records' bajillion rap compilations, because they'd released his debut single "Super Wolf Can Do It" back in 1980.  That record's great, I love it.  Very funky and pure disco era, with Super Wolf rapping in that pure old school, Frankie Crocker radio DJ style with the bass-y voice and everything. After that one single is when he drops off the radar for the most part, but he actually continued to relaease records for years on his own label, Big Bad Wolf (which also released the original "Super Wolf Can Do It" before Sugarhill picked it up and gave it major distribution), and this was one of his later ones.

Super Wolf seemed to find himself caught in that weird phase a lot of disco-era rappers were in 1985. Whodini, Run DMC and drum programs changed hip-hop forever, and no one was checking for guys who rapped like The Sugarhill Gang anymore. It produced final records like Jimmy Spicer's "This Is It" or anything Kurtis Blow did after America... stuff that completely fails compared to their classic work, and yet fails to fit in with the new style of the day either.  But, actually, Super Wolf pulls through alright.

The new sound is definitely here musically. Simple cuts, big beats, fake horns, ringing telephones, fake handclaps and silly human beat-boxing right out of The Fat Boys' "All You Can Eat." And, meanwhile, Super Wolf is still rapping like it's 1980.  It's really goofy and should be a huge embarrassing disaster on paper, but... it kinda all works somehow. The beat is as silly as anything was in that period, but it's still funky; the bassline is actually fresh, and there's some funky guitar tucked away in this track. And Super Wolf is smart not to leave his comfort zone as a rapper, sticking to what he's good at, which is what most rappers who try to change with the passing fads generally fail to do.  The beat throws you off at first, but when you hear the familiar wolf howl comes in, it's a relief to know that the Super Wolf I'd been hoping to hear again is back, being himself. He's basically just here to kick some simple cautionary tales about letting your ego trip and encourage the break dancers in the audience, but he sounds as good as ever.

Despite the record being billed with "and Company," the rapping is all Super Wolf.  The Company presumably refers to the girls who sing on the chorus ans scratch mixer Terry Alexander (KX-96 - he's really not at all impressive, but having the cuts still adds to the energy of the song). And whoever the human beat box is.

In a way, this is as rare you'd expect an obscure 80's rap record from Tennessee (that's right, Memphis was putting out rap records as far back as 1980) to be. But Super Wolf must've been big enough to press up more than just a super tiny run; because I see these around online, relatively inexpensive.  If you're a fan of "Super Wolf Can Do It," this one is pretty different, but I recommend it anyway; I still don't think you'll be disappointed. And, hey, it's rap's original "Ego Tripping" - that's gotta count for something, right? Ultra did the classic, and De La did part 2, so that must make this... part 0. The rare first chapter in what's become a long, surprisingly enduring legacy.  ;)

Celebrating Finsta's 20th On Wax!

In 1992, Finsta released his debut single, "Finsta Baby" on a little label called Cracd Records. Most of Finsta's singles are pretty rare, and all of them are highly respected and sought after by heads in the know. And this debut is perhaps the most of all of them. You can expect to pay a couple hundred for a copy nowadays. But it's become available again now, for the 20th anniversary of his vinyl debut, on the new label, Sergent Records.

The original 12" featured three versions of "Finsta Baby"  - Dirty, Clean and Instrumental, plus a B-side track called "Payday Is Bliss." Perfect, but who cares about the Clean version, right? Sergent knows we don't, so they replaced it... with a previously unreleased vintage Finsta track from the 90's: "Activate." We heard a good, tantalizing chunk of it on Finsta's Never Say Never mixtape from back in the late 90's, but now we're hearing it complete and unmixed for the first time, on this vinyl debut. This is gonna excite a lot of people.

What's that? You say you're not necessarily completely entirely familiar with Finsta's music history? Oh dear, what are we going to do with you? Quick, read the rest of this post before anybody cool hears you don't know who Finsta is!

Finsta is a Brooklyn MC, down with those Black Moon cats before they blew up.  He came out with his earliest material produced by Evil Dee and da Beatminerz, and then hooked up with his rhyming partner Bundy,. Finsta became his own producer, making tracks that can stand 100% alongside the best of Da Beatminerz, and released a series of 12" singles throughout the 90's, right in the heyday of the indie vinyl days, but always just slightly off the radar.  I don't think think anyone could say Black Moon was ever pop, but compared to Finsta, they were the mainstream to his underground realness. "Feel the High," "Who I Be," "Sunnyside," "Don't Stress Tomorrow"... If you see a Finsta Bundy record, pick it up; you will never go wrong.

