Your Head With Oil... Lots of Oil

Just a brief post to let you guys know: the NYOIL album is out and it's good, so go get it. 8)





Ok, I won't be that brief. It's called Hood Treason (The Warm Up Album), and it's 21 tracks deep, though that includes about 50% skits (mostly soundbites from radio interviews). Oh, and if you didn't know, NYOIL is the new rap identity of The UMC's own Kool Kim. ...I trust I'm not blowing his cover or anything here by revealing that (he has been "outed" on the 'net before already, and he does have his real name in the liner notes, after all). While I admit I didn't realize it was him when I saw the original "Y'all Should All Get Lynched" video, when you hear the full album and see his new video (which he's actually in), it's hard not to recognize him.

Anyway, this is really pretty solid and engaging. NYOIL's focus on "message" songs as being essentially what he's all about works for the most part - I think hip-hop fans are hungry for songs that actually have something to say - but by the end of the album things start to wear a little thin and feel a bit preachy. The production isn't all handled by DJ Slice (who produced the original, "Y'all Should All Get Lynched") like you might've expected... it's by various indie/unknown producers from all over. And for the most part, it's fresh and provides what I think the album was shooting for. The less said about the title cut, though, the better.

Hood Treason is definitely a step up on pretty much all fronts from his last indie full-length outing, The Haz Been (which still had its enjoyable moments, though, for us fans). This album is of course more serious, and as the album cover suggests, angry... but the Fly Guy is too smart/ mature to not let his wit and the lighter side of his message shine through, too. Songs like "Shout It In the Streets" and "Unreal" stand out especially, and he really flexes his skills on the drum track-free "A Quick 16:"

"Ounce after ounce
'Till the pound is bounced
And I'ma work that block and pound it out
And though my ears ring out with resounding doubt
I was down and out and now I'm 'bout it 'bout
'Bout to shout it out
I got that! Copped that
And if thecops cop then I'ma cop a plea
And if the plea don't set me free then I'll plead
On my hands and knees and beg God please to stop that!
You see these pigs change wolves to rats
And while these dogs chase cats,
These cats forget where they gangsters at
See, I was gonna drop a quick sixteen on 'em
And though I was wishin' to do a little snitchin'
My sixteen wasn't convincin'
Plus the DA had a bad day with a mind for convictin'
Y'all only wanted to sell a bit and celebrate
When I was celibate behind bars and gates
Tryin' to monkey around in the yard with weights
People had heard I'd turn states
I'd better drop a quick sixteen on 'em
B-b-but my verses was worthless
Nouns versus verbs is nervous
I mean I'm talkin' things, persons and places
To Action Jacksons and Scarfaces
Who spit straight razors and turn box springs into erasers
They fixed to drop sixtreen on 'em
And before they let go
I tried to scream for the C.O.
'C.O.!'
But the C.O.?
He ain't see, so
Well,
I bet you know how the rest go
And that's my sixteen."

NYOIL has his own site at nyoilmc.com that's definitely worth checking out, and, yes, he has a myspace as well. And The UMC's have a collective myspace, too, with some new songs on there. Good times. :)

An Assassinator If the People Ain't Steppin'

In 1995, East/West Records had a really impressive line-up of many of the great, up and coming hip-hop acts. They had Omniscence, Lin Que (aka Isis, who'd just dropped a really hot solo single called "Let It Fall"), SuperNatural, The Juggaknots (yes, they had Clear Blue Skies back in '95), Deda Baby Pa (yaknow, of Pete Rock/ INI fame)... then they dropped the whole lot of them, shelved all their albums, and only put out releases by their big name artists, like ODB and Das EFX. And while, ok, maybe Coz and Daddy D weren't such great loses; all told, it was really one of the worst examples of a label dropping the ball in hip-hop history. One of those dropped balls was 8-Off the Assassin.

Before that happened, though, East/West featured their impressive line-up on the live compilation album, Illstyle Live.

That's 8-Off pictured right there in front, holding the 8 ball. He's briefly introduced, where they mention a fact East/West mentioned that he got his start with Onyx. With his voice and rugged screamy style, it's easy to think he's an original member of Onyx or something (besides, in those days, all people knew as that Onyx consisted of Stickay Fingaz and... some other cats), but they're really just over-hyping the fact that he produced a handful of tracks off their underwhelming second album. Anyway, he performs his first single...


"Ghetto Girl." "Ghetto Girl" is his surprisingly successful self-produced venture to crossover to mainstream radio/video play and still be respectably non-commercial/wack-crap by letting him flex his rough, all-over-the-place flow on an "Around the Way Girl" type record. He gets away with it the same way Busta Rhymes got away with it on his very best singles. The b-side, "Neighborhood Hoe" (also self-produced, by the way... 8-Off's a pretty solid producer), is like his underground safety net. If you still found his ode to ghetto girls ("all over the world; all over the world!") too annoyingly blatant a crossover ploy, he had this to show he was still an macho, underground un-PC MC with woman issues. ;)


Anyway, 8-Off managed to squeeze one more single out of East/West Records before they let him go: "Alize for Dolo," again self-produced. The single also has a full instrumental and lyrical remix, featuring Mr. Cheeks of the Lost Boy, who phones in a verse so full of his own cliche lines ("puttin' Queens on the map," "LB fam got my back" etc etc) it borders on self-parody. But the beat, a very moody, slow and deep-bassed track produced by Mr. Sexx & Buttnaked Tim Dawg, is dope and 8-Off still comes tight, so it's still definitely worth having. There's another track on the B-side, "Kick Down the Fuckin' Door," a crazy hardcore number which is also the first track (after the intro) on his unreleased album, Wrap Your Lips Around This (Eastwest 61762).


