The Sugar Bear Demos

Here's a really nice release that probably slid under many of your radars - it certainly did mine - Sugar Bear's Never Lost: My '99 Demos on Spitslam Records,  Spitslam, if you didn't realize, is Chuck D's label, which you might remember for putting out the Chill Rob G comeback album a few years ago.  They've also been putting out the new Stetsasonic material and a bunch of other interesting projects from old school and new artists.  And Sugar Bear's album, which actually came out last summer, but I just discovered recently, is exactly what its title promises: a preservation of Sugar Bear's previously unreleased demo recordings from 1988.

There are essentially six tracks.  These have been remastered and are pretty clean, but listening closely, I'd guess they're from a retail cassette dub, and they do still sound a little thin.  And admittedly, they're not all on par with his most famous single.  The opening "Get It Together" has a catchy sample, but it's a slower track that's more focused on delivering a message than the hyped up delivery on his Next Plateau material.  And lyrically, frankly, it's a little clunky:

"Some people say
That life is not easy.
Some things out there
Are always not pleasing.
Handle it;
Take one step at a time.
And make it slow,
And maybe you will find
What you've been looking for.
That's important,
Not miscellaneous.
What I'm saying is:
There is a better way.
You gotta find it.
Use your brain
Before you bind it."

Like, contriving phrases like "are always not pleasing" from "are not always pleasing" just sounds awkward; and a lot of those rhymes are pretty basic to also be so forced ("easy" and "pleasing?").  It shows that his heart's in the right place, and again, the instrumental will hook you in, so it's a funky little track, but not on the level of what we've heard before.  It's both dope (especially now that we're not getting any more music like this from that era) and easy to see why it's remained a demo.

The next track, however, is the one.  "Violated" comes hard and fast, using some of the same samples as Eric B and Rakim's "Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em," but with its own unique flavor.  Sugar's at his most aggressive, there's a breakdown slicing up Kool G Rap's "Cold Cuts," and they mix in additional unique samples throughout the track.  And had this actually come out in 1988, it would've been first, beating them to the punch by about two years.  I'm not saying it's better than that all-time classic, Rakim is definitely the smoother MC, but it gives it a respectable run for its money.  And again, it's a precursor from the 80s.  It's a real shame this didn't come out at the time; it would've really made a mark.

"Cadence" and "Super Monster" are respectable runners up: two more high energy tracks where the Long Islander comes hard over some strong instrumentals.  I did find myself wishing he was just a little slicker with the wordplay, and it's a bit goofy on the latter track when they do an acapella of the Sugar Crisps theme song.  But overall these are some tight 80's tracks any Hip-Hopper would be delighted to have in their collection.  And "Chillin" is almost on the same level, it's just a little bit slower and looser, with more playful lyrics, a little more MC Rell than Rakim.

And finally there's the token love song, "My Girl" with its sung chorus and cheesy lyrics, "the moment that I laid/ my eyes on you/ for you to be my girl/ it can only be true/ you carry yourself/ with no suspicion/ the thought of you/ makes me wonder why I'm missin'/ you, my girl/ there can never be another/ the patter of my heart/ makes it sound like thunder."  It's a bit silly; but it's still fun to uncover a vintage track like that.

Those six demos are it, but he's also re-recorded a new 2024 version of "Get It Together."  It's the same lyrics and instrumental, just a fresh recording of it.  And comparing the two versions, you can appreciate that even though the remastered demos removed the hiss and any other possible issues, the new version definitely sounds deeper and warmer.  Bear's voice is also a little deeper now that he's older, but he does a good job matching his original delivery.  It sounds a little different, but he basically manages to recapture the magic, and it probably helps that none of us grew up with the originals, so we won't be put off by any slight variation.  I kinda wish he remade "Violated," too.

So that's the meat of the album, I guess you'd say EP.  But besides the demos, Never Lost is packed with bonus tracks, including both cuts from the 1988 12" that made him famous, his 1989 song from Richie Rich's album and some kind of Greek electro-dance remix of "Don't Scandalize Mine" from 2015, which they kindly put at the end of the album so you can just turn it off before that track starts.  The only things they didn't include are his 2018 single "I'm Hot" and some guest spots he recorded for a few R&B artists throughout the years.

The only bummer is it's CD only.  CD-R to be precise, which is how Spitslam releases most of their music.  On the one hand, it's cheap and absolutely 100% worth it.  But it would be sweet if they teamed up with another label, like Chopped Herring, Dope Folks or whoever's more experienced in pressing up this kind of stuff on wax.  I know they've done that once or twice before, like with Schoolly D's new album (which I'm also interested in picking up myself), so maybe there's still hope.  But if not, you can find a whole bunch of CD-R only projects from them that would come to the same price as one LP from a lot of other places.