Celebrate Today With a Sick New Album

Hey, it's Thanksgiving. So okay, what's to be thankful for? How about a hot new album that just dropped? It's the return of Grand Invincible, with their third full-length album (or fourth if you count their EP, Winter 365*), Menace Mode. They put out a single not too long ago... well, actually, it's been over a year. But anyway, the songs on there aren't on this album; those are exclusive tracks to that cassingle and everything on this tape is brand new, too. Yeah, this one's on tape, too. Although of course there's a digital-only version for all you herbs and bustas out there, too.  ;)

This is a tight album. It's full-length, twelve cuts, though one or two are short little instrumental joints. There's no guest MCs on here, just a pair of guest DJs - Eddie Def and DJ Sniper - to add some extra scratching. Of course Eons does plenty of his own cutting as well. So there's a lot of hip-hop purism on hand, strong breaks. But then you've got Luke Sick bringing his grisly, raw blue-collar side to the equation, giving it a dark, moody feel. With one or two little adjustments, this could work as the soundtrack to the first season of True Detective.

It starts out with an instrumental introduction called "Codenames Pt. II" ("Pt. I" was on Ask the Dust), but really takes off with "Jackson Pollock," taking its title from a grim reference in the Miami Vice movie (which they include at the end of the song just in case you've never seen it). Luke flips back and forth from traditional hip-hop bragging about his breaks to "scum storytella" mode, spitting bars like:

"I'm paranoid in the crib
Surveillance cams and a pile of coke
She hate me I bug her
But she's used to dudes tryin' to drug her
I smell a fake fuck then fool get checked quick
Then I snatch his bags out the Luxor
On the roof for the bird to swoop
They throw the rope ladder I grab the loot"

Another stand-out is "Yegg," the one they made their first video for. Two ill piano loops on top of each other, old school bas booms, and a phat scratched hook of "Come Clean" Jeru. "Dust Tour" has a killer horn sample that could make you buy the tape just for that. Really, the whole album is an impressive showcase of how to make an innovative, advanced album through very traditional and basic methods. Heads will love it.

So if you want it, you better move fast. Because it's another super limited tape from Megakut Records. The pricing is great ($10, and that's including the shipping), especially since this is a pretty high quality production. You know, sometimes these ultra-indie tapes are just labeled with a sharpie or something, but this is a good looking, printed black tape, flapped artwork, and it even comes with a very cool lyrics booklet, done in a punk 'zine style (a la Let's Side). And Luke Sick fans should also be keeping our eyes peeled for the next Grand Killa Con EP, which is coming out on vinyl soon from a label called Art of Rec. So, yeah, definitely some good stuff to be thankful for.


*Or fifth if you count Underbucket!  :P

More Girls With Attitude

If you're gonna put together a girl group in the late 80s to knock off N.W.A. (Niggaz Wit Attitudes), you can't come up with a much worse name than H.W.A. (Hoes With Attitude).  B.W.P. (Bytchez Wit Problems) was a definite step in the right direction, and of course there actually was a group called Girls With Attitudes. But for my money, the best to do it were G.T.S. (Girls Talkin Shit). They only had one single, but it's pretty good.

It's called "Juice It," and it's actually not particularly explicit. It's a pretty upbeat dance song, with a lot of familiar 80s samples, like "Don't Stop the Rock" and "The Pee Wee Dance." The girls, G-Poo and Tikki-T, are actually pretty decent on the mic, and there's a lot of fresh scratching by guest DJ Mannie Fresh. Gregory D pops on for a short verse, too; and they produced it together, which is surely what accounts for it being such a well-made track. Despite their appearance, though, I don't think these girls are from New Orleans. The label has a California area code, and at one point they mention "rollin' in Compton." 

This dropped in 1988 on D&D Enterprises. One odd bit of curiosity about this record, too, is its sleeve. Yeah, it's a plain white hole-puncher, but inside, well... let me take a picture real quick.

Yeah, see it's a generic sleeve on the outside, but inside, it's a picture cover. It's not a G.T.S. thing, though. It's actually a little bit creepy in there. The picture cover is for a blues album by Skip James, on a New Jersey record label called Yazoo. Apparently, the makers of this sleeve took an old Skip James sleeve, turned it inside-out and punched the hole through it to make a regular sleeve out of. I'm not sure if they're all like this, but my copy was still brand new and shrink-wrapped, so this isn't some random used record where somebody created a makeshift sleeve at home. This is how it came out of D&D.