...Which is really what everything up to now was just meant to be an introduction to. While, like all the others, Eastwest never released this album, they did finish it and give out this here prerelease promotional copy (The Source gave it 3.5 mics). All told, it's 17 tracks deep... all the songs from the singles are here ("Ghetto Girl," "Neighborhood Hoe," "Kick Down the Fuckin' Door" and "Alize for Dolo" - but the "Alize for Dolo" remix is exclusive to the single); plus there's a skit called "Skit #1" (yes, there's a "Skit #1" and no "Skit #2"... I don't know what's up with that), an intro and then 11 full 8-Off songs that've never seen the light of day. And that "Intro," is actually a pretty ill freestyle showcasing 8-Off's style over a crazy track. Just listen to this and then his labelmate's classic "Mind Tricks," and you can tell exactly where SuperNat (well known to be a very talented mimic, as well as off-the-head freestyler) picked up that style from. So, it's really 12 exclusive tracks (the skit really is just a skit... where 8-Off is at a club and some guy comes up and tells him his wife is cheating on him).

Unfortunately, there are no production credits on my copy of the album, but we can presume most of it is self-produced... and we know from ads and reviews that at Sugar Bear and Diamond D also produced at least one track a piece. Whoever produced what, it's all tight. The only guest vocalists are R&B singer Horace Brown on one of the only slow songs, "Used To Have It All," and Panama P.I., an up and coming MC who never quite came up (though he had a pretty good song on the Sprung soundtrack), on "Propa Swerve."

The songs are pretty varied ("Science Fiction" is a lot of fun and "Ghetto Airline" is downright weird), going from freestyles to narratives to songs about girls... Here's a taste of his style (from "Catch a Body"):

"Palms wet,
Plus my forehead starts to sweat,
Hoping I don't have to get down like Bernard Getz.
...
Lips chapped;
Got a tec in my lap in case po-po wanna react.
Siege hat,
With the flap right over my eyelids.
...
All of a sudden,
I hear the voice of the conductor,
'This is the last stop on the A train, motherfuckers!'
Got off,
Lookin' for a kid who walkin' around from outta town;
I saw him on one of the platforms,
Sportin' a ill frown.
Where's he at? Punch him in the crown.
Two niggas is with him,
'Well, blow me down!'
Fuck around and I'll paint the town red.
Niggas don't give me my C.R.E.A.M.
I'll have all y'all clown niggas dead!"

Of course, without hearing it in his hectic, voice-changing style (like I said, think SuperNat's "Mind Tricks" only faster), you're only getting a fraction of the picture. The production on the whole LP is hot, and 8-Off's flows are dope and creative... the lyrics are often clever. Really it's a shame this never came out. But, over the years, some of the other albums East/West slept on managed to sneak their way out to the open market, so maybe there's still hope for this to be rescued by one of those entrepreneurial indie labels. In the meantime, at least there are dubs floating around out there.

Today, 8-Off is still producing and releasing his own music... he changed his name to Agallah (a name he even drops a few times on Wrap Your Lips Around This, so it's nothing new), put out some 12"s and mixtapes, then formed the group Purple City. He put out his second (or his first depending how you keep score), You Already Know, last year; and yes he has a myspace page.

Tags: 8-Off, Agallah

If You've Been With Us for a Long Time, You Might Remember This One

Ok, I'm going to defend another oft-maligned album that's not really all that great, but it's in no way the travesty it's made out to be, and it's certainly not the ridiculously misguided mess DJ Polo's solo venture was around the same time (although I might have something to say about that one in a future post, so stay tuned...). The production is pretty solid and consistent, and as an MC... well, that's the album's weak point, sure... but is he really any worse than "producers on the mic" like Diamond D, Pete Rock or Ant Banks? I don't really think so.
 
For those who can't see the big jpg at the top of this blog entry, I'm talking about Eric B's self-titled solo album on his own 95th Street Recordings. When news of Eric B & Rakim's split came out, it was all hip-hop fans could talk about for a while. And while we all anxiously awaited Rakim's long-delayed return, Eric actually beat him to the punch with this universally panned venture.


(the full-page ad he ran for his album... same as the album cover, but uncropped)

The reasons for the poor reception are pretty obvious: it's full of love songs, the stories of Eric B's shady behind-the-scenes tactics and tales of how almost all of his beats were actually produced by Marley Marl, Large Professor, etc were getting more and more press daily, and it could never stand up to fans' expectations after his records with Rakim. Even though he got Freddie Foxxx to co-write the album with him and help him with his flows, there was no way all of the fans who'd been lead on a strong by reports of both solo outings would be satisfied with Eric B's soft voice and cheesy lyrics on the mic. Honestly, I think if he'd just waited and let Rakim come out with HIS disappointing solo material first, fans would've been more understanding/ appreciative of this album... but I guess he wanted to be the first to capitalize on all the press and get what he could while he could (this attitude towards his career is also evidenced by the fact that Eric B dropped out of the music game right after this).

