Melle Mel In Spaaaaace!!

Here's an interesting record that doesn't know where it's from. The label says "Made In the U.K." and the back of the picture cover says, "Made In Germany." It's also a 10", one of those rare, nebulous records that lives somewhere in between the common 7" and the ideal 12". But who cares? It's a neat, obscure record by possibly the greatest rapper of all time, Grandmaster Melle Mel.

Well, as you can see, it's not just by Mel. It's also by Keith LeBlanc. If you don't recognize that name, he's the drummer from the original Sugarhill Band/ Fats Comet, and who's been involved with a ton of projects since then, including this one. This single's on his own imprint, Blanc Records, and all the B-sides are by him without Mel, so even though Melle gets top billing, I suppose this is really more of a LeBlanc record. But his name comes first, 'cause he's the man we're all here to hear, right?

All of Mel's records were of course on Sugarhill and backed by the in-house band, so he's no stranger to working with LeBlanc. But it gets a little more complicated when we flip this record over and see on the back that the song is actually credited to Interference, featuring Melle Mel and Bee La Key. Interference is a duo LeBlanc formed with a UK DJ named Tim Simenon. And Bee La Key is some guy who also sang vocals on Interference's previous record a couple years before. Basically, he's the hook guy here, Mel does all main verses, LeBlanc does the production and percussion, and there's some very sparse scratching by Simenon. Also in the credits you'll notice bass is played by Doug Wimbash, who's also from the Sugarhill Band.

So what's this song like? It's pretty cool! Melle Mel was sort of working his comeback around this time... not that he ever entirely left the game at any particular point; he's always kept his name in there. But this was right before his album on Str8 Game Records with Scorpio, and well before Die Hard. He was already resurfacing to do guest verses here and there, but this was something we weren't getting from him. Really serious, conceptual raps that weren't just "hey it's me, here to represent the old school" tag, but a song with a message and creative ideas. This was a real, new Melle Mel record proper.

It's about, uh, the world order and the dangers of dystopia, I guess. It reminds me a lot of Afrika Bambaataa's Time Zone record, "World Destruction." Not quite as punk, but kind of a futuristic theme in the instrumentation, ominous vocal samples and warnings about "the hand that reaches across the land." There's a lot of imagery, religious references you have to be pretty plugged into to get fully and plenty of poetic license (like, I needed google to figure out that "the man that shares his birthday with Nimrod" means Jesus Christ), so I don't know if it's possible to take it as seriously as the artists probably want you to. It feels more like a science fiction experience when we're meant to be relating to the problems of our times (he's actually rapping about real social issues, of course, not beings in outer space); but Mel shows he can still paint some vivid pictures with his words. His style reminds me of his most famous verses from "Beat Street" and "The Message," and it's not any worse for being dark and spacey.

And the instrumentation has to take more than half the credit or blame for the futuristic vibe anyway. It's pretty original, with a lot of live guitar and stuff, but thankfully never straying too far from a traditional hip-hop groove. The cuts are nothing, though. I mean, there isn't anything wrong with them, but they're so minimal they barely have the opportunity to enhance or distract. They could've just sampled a little scratching sound and pressed the button once every two and a half minutes and gotten the same effect.

And that takes us to song #2. No Melle Mel this time, unfortunately. It's just an instrumental. But it's still worth a listen. This time it's not Interference, but just a LeBlanc solo record: "Point Blanc (A. Sherwood Remix)." I've never heard the original, though I looked it up. It's from his 1992 album, Time Traveler. Anyway, it's another dark, semi-spacey kind of track, but a bit more down to Earth. The hook comes from a recurring Rakim "Let the Rhythm Hit Em" vocal sample, and there's some rudimentary scratches. But it's mostly some interesting drums and keyboards and stuff. It kind of works as a cool "What Order" reprise, though it doesn't actually technically reprise that instrumental.

Then the B-side is a bunch of original, not very good break beats. Listening to them once was more than enough for me. But side A I recommend. Side A is dope and interesting. Instrumentally, what these guys were doing strayed a little too far from the hip-hop formula to ever be a hit record. But Mel killed it, and these guys gave him some pretty compelling background music. It's definitely not for the mainstream, but if you've ever wished Mel kept making serious records and not just token efforts and name checks, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by this. Something a little off the beaten path.

The Real Sun City Show Is On the Second Stage

Remember "Sun City?"  Okay... well, remember "We Are the World?"  "Sun City" was one of those records that came on the heels of "We Are the World," with major artists of all musical genres coming together to make a joint record for a good cause.  In the case of "Sun City," it was about ending apartheid.  There were lots of big names, including Bob Dylan, Pat Benatar, Miles Davis, Lou Reed, Herbie Hancock, Hall & Oates, George Clinton, Bonnie Raitt, etc etc. But what made "Sun City" of a lot more interest to us here at Werner's is that it featured rappers!  Melle Mel, Run DMC, Kurtis Blow, Afrika Bambaataa and DJ Cheese providing some cuts - now we're talking! And it's a lot more hip-hop with big 80's beats and producers like Keith LeBlanc.

But, still... how good is a song that features Kurtis Blow and Bonnie Raitt on the same track really going to be?  As you can imagine, the rappers had their parts, essentially drifting in a sea of sappy pop music. So, you know, it's interesting, but we heads will really want to stick with "Self Destruction" and "Close the Crack House" to get our enormously collaborative, charitable kicks.

But "Sun City" wasn't just a single - even though that's all anybody remembers - it was a whole album.  And while most of it is more of the same except a lot more underwhelming, there was a highlight. In a show of "we're just beginning to wrap our heads around the concept of political correctness in 1985," the producers of the Sun City album decided to take all of the black artists, and give them a solo song of their own. They didn't separate them by genre - the jazz, the rap, the reggae, is still all mushed together... but it's a lot more cohesive and less blandly poppy than the title track.  Finally, we didn't have Kurtis passing the mic to Bonnie.