There's also a B-side to this single, called "Skin Tight." It, rather obviously, takes the bulk of its music from The Ohio Players' "Skin Tight," including using the signature chorus for their hook. It's a good groove, though, and they make it sound good over a well paced track and a little scratching (though nothing as notable as the A-side's). Lyrically, it's just about how they like to wear skin tight jeans and how they look good in them. Not exactly heavy or heady stuff, but some of it's fun: "cold strollin', switchin' my butt. Then all of the fellas yell, 'yo double up!' (Is that right?) Yeah, Poo, 'cause I got the big butt, make the paraplegic get up and jump. Or what about your girl? You'll have to dump her for this female with the cute little rumper. Yeah, you know I'm libel to make a preacher drop his bible; make a dead man raise up from his grave; back end's enough to make a gay man turn straight. Make a man with no teeth wanna take a bite. I'm in effect (In effect!), 'cause my jeans are... skin tight!"

These girls were actually pretty adept on the mic and had a good sound. It's too bad they didn't follow this 12" up. I expect this was meant to be their radio single and given their name, might've been building to something a little less commercial. Like, this would've been their "Something 2 Dance 2." But I would've been fine with more jams like "Juice It," too; especially if Gregory D and Mannie Fresh kept them under their wing. But oh well, as it is, it's a pretty neat little one-off project.

Demonic Karate

(Youtube version is here.)

The Return Of Johnny the Fox

Last year, I wrote about the debut solo single of Tricky Tee, formerly of the disco-era Just Two, on Sleeping Bag Records. It was a more traditionally hip-hop effort on Tee's part, but also had the very distinct feel of its producer, Mantronik. That was 1985, and this is his 1986 follow-up. Still on Sleeping Bag Records, this time they've upgraded him to a full color picture (and sticker) cover.

And this time he's no longer partnered up with Mantronik. Instead, both the A- and B-side here are produced by Sam Sever. You probably know him best for doing some classic 3rd Bass songs, and later forming Downtown Science with Bosco Money. This is before all of that, and Sever brings more of a pure, New York sound to his production here. You probably wouldn't recognize it as Sever's work, but it's really strong stuff.

Ironically, the drums are the weakest part of "Leave It To the Drums." It's a fresh drum pattern, and it combines perfectly with the other elements to make a great rap song. But the drums themselves sound very piddling and soft. A more modern producer would've probably laid heavier hits on top of these drums, but as it is, it's interesting, but probably best to focus on all the other elements of the song. Especially since the other elements are all great. Tee's not doing anything particularly mind-bending lyrically, but he's got a great flow that perfectly matches the track; he actually reminds me of T-La Rock on here. And the instrumental is largely made up of a collection of traditional jazzy samples being dropped in one by one. I'm sure it was all laid down in the studio, but it feels like there's an old school DJ constantly swapping between records behind the MC.

The B-side isn't quite as good, but it comes in at a respectable second place. It's very big on hand claps and bells. The drums sound more natural here and Tee comes nice and hard again. There's a promising "Good To Go Mix" on here, but it turns out to just be the instrumental. Both songs have full/ Club, Radio and Instrumental versions.

It's just another strong single from Tee that felt like he was building up to a Sleeping Bag album... but for whatever reason that never happened. So you've gotta get these singles, because that's all there is, which is a shame, because I'm sure it would've been a highly regarded album to this day had it existed.

But while this is his second and last solo single, I wanted to bring something I found online to your attention.  This is why the internet is awesome. There's a great, unreleased comeback single by Tricky Tee that lives in full online. It's from 1991 according tot he uploader. It's kind of fuzzy, so I'm guessing this was taped off the radio. It's called "Who's In Town," and it's hot, produced by Shadow. If you told me you had an unreleased '91 comeback single by Tee, I'd have some fairly tempered expectations, but this is really as dope as you could want it. Check it out here. It's really a shame there's no wax of it, but it shows Tricky Tee still had more fire in him.

