The First Rule Of Ho Fights...

Last Christmas, I vlogged about Disco Rick's mysterious crew Silence. They're not mysterious because they particularly acted tor marketed themselves that way, they didn't wear hooded cloaks like The Dopplegangaz (well, as far as  I know) or anything. There's just next to no information about them because their career was so short lived. I've never seen any interviews with 'em, they never released an album or anything with a picture that shows the group. And also, like I said in last year's vlog about a Silence 12", Disco Rick seemed to be doing almost the whole thing by himself. Just who is Silence? What did they do: beats? Rhymes? Or is this another Jamie Jupiter situation?

Well, I half examined that issue by looking at one of their 12"s, but they made two. So to get the full story - or at least as much of the story as one can glean from listening to their records - it's time I looked at their second. This is "Let Them Ho's Fight" on, of course, Vision Records. And unlike "Santa Clause Commin'," this one has a year on it: 1994.

And that's not the only way this label is more helpful. It also has detailed credits naming the MCs. Yes, this time the MCing isn't all Disco Rick (though he is one of 'em). While the 12" is again billed as Silence featuring Disco Rick, in the specific song credits they specify that it's by Disco Rick (not really, but I'll come back to that), Crew Chief, 40 Dogg and Sexy C. 40 Dogg also did the production. Heck, they even tell us who the background chants are by: Ken 2 Win, John Ragin and Randy.

Of course, there's no telling which, if any of these guys, are considered official members of Silence. Sexy C is a female MC down with Disco Rick since back in his days with Joey Boy Records and The Dogs. I have her album, it's a good time and probably the subject of a future post. :)  But is she a member of Silence, or just a guest? I'm going to guess, and this is purely going on intuition here, that Silence is just the two guys. But who knows?

Anyway, there's 3 versions of "Let Them Ho's Fight" on this 12": The Smitty Mix, the Radio Mix and the Knock Out Mix. The Radio Mix is pretty self-explanatory, so basically The Smitty Mix is the main vocal mix, and the Knock Out Mix is a purely instrumental remix. It's a pure, super high bpm party track, cliched samples, sped up chorus and all, like the kind of thing Luke would put out.

So let's go back to the Smitty Mix. It's a pretty hardcore track, except for its surprisingly catchy, upbeat bassline. Otherwise it's tough drums, tortured Public Enemy horn squeals and all (as in, not PE style but directly lifted from a PE record). It's a surprisingly good song, in fact, whether you typically like Miami stuff or not. I mean, lyrically it's nothing amazing, but they flow really capably over a really fast track, and they manage to throw in several memorable sound-bites, including a fun homage to "La Di Da Di" and a dark usage of Tag Team's famous chorus. In fact, I really like Sexy's verse here. It's pretty much just all hardcore freestyling. The hook has a concept: "let them girls fight" (Worldstar really needs to make this their anthem), but like Silence's last record, none of the verses really have follow the concept of the song title or hook. I guess that's just Silence's schtick.

What's interesting here is that while, again, this 12" is billed as Silence featuring Disco Rick, he neither rhymes on the song or produces it. It's a three verse song, with one of the guys first (I've know idea which is which between Crew Chief and 40 Dogg), Sexy, then the other guy. And we know from the detailed credits that Disco's not even one of the chants on the hook. So, while the last Silence featuring Disco Rick record seemed to be a Disco Rick record without Silence, this one seems to be a Silence record without Disco Rick!

Anyway, the bottom lime is that this a damn good, albeit trashy, song. It just makes me all the more disappointed that Down 4 Life never surfaced, because both of their singles suggest it would've been a good album.  We need a DWG-style label that specializes in rescuing lost Miami; there's so much I'd be excited to see unvaulted and released today. But at least, in the meantime, there's this 12", which I recommend for anybody doesn't feel too classy to own a record called "Let Them Ho's Fight."