So yeah, this is all pre-Bundy material, and produced by Evil Dee, not Finsta himself (including the unreleased "Activate."). Just real nice, underground flow, with a hyper, fast rap steez on "Payday Is Bliss." A terrific single that belongs in the crates of anyone who can get their hands on a copy, made all the better with the inclusion of the very worthy "Activate."

So, about the release. It comes in a fresh sticker cover, and is limited to 150 copies, never to be repressed. Unfortunately, it's also priced like one of those limiteds, which is to say many times higher the price of a standard, new 12" single. And the sound quality? Yeah, I can't close the books without touching on that.

Unfortunately, I don't have an OG copy of  "Finsta Baby" on Cracd to do a proper side-by-side comparison (have I mentioned how rare and expensive those can be? I'm lucky to have the Finsta Bundy 12"s I do have). So just based on hearing this 20th anniversary 12" alone, I'll say it ain't bad. I've heard that the original sounds better, but this sounds alright. The two B-side tracks fare a little worse than the A, it sounds like the levels are breaking over their peak or... some kinda distortion seems to have sneaked its way into the final mix.  It's... okay; you can certainly still listen to it and enjoy it (and obviously "Activate" here is a leap year ahead of its prior mixtape incarnation), but it's not really up to the exceptional, top quality, first class all-around level you expect when you pay the big money for these special, limited releases.

So, at the end of the day, I still recommend this one for sure. Music-wise, it's A+ all the way. And presentation-wise? Okay, the sound quality pulls the GPA down a bit; but the quality isn't so problematic that you should miss out. I'm still happy to have mine, and if this were a budget 12" sitting on a record store shelf somewhere, everyone would scoop this up and dance away in joy; but at the price it's selling for, I'm seeing some grumbling online and it's not entirely unwarranted. It's not stellar, but it's still dope.

One Crazy, Brilliant Album

(Youtube version is here.)

How Lord Finesse Pissed Me Off

[Disclaimer, right up front: this has nothing to do with Mac Miller. Not that I'm no longer interested in that case, but you know the court systems... it'll probably be ages before we hear any updates, and even then, there's a very good chance they might just quietly settle.]

So, I've had Lord Finesse & DJ Mike Smooth's album on cassette since it dropped; but growing up, I didn't really have access to vinyl, so I never got his 12" singles. It wasn't until like a decade later that I was looking online to see what there was, and I saw this - his second single from his debut album. The first single was just two album tracks with instrumentals, but look at this one - it's got a Premiere Remix of "Strictly for the Ladies," and a Vocal Remix of "Back To Back Rhyming" with AG! Awesome - ordered that shit (which, as you can maybe tell from my scan, was a repress) soon as I saw it.

I get the record in the mail, lay it on the tables, and... it's the same beat.  And the same scratches on the hook. And all the way through it's the same shit as on the album. I mean, not that the album version is shit; it's a fantastic track, produced by... Premier. Right. Still, though, he must've done something different for this 12", right? I mean, you see it right there in the pic I've uploaded, don't you? I'm not crazy. It says "Radio Remix," and in tinier letters, "remixed by DJ Premier."

Well, maybe it's just slightly mislabeled, and the next Full Version is really the remix. No, well, maybe it's majorly mislabeled, and the Full Version is actually the remix? Okay, maybe the label is totally fucked and the Instrumental...? Nope. But now I get it. The first version is just your standard, shorter radio edit of the album version, it's called "Radio Remix" as opposed to "Radio Version" or "Radio Edit" because... Wild Pitch enjoys playing cruel mind games on the fans, presumably.

Oh well, disappointing, but we still have our exciting Vocal Remix of "Back To Back Rhyming." No "Radio" nonsense on that side of the label.  It's probably gonna be the same beat, but all new lyrics. I wonder if both of them will have new rhymes, or just one of... what... the... Hell? It's the exact same thing as the album! Same beat and both verses are the same, with the same hook, same everything. And yeah, the Instrumental's just the instrumental. It took me ages to figure out what technically's different.  The 12" version is a a few seconds longer. At the end, when Finesse says "see ya," the beat loops a couple more times on the 12". That's it. I don't even prefer it to the LP mix, because I think it sounds better when it ends when he says "see ya." The album version could even end 3-4 seconds earlier, in my opinion.

So, yeah, it's still a fine 12". It's got two great album tracks, plus instrumentals... kinda like the first single.  It's just... just not the super kick-ass 12" the label would have us believe. Oh well.