The Godfather Of Soul Meets The Godfather of Hip-Hop

I've already talked about James Brown's dalliance with rap music in the late 80s, courtesy of Full Force; but that wasn't his first hip-hop project. In 1984, he released the collaborative single "Unity" with Afrika Bambaataa. there was a music video for it and everything, but I don't think it broke out of the smaller markets too much. And to make things a little more complicated, the original 12" has six different versions of "Unity:"

Unity Part 1: The Third Coming
Unity Part 2: Because It's Coming
Unity Part 3: Nuclear Wild Style
Unity Part 4: Can You See It
Unity Part 5: The Light
Unity Part 6: World III

I've never seen anyone attempt to break down all the parts and how they're different. And they are, it's not just a fancy way to label "Radio Edit," "Instrumental," etc. Well, not mostly. There's some very distinct, different music and lyrics at play here. So I guess, once again, it falls to me. Heh

"Part 1: The Third Coming" is the one they had the video for, the one Rapmasters included in their series of cassettes; and the one most of you are probably familiar with.

The music should be very familiar. Like how I said in my last James Brown video that he was being oddly cannibalistic by sampling himself, he does that here, too. Except strictly speaking, the band is replaying the same riffs, not sampling them. And when I say band, I'm actually talking basically about The Sugarhill Band. Even though this is on Tommy Boy, it's Sugarhill's house band: Skip, Doug and Keith. And they're sort of making a medley of classic James Brown music over hip-hop drums and synths, with some extra live horns. It's all great stuff, but it's not like we're getting fresh new James Brown grooves here. We're getting James ad-libbing over his old music while Afrika throws in the occasional short rap verse.

Yeah, that's the biggest shortcoming of this record. Bambaataa's rapped before and since, but there's a reason he was basically known as the DJ and had The Soulsonic Force and other rappers be his MCs. It's really a shame he didn't get any of the Force to kick proper rap verses on here - or, hot damn, could you imagine if they brought in Melle Mel? This project would be perfect for him. But instead Bambaataa handles all the MCing here, so the raps are very basic. They're fine; there's nothing wrong with them. He doesn't say anything stupid or sound terrible, and it's a worthwhile message. But I think that's what held this the top rank of hip-hop classics. If "Unity" had a "child is born with no state of mind" level verse on here, it would be on every old school rap compilation ever. And the famous hook, "Peace! Love! Unity! And having fun" says it all. The rest of the vocals don't really impart anything more.

Pay attention to James's acapella ad-libbing on the introduction to "Part 2: Because It's Coming" and you'll hear where Steady B got his hook for "Believe Me Das Bad" from. The Beastie Boys' "Shake Your Rump" also comes from here. This is a highly sampled record, actually.

Instrumentally, "Part 2" doesn't stray too far from "Part 1," with most of the same riffs recurring in the same pattern. But lyrically, it's totally different. Now Bambaataa's rapping against nuclear war and his fears of an imminent World War 3. This one's also got a bit of James actually singing, as he and Bambaataa go back and forth singing "all throughout the land." And some other outside vocalists even get in on it as well.

"Part 3: Nuclear Wild Style," like its title suggests, is more World War 3 future world problems. This one's got more of a punk feel to it. In fact, it has more of a Time Zone feel to it, specifically. James is barely on this one. He has his acapella instrumental, and about halfway through they start bringing some of his instrumental themes back in. But I have a feeling James wasn't even in the studio for the recording of this one; we never hear his voice apart from the intro. It's got a great bassline and some funky, more modern playing on it, which is cool. But it feels like Bambaataa's getting a little carried away at this point.

"Part 4: Can You See It" brings it back to the original. James is back, the original non-nuclear lyrics are back, the original horns and music are back. So what's different about it, what makes this one special? Well, every version up to now was about three and a half minutes long. This one's nine. It's basically a a giant extended mix of "Part 1." And it has stuff from "Part 2," too, like a shorter version of the "all throughout the land" bit. "Part 1" is the version with the most life beyond this 12"; but if you ask me, this is the preferable definitive version.

