The Return of Black, Rock & Ron

(Youtube version is here.  And the blog post I mention is here. And an important update/correction is posted here.)

Where The Hell Did Hi-Tech Go?

Hi-Tech was that dude. He was a master of that Queensbridge criminology style (even though I think he was actually from the Bronx) at its peak in the mid 90s, but was equal part backpack rapper; very few rappers could please audiences on both sides of fence at the same time. Even Nas has to visibly shift gears to reach both camps. Hi-Tech was a star artist on the indie label Mass Vinyl, and so he had killer production. His third single, "All Time Einstein," started a craze by sampling the theme to Hill Street Blues, and soon everybody was looking for television themes to sample. No, this wasn't the first record to sample a TV show - let us forget the days of Fresh Gordon - but his was an underground smash, and everybody from Lord Digga revitalizing his career with The Price Is Right theme to Timbaland and Magoo making a hit out of Knightrider. Everybody had to have a TV show theme, and underground rapper Hi-Tech was why.

This is his second record, though, and probably my favorite. "24/7" dropped on Mass Vinyl in 1996 in a pretty ill picture cover. The lead track is produced by the seriously underrated DJ Shok. Shok did a bunch of hot material for Mass Vinyl, and eventually went on to the Ruff Ryders camp where he kinda drifted off my radar. But his 90's stuff was terrific. Just listen to this track: it's got a perfect piano loop over a sparse beat and some nice cuts for a hook, and most producers would stop right there and declare victory. But Shok keeps breaking up the track, to add this dark, Wu-style distorted sound, giving the whole thing a really robust, dramatic life. This became one of those instrumentals, like "Tried By 12," where every MC had to freestyle over it at least a dozen times on mix-tapes, radio, etc.

The B-side is "Book Of Life, Page 2," a sequel to his first single. At first it sounds like it's just a remix, because the first verse is the same on both songs. But then the hook and subsequent two verses are all new. This version's produced by Jaybiz, and as great as the original was, this one's even better. It's deep and moody - the original was tight, a formula executed perfectly; but this one's creative. It's deceptively simple and brooding.

Meanwhile, the rhymes here bounce back and forth between personal reflection and throwback B-boyisms ("while taking my first fresh breath, the first words out my mouth was 'one, two, mic check'") and robust sincerity (when he talks about his father's drug addiction and says, "the more I think about it, I don't wanna talk about it," it's so damn genuine it doesn't sound like it can be a song lyric*). Some of the lines haven't aged so well and may sound a bit corny today; but you have to remember this was cutting edge lyric writing in the mid 90's, artists didn't really have a template of when a line got too jokey or contrived like they do today. Still, though, the majority of this is as strong today as it ever was, and puts your average Youtube rapper to shame.

So, really, what did happen to Hi-Tech? Well, I'm sure Hi-Tek's come up didn't help at all. Just as Hi-Tech was starting to solidify his name, here comes this other guy from Ohio and becomes an indie darling, hooking up with Rawkus. Sure, their names are spelled differently, but when you're standing around Fat Beats and you hear the phrase "hi tech," you know they're probably talking about a Black Star record. And when Mass Vinyl predictably went the way of all those awesome little NY indie vinyl labels, Hi-Tech seemed to vanish right with it. Dude put out a bunch of records, both his own and appearing with his crew, but never on another label ("Continuously" doesn't count, because it was an old track that was sitting on a shelf until Creative dusted it off and put it on his record years later); I guess he went down with his ship. Hi-Tech is one of those artists that represents the 90's so thoroughly he's practically an abstract symbol of it. And I could see some people then arguing that he's such an iconic 90's guy that it's just as well we haven't had to watch him fumble and chase terrible fads throughout the 2000s. But I don't know... I can't believe it's really a good thing to never again hear from any artist who was once so compelling.


*Okay, that quote's from the first "Book Of Life," but as far as the points I'm making go, it's the same difference.

The Biz Goes Schizo!