Despite being multi-genre'd, this isn't just more cohesive, but more hip-hop.  Each MC gets a lot more time to flesh out verses, as opposed to quickly saying a short soundbite in unison with another rapper, so you can't even make out their individual voices and then clearing the stage, and this time around we get extra rappers.  Scorpio is here and holy shit, it's The Fat Boys! ...Actually, if you listen to "Sun City" real close[what? so I have a little extra free time] you can hear a super brief sound clearly made by The Fat Boys right before Run DMC's second appearance.  I'd bet you dollars to doughnuts that The Fat Boys were originally a part of this song and then cut out, perhaps because they were considered too much of a silly novelty act for the song?  Or because their manager wanted too much money?  Anyway, they're here on "Let Me See Your I.D."  Unlike this "Sun City," which I'd only recommend to completists who have to have everything guys like Melle Mel laid their voices to, this song's actually worth your time.

Still... it's not perfect. Mostly because Gil Scott Heron has about half the vocal time on this song. Pretty much between every rap verse he comes on and does a spoken word bit... not even really spoken word like Saul Williams, but like, just self-indulgent structureless rambling. It's boring, sucks the life out of the song, and it even gets kind of insipid, "you ask somebody, 'where is the third world,' they go, 'oh yeah yeah, I know! it's a disco, Go up about three blocks and take a left.' Or they might tell you the third world is a new health food restaurant. I know the first time I heard somebody talkin' about there was trouble in the middle east, i thought they were talkin' about Pittsburgh."  And that's it, then the hook comes in. But, still, here we a big, full verse by Mel, DJ Cheese providing cuts while Buff Love does a big human beatbox solo and Miles Davis blows his trumpet, Duke Bootee flexes a nice post-"Message" rhyme, Kurtis Blow, well... he was kinda off in his own world in 1985, it's pretty corny... but still, it's mostly good stuff.

Still, wouldn't it be great if there was a version that stripped away Heron's B.S.?  And, okay, now you might be thinking, "Slow your roll, dude. You're talking about Gil Scott Heron like he's Marky Mark or something."  I know, I know.  I'm not disparaging his legacy and classics like "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" or "Winter In America." Granted, as a purely hip-hop head, I spin Kane and Rakim instead of Heron for my musical enjoyment; but when I listen to "Revolution," I feel it, I get it.  It's really fucking good. But his contribution here is nowhere on that level. Here he's jamming up the song like rush hour traffic.

But hey! There's actually a 12" that solves everything! Yes, "Let Me See Your I.D." was also released as a single. The A-side is just the album version, and there's also a Beat and Scratch mix on the flip. But the important part here is the Street Mix. Instrumentally, it's a bit more stripped down, which is mostly an improvement, though I do wind up missing a few nice instrumental bits from the original (Miles!). But the important thing is that they take out all the talky filler and give you just a flat out, 100% rap song. See, the important thing is now we finally have a song we can listen to in regular rotation. It's no longer a case of "well, if you sift through all the other stuff, there are some nice hip-hop nuggets that can be unearthed." This is a really good fucking hip-hop record!  This changes it from something interesting for historians to a dope song for any fan of old school rap.

Seriously, if you like stuff from 1985, get this 12"; you'll definitely be happy. And it even comes in a picture cover because it had a budget.  :)

Mel's Message Week, Day 5 - The Last Message

It took ten years to get from "The Message" and "Message II" to "The New Message," and we would have to wait another fifteen years for the next installment. That's right, I don't even know how many people realize this, but Melle (sorry, Mele) Mel's last single, "M-3" is actually a new "Message" record. Yup, the "M" stands for "Message." And he's labeled it part 3, which I guess means that he's decided "The New Message" didn't count. Sort of like when Halloween part 7 (a.k.a. H20) came out, and they made it a direct sequel to Halloween part 2, and we were just supposed to pretend parts 3-6 didn't happen, so Jamie Lee Curtis's character never had a daughter and there was no crazy cult. You've got "The Message," "Message II (Survival)" and now "M-3." Anything else isn't canon, so forget about it.

"M-3" dropped on the 25th anniversary of "The Message," the first and only single off of Mel's most recent album, Muscles. The famous hook from the original and "New Message," has been shorted from the famous, "don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge..." to just the simple and declarative, "don't!" I'm not sure if abbreviating it like the title is meant to disguise the fact that this is the new "Message" or not, but it all ties together when Mel kicks the final verse, which is entirely "don't" themed:

"Don't act like you know so much;
You ain't cute enough to prostitute - don't try to ho so much.
Don't write a rhyme like the rest of your boys
'Cause them niggas is on stage making a bunch of goddamn noise.
Don't be so wild and loose; don't fall for the half truths,
'Cause it might be child abuse.
Pro-black ball player, yo man, don't marry a white woman,
Go and give your sister a chance.
Don't be afraid of the word 'nigga,'
Be a strong, rich, proud, healthy, well-educated nigga."

The rest of the song's a little more straight-forward, what you'd expect from a "Message" rap:

"Broken dreams over the triple beam,
Go for the cream, niggas sellin' dope to the fiends
Young juvenile killers in jeans and white tees
Sayin' 'freeze!' Nobody can hear you scream.
...
Coulda swore that my broad was a normal chick,
Rented a video; the ho was in a porno flick."

Now I don't know, but that sounds like kind of an unfair double-standard to me. I mean, if he's so against porn, what's he doing renting them? I guess it's okay for the goose, but not the gander, huh?

But, seriously, it's interesting. He's switched the flow up from previous messages, where he's now kicking more, faster rhymes {"dreams, beam, cream, fiends, jeans") packed into the lines - it's an energetic, hyper flow, more like Kool G Rap (except with mostly just single syllable rhymes) than the kind of stuff he made history with. I wouldn't say it's an improvement, but it's certainly an acceptable change that works, though I could see some people being disappointed because they wanted to hear a "Message" that sounded more like the original. This one certainly doesn't.