"Part 5: The Light" makes you want to see what they're doing in the studio while they're recording their adlibs, because James proclaims whatever Bambaataa's doing is going to wipe out the moonwalk. This one has some - but minimal - vocals and a lot more emphasis on the horns. That's really it. The production's a little more modern (for its time), and it's a funky little production pretty much created to give the horns their time to shine. Fun, but definitely the kind of thing that could only exist on a 12" B-side.

And finally "Part 6: World III" is an acapella. Always cool to get an acapella, especially for all the young producers out there looking to make their mark with remixes; but it's disappointing that they label it as a whole sixth "Part," because it makes you expect one more full version of the song, rather than just an element floating by itself. It's not even a complete acapella, really; it's just some parts strung together. All the isolated James Brown screeches have surely made a great DJ tool for a lot of heads over the years, though; and The Jungle Brothers used a crazy Bambaataa laugh as a distinct piece of their "Sounds of the Safari" instrumental.

Overall, it's a pretty fun record, albeit more for instrumental enjoyment than lyrically. It's also important just by virtue of what it is, historically: James Brown coming together with Afrika Bambaataa to make a record together, showing musical and generational unity as much as all the other types of unity they talk about in the song. Today, if Drake switched places with Justin Beiber, I'm not sure anyone would even notice. But in 1984, this kind of thing was a big deal.

Creature Feature

(Happy Halloween!  The Youtube version is here.)

Some Old Sluggo Guest Spots

Today I'm revisiting a couple of early guest appearances by Slug, as in the lead MC of Minnesota's Atmosphere, plus Deep Puddle Dynamics, Dynospectrum, etc. These are some local, home state collabos from long before Atmosphere ever got on MTV or any of that craziness. It's also more traditionally b-boy kinda stuff, compared to the material with any rock influences that might've creeped into his music later on. He's young, his friends are young. Not that this is his very earliest material, that I suppose would be the first Headshots tape when he still used the full name Sluggo. But this is pretty raw, don't worry.

First up is Beyond. This one's pretty obvious, since he was a fellow Dynospectrum member; but it came out in 1996, which seems to make these Slug's first properly written and recorded verses (since the early Headshots tapes were just freestyles and live performances, not proper songs like the later tapes). Beyond went on to change his name and record as Musab, but his debut album, Beyond Comparison, is the first vinyl and CD Rhymesayers ever pressed, preceded only by those first Headshots tapes.

So Beyond's got two songs featuring Slug: "B.L.A.K. Culture" and "Unaligned Sperms" (the latter of which is only on the CD version), both produced by A.N.T. The beats are pretty simple boom bap drums with a couple samples on top, but "B.L.A.K." has Slug performing a catchy hook that goes, "Life, love, stress and set-backs. For those trying to breath, show me where your head's at." That's all he contributes to that song, however; the raps are all Beyond.

"Unaligned Sperms," on the other hand, opens with Slug rapping. He's actually kicking a verse from Headshots 4. But I guess it would be more accurate to say he's performing that bit he recorded for this album live on the Headshots tape. But either way, it became a fairly famous (by indie, underground 4 track rap standards) verse by Slug. "Shut your eyes and count to twenty 'cause I'm hidden. Religion made you think that you saw me comin', but you didn't. The jizzim and I come past; you dumb ass kids that be tryin' to run past these tongue lashes. I must be numb 'cause I don't feel you. Arise from your sleep and smell the burnt brain cells, kid. You felt it hurts; the truth hurts, but no pain is no gain. So cut your cocaine with Rogaine. I aim to clench you by your nose hairs. You flinch from the air he hits. I'm taking care of kids. Happily, rappers be catatonic when I splatter vomit verbal yellow chunks. Smell the spunk and the lacerations that I castigate when I notice the mental masquerades and focus on the masturbation. Out come: dripping fascination. You can ask my sibling Nathan; he knows the Headshots sinks from the hatred. I scratch 'till it flakes, and I scratch 'till it aches, and I scratch 'till it breaks like the back that I dismantle on a Camel Light 100. No, I'm straight, dude. And when you're dead, I hope somebody digs you up and rapes you. I hate you and your fake crew, but I'ma bust a fat nut in your embalming fluid. Beyond, run through it."