So Don Byron is kind of a big time, contemporary jazz guy, I guess. He's on (or been on) Blue Note, which is like the Def Jam of jazz labels, and he's been putting out albums for decades. I think his main instrument is the clarinet. I know hip-hop, not jazz, so that's all I got for ya on him.  Except for this: he released an album in 1998 called Nu Blaxploitation (on Blue Note/Capitol Records). I don't think it got much of a release here in the US (you can only get it from Amazon as in import) like it did overseas, but a promo copy found its way to The Source magazine, where it lived unwanted  But I saw it and asked if I could have it because look who's featured on it - the diabolical Biz Markie!

So, skipping right over the rest of the album (that's not a criticism or saying that it's bad or anything, that's just what I do when presented with non-hip-hop albums), we go right to track #6. It's called "Schizo Jam," and it's over fourteen minutes long, so this is a little more than your typical, negligible "he's only on one song" single verse cameo. It's a fucking jam, a... schizo jam?

To be honest, even being familiar with the long and having listened to it a bunch of times, I can't really figure out why it's called "Schizo Jam." The word is never used, the concept of schizophrenia is never brought up, and Biz isn't acting particularly erratic.  At least, no more than he usually does. At the beginning of the song, the Biz is introduced by saying, "in the whole history of African American entertainment, there is nobody like this cat," which is both absolutely true, and I guess the closest to an explanation for the song title as we're gonna get.

Like the title does suggest, though, the song isn't about anything... Biz just kicks freestyle verse after freestyle verse the way only he can:

"I'm the original,
Eatin' peanut butter and jelly.
Everybody,
Look at my big belly!"

And the audience reacts with perfect enthusiasm. Yeah, there's an audience. Usually, I'd be disappointed to receive a live track as opposed to a proper studio song; but for this jam, it's actually perfect. The live, free-form instrumentation, Biz's equally free-form personality, and the way the audience screams when he rhymes, "on my t-shirt is SCOOBY DOOBY DOO!" just couldn't be recreated in a recording booth.

Oh, and Don Byron raps, too.  Biz does most of the rhyming on this song, but Don gets on at more than one point, and one of his verses is actually really nice. He doesn't have the flow or naturalism of Biz, though, and he sounds like "somebody who shouldn't be rapping," but I actually really dug the lyrics to his second verse. The band is kickin', there's lots of nice horns and shit throughout the full fourteen minute jam, never getting redundant or repetitive. It's really a cool song, and you'll definitely want to track this CD (pretty sure there's no vinyl) if you're a serious Biz Markie fan.

Heck, I'm almost tempted to listen to the rest of this album.

What Krs Knows

(Youtube version is here.)

The Untold Tale of E-Marvelous

When Latee's lost demos were given the crisp vinyl treatment this Spring, one of the songs on that EP - the best - featured two guest rappers, including a guy named E-Marvelous. Well, on the label's forums, Smoov pointed out that it could be a guy named E-Marvelous that was down with D-Nice. I said it probably was, because D-Nice was one of those already established artists who joined the second generation Flavor Unit when Latifah and co. changed the line-up and dynamic of the original crew. And Latee hadn't quite been phased out of it at that point.  ...So here's the whole E-Marvelous story.

Remember D-Nice's crew, The Rescue Squad?  What's that? No? Nobody does? Well, The Rescue Squad was the name of his posse at the time of his second album (1991), which is why it was called To tha Rescue, and why he had a big red cross symbol on the back cover.  The Rescue Squad consisted of: McBooo (a producer who was also down with BDP), Tone, Robo-Cop, J-Boss, L'il Lowe, our man E-Marvelous and of course D-Nice.  I don't know who most of those cats are, or what they've done, if anything... except that a lot of songs on "To tha Rescue" mention "backgrounds" by the Squad as a whole, so they must've just been the generic voices on some chanted hooks.

But E-Marvelous actually did something noteworthy on that record - he performed a duet with Nice at the end of the album. The track-listing only credits the big-name guests (Krs One, Naughty By Nature and Too $hort. who must've gotten lost while wandering around the offices of Jive Records that day), but there's one more MC who spits on this album, one who doesn't get his name listed on the back-cover. "And There You Have It" is co-written and co-performed by E, with D sharing the mic with "my man from Uptown," E-Marvelous.