Keepin' Up the Funky Beat is the Holland Crew

Hey, you guys remember Bivak Records? I did a video about them a year and a half ago, they were the guys that put out that nice unreleased Chain 3 and Great Peso 12" from '84, and then they had that mixCD I talked about. Well, they're back in 2012, unfortunately not with killer unreleased old school on wax, but with a second mixCD, which is still good.  I mean, honestly, mix tapes/CDs don't generally get me too terribly enthused. Even when the DJ's really talented (which, sadly, most aren't), I'd just generally rather hear the original records being spun.

But this mixCD I'm actually really enthused about and am recommending. It probably helps substantially that I don't own a single one of the records involved, and also just because it's coming from a really compelling angle. Bivak refers to it as "a non-commercial slice of pure edutainment.," and it's essentially a chronological history of Holland hip-hop from 1983-1992. Now, my knowledge of Holland hip-hop basically extends from MC Miker G to DJ Sven...  meaning, just those guys (actually, Urban Dance Squad, too; but I forgot they were from Holland until I saw them on this). But it's a scene I was already curious about... I subscribed to their blog, dutcholdschoolhiphop.blogspot.nl, ages ago, but you only get so much out of it when you don't know any of the players involved. So, this was perfect for me, as it's a as thorough as you can possibly get on a single disc (since it's a mix, they can cover a lot more records than a straight compilation). And even if you're thinking, "you know, I'm not sure I actually give a flying fuck about the Holland hip-hop scene, Werner, to be honest," I'm telling you, stick with me on this.

First of all, starting all the way back in 1983 means they've got a pretty extensive, classically old school period. If you've ever started to feel like you've heard all the best old school rap records out there, this is like a fresh start. Hip-hop records from all the great stages in old school hip-hop, disco style, electro, hardcore drum programs to the early sampling... and you've never heard any of it before! And, granted, there's not really any Melle Mels or Rakims about; but there is some really good stuff here.

I think the earlier stuff is the most exciting. It's really fun, and even the flaws or weaker MCing work in that "charming super old school" way, where any silliness on-hand just makes it all the more endearing. One song, "Papa Joe," is bordering on flat-out novelty rap (it's about a man with an unhealthy obsession for Italian food), but damned if it isn't catchy and entertaining as Hell. And as the mix progresses, you hear the music slowly evolve, and get more serious. There's some solid production and DJs with some serious turntable skills.

There's a big variety on here, from rap/hair band hybrids to a freestyle session where some guys are really, shamelessly imitating Run DMC, but the mix manages to make it all sound very cohesive and natural. And I should point out (as this was a concern of mine when I first heard about this disc), that it's pretty much all in English.  Out of thirty-something songs, only one is in Dutch, and some of the interludes (which are basically all interview clips from the period). It's a little disappointing we can't understand those skits - this CD would be even better without the language barrier, I think we'd get even more out of it; but seriously, 97-98% of this is in English, so nobody who can read this should feel too left out.

Like their last disc, this is credited to Chris the Wiz and another DJ (DJ Foxx); so I"m assuming it's situation as the last one, where the DJ is mixing records from Chris's collection.  Also like their last disc, it's limited (which seems a little off, considering the nature of this project... it's educational, no one interested should miss out) to 100 copies, so don't hold off if you think this might be up your alley. Really, it's better than just about any other album coming out in hip-hop right now, mixed or not. And definitely keep an eye on Bivak... hopefully they have another vinyl treat in store for us next.

Ultramagnetics' Greatest Hits - Ruined!

By 1997, Next Plateau had issued and reissued Critical Beatdown many times. And they did so with good reason - it's a terrific and important hip-hop album that's really held up over the decades.  But, still, how many times can you keep repackaging and reselling the same product to the same audience? Sometimes you've gotta do something different. And Tuff City was making a lot of noise with their multiple compilations of unreleased Ultramagnetic MCs material around that time. Dr. Octagon was beginning  to cross over to mainstream, non-hip-hop audiences... the time was right to cash in. But, unfortunately for the label, Ultra only ever released one album on their label.  So Next Plateau came up with The B-Sides Companion.

From the title, this doesn't seem like a bad idea at all. Ultra may've only recorded the one full-length for Next Plateau, but they released a slew of classic singles for them, almost all of which include remixes and exclusive B-sides as good or better than anything on the album. Compiling them all onto one album that all the new, younger Ultra fans who couldn't get their hands on all the original 12" singles could get and appreciate sounds like a safe and solid idea.  How could you mess that up?

Well, I guess the label decided the new fans weren't a big enough market, so they had to reach the die hard fans, too. But if the die-hard fans have all those B-sides already, what could Next Plateau do?  They made new, 1997 remixes of every single one of them. Unfortunately, remixing a classic ten years later is generally like painting a new expression on the Mona Lisa. Even if you're talented, you're fucking around with something that's pretty much perfect and spoiling it.