It's got a lot of raw wordplay, rambling cleverness mixed with youthful, slightly cringey gags. You know, putting the phrase "bust a fat nut" into a battle rap is pretty teenagery; and I'm sure Slug would never write a trite punchline like "I must be numb 'cause I don't feel you." So maybe it hasn't aged so well; but you can still see why all us 90s backpackers would've sweated it. With the way he keeps flipping his delivery and making so many different lines instantly memorable, you could tell Slug was the MC to watch of the crew, the guy who'd be going places. And that's just the first minute of the song, which has three more of Beyond and Slug just passing the mic back and forth, dropping names and flexing their skills.

Then, in 1998, A crew called Kanser dropped one of their earliest tapes, called Network. It's a purple tape, a la The Cella Dwellas, Raekwon and Sonya C. They've got two guest spots by Slug, one called "Progress" and one simply titled "4/10/98," which is presumably the day the song was recorded. Interestingly, A.N.T. produced their first tape, and has a song on here, but not one of the ones with Slug, which are both handled by Kanser's own Mesh.

"4/10/98" is just a fun, freestyle song with head nodding flows over a strange, little beat. The Kanser guys sound really good on here, but their voices are all kinda eye, so it's a welcome moment when Slug's baritone kicks in, "Yo yo yo, tell 'em to shut the fuck down and tell 'em what they feel, 'cause I've been flippin' lyrics since D-Nice had a deal. Back when the Jungle Brothers was on Warner Brothers, I was on a Minnesota corner flippin' rhymes with ya older brothers. And oh brother, if they could only see you now, they'd whup that ass and make ya go home to work on ya style. So I'm a stand tall 'till all starts fallin' and The Source starts writing an obituary column." It all feels off the cuff, like it was freestyled in one take, errors (you can even hear the twitchy slip of the tongue where "shut the fuck up" accidentally fuses with "sit the fuck down" to form "shut the fuck down" as he says it) and all. This has aged well, since it's still a blast; and any flaws that might be more apparent today just trip more nostalgia anyway.

"Progress" feels like a more polished song, but Kanser brings all the same qualities here that they did there. Slug's verse feels a little more mature, too; although he still squeezes in tacky (literally!) innuendos like, "eat that sandwich. Ingredients is good for ya head. Plus I spread my special mayo on both sides of the bread." Maybe it's not high art, but both of these Kanser songs have high replay value that I'm still getting a kick out of in 2015.

Finally, let's look at a song called "Hunger Pains II" by Oddjobs. It's off their debut album, Conflicts and Compromise, from 1999. Their line-up has changed a bit over the years, but on this album it's Anatomy, Deetalz, Advizer and Crescent Moon. Besides Slug, "Hunger Pains II" features a guy named Carnage and New, one of the guys from Kanser. In fact, Oddjobs were on Network, too, just not the songs with Slug. The CD's booklet doesn't specify production credits (although it tells us there's some live guitar by someone named Alex Macintosh on the song), so I guess it's just by Oddjobs as a collective.

The beat's kind of a perfect blend of upbeat and hard, just right for a big ol' posse cut. Although Slug describes it another way on his verse, "this ain't a posse cut; it's a farmer co-op. And I'm a vendor pushing vegetables to boil on your stove top. Hungry? To hell with hungry, I'm starvin'. I'm tryin' to catch a carton of Camels and some land so I can grow a garden. Pardon me, but I'm just tryin' to handle. It's hip-hop, and everywhere I walk is an example. And I linked more words to the ink in this pen, than I do the ink printed on that paper that you spend. Silly rapper, your rapper ego don't move me. You studied too many actors, you've watched too many movies. And soon we will capture the wasted canned soupy attention spans that gather near the base of my loose leaf. So here's a slap on the wrist. Class dismissed. Go home and practice before that ass ends up a past tense. Quit tryin' to be like and sound like him. Plant your own seeds and grow your own limbs. Minneapolis!" This was the kinda rhymes Slug was delivering in the 90s, tongue twisty battle rhymes with plenty of Camels cigarette references.

By the way, if you're wondering about "Hunger Pains 1," you've got me. I guess it's from some obscure demo? In 2004, Crescent Moon made "Hunger Pains Three," though, with Doomtree member P.O.S., for Rhymesayers Ent.