But on the other hand, this lacks the power and imagery of the original. Some of that is definitely in the writing - he just doesn't say anything here that hits you as hard. In fact, I can't even really tell what on Earth he's talking about sometimes (what the Hell are the half-truths that "might be child abuse" in the portion quoted above, for example?) And the style change, which puts more of an emphasis on "clever" than "earnest" probably plays a hand as well. But the biggest point this one catches flack on is surely the production.

Of course, the previous "Message"s have always had the benefit of great, live musicians supporting the rhymes - even "The New Message." Here you've got a track produced by Joey Mekkah (a new alias of Romeo JD from The Boogie Boys), which just isn't very good. Part of the problem is that the music, along with Mel's different flow, makes it seem like they're chasing after "what the kids are doing these days." I'm pretty sure they listened to some new, corny rap songs, said, "this sucks" and then, "we gotta make a track like that to be relevant." I mean, it's not terrible; but it sounds like a leftover from a lame Hot 97 freestyle.

The 12" has our backs here, somewhat, with an exclusive remix by Kamanchi Sly. If you don't know, he's a member of Hijack, the British group that was a member of The Rhyme Syndicate (Mel was a member of the Syndicate, too, remember). It sounds a little more hip-hop, and the bass is deeper - it's a definitely improvement. Still, some of the musical elements sound a little too much like your typical, staccato "computer-made bloops and bleeps" of modern hip-hop production (the whole Muscles project is obviously crippled by not being able to afford to sample), and the hook sounds worse over this new track - they should've replaced it with something else. But, overall it's still an upgrade, and you can really appreciate Mel's MCing better on this mix.

"M-3" also comes backed with another album track, "Hip Hop 101." It's not a great song, but it's a fun homage to old school classics. He spits famous lines from hip-hop's most famous tracks over a classic breakbeat, and leaves the audience to finish the refrains in a shout-and-call kinda thing. It's like those medley records Doug E. Fresh put out around 2000, although he does spit a new, original verse towards the end. It's okay.

Ultimately, it's a disappointment. Reactions online (here, read some) seem to vary from "utter shit" to "the legend is back - all praise!" But I don't think anyone will say that this stands up to his previous outings. Mel proves he still has potential as an MC, and I appreciate the effort here; but this project ain't it. Not only do I naturally prefer the records from '82, but if I want to listen to a third, honestly, I'll play "The New Message." Just like when Halloween 7 came out, they arrogantly dismissed the earlier entries because of their flaws, and declared "we're making the only real, important sequel!" But fans prefer parts 4 and 5. ;)

Mel's Message Week, Day 4 - The Silly Message

So, for a long time, "The Message" was done. Sure, there were remixes (Sugarhill's 1990 remixes... "The Message '95"... "The Message '97"... that 12" on P-Vine with a bunch of Japanese artists trying their hand at it, or the one on DeepBeats, which had a whole bunch of newjack remixes... jeez, there have been a lot), and compilation appearances. But there were no new "Message" records for a decade. Finally, all that would change on "The Message"'s tenth anniversary, when Danish pop rocker Nikolaj Steen came to New York in search of new, American audiences.

"Now, wait a minute, Werner," you may be thinking, "I thought you said in 'Day 1' that you weren't going to be posting about silly covers and junk; just the real, authentic stuff by Mel." Yeah, but this isn't one of those. This is Melle Mel (who'd now inexplicably changed his name to Mele Mel) back to record a whole new "Message" song. And while Duke Bootee didn't come along for this ride, Mel now had fellow Furious Fiver Scorpio in tow.

I used to watch Yo! MTV Raps (and Rap City, and Video Music Box) religiously in these days. I can only remember Dre and Ed Lover singling out two videos as being personal favorites of theirs, and this was one of them (the other was Rappin Is Fundamental's collaboration with Miles Davis). Now, that may be overhyping it a bit, but if you can get over the fact that they've got this corny rocker adding his voice to the proceedings, it's really not bad. And it was certainly pretty awesome to see Grandmaster Melle Mel back in the saddle again after having been pretty much out of the picture since the Furious Five's failed reunion album in '88.

If you've only seen the video for this (either back in the day or on Youtube), you've seen a bastardized edit of it. See, this song can essentially be broken up into three acts. In act 1, they reprise material from the original "Message" with a few updated twists. One twist is that Nikolaj jumps into to perform some of the lines, and the other is that they alter some of the lyrics. So,

"Rats in the front room, roaches in the back,
Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat.
I tried to get away but I couldn't get far,
'cause a man with a tow-truck repossessed my car."

...becomes...

"Rats in the front room, roaches in the back,
Junkies in the alley just smokin' that crack.
I tried to get away 'cause life is a drag,
But the tow-truck man came and took my Jag."

This is admittedly the worst part. I mean, the changes aren't awful, but they are a small step down, and surely nobody but Nikolaj was thought it was important for him to make arbitrary changes to put his spin on it. It's not that he says anything embarrassing or especially wack, but so far it's pretty pointless. We're obviously better off just playing our old copies of the original "Message."

But the second act is more compelling, and stupidly, that's the one that gets chopped in the music video. Because in the second act, Mel and Scorpio (who have 100% of the writing credit on this song) write and kick all new material for the majority of the song. You did get some of that in the video, including:

"Took the train 'cause a cabbie got gunned down.
A water main broke; can't go downtown.
I shoulda stayed off,
Cops gettin' paid off;
Pops got laid off,
He tried to play it off.
Up at dawn, home at dusk; he's flippin',
Mad at the world so he gave me a weapon.
He ran out of cigarettes;
He went for another pack.
It must've been a good smoke,
He never came back!"

But, either for time or due to a politically incorrect reference to AIDS by Scorpio (probably both), they trim out a good chunk of the middle of the song, like:

"I'm in the bleachers with the Yankees fans.
Sayin', 'yeah, yo, you sucker,' as your boys got slammed!
DEA rolled up on the block,
And two little kids watched as their mother got knocked.
Didn't get bailed out, didn't have no clout;
Been locked up twice, now it's three strikes, she's out.
The city took the kids right quick;
Moms is upstate, sleepin' with a broomstick."