But, really, once you get past hating on him for all the... well, perfectly valid reasons.to for hating on him, this album is actually a rewarding experience. He plays it conservative, only slightly modifying soul classic after soul classic into hip-hop beats that you really can't help but get into, from The Commodores' "You're My Painted Picture" to Cameo's "Candy," even if they've been used once or twenty times before.

The first song is the single (yes, there was a single), "I Can't Let You," the fifty-millionth song to use Maze and Frankie Beverly's great, "Before I Let Go." And unlike some examples (like K-Solo's "Ya Mom's In Our Business" or Keith Murray's "The Rhythm"), Eric B doesn't just take the infamous bassline, he uses the whole instrumental. But you can get into this groove and enjoy it just as much as The Funky Four Plus One, Lakim Shabazz, The Outlaw 4, Steady B, and everybody else's version of this song.*

The second track, "Love Trap," uses the same loop from Foster Sylvers' "Misdemeanor" that The D.O.C. used for "Funky Enough." If he wasn't already at enough of a massive disadvantage being compared to Rakim, setting himself up against The D.O.C. only makes him look even weaker. And on another song, he takes Run DMC's "Peter Piper" break, setting himself up for yet another unflattering juxaposition. Unfavorable comparisons did this man in, I tell you.

It's worth pointing out that not every song on here is a love song, by the way. On "Louis Burrell - Theme Song," over the same classic piano and drum loop (an all-time personal favorite of mine, by the way) used by Melle Mel on "Piano," Tragedy on the "Grand Groove" remix, etc., Eric B answers his critics and former associates,

"I wake up in the morning and the phone is ringing.
Yeah, Tony's on the phone and the song he's singing
Is the same old song about money:
'Gimme, gimme, gimme.' Man, it ain't funny.
I try to be a straight up man and do my business right,
But everybody's so game tight, it makes me wanna fight.
A black man with his own -
People lookin' at me like I'm doing something wrong.
Everybody's got their opinions. I ask, what is this?
Now everybody's a professional in the business.
Eric do this, Eric do that;
But only Eric B made the record sound phat.
I gave a lot of jobs to people I know;
Took 'em on tour, showed 'em what to do.
But all I ever got was a knife in the back.
Is that what I get for tryin' to stay black?"

The album ends with the only non-Eric B.-made track, "Why Oh Why," an R&B ballad written and produced by Prince Markie Dee & The Soul Convention (who were a really big thing for about five minutes back then), sung by...? I don't know. Could it possibly be Eric B himself? Anyway, it's awfully cheesy and a big mistake to close the album with. But even with this song and Eric's lyrical faults throughout the album ("You see, I think about high school, when I was just a young tyke... trying to chase the mic. But now there's more than a mic to chase; I gotta stand and be your man, and let no one else disgrace. This ain't your average Pebbles and Bam Bam jam; I'm really trying to tell you how I am"), there's enough can't-miss breaks to make this worth picking out of the dollar bin. Sure, it's no Follow the Leader; but it's no Shaq-Fu either.

Update 8/27/07: Today, Eric B is pretty much out of the music biz, I guess... But yes, he does have a myspace page. Interestingly, he doesn't mention this album in his bio, but he does have this to say about his former frontman, "Rakim, out of view for five years, re-surfaced in 1997 with The 18th Letter but, with Pete Rock and DJ Premier's productions lacking the symbiosis of the Eric B collaborations, it bore the unmistakable whiff of nostalgia a legend resting on his laurels, rather than a new rap blueprint."
 




*By the way, in the interests of protecting you guys from the mass amounts of misinformation littering the internet, I'll just point out briefly that this song does not feature Freddie Foxxx like it says on discogs. He cowrote all the songs (except "Why Oh Why") and raps on none of them.

Keep Hope Alive

I have dubs of Freddie Foxxx's Crazy Like a Foxxx and Young Zee's Musical Meltdown, and even Crustified Dibbs' Night of the Bloody Apes. I have original CD copies of 8-Off and Champ MC's albums, an EP of tracks off Omniscience's Elektra album, and I was able to download SuperNatural's Natural Disasters off of emusic.com. DWG Records pressed up classic, unreleased material by Phill Most Chill and Godfather Don. Ill Bizkits, Mikey D & the LA Posse and Ultimate Force's old albums eventually got released, only a decade late. Even Serch finally released (albeit as mp3 only - boo! Hiss!) the tracks he recorded with Pete Nice for the unfinished Ichibod's Cranium record... So, why couldn't it happen?