E went on to appear on D-Nice's final single, the independently released B-side to "Nice, Let Me Know It," that Nice put out on his own label (Nice Records, natch) called "All Out" in 1994. And that same year, he appeared on a single by R&B singer Roz, who D-Nice was also producing. Don't remember her? Roz sang back-up vocals on the token love song off To tha Rescue called "Get In Touch With Me."* Roz's solo career lasted for two singles - one featuring D-Nice, and the other, called "U Can Be My Lover," which is more of a clubby drum 'n' bass kinda thing, featuring E-Marvelous.

And that's the whole story of this mysterious Harlem MC until those Latee demos were unearthed earlier this year. He just had verses on those three songs, but - oh no, wait!  E-Marvelous came out with his own, super rare record. It's not on discogs and no place else online seems to even make an off-hand reference to it. But I'm sitting here looking at it, so it exists.

It's a 12" single called "Let 'Em Know" on Grand Sounds Entertainment (who only seem to have done this one release, but from the credits, I gather it's run by McBooo) in 2002. That's a good chunk of time passed since the other music I've been talking about, but just in case you're doubting it's the same guy, read the label credits: "Mixed by D-Nice and McBooo." This is our man, no question.

So "Let 'Em Know" comes in three flavors: Street, Radio and Instrumental, and it's produced by some guy named Mike Wrecka. Flip it over, and there's a B-side called "Move To This," which comes in Radio, Main and Instrumental, and is produced by McBooo.

So, how is this single? Well, even all the way back on "And There U Have It" and the Latee demo, E came off nice enough, but he wasn't exactly a mind-blowing MC. He was pretty neck and neck with D-Nice. He has a solid voice and fine, basic flow which sounds good over super hot, 90's jazzy production. But this is a 2002 single, to its detriment. E sounds good, but none of his lyrics stand out as especially above average. Over a better track he has the potential to be a compelling MC, but the beats are, well, at least kinda underground style for the time, and New Yorkish.  They'll get your head nodding when you listen to this, but once it's over you're not going to be in a hurry to hear it again.  "Let 'Em Know" is dark and tough, but it's all sample-free studio sounds. And "Move To This" is more of a club track, with an uncredited male singer half-crooning in the background - interesting, but again compiled entirely from out-of-the-box studio sounds. At the end of the day, it's a good, respectable indie 12"; but nothing to get excited over.

 And now, finally, that's really the end of the E-Marvelous story.  An interesting, extended footnote in the history of - wait a minute! What's this? The one in the white suit who raps second. That's gotta be a different E-Marvelous... right?


*...which, amazingly, they chose to be his second single.

Unreleased Eric B & Rakim Classics!

(Youtube version is here.)

Ego Trippin' Part Zero

A lot of De La Soul fans were probably confused in 1993 when they dropped their single "Ego Trippin' (Part 2)." Where was Part 1? Did I miss it? You could pretty much separate the real heads from the mainstream by who actually knew that Part was actually the Ultramagnetic MC's classic single on Next Plateau Records in 1987. And since then, other artists have made their own sequels and homages... Tech N9ne did a song called "Ego Trippin," MCJ and Cool G did, Waka Flakka Flame did, Steady B did... Snoop Dogg titled one of his latest albums Ego Trippin', and there's some electronic band called Ego Trippin' that's been putting out records for years and years.  I've never heard 'em, but I keep seeing their records all over the place.  Kool Keith made his own sequel (and that's not counting that silly "Ego Trippin' 2000 (Rmx)" from Bootlegs and B-Sides), called "Ego Trippin' '99" on a Sway and Tech project.  The title first appeared as a 70s funk record with a little break in it called "Ego Trippin'" by a group called Please, though I think it's more likely Ultra got it from Marvin Gaye's later record "Ego Tripping Out" Ultra just made an incredible record, that turned out to be powerfully influential on the genre, something they surely never anticipated when they were recording it.

But it's not rap's first "Ego Trippin'" record.