Then act three, predictably, is Mel kicking his "a child is born" verse. This time Steen jumps in and does a couple lines of it, but mostly it's just Mel doing his tried and true thing. And what can I say? Hearing Mel bring it back in '92 was pretty effective.

Now, this single actually has several mixes. Steen produced them all, but he has several co-producers, from punk rock guys (including a member of The Vomit Pigs) to house DJs working with him, and it's not really clear exactly who did what, especially since the credits seem to differ whether you're looking at the cassette single or the 12" label. So, we'll just say a mess of these guys collectively worked on these various versions. So there's talent on hand, but none of them are really hip-hop producers, which means, naturally, the results are mixed.

Surprisingly, it's not the Album version you hear in the video. That version's okay, but kinda boring until the guitar solos kick in - those are effective, and appear in pretty much all the mixes. The one in the video is the Smooth Mix, and I actually think that one's the best. It relies on a lot of drawn out synth notes, which is pretty cliche, but actually works surprisingly well with the harder elements of the song. Then you've got the Close To the Edge Mix, which is the most traditionally hip-hop of all of them, and that's pretty decent, but for some reason it just doesn't jive well with the vocals. Someone would need to go back in and rejig some of the elements to really make it work right; but as it stands, it's a little off. And finally there's the Hot Mix, which is more of a dance track and definitely the worst of the bunch.

So, how to call this in the end? The song obviously gets dismissed a lot just because it's got a corny rocker guy in an otherwise dead serious rap video... That would have a hard time flying today, much less back in 1992. And some of his input really does come off as silly, regardless of the times (hey, at least he doesn't human beatbox!). It's certainly not a song you'd proudly drive around blasting out of your jeep; and obviously it's not as good as "The Message," or even "Message II." But Steen is a genuinely talented musician. And having Mel and Scorpio on the mic giving an earnest go at hard MCing with socially important lyrics is certainly a good thing that real heads shouldn't entirely be sleeping on. This was a comeback I really wanted to happen, but unfortunately it took a bunch more years for Mel and Scorpio to get more projects off the ground. And this is definitely better than a lot of those.

If you appreciate Mel, you'll be down with this. But "The New Message" is certainly no substitute message.

Mel's Message Week, Day 3 - The Sequel

Still 1982, Grandmaster Flash and the rest of The Furious Five have come around to "The Message" - it's a runaway hit, the title of their album. But now that it's time for the sequel, Melle Mel and Duke Bootee are still doing it on their own. Flash and the Five aren't even credited on the label this time, though Sylvia and Joey Robinson are still taking writing and production credits.

It's called "Message II (Survival)," and once again it's just Mel and Bootee rapping on this. But there's another MC who should have writing credit on this record. Check out these lyrics:

"In jail they got a game and they call it 'survival,'
They run it down to ya on your first arrival.
They tell ya what you can and can not do,
So if you ever go to jail, watch your (mm mm)."

Duke Bootee kicks that short verse near the beginning of the song. But now check out these lyrics to another rap classic, and see if you notice anything familiar:

"For you sucker sucker crews who commit the crime,
You wanna do bad but don't do the time.
I say you wanna be this but then you wanna be a crook,
You find and old lady and take her pocket book;
And then you steal your mother father's money on the sly;
You can run, but you can't hide.
When the cops grab you, your face turns pale;
And I'ma tell you a little story about the jail:
You see, in jail they got a game and it's called 'survival,'
And they run it down to ya on your first arrival.
They tell ya what you can and can not do,
But if you go to jail, watch your poo poo."

That's right. That's from Spoonie Gee's debut single "Spoonin' Rap" on Sound of New York (1979). Of course, Spoonie took it a little further...

"'Cause when you go in the shower, he's a-pullin' his meat,
And he's a-lookin' at you, and say you look real sweet.
And at first there was one, now ten walked in,
Now how in the hell do you expect to win?
I said you better look alive, not like you take dope,
And please, my brother, don't drop the soap.
And if you get out the bathroom and you're alive,
Just remember: only a man can survive."

For ages, I just assumed the lines were bitten. After all, Bootee is a musician first and foremost. He rhymed on these records, but he never really made any claims of being a serious MC. The original intention was for his vocals to be replaced on the original "The Message," and he was only rapping on this one because of the success of the last one (and the growing divisions within the group over the whole mess). So I assumed he had a little trouble coming up with some rhymes and figured he could sneak a lifted passage or two under the radar.

But, actually, in an interview with The Foundation (by the way, have I mentioned that The Foundation is fucking awesome, and if you haven't gone there and ready every single interview than you're really missing out?), Rahiem, explains that, "Spoonie G wrote that song to get out of his contract [with Sugarhill]."

The beat should be familiar, too. There's some new instrumentation by the usual players on top, but the basic track is Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five's earlier hit, "Scorpio" with the fast, electronic sounding beats and sound effects.

Still, this is a pretty great song. Some of the added music, especially the super funky bassline, really elevates this above "Scorpio" IMHO, which gets kind of monotonous and dull. And it sure doesn't hurt that Mel's simple vocoder effects have been replaced by some great new lyrics by Spoonie, "you've got to lock all your windows, chain up all your doors, to protect what's inside of your houses, stores. Beware of the food - it might be no good, 'cause there's someone trying to poison the whole neighborhood! Today they found something in somebody's store they said, killed ten people, and hurt four more."

Mel also changes up his flow for majority of the song, and instead of giving his usual, ultra-aggressive delivery, gives a very earnest, softer, almost pleading delivery for most of his lines. You might almost think it was another member of the Five doing his parts, but no, that's Mel. He only really switches back to his traditional style for the ending, when he brings back a portion of his famous, "a child is born with no state of mind" verse for an encore performance.

Of course, this record didn't have quite the impact the original did. A lot of the recycled elements feel like quick cash-grabs, and you just can't have an important, musical and cultural First twice. The hook, while effective, didn't become the anthem that "The Message" or even "New York, New York" did. But it's still a really great record that stands up to the test of time a lot better than many other records from that era, even other hits by Flash and the gang. If this record had gotten formulaic, it was at least a terrific formula.