Anyway, it's kinda fun to think all those fancy new Atmosphere songs sprung from this. It's also nice to hear him without the rock and country elements that've drifted into his more recent music. Everything wasn't all better back then, shit was flawed, and dude was just beginning to find himself. And maybe nostalgia's infecting my tastes a bit. But I'll still take these messy old songs over the last couple Atmosphere albums any day of the week.

The Wraths Of Kane

(Youtube version is here.)

Spyder-D's Jazzy Break Dance Fusion

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

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

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

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

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

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

Big Daddy Kane's Two Additional Gunmen

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rakim's Three Gunmen

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

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

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

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

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

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

The OTHER Other "High Rollers"

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

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

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

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

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

The Other "High Rollers"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stezo's Unfinished Second Album

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

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

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

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

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

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

Female But Not Friendly

(Youtube version is here.)

Beat Bop... Part 2?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Werner's Epic: There It is!

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

Congratulations! You've passed The Werner Challenge!

Featuring The Dewey Cam™

Youtube version is here.)

The Marine Rap

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

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

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

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

But then he follows that up with,

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

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

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

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

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

Additional Chronic

(Youtube version is here.)

Call 9-7-6 For The 2 Live Crew's Ex Dancers

This is the kind of record you stumble across and have to buy ...assuming it's super cheap, of course. This is the one and only single by 9-7-6 (for you youngsters, a reference to 976 numbers that, like 1-900 numbers, were premium pay phone numbers you could call for adult chats). And what's so "must buy" about it? Because it says right on the sticker there, 9-7-6 are Luke & The 2 Live Crew's ex dancers. In 1996, they released their own 12" on Hurricane Records.

The song's called "Wha'sup?! - The Female Version." You'd probably expect it to be a diss at Luke and/ or the Crew, but nope. Disappointingly, they never even mention them. So what's this song a "female version" of? A little trend that was going on down South at the time.

In 1995, Atlanta's Diamond & D-Roc had a bit of a dance hit with "The Bankhead Bounce" (Bankhead is actually a city in Atlanta). Even if you're not into Southern rap stuff, you've probably heard of the dance, if not the actual record that spawned it. Well, a bit part of that song is a "what's up, what's up?" chorus. And shortly after that started blowing up, a group called The A-Town Players released a song called "Wassup Wassup" with basically the same chorus (including the "do the Bankhead bounce" part) a very similar instrumental. Then Playa Poncho and LA Sno released "Whatz Up, Whatz Up," and I don't think I need to tell you what that song was like.

So by 1996, 9-7-6 were a little late to the party. But that's what their song is, another "Wha'sup." It's produced by Stylz and the J.I.Z., a name you may not be familiar with, but Stylz is one of many of many aliases of Jan C Styles or Marvelous JC, a big time bass producer who'd been making records since the 80s. He may've even owned Hurricane Records. They also guest rap on here.

So this one's kinda fun. JC's a good producer, so it's one of the better Bankhead bounce rip-off's, with a lot of "Planet Rock" mixed into this version. This is definitely more of a Florida-style version than all those Atlanta versions. They don't even mention the Bankhead bounce dance; they've just latched onto the "what's up, what's up" part. Unfortunately, they're kind of boring as MCs. They not only neglect to mention their 2 Live origins, they don't say much of anything. They mention they're "sipping on cognac" in both verses and spend half the song just listing cities they want their record to play in. Honestly, Stylz and J.I.Z. probably should've made this record on their own and created another song for 9-7-6 to cash in on the "former dancers" angle.

They never made another record, so we don't really learn anything about 9-7-6. Their name implies a sexual edge, but they never go there on this song. It's not even clear how many of them there are (guessing: three?) or what their names are. The label mentions they're "comin' from da burg not from the bottom," so we know they're from St. Petersburg, Florida, not Miami. That's about it. Oh well, kind of a missed opportunity, but not a bad Bankhead bounce record if you're in the mood for dancing like it's the mid 90s again.

As If MC Shan Wasn't Hip-Hop Enough...

It's been a while, I think it's time we come back to another one of those subtle, but slightly improved Marley Marl 12" remixes. You know, not the kind of thing where a song's given a whole new instrumental, but just where all the same elements are tweaked and arranged slightly differently, and wind up making the version on the 12" single sound just a little iller than the album version. This was becoming a regular Marley M.O. with examples like "Ain't No Half Steppin'," "Arrest the President" and "Juice Crew Law."   This is MC Shan's "I Pioneered This" from 1988.