That album cover scan you're looking at ran in February 1995, claiming to be available on Like Records through Red Distribution. Home Team's (the ultra-backpacker duo that put out the delightful Live Via Satellite From Saturn album, original Poison Clan member Debonaire and his cousin Drugz) infamously unreleased Malignant Graffiti. The copy reads, "Pick it up! Hometeam is back with their new album 'Malignant Graffiti'." The catalog numbers are XR-213-1 for the vinyl, XR-213-2 for the CD and XR-213-4 for the tape (kinda makes you wonder what XR-213-3 was meant to be, doesn't it?). It's listed with a bunch of other Luke Records projects, all of which were released right around the time of this ad, though some - like Christmas At Luke's Sex Shop - were rather limited. This suggests to me that the album was finished and just about to be released before it was pulled (it shows up in various music catalogs all the time, but of course stores can never fulfill the order... go ahead and try it. I have; it's fun); so there has to be a copy out there somewhere. Something stored in Luke Records' vaults if not actually distributed press release copies. So, come on somebody. Dig it out and leak it, already!

...By the way, the entire page is black and white, so it's reasonable to guess the proper album cover would've actually been in color.

While we're at it, I wouldn't mind stumbling upon however much was recorded for Biz Markie's Remember Me? on Tommy Boy and Craig G's Return Of the Seventh Letter on Scotti Bros. Records either. And on yet another related note, have a look at my old post on Pudgee's King of New York album, and scroll all the way down to the bottom. I just uncovered a little bit more info and updated the post today.

Tags: Home Team

High Art

If you're looking for another post about lost classics, dusty breaks, over-intellectualized, obscure indie rap 12"'s, check back tomorrow. But if you're in the mood for a great, cheesy/silly rap song that could only have been recorded in the 1980's, then sir, you and I are on the same page.

Following up their hit single (and the last record they would put out on Macola), "Doo Wah Ditty" - a remake Manford Mann's gianormous pop hit of the of 60's, featuring, bizarrely, Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk, that got a lot of play on Yo! MTV Raps - The 2 Live Crew decided to repeat the formula for their cut on the soundtrack to Ivan Reitman's Twins, this time remaking The Coasters' "Yakety Yak."

It's produced by Luke Skyywalker (back before George Lucas made him changed his name... Boo, Mr. Lucas! I shall continue to call him Skyywalker; and what's more: I'm not buying Star Wars on DVD until you do it right!) and sole writing credit is given to Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller... though I somehow doubt they actually wrote the raps that Brother Marquis and Fresh Kid Ice take turns kicking.

No, this is corny, but it's pure hip-hop. It opens up with Mr. Mixx scratching up the chorus. Each MC sticks pretty close to the concept of the song with very short verses, "When you're told to do something by your mom and dad, don't frown in their face or get mad. Because as long as you're livin' under their roof, you better mind your mouth or get Dad's boot!" It's interesting to note that even though this is a 2 Live Crew song recorded between Move Something and As Nasty As They Wanna Be, this song is completely clean and sex isn't even hinted at (probably Universal Pictures' decree), but there's still a decidedly hip-hop bent whenever they drop lines like, "you better act like you got some sense!"

Then Luke joins them on the record, sounding like he got good and drunk for this, singing verses of the song as the famous horn riff is finally allowed to play for the chorus. The rapping is simplistic and unimpressive (after all, The 2 Live Crew never really aimed much higher... at least not until they replaced Brother Marquis with Verb and formed The New 2 Live Crew, years later), but it works. And the real talent of the crew, Mr. Mixx, steals theshow on the breakdown when he starts cutting up the line "Pick Up the Papers" from the original song. The only thing that would be better than what we've got here would be a 5 minute performance of just Mr. Mixx mixing up two copies of "Yakety Yak" over the beat.

Oh yeah, by the way. Everything else on this soundtrack is garbage. I'm not even sure I've ever listened to it all the way through. This is certainly the only rap song. It comes right at the end of side A, so you don't have to worry that anything like Phillip Bailey and Little Richard's duet, "Twins," will come blaring through your speakers at you if you're not quick enough to turn it off.

It should also be noted that this was released as a 12" single, as well; but it only features some remixes and a shortened, "radio edit" of this song. If you want the proper version, you've gotta get the soundtrack. ...I mean, it's not like it's gonna cost you anything, anyway. ;)

Tags: The 2 Live Crew

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?

Funk You Up

"Hold up, is he a man or a girl? What in the world? You sound like Cheryl the Pearl." - Kool Moe Dee dissin' LL Cool J on "Let's Go"

Here's another kinda rare one that's extra dope. This is the first solo joint by one of the great, first female group to put out records The Sequence.* Now, The Sequence are often referred to as the first female rap group... even by Van Silk on The Posse All-Stars compilation album that featured this single. But The Mercedes Ladies would actually have them beat as the first rap group, and Sha Rock of the Funky Four Plus One was around before, too... but Lady B and The Sequence were the first females to put out a record: 1979's "Funk You Up" on Sugar Hill Records. They were also the first Southern (or even non-New York) rap group, hailing from South Carolina. Not quite what we think of when we say "Southern rap" today.

They went on to put out a bunch of great records with the Sugar Hill Band, including three full-length albums and a classic duet with Spoonie Gee ("Monster Jam"). They kept putting out records until Sugar Hill folded (except as a catalog label) after being totally eclipsed by the new school movement heralded by Run DMC... their last record was "Funk It Up '85" - the title alone tells you they were struggling.**

Today, Angie B. has changed to a new, very prolific career as a neo-soul singer [for those who don't know, neo-soul is a fairly new genre, taking the vocal stylings of great, classic soul songs and mixing them with wack hip-hop and club producers... you know, like Erykah Badu] under the name Angie Stone (her new last name after marrying Rodney C of the Funky Four + One). But before that, another member of The Sequence went for hers and recorded an overlooked classic.