Mel's Message Week, Day 2 - The Actual Message

So, three years later, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five built a song around that famous verse from "Superrappin'." Or, rather, Melle Mel did, almost on his own. Apparently the rest of the group weren't convinced at all of this bold concept: to make a hip-hop record that was serious and political as opposed to light and bouncy. Little could they imagine the world of Public Enemy, NWA and Edutainment that hip-hop was about to define hip-hop - "the black CNN" as Chuck D famously described it - for the latter half of the decade.

So Melle Mel hooked up with one of the members of Sugarhill Records' house band, Duke Bootee, and they crafted this song on their own (note the billing on the label... Flash and the Five developed a long history of confusing and ever-changing billing on their records like pretty much no other group). Bootee didn't just work on the instrumental for song, he actually wrote and performs one of the verses - the only one not by Mel. In fact, it even goes further... according to an interview with Bootee at The Foundation, he wrote all of Mel's verses, too (except for that famous, final verse).

While "Superrappin'" may've had the famous verse first, and other rap records managed to make some social and political points, "The Message" turned out to be revolutionary. While the instrumental is still by The Sugarhill Band and contains your standard disco/ funk elements, it's much darker and atmospheric, and it's set to a drum machine instead of live percussion. Instrumentally and lyrically, it lead hip-hop into a whole new direction. Not that every rapper took it (care free party rap remains a staple of the genre to this day), but it opened the door to so much, from the post-Run DMC era of stripped down beats to pretty much the whole concept of serious and "hardcore" MCing.

I have a fun memory of this record. In high school, we had to do a presentation where we typed up the words to a song, played the song in class, and discussed the lyrics. Most of the kids were surprised I listened to stuff like this, considering it was so old school - I'm not so old that I went to high school in the 80's, guys. But one of my best friends had already called dibs on The Geto Boys' "Chucky," so I figured I had to go in a different direction.

Anyway, my English teacher was impressed I figured out Duke was saying "sacroiliac," but marked me wrong on another line of the song, where Mel tells the tale of the "Zircon princess" who, "seemed to lost her senses. Down at the peep show, watchin' all the creeps so she can tell her stories to the girls back home. She went to the city and got so, so siditty, she had to get a pimp; she couldn't make it on her own." She was convinced the song had to be saying she got "social security." So, since I'm looking back at this record, I decided to do a little research and see what the rest of the world thinks about this line.

The original hip-hop anthology, Rap: The Lyrics actually has it as "social security." But the later Anthology of Rap agrees with me. Being on the side of "the big book of plagiarism" was almost enough to make me rethink my stance on the subject, but it occurred to me that whatever they had must have originally come from the internet, so I checked The OHHLA, and they also have it as "siditty". Actually, they have it as "seditty." In fact, googling around, I've found literally over a dozen spellings of this word. But however you spell it, I'm convinced they meant the term found in this Urban Dictionary link. This is just one of those old school slang words everybody was using back in the days, and it hadn't even occurred to me that they could be saying anything else.

I mean, I can understand the logic of wanting to think it must be "social security." Rapgenius has it as "seditty," but then if you click the word, they say, "My guess, from listening to the song and given the context ('she couldn’t make it on her own'), is that what’s actually being said is 'Social Security' — which maybe is being used euphemism for welfare, or disability given that she’s a 'crazy lady'" - it makes sense. But I think that's just a case of us trying to re-edit the song afterwards. I mean, just listen to the song: there aren't enough syllables for it to be "social security." I can hear "so so" as "social," but "security" has a whole other, distinct syllable with a definite "your" sound in there. And Mel's not exactly a midwestern mumblemouth-type rapper. He comes from the old school tradition of enunciating the Hell out of whatever you're trying to say. Hell, Maya Angelou even uses the term in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: "St. Louis teachers, on the other hand, tended to act very 'siditty' and talked down to their students from the lofty heights of education and whitefolks' enunciation." ...I wish I had that Angelou quote back in English class; I think that would've gotten that incorrect mark off my paper! hehe

Anyway, I apologize for the long tangent. It's a powerful song, from Mel's dynamic opening, "broken glass everywhere!" to the mature and heartfelt lyrics of all the verses, including Bootee's, talking about, "the bill collectors that ring my phone and scare my wife when I'm not home." It works and holds up on every level. Even today, you're not going to find many rappers with metaphors and imagery like, "rows of eyes disguised as windows, looking down on the poor and needy." And, of course, it has one of the most famous and bitten hooks in hip-hop history: "don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge... I'm tryin' not to lose my head. It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under."

There are multiple pressings, of course, but pretty much only the one version of the song (not counting remixes made by other artists long after the fact), about seven minutes long with the instrumental on the B-side. Unlike songs like "Superrappin'" or "Rapper's Delight," no one really pares this one down. I mean, maybe a compilation or two will shave a bit of the extended instrumental at the beginning or the skit at the ending (that Newcleus famously imitated on their classic, "Jam On Revenge"), but you'd be hard pressed to find any versions that cut any of the verses, all of which are iconic and essential. This song is one of the few real game changers, even moreso than other songs that managed to set trends. And Grandmaster Flash and the rest of the Furious Five, who originally didn't want to get down with this song, wound up making it the title of their debut album.

Mel's Message Week, Day 1 - A Verse Is Born With No State of Mind

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five's classic record, "The Message" is easily one of the most important rap records in hip-hop history. And that's why I'm dedicating a whole week to it - or, rather, its many iterations. And I'm not even talking about funky remix 12"s, like the one by Stunt Nuts, where they turn it into a trance/ Euro/ electro/ whatever/ dance record, or random covers by unrelated artists like Motiv or this guy. This week is dedicated solely and specifically to Melle's Mel's "Message." ...You'll see, by the end of the week, it'll all have made sense. ;)

Now, the primary reason "The Message" is held up as so important is because it's known as the first record to have, well... a message. It's regarded the single to take the hip-hop from hip-hoppin', show-stoppin', body-rockin', poppin' and lockin' party rhymes to rebellious street music with a serious bent. And it did. But to be fair, it's not really the first rap record to have any kind of socially conscious message in it. In fact, Melle Mel had already done it a few years before. In fact, he did it with many of the exact same lyrics before.