Like "Juice Crew Law," this is another single off Shan's second album, Born To Be Wild. But unlike "Juice Crew Law," this isn't a case where you have a main, commercial single without a remix, and then a second, promo version with it. In this case the remix is right there on the main, picture covered 12" single. It starts off with the regular Vocal version, which is the same as what's on the album. And there's a Dub and A Cappella mix on the B-side. But the stand-out track on this single is the one marked Hip Hop Vocal. Now, the vocals are the same on both versions... I guess they just mean to say this is the vocal version of the Hip-Hop Mix. And even the beat is kinda the same. A casual listener who didn't hear both versions back to back might not even realize he'd heard to different versions of the same song. But when you pay attention, the differences might be subtle, but they're still substantial.

One of the reasons it can be hard to catch, too, is that on the original version, the beat isn't constantly doing the same thing. It's not one simple loop repeated from the beginning to the end of the song, it's shifting and going through variations. So at any point when you're listening to the remix, it's easy to think "oh, I'm just not listening to that part of the song right now." But the remix is definitely different. I'd describe it as more "broken down," more fucked with than the original, which often lets the bassline repeat a full refrain.

Here, we never hear more than half at best, it's more choppy. Like a lot of these remixes, it's like Marley just went back in and played with it some more, making it more original and "hip-hop sounding." Hence the name of the mix, I suppose. I could see a lot of fans, especially more mainstream audiences, actually preferring the original because it stays truer to the original sample, sounding a little more "musical." The remix also changes, well, the mix (i.e. the traditional definition of a remix), so the drums and horn stabs are a little harsher, adding to the harder feel of this remix, which is a definite plus in my book.

"I Pioneered This" is a pretty cool song either way, though. It's kind of the sweet spot between Shan's more awkward, younger records (the extreme example being "Feed the World") and his more out-there, genre switching stuff when he stopped working with Marley. This is MC Shan in full Juice Crew soldier mode, that ideal end of the 80s era.

It's pretty 80s lyrically, too, with him declaring, "Puma's the brand cause the klan makes Troops" and "I transform just like a Decepti-gone." Yeah, that spelling's right, that's how he pronounces it. I don't think he was being clever, there; I think he just wasn't that into Transformers.  ha ha  Plus, he says "write a will for your family's conveniency. Rappers I serve without mercy or leniency," which is one of my favorite contrived hip-hop rhymes of all time. Conveniency!

But seriously, Shan sounds great over a hard but smooth Marley Marl production. The main sample is the same one Big Daddy Kane would later use for his killer remix of "Uncut Pure." It's great, especially the Hip Hop Mix. And because it's right there on the main, commercial 12", it's not rare or expensive to get a copy, like some of those others are. Crate staple.

80s Jersey Trilogy

(Uploading is finally fixed - yay! Oh, and the Youtube version is here.)

It's Dre Day and Everybody's Extending

(Youtube version is here.)

The D.O.C., Even Without a Voice

So, if you missed it, The D.O.C. just - finally - got his voice back! Or, actually, he apparently got it back a year ago, while he was locked up, which we won't ask about. But, still, the moment we fans have been waiting with baited breath for literally decades has come... I remember when this heads kept talking about when he'd return.  And when we pretty much gave up.  But before he makes whatever kind of comeback he winds up making, I thought I'd take a look back at when he returned without even needing his voice, in 1996 on Giant Records. This is "Return Of da Livin' Dead."

One cool thing about this 12", definitely, is that it harkens back to his earlier singles, where his album was amazing, but his singles still replaced them with even hyper, sicker remixes. In one sense, the two songs on this single were the best parts of his second album. But on the other hand, they were a little derivative, playing it safe, and needed a little kick in the butt, which this 12" mostly provided.