"Don't You Sit Back Down" came out on Spring Records (Spring Records and Posse Records are essentially the same label... their generic sleeves have both names printed on them, and both labels have the same NY mailing address) in 1987; produced by Donald D and co-produced by B Fats. It's just as if somebody said, "man, I'd love to hear a mix of the The Sequence's beautiful, old school songstress rap style and the new, cutting edge (for its time) sound of The Wop," and some demented genie was listening.

I mean, it really is like the girl version of "Woppit," only twice as funky; and Cheryl is a more skilled MC (which isn't saying a whole lot, granted...). Programmed drums and handclaps, a possibly live bassline, and dusty horn samples set you up for another hard-hitting horn stab in the chorus that'd make anyone jump out of their seat. And Cheryl isn't afraid to stir up a little drama and talk about her previous situation with the infamous Robinson family:

"I used to be a part of another deal;
It got so funky I was forced to chill.
It got so bad I couldn't pay the rent;
I'm still wondering, now, where the money went.
But I decided to stay around a little bit longer;
The label was weak, but it made me stronger.
Strong enough for me to take another chance,
With a beat so funky that'll make you dance.
...
I used to be down with two other girls:
Angie B, Blondie, and we rocked the world.
But now, since I'm on my own,
All I need is one microphone.
...
Donald said, 'Cheryl, the choice is yours!'
He said, 'I got the keys to open the doors.'
I said, 'if you're with it to take a chance,
Leave it up to me and I'll make them dance
Like this!'
...
Just a message from me to you:
Don't let nobody tell you what you can't do.
Because I know that if I don't succeed,
It won't be because of you; it'll be because of me!"

Disappointingly, there's no sign of Cheryl the Pearl in the music scene or on the internet in general today; but Angie Stone should have her own site at: angiestoneonline.com (it seems to be down now) and of course her own myspace page. She says she's working on her fourth studio album, Baby. Feel free to message her and tell her how much the world needs a Sequence reunion on there somewhere. ;)

*What's that? I don't have a Sequence page on my site? Well, I do now! I just made it in conjunction with this post! So go check it out and enjoy... it even documents all the releases of Angie B's massive solo catalog.

**They put out a "Rappers Delight Hip Hop Remix '89" from The Sugar Hill Gang, too.

A Thousand Awkward Situations

Even rarer than that Object Beings 7", surprisingly, is the self-titled CD album it's off of. It came out shortly after the vinyl in 2001 and was limited to only 200 copies (mine's #147), and was mainly just available through Anticon-friendly online stores like Atak. #154 recently sold for $182.50 on EBay, and that was before shipping!

Fortunately for everybody who got the 7" but missed the CD, they didn't miss too too much. Both songs from the 7" are here, albeit slightly different. The CD version of "Attack Of the Postmodern Pat Boones" retains, but talks over, the atmospheric opening, that starts out by playing a very warped opening to Pat Boone's "Sugar Moon." But more importantly, they've removed the ominous coda at the end of the song - another spoken exchange between Brandon and Tobey (originally a character from Anticon's infamous, unreleased Stuffed Animals project):

"You mean, we shouldn't be afraid of the post-mortem baboons?"

"That's right, Tobey. There's nothing to be afraid of.

Unless, of course... you're a jazz musician."

And the version of "Cannibalism Of the Object Beings" on the CD, is apparently the "West Coast Phunk Remix," though both mixes sound pretty darn similar to me.

Another one of the main (and it's really quite good) tracks on this album is Pedestrian's solo number, "The Nature of Theater" (here titled, "Theatre of Nature"). But people who missed this song had likely already heard it in spades, as it had been on Anticon.com's shared mp3s for ages... originally scheduled to be released on the Makeshift Writers Workshop LP that never happened.

So, beyond those three songs an Object Beings fan would already have, they weren't missing a whole lot. There's a TON of skits/ poems between the tracks, a demented introduction and a brief, untitled instrumental ...which are cool... but, yaknow, they still ain't proper songs. It's almost more of a neat, "special edition" of the vinyl record rather than a proper album. Why? had this to say, "David [Odd Nosdam] and I were allotted the chore of blending the record. We got together at his place and listened to all the little pieces with no idea how to put them all together. Eventually, we divided the material into songs and unsongs. He put the songs into a logical order and left spaces in between into which we randomly placed unsongs by drawing them out of a hat."

There are still a couple nice exclusives, however. There's a new (albeit pretty short... it's 90 seconds long) Dose One song called, "Well Pail," that starts with him imaginatively describing the only things he's afraid of (they would scare me, too!) and then says,

"There sure are a lot of things we can make,

And make up;

And it's not just an Aegean space

They take up.
Those crazy objects would sure scare us

From far, far away,
If they - one day - had it their way.

Had it their way..."

And there's a second "Theatre of Nature," which uses the exact same instrumental and lyrics, but is this time performed by Dose.

The album came packaged in the plain white sleeve (pictured), with a tiny, folded Xeroxed sheet of paper with a scan of some Newspaper classified ads advertising "Object Beings" on one side, and the track listing on the other. Dose One added, "We rushed the mixing this down. That was two years ago. The summer of hard luck. And 100 students of pressure. The real Object Beings is blank. Thank you."