"The Message" is a great song with many great verses from the Five, but certainly the signature, most memorable verse is the final one - hell, I don't even need to play the song now to type it out:

"A child is born with no state of mind,
Blind to the ways of mankind.
God is smilin' on you, but he's frownin', too,
Because only God knows what you'll go through.
You'll grow in the ghetto livin' second rate,
And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate;
And the places you play and where you stay
Look like one great big alleyway.
You'll admire all the number book takers,
Thugs, pimps and pushers and the big moneymakers,
Drivin' big cars, spendin' twenties and tens;
And you'll wanna grow up to be just like them.
Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers,
Pickpockets, peddlers, even panhandlers.
You'll say, 'I'm cool, huh, I'm no fool,'
But then you wind up droppin' outta high school.
Now you're unemployed, all non-void,
Walkin' round like you're Pretty Boy Floyd.
Turned stick-up kid, but look what you done did:
Got sent up state for an eight-year bid.
Now your manhood is took and you're a Maytag,
Spend the next two years as a undercover fag,
Bein' used and abused and served like hell,
'Till one day you was found hung dead in your cell.
It was plain to see that your life was lost,
You was cold and your body swung back and forth,
And your eyes sang that sad, sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young."

That's a hard verse. But another reason it might stand out as being particularly memorable is that we'd heard it before. Melle Mel kicked that exact same verse three years earlier on "Superrappin'."

"Superrappin'" dropped in 1979 on Enjoy Records, before they made their move to Sugarhill Records where they released the majority of their hits. It's often referred to as their first record, although strictly speaking, they released another single earlier: "We Rap More Mellow," under the alias of The Younger Generation. The version pictured here, by the way, is the second pressing Enjoy put out after their small initial run was such a success. I don't actually have this pressing but I stole the picture from discogs because I love the spelling error on this pressing - they title the song "Supperrappin'," ...as in the meal after lunch.

Now "Superrappin'" is one of those classic, marathon golden age rap records where the MCs just spit and spit for well over ten minutes to the accompaniment of a live band. Man, they don't really don't make records like that anymore. But I especially bring it up to point out that, because it's so long, many (most, in fact) hip-hop compilations over the years would edit this song and all the others like it to a more manageable 5-minute or so length. That way they could fit a lot more songs on the album and it'd be more marketable. But that means a whole lot of you may've grown up knowing "Superrappin'" in an abbreviated form without that final verse (and plenty of other parts).

Now, "Superrappin'" isn't a particularly message-y song for the most part. In fact, after this verse, Melle passes the mic right back to Rahiem who rhymes about how, "all the fly girls, you got to beware, because Rahiem will be in your hair!" But you can't deny that any song that has that verse in it has a serious (albeit homophobic) message in it... years before the actual "The Message." It also features tons of memorable lines, including the famous count up, count down hook that so many other rappers have borrowed over the years, "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, rappin' like Hell but make it sound like Heaven. Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, come on, _____, come and get some!"

I have one little anecdotal memory about this record... when I was working at The Source, I had to write a brief biography for Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five for their awards show. It was just a couple short sentences, like, "responsible for such influential songs as 'The Message,' 'White Lines' and 'Superrappin'." But the owner of the mag contacted me, indirectly through my supervisor, like, "what is this kid doing? Grandmaster Flash didn't do Superrappin'!" You couldn't contact this guy directly, his door was always locked and you couldn't call him... so I had to run out, buy a copy of this record that day, and fax him a label scan. I never heard back from him; but I saw "Superrappin'" was in the final copy of the bio when it came out.

Anyway, "Superrappin'" was followed up by "Super Rappin' No. 2" on Enjoy the following year. But it's really just an abbreviated version of "Supperappin'" that cuts about five minutes of (great) material out of the song and adds nothing except very minimal instrumental changes - the body of the music is the same. And no, it doesn't have the famous, "a child is born" verse.

Take a Drive With The Zulu Kings

If you've ever wondered why Busy Bee had a Rhyme Syndicate logo on his second album, or how it came that Melle Mel was writing songs for Ice-T ("The Tower); it originates back to a dope but short-lived indie label called Posse Records. There, way back in 1986, Syndicate producer Afrika Islam combined forces with Melle and his crew to form Afrika & The Zulu Kings.

This single is called "Cars," and it's a pretty simple, old school song about... cars. It features Melle Mel, Ice-T, and Bronx Style Bob back when he rapped instead of sang. It's of course produced by Afrika, although all the other members share co-production credit. And, interestingly, Grandmaster Caz gets credit for mixing this record with Afrika.

This song follows a fun structure: it's just a dope (though very dated) instrumental - drum machine beats, a large groovy bassline, and lots of horn stabs, bells, cuts and change-ups - and at first it goes your traditional: MC's verse, hook, MC's verse, hook... but soon they're skipping the hook all together, and each MC is just jumping on top of the other, grabbing the mic. There's even a few skits mixed in where they talk about their cars over the beat, so you never know what's coming next.

The song features a lot of talent, obviously; but are ultimately light, casual songs, as opposed to anybody really flexing their skills or kicking important messages. Melle Mel starts it out, sounding like he did on his classic records with The Furious Five, shouting out all the types of cars, "I drove a Chevy and even a Ford; I pushed a Lincoln Continental, a Honda Accord, limousines, a Porsche Audi, a Honda Seville, a Savannah Brougham and a Coup Deville. You ride a Saab or a Subaru, a Corvette or a BMW. Now you're movin' like a car stayin' up to par. You're seen even parkin' a Mercedes, you're a superstar! But you are what ya are, behind the wheel. I never ever let a car control how I feel. You feel you're big time 'cause you're driving a Rolls? Well, you better watch out for telephone poles!"