So, now we have what is probably the worst Ultramagnetics album short of Best Kept Secret. Ced Gee and William "Spaceman" Patterson (a studio musician who's played guitar on gajillions of hip-hop tracks over the years) take all of Ultramagnetics' rare 12" B-sides (well, mostly just the ones that came out on Next Plateau, of course) and make new, modern versions. "Break North" (not a B-side, by the way, but I guess we'll let that go) becomes "Break North '97 (Rmx)," etc.

Now, to be fair, they don't completely make all these great songs terrible.  Let's take "Break North." It's still basically the same rhymes over the same beat with the same samples. They just add some extra instrumentation noodling around on top of it.  And they replay some samples, so they're essentially the same, but just a bit off (the horns on "Watch Me Now ('97 Rmx)" are downright funny if you've heard the original). It doesn't fit, and it makes it worse than the original one; but for the most part you're still able to listen to and enjoy "Break North." Imagine you're listening to a fantastic album, and then your kid sister comes into the room and starts talking to her Barbies on the floor behind you.  You can still listen to the album, appreciate it, and enjoy it. It would just be nicer if she shut the Hell up. That's pretty much the experience you paid for if you bought this album.

But wait, there's more.  Next Plateau must've figured kids wouldn't be too thrilled with just a collection of old songs, remixed or not. So there's a new song: "Ultra Reunion" (spoiler: only Keith and Ced showed up) and a brief clip of Keith rapping live at Tramp's. It's nothing special... pretty bland, in fact.

But there are two songs on this album that are actually quite exciting. "Kool Keith Android Model #406" ("yo, man, I want you to bust this beat out like a rappin' android, you know what I'm saying?") and "I'm On" sound like genuinely vintage, never-before released song from the late 80's. They're dope, and they don't even have the cheesy, replayed production sound of the remixes here - I don't think Ced and the Spaceman fucked with 'em. They're really great Ultra tracks!

For the most part, this project is a waste. It feels like, as Ultra fans in the 90s, we were almost tricked into buying this. An actual compilation of the original B-sides would've been redundant for the hardcore fans, but a lot more desirable than the collection of inferior remixes we have here. The time Ced and Patterson spent remixing all this stuff would've been better spent reading magazines; and the "Reunion" is just a half-assed cash grab.  But in the end, two un-highlighted songs tucked away on the B-side manage to turn this lifeless dud into a must-have gem. It's too bad they didn't make a 12" single for just those two tracks, but hey, whatever. We susceptible fans may've gotten snookered by Next Plateau, but we got something great out of it in the end.

Farewell, Ms. Melodie

(Youtube version is here.)

Ice-O-Tek-A-Mix

So blogging about Ice-T the other week has got me revisiting all his old albums. Lots of fresh production on Rhyme Pays, and Power still has me wanting to skip right to "High Rollers." But what about the stuff even further back than that? Before he was a gangsta rapper on Warner Bros/Sire Records?  Well, fortunately, I have a compilation of a bunch of that stuff I could rock in the car, and... it's more interesting than I remember it.

The compilation I'm talking about is called The Classic Collection, released on Rhino and Excello Records in 1993. It's pretty cool. It compiles the early singles Ice-T released on Saturn, Electrobeat and Techno Hop Records before he signed with Warner Bros and became the icon he is today.  These records are a lot of fun, because he's on some really old school breakin' stuff, which at first seems pretty far removed from his more famous Iceberg Slim-inspired styles (though, listening to all his early material, you can hear him bridge that gap pretty naturally). This is the Ice-T who dressed in crazy outfits, rapped about graffiti and performed elaborate break dance routines in early hip-hop movies. It's really good times, and would probably surprise the heck out of people who only know him for songs like "Colors." "Body Rock," in fact, is probably my favorite Ice-T song ever.

But for some reason - maybe rights issues, or maybe Rhino just wasn't up on Ice's history well enough to know about them - they leave out all the stuff Ice did as a member of The Radio Crew and the records where his producer, Chris "The Glove" Taylor got top billing. So, it's not a terribly complete collection. In fact, it winds up being pretty short.