Tags: Object Beings, Dose One, Why?, Pedestrian

Attack Of the Post-Modern Pat Boones

"It's an art school text book, Tobey; it's nothing to be afraid of."

I'm not done with Weapon-Shaped yet. This is their second, weird, little collector's edition 7", "Attack of the Postmodern Pat Boones" by the Object Beings, a collaberative group of Anticon artists Pedestrian, Why?, Dose One along with producer Emynd. And it's great.

It's catchy, it's creative, it's funny... of course, to really "get" the song, you have to know who Pat Boone is, which might exclude a lot of their younger hip-hop demographic. Pat Boone was huge in the 50's... the non-threatening, non-rock & roll alternative to Elvis Presley, who didn't dress flashy, dance outrageously or have suggestive lyrics in his music. He continued to record through the 60's and 70's and basically made safe "white" versions of hit records so that middle America could have their bland version of "Tutti Frutti" without having to face any scary Little Richards. ...Towards the end of his career, he went into making strictly gospel music.

So bear this in mind, and think of the state of the hip-hop scene Anticon was in when this was released (2000), particularly with the college kids embracing all the DJ Shadows and what-not, and you'll start to see the sense and even the wit in the "nonsense lyrics," including the chorus that goes:

"It's the attack of the post-modern Pat Boones...
And they've got golf shoes for hands.
It's the attack of the post-modern Pat Boones...
And they never learned guitar.
It's the attack of the post-modern Pat Boones...
They're writing their thesis papers on acid.
It's the attack of the post-modern Pat Boones...
And they're taking your transgressive daughters."

The body of the song consists of Pedestrian and Why? trading lines back and forth, finishing each other's sentences over a mellow beat with a very catchy guitar sample and a single, drawn out keyboard note:

"Why?) Who's whoever accepts the primal challenge to play the role of
Pedestrian) Suburban fur-trapper, camoflauged in fake leather couches and plush carpet squares,
Why?) Searching for an embroidered 'Home Sweet Home' wall-hanging,
Superfluous signal of a potpouri sense of security.
Pedestrian) Watercolor class has taught him much...
Even the value of tupperware in a wine-cooler ravaged conscience:
Clear, but for the ominous tint of contentment.
Why?) He once spent a summer squatting in the food court cloaked in McChicken crumbs,
Lucky felt flower behind ear.
Pedestrian) And also having slept on the most expensive sand in all of orange county,
He inverted post-pubescent Keroucian fantasy with a rather non-threatening vengeance."

To be honest, this is still one of my all-time favorite Anticon songs (although, not strictly released on Anticon Records... though it was later included on their Giga Single compilation).

The B-side, "Cannibalism of the Object Beings" features a faster beat, faster flows and introduces Dose One into the mix. It's even more bugged out ("You never know what could show up in your mailbox") and a lot of fun, even if - unfortunately - some of the vocals are a little tough to make out in the mix. :(

It's a shame this 7" was so limited, because it's seriously one of the most important hip-hop records of its period. The Object Beings haven't really stayed together as a group, but today Why? has two albums recorded due to come out... one apparently featuring a lot of music by the band Fog, and other more hip-hop-oriented. Dose has a new Themselves (he and Jel) album in the works. And Pedestrian, as ever, is torturing all of his fans by going for increasingly long stretches without putting any new music out while Sole makes posts about him "working on a new album." Man, I feel like it's 2000 again right now.

Tags: Object Beings, Pedestrian, Why?, Dose One

Ant "D" Revisited: Part 2 - The Murders

[Another two-parter. Click here to read Part 1 first.]

Ant "D" is currently on death row for the April 13, 1996 murders of University of Miami football player Marlin Barnes and Timwanika Lumpkins, also know as Lil Bit, who was Ant's former girlfriend and mother of his child (Ant thanks her in the Top Dog liner notes, as well as on previous Dogs' albums, and gives a creepy laugh after shouting out her name on "Ant 'D' Saying Whats Up"). Ant had been seeing Timwanika on and off for over five years ...along with University of Miami basketball player Jennifer Jordan; Watisha Wallace, mother of another one of his children, and Katina Lynn, a nude dancer who toured with the Dogs. At the time, Ant was living alternately with Watisha and Timwanika (when he was arrested two weeks after the murders, he was in bed with Watisha), and a week before the 13th, Timwanika walked out on him. Apparently, there had been several incidents of violence before with Timwanika over his jealousy.

In 1994, he threatened Timwanika and another man with a 9mm outside their home, and in 1995 went to her aunt's house with the same gun, looking for her. He threatened her as well as a man she was with, and hit him with the gun. In another scary '95 incident, Ant "D" was spotted hiding outside of Timwanika's house behind a tree, in a black outfit he wore for his stageshows. He later knocked on the door and threatened to "blow [the] brains out" of a man she was about to go out with. After a series of harrassing cell phone calls that same night, Timwanika wound up going out with Marlin instead of her intended date. Timwanika's high school friend Dekeisha Williams reported several incidents, from frightening phone calls to black eyes and "welts on her neck that looked like handprints."*

Katina had similar incidents with Ant "D" in the past. She testified about times when he grabbed her by the neck and banged her head against the wall, telling her "not to play with his feelings or he would hurt her." Another time, after running into her old high school teacher at the gym, Ant put a gun to her head and told her, "he had better not find out she was messing with someone else or he would kill her, put her body in a bag and throw her somewhere." And again, when she tried to leave him, he put a gun to her head and said she could never leave him and "if she tried, she would 'leave the world.' Then he told her to call him in the morning and don’t play with him.'