And of course Ice-T immediately takes it to the west coast, "Word! This is all I got to say: you gotta have a car if you live in LA." ...So they're not out to impress with their lyrics, but if you pay attention to the writing, you can still see why these guys are better than their less successful peers.

There's just the one song on here; though it comes in vocal (called he Zulu Club Mix), Zulu Dub and Zulu Beats versions. But this is not the only collaborative release of Afrika & The Zulu Kings... they released a second single that same year called "The Beach," which is equally fun.

Let's Talk About Jesse

"Jesse" is a 1984 release by Grandmaster Melle Mel on Sugarhill Records. It wound up being included on their 1985 album, Stepping Off. And it's interesting for a couple of reasons.

First of all, it's good. That's always a nice starting point. Melle's at his best, with the Furious Five providing back-up vocals and the hook, including a little singing and harmonizing. Mel may be a little inconsistent, but as some serious song-writing ability in his bag of tricks when he wants to use it, and the always dependable SugarHill Band provide a quality backdrop for it all.

It's interesting because it's a political anthem for Jesse Jackson, who was running for the presidential spot on the Democratic ticket that year (though it wound up going to Walter Mondale who lost the election to Reagan). You don't see a lot of pro-politician songs in the hip-hop canon - at least until last year, when Obama inspired a ton of old and new school artists to record some nice mp3 tributes - and this is as pure as it gets, with Melle rapping his praises and a chorus that commands, "vote! Vote! Everybody get out and vote!"

And it's interesting because it's a complete retooling of a previously recorded song, called "D.C. Cab." "Cab" was written for the 1983 film D.C. Cab, although it wasn't featured on the soundtrack album and was never released as a single. The movie was a raunchy, screwball comedy about a crazy taxicab company, starring, among others, Bill Maher and Mr. T. And the song's a beat for beat, note for note rewrite (the aforementioned "vote! Vote! Everybody get out and vote!" was originally, "go! Go! Everybody get out and go!"). Most of the changes really just involving swapping out a few key words. For example:

"Hypocrites and Uncle Toms are talkin' trash
(Let's talk about D.C.)
Liberty and justice are a thing of the past
(Just ride with D.C.)
They want a stronger nation at any cost
(He's riding D.C.)
Even if it means that everything will soon be lost
(Then you'll love D.C.)

He started at the bottom,
Ended on the top.
He proved that he can make it;
They don't never stop.
If you think they won't make it, they gon' let you know:
Every time you get pulled down, you've got to get up and GO!"

...became:

"Hypocrites and Uncle Toms are talkin' trash
(Let's talk about Jesse)
Liberty and justice are a thing of the past
(Let's talk about Jesse)
They want a stronger nation at any cost
(Let's talk about Jesse)
Even if it means that everything will soon be lost
(Let's talk about Jesse)

He started on the bottom;
Now he's on the top.
He proved that he can make it,
So don't never stop.
Brothers stand together and let the whole world see
Our brother Jesse Jackson go down in history."

All of Melle's rap verses 100% identical, too (it helped that he already took a shot at Reagan in "D.C. Cab"). There are even D.C. references still left in "Jesse." About midway through the song, he goes, "But don't think that D.C. just did it first... There's a lotta D.C.'s all over this universe!" That's pretty confusing within the context of this ode to Jesse Jackson. Are we supposed to take that as a reference to Washington D.C. maybe? It doesn't really make sense. Maybe he's talking about how people like the characters in the (otherwise unnamed) movie need us to support Jesse Jackson. Again, it doesn't really translate into sense.

The lyrics to "D.C. Cab" are pretty serious and political, though (surprising, considering the movie itself), a la "The Message." And like I said, it's just damn good song-writing. So except for a few awkward bumps in the change-over, it all feels pretty natural and makes for a damn good song. And best of all, where "D.C. Cab" would be fading out to a finish, "Jesse" comes back with an all new third verse that's completely Jackson-specific:

"The 30th day that's in December
Is a day that everybody's gonna remember.
'Cause on that day a righteous man
Thought about takin' a brand-new stand.
The name of the man is Jesse Jackson,
And his call for peace was louder than action.
'Cause now's the time to change the nation
But not with just another negotiation.
He went to the East for humans' rights,
To free the lieutenant shot down in flight;
Just another statistic, and the government knew it.
They didn't even want the man to go do it.
Before he left, he called the president's home,
And Reagan didn't even answer the phone.
But I'll tell you one thing that's an actual fact:
You can bet he called Jesse when Jesse got back!"

"Jesse" then has an extra chorus and reprisal (including a few new lines, asking us to "join the Rainbow Coalition").

The 12" for "Jesse" follows the standard SugarHill Records layout, with the vocal version on side A and the instrumental on side B. Also like a lot of SugarHill joints, the original 12" version is kinda long (8+ minutes); so you might want to be wary of compilations featuring shorter versions. As for "D.C. Cab," that song went unreleased for ages, until it finally appeared on the 1999 compilation album Adventures On the Wheels Of Steel, released by Sequel Records, which was a nice, exclusive treat from the vaults. Still, in the long run, I've gotta give it up to "Jesse," both for the extra verse and the fact that the subject matter is naturally compelling when it's directed towards genuine hope for a real political candidate rather than a zany ensemble of fictitious Animal House-like cab drivers.

The Foundation

This dude Jayquan runs one of the best hip-hop sites on the 'net, period. Sure, venture capitalists might not be sinking hundreds of thousands of dollars into designing flash-heavy layouts and throwing champagne parties in the city's hot spots to get "buzz." But he's got real content, which the Billionaire Boys Club of today will never touch. It's just him (and fellow writer Troy) doing brilliant, in-depth interviews with old school legend after old school legend. But what a lot of people don't know is that he's an MC, too.

He started out in Virginia as a part of the Too Def Crew in the late 80's, which I'd never heard of and you probably wouldn't've either if you weren't living in VA at the time. But they came back in the 90's as The First Sons, a crew I had heard of... they opened for groups like The Supafriendz (back when they were blowing up), and I used to have one of their 12"'s.