Two years before Ultramagnetics or anybody else touched the title (1985), Super-Wolf and Company released "Ego Tripping" on Big Bad Wolf Records.  If you've ever heard of Super Wold, it was probably on one of Sugar Hill Records' bajillion rap compilations, because they'd released his debut single "Super Wolf Can Do It" back in 1980.  That record's great, I love it.  Very funky and pure disco era, with Super Wolf rapping in that pure old school, Frankie Crocker radio DJ style with the bass-y voice and everything. After that one single is when he drops off the radar for the most part, but he actually continued to relaease records for years on his own label, Big Bad Wolf (which also released the original "Super Wolf Can Do It" before Sugarhill picked it up and gave it major distribution), and this was one of his later ones.

Super Wolf seemed to find himself caught in that weird phase a lot of disco-era rappers were in 1985. Whodini, Run DMC and drum programs changed hip-hop forever, and no one was checking for guys who rapped like The Sugarhill Gang anymore. It produced final records like Jimmy Spicer's "This Is It" or anything Kurtis Blow did after America... stuff that completely fails compared to their classic work, and yet fails to fit in with the new style of the day either.  But, actually, Super Wolf pulls through alright.

The new sound is definitely here musically. Simple cuts, big beats, fake horns, ringing telephones, fake handclaps and silly human beat-boxing right out of The Fat Boys' "All You Can Eat." And, meanwhile, Super Wolf is still rapping like it's 1980.  It's really goofy and should be a huge embarrassing disaster on paper, but... it kinda all works somehow. The beat is as silly as anything was in that period, but it's still funky; the bassline is actually fresh, and there's some funky guitar tucked away in this track. And Super Wolf is smart not to leave his comfort zone as a rapper, sticking to what he's good at, which is what most rappers who try to change with the passing fads generally fail to do.  The beat throws you off at first, but when you hear the familiar wolf howl comes in, it's a relief to know that the Super Wolf I'd been hoping to hear again is back, being himself. He's basically just here to kick some simple cautionary tales about letting your ego trip and encourage the break dancers in the audience, but he sounds as good as ever.

Despite the record being billed with "and Company," the rapping is all Super Wolf.  The Company presumably refers to the girls who sing on the chorus ans scratch mixer Terry Alexander (KX-96 - he's really not at all impressive, but having the cuts still adds to the energy of the song). And whoever the human beat box is.

In a way, this is as rare you'd expect an obscure 80's rap record from Tennessee (that's right, Memphis was putting out rap records as far back as 1980) to be. But Super Wolf must've been big enough to press up more than just a super tiny run; because I see these around online, relatively inexpensive.  If you're a fan of "Super Wolf Can Do It," this one is pretty different, but I recommend it anyway; I still don't think you'll be disappointed. And, hey, it's rap's original "Ego Tripping" - that's gotta count for something, right? Ultra did the classic, and De La did part 2, so that must make this... part 0. The rare first chapter in what's become a long, surprisingly enduring legacy.  ;)

Celebrating Finsta's 20th On Wax!

In 1992, Finsta released his debut single, "Finsta Baby" on a little label called Cracd Records. Most of Finsta's singles are pretty rare, and all of them are highly respected and sought after by heads in the know. And this debut is perhaps the most of all of them. You can expect to pay a couple hundred for a copy nowadays. But it's become available again now, for the 20th anniversary of his vinyl debut, on the new label, Sergent Records.

The original 12" featured three versions of "Finsta Baby"  - Dirty, Clean and Instrumental, plus a B-side track called "Payday Is Bliss." Perfect, but who cares about the Clean version, right? Sergent knows we don't, so they replaced it... with a previously unreleased vintage Finsta track from the 90's: "Activate." We heard a good, tantalizing chunk of it on Finsta's Never Say Never mixtape from back in the late 90's, but now we're hearing it complete and unmixed for the first time, on this vinyl debut. This is gonna excite a lot of people.

What's that? You say you're not necessarily completely entirely familiar with Finsta's music history? Oh dear, what are we going to do with you? Quick, read the rest of this post before anybody cool hears you don't know who Finsta is!