On Easter of '96, Ant "D" went to his friend Joseph Stewart's place looking to borrow a gun. Joseph had a broken shotgun he'd found in the trunk of an abandoned car a year earlier that he was keeping under his mattress at his mother's house, which he let him borrow. Katina then went with Ant to go buy bullets.

On April 12th, Timwanika went to a party for a charity basketball game with several girlfriends. Marlin was also there with friends, but they wound up leaving together. When they got outside, they discovered Timwanika's tires had been slashed.

On April 13th, Marlin's roommate and childhood friend, Earl Little, came home to his apartment to discover their door unlocked. When he tried to open the door, he found it was blocked and forced it partway to see a "floor full of blood" and his roommate Marlin lying on the floor, breathing hard. Earl called his name twice, and the second time Marlin turned his head just enough that Earl could see his face. In a 2005 interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Earl said, "He was still alive. I opened the door enough to stick my head in there and I said, 'Marlin.' He was trying to respond. It came out in the trial that the guy hit him 27 times with the butt end of a shotgun. His face was all messed up. It was best he passed away. When I found him, no surgery would have put him back to the way he was."

To quote the court documents exactly, "Marlin Barnes had suffered multiple lacerations all over his face and forehead, on both cheeks and on his lower lip, and had bruising on both cheeks and around his eyes. Barnes’ sinus and nasal bones were broken. His hard palate, or roof of his mouth, was broken, while several of his teeth were broken and missing. Barnes had some abrasions on the back of his head that were consistent with Barnes having been beaten while the back of his head was against carpet. There was also a laceration on the back of his head that was different than the ones on the front, which could have been caused by his falling to the floor and hitting his head, or by being hit on the front of his head as he lay on the hard surface of the floor. There was a "thin" fracture of the occipital bone underthis laceration.Barnes had defensive wounds on both his hands, corresponding in shape to parts of the shotgun... Barnes’ sinus and nasal bones were broken. His hard palate, or roof of his mouth, was broken, while several of his teeth were broken and missing."

Apparently, Ant assaulted and beat Marlin down as soon as he opened the door; then continued to beat him with the shotgun while he was on the floor. He then left Marlin and went to look for Timwanika. It's believed that some of Marlin's face wounds caused bleeding and hemorrhaging in and around his eyes; which left him blind as he attempted to walk around the apartment, ultimately collapsing against the door.

Tamwanika was also still alive when police found her, "lying face down next to the bed. She was 'gurgling' as if she were trying to breathe but her lungs were full of fluid. She had suffered obvious trauma to the back of her head; [Coral Gables police officer Dan] Oppert observed a great deal of blood and what appeared to be exposed brain matter." According to the physical evidence, Tamwanika was hiding under the bed and dragged out. She had defensive wounds on her arms and hands, including broken fingers and fingernails. Blood was even found sprayed on the ceiling. Tamwanika was airlifted to a nearby hospital where she soon died.

After the murder, Joseph found his shotgun returned but destroyed in the same duffel bag he'd lent to Ant "D" behind some bushes alongside his mother's driveway. Inside there was also a knife and Ant's black outfit. After talking to Ant the next day, Joseph disposed of the gun, knife and clothes, but "saved the duffel bag because he didn’t notice any blood on it, and planned on using it again." Police didn't find out about Joseph’s involvement until his girlfriend, Zemoria Wilson, told her bus driver about the incident on a return trip from Chicago.

Ant later saw Katina, told her conflicting stories about his whereabouts during the murder and told her, "That was good for her ass. The bitch shouldn’t have been cheating on me." He was finally arrested for the murders after a phone tip to the police on April 30, 1996. He was 24 at the time; Timwanika and Marlin were both 22.

There. I don't think another post on this blog will ever be as grim as that. This has to be the most brutal case in hip-hop (to date). To be fair to all parties, however, I should point out that Ant "D" did plead not guilty to the charges and I believe still maintains his innocence (the most recent information I could find was a denied appeal in 2002). Anyway, I promise the next post I make will be much more upbeat.

* By the way, pretty much all of the information and quotes in this half of the piece are coming from The Supreme Court of Florida's published statements (91 pages) of the case.

Tags: Ant D

Ant "D" Revisited: Part 1 - The Music

I got a couple questions after posting my last 2-part blog entry on Disco Rick (click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2), mainly about The Dogs' member Ant "D." It's been a almost ten years since I wrote the article, and I kind of breezed over Ant D's album, and of course his horrible crime... Ant "D" was mainly just a tangent in a piece focused on Disco Rick. But it's damned interesting tangent (in a very morbid kind of way), so I thought I'd go back now and take a look back at the music... and the murders.