Anyway, he came back in the 2000's not just with his awesome website, but with a mostly self-produced solo album called Urban Legend. And off of that album was this hot and very overlooked 12", "5 Mics" (the only track produced by someone else - a guy called Dr. No). Right away you know it's worth picking up because of the guest MCs - Melle Mel and Grandmaster Caz (who recently did another nice collabo on the Top Shelf 8/8/88 album). They both come off nice (don't worry, this is no Die Hard); and the pleasant surprise is that Jayquan elegantly holds his own with the two giants.

The production's smooth... simple but it kicks. It's the perfect track to support three MC's flexing their skills, which is exactly what each verse is about... wordplay, clever one-liners (without getting to jokey) and representing. It fits right into the late 90's era of indie rap, and MCs like Canibus, Natural Elements and Common (before he went all experimental R&B on us) were getting everyone excited.

The b-side features a nice remix (also produced by Dr. No), which adds another MC to the mix: Devine Mekkah, also of The First Sons. Both mixes are nice, and personally I still prefer the A-side, but the remix has a jazzy DITC-ish kind of sound, with some jazzy samples and a little scratching; and the beat changes for each verse... bottom line, whichever you prefer, you'll want both.

Now, both those mixes were on the album, but then the 12" goes it one better, adding a bonus mix (again by Dr. No). It essentially takes one of the better beats from the remix and applies it to the original lyrical version. Good stuff. In fact, about the only negative thing I can say about this record is that "5 Mics" was a tired, played out Source reference even back in '03. The 12" also features instrumentals (and radio edits, if you care); so definitely track it down.

I say "track" it down, because Jayquan no longer seems to be selling it on his site (where I got mine)... I guess it's sold out. About time, I say, because a 12" like this should've sold out a long time ago.

But before I go, there's an interesting tidbit I have left ot share. Check out this promo comic that came with my order--->

First of all, it's fresh, ain't it? But second of all, it's got Kool Moe Dee in it! If you can't be bothered clicking to enlarge the scan, it's talking about bringing together THREE old school legends, Mel, Caz and Moe Dee. This interview with Jayquan at AftricasGateway.com has the story: "See since the early 80s I felt that Mel, Moe Dee and Caz were 3 of the greats... I obtained contact info for Mel, Caz & Kool Moe Dee, who I really wanted to appear on the song, but he declined." He must've dropped out pretty late if he was in the promo artwork. Ah, well... what might have been. It's still a great record, so it's hard to complain. Your loss, Moe Dee!

C'mon, Get In the Car, Guys. We're Moving To Japan

Look what just came out in Japan only! A full album of lost, never before released tracks from a ton of the best rappers recorded in 1988. What's the deal with this? I'll just let the album's notes speak for themselves:

"Introduction: 17 years ago a small recording studio, TOP SHELF, located in the basement of a brownstone in the East Village section of New York, was looted during the Thompkins Square riots of 1988, displacing the recordings of many soon-to-be Hip Hop stars. The studio had been the meeting place for many rappers, neighborhood kids, and producers that would later be responsible for the greatest period of the Hip Hop age, "The Golden Era." A search commenced soon after the recordings were lost, but nothing was ever found. So sought after were the tapes, they soon acheived Holy Grail status amongst Hip Hop circles. Despite years of searching, and dozens of hopeless crusades, the tapes remained lost. No one was quite sure who took them or where they were... until now.
After an extensive investigation and search that lasted two years, the recordings have finally been recovered by Fab 5 Freddy and myself (Benjy Grinberg). They were found dozenss of miles from the site of TOP SHELF in an abandoned strage faciilty in North Jersey [woot! Jersey represent!]. ...We sought after the lost recordings of TOP SHELF because they were rumored to be among the hottest songs from that era, and we thought it was a tragedy that the world never got to hear them. It turns out that these two-inch tapes are truly a treasure chest--a time capsule of the energy and excitement of 1988 Hip Hop."

And this really is the wet dream it sounds like - everybody comes tight on this. It starts off (well, after a brief mic check intro by Fab Five Freddy) with Black Sheep kicking a short, fast rap track, which is tight... and believe me, I've never been a huge Black Sheep fan. Special Ed's song is just the perfect raps over the perfect beat... it could easily have appeared on his first or second album. Big Daddy Kane kills it, Biz Markie's song is just great fun, and Melle Mel and Grandmaster Caz duet showing impressive skills considering even '88 would generally be considered well past their prime. MC Lyte rocks the same loop her rhyming partner Positive K did on his classic "The Nightshift," only with faster drums for more of a freestyle/battle rhyme-type flow. There's no production credits on this album besides the phrase "Anonymous Top Shelf producers,", which is a shame, because I'd love to know who did what on this. There's a crapload of nice scratching on Chubb Rock's song. The Jungle Brothers' is nice, though their rhyme style gets a little redundant. The only kinda disappointing song is Smooth B's solo venture, "I Want My Money Back" (he needs to give that hook back to Mixmaster Spade, who knew how to use it), and even this number's not bad. But Craig G (here spelt Graig G... heh) Doug E Fresh (using the same "Go Stetsa" vocal sample Groove B. Chill would go on to make a hit out of a couple years later), Grand Puba and Just-Ice all come with dope songs. It all ends with a serious track from Master Ace, "Revolution's 'Bout To Start," which is a great narrative and uses the type of scratched up speeches on the hook like I haven't heard since "Black Is Back" or "Dirty Cop Named Harry."

100% must-have. Manhattan Records, the Japanese label that put this album out, has a site at: store.mmagg.com, and yes, they have a myspace page, too. Go get it.

Update 09/15/07: So, any of you who've joined me in any of the many message board or blog discussions of the legitimacy of this album will have already determined that it is quite definitely a hoax. But, surprisingly, The New York Times has actually picked up the story and gotten some real answers - read the whole thing here (brought to my attention by Jaz, who runs the Cold Rock da Spot blog, on the DWG forums). Still, it does leave a few questions unanswered... like who actually produced each track, and when can we get a volume two?