Finsta is a Brooklyn MC, down with those Black Moon cats before they blew up.  He came out with his earliest material produced by Evil Dee and da Beatminerz, and then hooked up with his rhyming partner Bundy,. Finsta became his own producer, making tracks that can stand 100% alongside the best of Da Beatminerz, and released a series of 12" singles throughout the 90's, right in the heyday of the indie vinyl days, but always just slightly off the radar.  I don't think think anyone could say Black Moon was ever pop, but compared to Finsta, they were the mainstream to his underground realness. "Feel the High," "Who I Be," "Sunnyside," "Don't Stress Tomorrow"... If you see a Finsta Bundy record, pick it up; you will never go wrong.

So yeah, this is all pre-Bundy material, and produced by Evil Dee, not Finsta himself (including the unreleased "Activate."). Just real nice, underground flow, with a hyper, fast rap steez on "Payday Is Bliss." A terrific single that belongs in the crates of anyone who can get their hands on a copy, made all the better with the inclusion of the very worthy "Activate."

So, about the release. It comes in a fresh sticker cover, and is limited to 150 copies, never to be repressed. Unfortunately, it's also priced like one of those limiteds, which is to say many times higher the price of a standard, new 12" single. And the sound quality? Yeah, I can't close the books without touching on that.

Unfortunately, I don't have an OG copy of  "Finsta Baby" on Cracd to do a proper side-by-side comparison (have I mentioned how rare and expensive those can be? I'm lucky to have the Finsta Bundy 12"s I do have). So just based on hearing this 20th anniversary 12" alone, I'll say it ain't bad. I've heard that the original sounds better, but this sounds alright. The two B-side tracks fare a little worse than the A, it sounds like the levels are breaking over their peak or... some kinda distortion seems to have sneaked its way into the final mix.  It's... okay; you can certainly still listen to it and enjoy it (and obviously "Activate" here is a leap year ahead of its prior mixtape incarnation), but it's not really up to the exceptional, top quality, first class all-around level you expect when you pay the big money for these special, limited releases.

So, at the end of the day, I still recommend this one for sure. Music-wise, it's A+ all the way. And presentation-wise? Okay, the sound quality pulls the GPA down a bit; but the quality isn't so problematic that you should miss out. I'm still happy to have mine, and if this were a budget 12" sitting on a record store shelf somewhere, everyone would scoop this up and dance away in joy; but at the price it's selling for, I'm seeing some grumbling online and it's not entirely unwarranted. It's not stellar, but it's still dope.

One Crazy, Brilliant Album

(Youtube version is here.)

How Lord Finesse Pissed Me Off

[Disclaimer, right up front: this has nothing to do with Mac Miller. Not that I'm no longer interested in that case, but you know the court systems... it'll probably be ages before we hear any updates, and even then, there's a very good chance they might just quietly settle.]

So, I've had Lord Finesse & DJ Mike Smooth's album on cassette since it dropped; but growing up, I didn't really have access to vinyl, so I never got his 12" singles. It wasn't until like a decade later that I was looking online to see what there was, and I saw this - his second single from his debut album. The first single was just two album tracks with instrumentals, but look at this one - it's got a Premiere Remix of "Strictly for the Ladies," and a Vocal Remix of "Back To Back Rhyming" with AG! Awesome - ordered that shit (which, as you can maybe tell from my scan, was a repress) soon as I saw it.

I get the record in the mail, lay it on the tables, and... it's the same beat.  And the same scratches on the hook. And all the way through it's the same shit as on the album. I mean, not that the album version is shit; it's a fantastic track, produced by... Premier. Right. Still, though, he must've done something different for this 12", right? I mean, you see it right there in the pic I've uploaded, don't you? I'm not crazy. It says "Radio Remix," and in tinier letters, "remixed by DJ Premier."

Well, maybe it's just slightly mislabeled, and the next Full Version is really the remix. No, well, maybe it's majorly mislabeled, and the Full Version is actually the remix? Okay, maybe the label is totally fucked and the Instrumental...? Nope. But now I get it. The first version is just your standard, shorter radio edit of the album version, it's called "Radio Remix" as opposed to "Radio Version" or "Radio Edit" because... Wild Pitch enjoys playing cruel mind games on the fans, presumably.