Let's start with the B-side first, 'cause that's the track that probably sold a lot of these copies. Like its title implies, "From Ruthless 2 Death Row" was going to dish all the dirt and answer all the questions fans had about his career and the whole Dr. Dre story up to that point. The album version and first version of the single sample the very often used "For the Love of Her" by The Isley Brothers, which has only been used a thousand million times before and since. A lot of people in '96 associated it with 2Pac's (technically Thug Life's) "Bury Me a G," but I think he might've used it because Slick Rick had recently used it on his last single. D.O.C. is really channeling Rick's style here, and even quotes his lyrics from "Children's Story" in the third verse, so it's a deliberate reference. But the point is, it sounded good, but it was pretty played out by this point. In a vacuum, the original version sounds better, especially complimenting D.O.C.'s Slick Rick homages, but during a time when we were getting pretty sick of hearing the same g-funky riffs on record after record, the fact that this 12" is an exclusive remix was a real plus.

Everything on this post, the original versions and the remixes, are produced by Erotic D. He was probably a new name to most heads at the time, but he actually came from The D.O.C.'s original group, The Fela Fresh Crew, although he didn't really get on board there until the D.O.C. had already left. He's kept producing over the years, even doing tracks for the Insane Clown Posse of all people; but he's still primarily associated with The D.O.C.

Anyway, the remix is still pretty unoriginal, too, basically just adding some gangsta rap sound effects over "Eric B Is President." I don't know if Erotic D's thing has ever really been digging and discovering breaks, but he makes it sound good and at least it wasn't a tune we'd heard a dozen times that year this time. So this was probably more exciting in 1996, but it still sounds pretty dope today. So back then the remix was easily my favorite, but now in 2015, I probably like both versions equally - they're both old school beats we've heard tons of times before, and they both sound cool as soundbeds for these Slick Rick-style one man dialogue exchanges. The scratch breakdown at the end of both mixes is really fresh.

But as much as everyone (including myself; I'm not gonna front) was into hearing the drama at the time - getting excited over lyrics like, "Eazy-E said, 'yeah oh yeah,' so I took it. Forgot the paperwork; the money made me overlook it." - we want to hear our favorite MCs make masterpieces, not dish dirt. And that brings us to our A-side. "Return Of da Livin' Dead." It takes its title from the Dan O'Bannon classic film Return Of the Living Dead, but otherwise there's no connection. And I don't just mean because there's no zombies in the song (lol), but the film is a classic blend of dark and light tones, horror and humor while this song is just very straight forward. It's a remake of his classic, pre-vocal damage "Funky Enough."

This was a bad idea. The idea was to show that he could rock as hard post-accident as he could pre-, but it's nigh impossible to make a knock off that's as compelling or better than an original masterpiece. So while this song is good, there was no way it wasn't going to pale in comparison. I guess it got him a little extra free publicity/ attention that he wasn't just coming back, but remaking this classic; but I don't think it really netted him that much more than just his comeback in general did. And it certainly wasn't worth the cost of an unflattering comparison being your first new impression.

Which is why this 12" is so good for having another exclusive remix. And this time there isn't any old school instrumental at all. It's more g-funky, and there's no question that Dre's original "Funky Enough" beat is better than this new Erotic D beat. But this new track allows "Return Of da Livin' Dead" to be a new, original song and stand on its own legs instead of remake that should never have happened.

And The D.O.C. sounds pretty good on the mic. His voice is super ripped, of course, and anyone looking for him to sound anywhere near his first album are going to be disappointed. But he showed he could still make a solid record; he just sounded like somebody completely different. It was a little strange, and you wouldn't want a lot of MCs rapping like that, but as the only guy with that sound, he made his own little niche. He could still work a mic better than most of the weed carriers these guys surrounded themselves with.

So I was surprised when Deuce came around and he barely rapped on it at all, using it as more of a compilation than a genuine D.O.C. album (especially considering how it was titled and marketed like the one, true follow-up to No One Can Do It Better. I guess that's largely because the Giant album stumbled, and people chalked up what sales it did get to the Death Row drama. But I think he showed he had the potential to make good, if not as good, records with his damaged voice. If anything, the switch from Dre's production to Erotic D's has held him back more than anything from the accident. So hopefully whenever D.O.C. does whatever he's going to do next with his fresh, old voice, he'll get Dre behind at least a couple of tracks. With all of that, and rhymes and delivery just as good as he's already doing on this record, it'll be a lock.