So, what is Rhino to do? Fill! Now, they don't go quite as far as Macola Records and steal an entire other group's songs and pass it off as the main artist; but they still manage to come up with some pretty quirky padding. First off they include some extra 12" stuff, which is what you'd expect a compilation to do when it's short on material (or, like Traffic, just looking to be as completist as possible)... So, not only is his 1983 track "The Coldest Rap" on here, but so is "Cold Wind Madness (The Coldest Rap Pt 2)," even though "Pt 2" is really just the dub mix of the original, and not a new song with new lyrics, etc. We get "Dog'n the Wax (Ya Don't Quit Pt 2)" which actually is a proper, new song that follows "Ya Don't Quit" (also present), but then we get "Iceapella" as well, which is just the acapella mix of "Dog'n the Wax" from the original vinyl (even though the rather extensive liner notes write about it as if it's a proper song on its own).

But there's nothing unusual or unwelcome about that.  I mean, I'd rather have the Radio Crew songs than dub and acapella mixes; but still, you expect that stuff.  Now, here's what you don't expect.

The album starts off with "Ice-A-Mix." This is an original mix recorded for this compilation, produced by Al Eaton (who's produced a bunch of west coast stuff), with cuts by DJ Rob-Scene (whoever that is). They basically make a little mega-mix of the Ice-T records you're going to hear later on this compilation, something Rhino Records did a lot of on compilations they put out in the 90's. Did I say Al Eaton produced it? Well, that's what the liner notes say. But, interestingly, this mix was actually released as a 12" single (okay...), and there the credit is given to DJ Flash. This makes more sense, because he did a bunch of this stuff for these compilations around this time (including those Rock On Crew ones). It's not bad, but not too exciting, as it mostly just features beats and verses we're about to hear in a few seconds anyway. The most noteworthy thing about it is the very dramatic trumpet solo that jumps in about midway through by a guy named Tim Larkin. I can't exactly say it blends in seamlessly - it sticks out like a sore thumb against these simple, old school programmed drum patterns; but it's not bad. Just odd.

But that's not as weird as what we get on the B-side, "Ice-O-Tek." This one's an original dance track that throws in a couple of random Ice-T vocal snippets "my name is Ice-T" and sporadically drops them over a very unrelated, poppy techno track. Seriously, even Technotronic would be like, "this isn't street enough to be on our album." It's not bad, though, in a very upbeat, bubbly sort of way; but man has it ended up on the wrong side of the streets amid Ice-T tracks like "Killers" and "6 In the Mornin'."

What? "6 In the Mornin'" is on here? Yup. Even though it's on Rhyme Pays on Warner Bros, it's here, too. That actually fits, because before it appeared on Rhyme Pays, it was released as the B-side to "Dog'n the Wax" on Techno Hop. And it's one of his greatest hits, so I'm not complaining that it's here, although it's a little redundant having it on both albums. I'm just surprised they could put it on here, since it's now the property of Warner Bros.

Plus, redundant or not, like I said, Rhino needed to pad. Honestly, if you took all the random shit like that and "Ice-O-Tek" off of here, you'd have a one-sided tape. It's that short - five songs. The fact of the matter is that, if you don't include the stuff Ice did with Chris Taylor/ Radio Crew, Ice just didn't release enough unsigned material to fill an album. In fact, if not a one-sided tape, I wish they would've at least put those five songs all on one side, and the odds and ends on the flip. That way you could listen to all that stuff through in a quick listen like an EP (and visit the other stuff on those rare days you're feeling adventurous). But instead, they mix it all together, so you're constantly having to fast-forward or skip ahead on your CD player. But still, unless you're going to collect all the original 12"s, this is worth picking up.

Now, interestingly, Blue Dolphin released an alternate version of this in 1996 with a different track-listing called Cold As Ice. I call this an alternate version, as opposed to just another compilation of early Ice-T tracks, because not only are many of the songs the same on both albums, but it even includes the "Ice-A-Mix" recorded specifically for Rhino's album. Cold As Ice includes those Chris Taylor/ Ice-T tracks from the the Breakin' and Breakin' 2 soundtracks like "Reckless" and "Go Off" (titled "Party People" here), which is a big plus. In fact, I'd say forget about The Classics Collection and rock this, except, frustratingly, they don't include "Ya Don't Quit" or "Dog'n the Wax," which are great, essential Ice-T classics. Why on Earth did they include shit like "Ice-O-Mix" and the dub version of "Coldest Rap" and leave those off? It could've been the definitive version, but instead it's just a weird, alternate version that's less desirable than the first Rhino comp, because it's missing two of the five most important songs. Bad, dolphin, bad!

Oh well, like I said, this is still a pretty handy, definitely enjoyable, collection if you aren't quite prepared to go digging for all the original 12"s. There's still room for a really definitive collection, though, that would include all this stuff, the Breakin' stuff, and the Radio Crew songs into one really solid album. And those crazy, original mixes do add to the fun, even if they're cheesy as Hell. And I don't think anybody's going to dig for that 12"!