Oh well, disappointing, but we still have our exciting Vocal Remix of "Back To Back Rhyming." No "Radio" nonsense on that side of the label.  It's probably gonna be the same beat, but all new lyrics. I wonder if both of them will have new rhymes, or just one of... what... the... Hell? It's the exact same thing as the album! Same beat and both verses are the same, with the same hook, same everything. And yeah, the Instrumental's just the instrumental. It took me ages to figure out what technically's different.  The 12" version is a a few seconds longer. At the end, when Finesse says "see ya," the beat loops a couple more times on the 12". That's it. I don't even prefer it to the LP mix, because I think it sounds better when it ends when he says "see ya." The album version could even end 3-4 seconds earlier, in my opinion.

So, yeah, it's still a fine 12". It's got two great album tracks, plus instrumentals... kinda like the first single.  It's just... just not the super kick-ass 12" the label would have us believe. Oh well.

Keepin' Up the Funky Beat is the Holland Crew

Hey, you guys remember Bivak Records? I did a video about them a year and a half ago, they were the guys that put out that nice unreleased Chain 3 and Great Peso 12" from '84, and then they had that mixCD I talked about. Well, they're back in 2012, unfortunately not with killer unreleased old school on wax, but with a second mixCD, which is still good.  I mean, honestly, mix tapes/CDs don't generally get me too terribly enthused. Even when the DJ's really talented (which, sadly, most aren't), I'd just generally rather hear the original records being spun.

But this mixCD I'm actually really enthused about and am recommending. It probably helps substantially that I don't own a single one of the records involved, and also just because it's coming from a really compelling angle. Bivak refers to it as "a non-commercial slice of pure edutainment.," and it's essentially a chronological history of Holland hip-hop from 1983-1992. Now, my knowledge of Holland hip-hop basically extends from MC Miker G to DJ Sven...  meaning, just those guys (actually, Urban Dance Squad, too; but I forgot they were from Holland until I saw them on this). But it's a scene I was already curious about... I subscribed to their blog, dutcholdschoolhiphop.blogspot.nl, ages ago, but you only get so much out of it when you don't know any of the players involved. So, this was perfect for me, as it's a as thorough as you can possibly get on a single disc (since it's a mix, they can cover a lot more records than a straight compilation). And even if you're thinking, "you know, I'm not sure I actually give a flying fuck about the Holland hip-hop scene, Werner, to be honest," I'm telling you, stick with me on this.

First of all, starting all the way back in 1983 means they've got a pretty extensive, classically old school period. If you've ever started to feel like you've heard all the best old school rap records out there, this is like a fresh start. Hip-hop records from all the great stages in old school hip-hop, disco style, electro, hardcore drum programs to the early sampling... and you've never heard any of it before! And, granted, there's not really any Melle Mels or Rakims about; but there is some really good stuff here.

I think the earlier stuff is the most exciting. It's really fun, and even the flaws or weaker MCing work in that "charming super old school" way, where any silliness on-hand just makes it all the more endearing. One song, "Papa Joe," is bordering on flat-out novelty rap (it's about a man with an unhealthy obsession for Italian food), but damned if it isn't catchy and entertaining as Hell. And as the mix progresses, you hear the music slowly evolve, and get more serious. There's some solid production and DJs with some serious turntable skills.

There's a big variety on here, from rap/hair band hybrids to a freestyle session where some guys are really, shamelessly imitating Run DMC, but the mix manages to make it all sound very cohesive and natural. And I should point out (as this was a concern of mine when I first heard about this disc), that it's pretty much all in English.  Out of thirty-something songs, only one is in Dutch, and some of the interludes (which are basically all interview clips from the period). It's a little disappointing we can't understand those skits - this CD would be even better without the language barrier, I think we'd get even more out of it; but seriously, 97-98% of this is in English, so nobody who can read this should feel too left out.

Like their last disc, this is credited to Chris the Wiz and another DJ (DJ Foxx); so I"m assuming it's situation as the last one, where the DJ is mixing records from Chris's collection.  Also like their last disc, it's limited (which seems a little off, considering the nature of this project... it's educational, no one interested should miss out) to 100 copies, so don't hold off if you think this might be up your alley. Really, it's better than just about any other album coming out in hip-hop right now, mixed or not. And definitely keep an eye on Bivak... hopefully they have another vinyl treat in store for us next.