From the West To the East, It's Rappin' Mae

Last Halloween, I went on a bit of a tangent, giving a brief overview of the Rappin' Duke catalog in a video on some unrelated records.  Every Hip-Hop fan over a certain age remembers the crazy novelty record where Shawn Brown adopts the persona of John Wayne to bust some silly raps over a surprisingly funky beat.  As Biggie famously reminded us, "remember Rappin' Duke, 'da-ha, da-ha?' Never thought Hip-Hop would take it this far."  Not so many people know there was actually a whole series of Duke records, including a follow-up to his self-titled debut hit, a full-length album, a serious message rap, and an unofficial knock-off by Buzzy Bragg.  Brown also put out another record as Kato-B, as in the sidekick to the Green Hornet as played by Bruce Lee.  But there's one more related record I didn't mention.  And if I'm ever going to cover, today's the day.

"Rappin' Mae" by June East.  I guess you'd call it an answer record, released on Still Rising Records in 1985, shortly after the original "Rappin' Duke."  Yes, it's April Fool's Day, but like I say every year, this is a real record that exists and you can find for your own collections, if you're ever so possessed.  I don't do those April 1st posts where I pull your leg making up nonsense.

So I think the best way to categorize it as an answer record to "Rappin' Duke."  The concept, simply, is that this is a rap record by another former film star, Mae West.  She was known as one of Hollywood's earliest envelope-pushing sex symbols, a little before Wayne's time, in the 1930s (though she occasionally appeared in movies into the 1970s).  If you're thinking she's before you're time and you've no idea who she is, you've still probably seen caricatures and impressions done of her in classic cartoons like Bugs Bunny, Popeye, Donald Duck and the like.  If you've heard the demure purr, "come up and see me sometime," that's her.

So June East isn't a real person; the name's a play on Mae West, get it?  June, the month after May and East v West.  Ostensibly East is West's sister (sure, they're different last names, but that's already putting too much thought into this premise).  It was actually a trend for artists, mostly novelty/ joke acts, to call themselves "Rappin' ____:"  There was Rappin' Rodney, Rappin' Rabbit, Rappin' Reverend, Rappin' Granny, and so on.  And then real MCs started adopting it, like Rappin' Tate, Rappin' 4-Tay, and Rappin' Ron.  I even titled my short film Rappin' Reno in honor of that tradition.

As soon as you start to spin it, there's no question that this might just be a novelty record with a coincidentally similar gimmick to Rappin' Duke.  It's got a very slow, very similar beat and bassline, albeit with some new harmonica and other instrumental flourishes.  The hook, by a couple uncredited guys, is sung in the tune of the "Rappin' Duke"'s, "she's so-oh bad, so bad, just so-oh-oh-oh bad."  And then June gets on the mic, yes doing a full on Mae West impression, laying down the law for the Duke and another notable rappers of the day, "I'm the baddest rap in this town.  Sorry, Duke, don't mean to put ya down.  And as for rapper Kurtis Blow, sorry Sugar, you'll have to go."

It's not entirely a diss record; she spends more time just dropping gentle innuendos in the spirit of the real Mae West and telling us how to do the Mae West dance.  But she does come back for more at the end, "Sorry, Duke, but you see what I mean.  When it comes to rappin', I'm the real queen.  All those pilgrims you keep referring to?  The Mayflower must've been a real zoo.  You know the Duke's tough, and that's okay; he just better not get in this girl's way.  What the Duke does with muscle, I can do with a feather, because when I'm good I'm good, but when I'm bad, I'm better."  That last line coming from West's 1933 film I'm No Angel with Cary Grant.

There's just the one song on this 12", though there's a Short Version and an Instrumental on the B-side.  As you can see, it was released in a modest sticker cover.  There were never any follow-up June East records, but Still Rising was a legit label that put out some other funk and Hip-Hop stuff, including the early singles by Microphone Prince.  It was produced by Patrick Adams and Ron Mindseed, who did most of Still Rising's stuff.  Adams was also a member of the Golden Flamingo Orchestra, who did music for Lovebug Starski's earliest records, among plenty of other stuff.

So, who was June East really?  Happily, she's around and online to tell us.  June was the persona of stand-up comic Fran Capo, who's probably best known for holding the The Guinness Book of World’s Records' title of fastest talking woman (though she raps quite slow on "Rappin' Mae").  According to her website, she used to do the weather, traffic and movie reviews in the character of June East on the radio.  As she told EPN Spotlight, "I was working at WBLS Radio as a comedy writer and one day was kidding around and said that I could do a really cool Mae West Impression, but that I called the character June East. The DJ [Sergio Dean] flung the weather copy at me and the red tally light in the studio went on, and I did the weather as June East."  That became a regular morning thing and led to her getting signed to make the record and tour along the east coast with LL Cool J and The Fat Boys (man, do I wish I could've caught that!).  You can watch a clip of her on public access television from the time here.  Apparently, she'll still come to an event as "Mae" to this day.