Disco Rick and The Dogs was always really a solo act... the Dogs were just the name of whoever he toured with: hypemen, DJ, etc. But when Disco Rock left Joey Boy Records for a new label (Luke Records) and a new crew (The Wolfpack), Joey Boy decided to keep the Dogs' highly successful/ marketable name alive by giving it to Rick's dancers, Ant "D" and the Amazing Peanut, who suddenly got promoted to rappers. So, given that dubious origin, Ant "D"'s 1993 solo album featuring The Puppies, Top Dog, is surprisingly not too terrible.

Like most of the Joey Boy releases at that time, it's produced entirely by in-house producers Calvin Mills II and Carlton Mills, which is a good thing. After all, Ant "D" (by the way, if you're wondering why the "D" is in quotes, I don't know - it just is) has the approximate rapping skills of a professional athlete, so if he works, he works because he's essentially an in-studio creation. ...That said, to his credit, he does apparently write all his own lyrics here - at least according to the liner notes. Of course, it says, "all lyrics by Labrant Dennis [Ant's real name]," which would mean all the guest MCs' verses as well... so I'm guessing the album credits aren't telling the whole story here. Heck, they don't even name the guest MCs... but more on that later.

So, the album begins and ends with forgettable skits about two guys very excited to have the new Top Dog tape. But once we're past that we get right into one of the nicest (not "next level" exceptional or anything, but just really engaging and fun) Miami bass beats you're likely to hear, called "We Wanna Party." Perhaps the best thing about this album is that Ant "D" raps through the entire thing. It isn't 50% "shout and call" tracks, or long instrumental fillers devoted solely to car stereo system testing baslines. Don't get me wrong, this album does have the low frequency prolonged, programmed rumble you'd expect from a Miami-bassed artist at this time; but on this album it's clearly secondary; an afterthought to making enjoyable songs anybody can listen to without a jeep full of coffin-sized woofers.

Next up is the prerequisite track based off of Planet Patrol's "Play At Your Own Risk" (hey, I said this was a solid entry into the Miami bass music genre, not that it was revolutionary), followed by the first of only two songs to actually feature The Puppies. The other is the single, "Break It Down," with Ant "D" and Big Boy sharing the mic - Tamara is name-checked, but never rhymes. You've got a few other typical dance tracks, like "Work It" and "Get It Get It," and one ultra-corny love song called "Good Thing," where Ant slows it down almost to a spoken word piece. The first verse is about being true to a good relationship when you find it (something we know came from the heart and his real life experiences), and the second is more of a "do what your parents tell you to do" "Hey Young World"-type thing.

By and large, Top Dog is a collection of nothing but upbeat, fun party rhymes making for a fast-moving (the whole album just barely tops half an hour, since almost all the songs are just 3 minutes long), family friendly experience. Not what you'd expect, really, from a member of The Dogs, and certainly not when you consider what we now know he'd go on to do later...

Even on the hardcore posse cut (and only song with explicit lyrics), "Here Come Them J-Boys" (the chorus is "Here come them Joey Boys"), which features... well, I don't know. I'm gonna guess Ace the Bulldog and at least one of the Miami Boyz. They do name check themselves, but except for Ant, the MCs seem to have difficulty with ennunciation. So what you wind up with is a lot of really violent, realy slurred lyrics, like:

"I'm the Bulldog;
I've got the heart of steel
On the real,
These gangstas love to kill.
[something] from the knife wound,
Then I'ma drink your blood with a spoon!
...
Grabbed my nine
And shot a girl in the chest.
Now that was real messed up and hated.
Step to me, girl,
And even God couldn't save ya.
So, lay low before I pull ya card;
Don't snitch on the boulevard.
I told you once;
You didn't follow example.
Now your family must be dismantled!"

Another one of the MCs directs his verse towards Disco Rick:

"Let me talk about this cat
That tried to diss Ant D;
But you know that you gots to come clean.
I'm not even gonna say your name,
'Cause, punk, you don't deserve that kind of fame.
Tryin' to make girls jiggle;
I heard at the store, 'Wiggle, Wiggle.'"

But, yeah. What I was saying... even on this track, Ant D leaves the curses, violence and dissing to his guests, and keeps his verse relatively clean and non-threatening. Like Jose Armada, Jr. of Joey Boy Records said, "It really shocked me because he was a quiet guy, not that violent at all. But I hadn't seen him in three years. I guess a lot can happen in that time."*

The only other non-party song, "Ya Gotta 'Go'" (I don't know why the word "Go" is in quotes either... I guess Ant "D" just has a thing for quotation marks), takes on a disturbing new subtext when you listen to it now, knowing what happened. It's about Ant dealing with a cheating girlfriend. He decides to video-tape her in a gangbang (classy all the way), but the infidelity still gets him so mad "I was so mad, I just pulled out my glock." But in the end, he thinks better of it all, and just tells her, "you gotta go." Tragically, he didn't have those second thoughts in real life.

[Continued in a follow-up post being added immediately.]

* Taken from a 1996 article titled "Business is Booming," by John Floyd. Most of it has nothing to do with Ant D, but he does also say, "[The Dogs'] stuff has always sold steady... It's sad to say, but it's really picked up [since Dennis's arrest]. The whole thing is just crazy."

Tags: Ant D, The Dogs, The Puppies