2 Fresh Midwest DJs Back On Wax

Jamille Records is back with a new, limited 7" release of ultra-rare, midwest hip-hop. This time around it's a split 7" single, with a joint from the 90's on the A-side, and an 80's track on the flip. And, like I've mentioned in previous posts on Jamille releases, they've got a tradition of dropping super rarities alongside completely unreleased material, and once again they've done both.

Let's start with the 90's.  We've got a DJ Fresh Kidamore solo joint called "Kidamore On the Mic" from 1994. Kidamore was down with the Ill Chief Rockers collective that've had a couple joints repressed through Jamille already. He produced "Lamont Is the Baddest" on the Kid Crab & G.F.C. 7", and did some scratching on the "Jealous" single. Those were all 80's joints, so this one's from a later phase in his career, and I gotta say... it's not as compelling. Not because it's newer (lord knows, there's plenty '94-era material I'd bust a gut for); this just feels under-produced, with Kidamore kicking some generic rhymes over the "Big Poppa" instrumental. And he's no Biggie Smalls, Honestly, that's never a good comparison to invite on yourself.

The only element really worth getting excited about are the new cuts he laces over the track - he's quite nice on the tables, and those parts sound really fresh. But they're not enough to carry the full song when they're stuck playing a supporting role to blah rhymes, a lame hook and a beat every single one of us already have in our collections. Certainly, it's good to see any extra little piece of history like this preserved, and this is the first time the song is ever being released. But frankly, this feels like mixtape filler to me. Not wack - the cuts really are impressive and worth the listen... I'd love to hear him flex his (DJ) skills on more projects.  But "Kidamore On the Mic" just isn't the sort of joint you'd feel compelled to seek out on vinyl on its own.

Fortunately it's not on its own, and the flip side more than justifies your purchase all by itself. "DJ Politician" by Rap Master B and DJ E.Z. D is a lot of fun.  It's really raw - perhaps too raw, as it really doesn't sound professionally mixed or recorded, but that kinda just adds to the throwback feel. And the song is so engaging, that you'll get over any initial misgivings as it pulls you in. B provides the big, big beat and wild rhymes about his DJ using one wild presidential reference after another. I'm not sure I know enough American history to truly appreciate what it means to be "the Harry Truman of mix economics," for example. But I know there's plenty of scratches being showcased here, and that's enough for me. They're not as artful as Kidamore's, but they work really well within the context of a song that's already quite a good time.

This one originates from a rare 12" from 1987 on Ice World Records, which had a couple other songs on it. I've never heard it. In fact, I'd never even heard of Rap Master B before. I only know about the original 12" because I found this listing in a search. But this definitely has me wondering what those other cuts are like.

Like they always do, this Jamille 7" comes pressed on colorful wax: a clear, yellowish green (yellowish green) limited to 100 hand-numbered copies.  Mine is #69, a detail not lost on my inner child.  And as you've surely gathered from the scan above, this time around they've provided a cool picture sleeve, too. Even though I was a little nonplussed by the A-side, I definitely recommend this record, so get it while you can. Especially since the price is always right with Jamille. I mean, granted, that's because they're just little 7"s instead of nice, proper 12"s; but at this point, they've got a pretty neat tradition going for themselves, and I'm really enjoying collecting the whole series. I can't wait to hear what they'll introduce us to next. :)

Halloween Horrorcore

Yay! Today is Halloween! No, really, it is. Here in the state of New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie has signed an executive order decreeing today, November 5th, to be Halloween in NJ ('cause of Hurricane Sandy, so kids wouldn't have to step on downed power lines in order to trick or treat).  So, repping NJ as always, it is definitively Halloween today.  And here is my Halloween video.  Enjoy!

(Oh, and the Youtube version is here.)

I Got (the) Power!

It's been a long time... sorry I left you. But I'm back! Hurricane Sandy decided to shut me, and the rest of the East coast, down for a bit. So I apologize for the lack of updates for a minute there. But let's not waste anymore time on that - I'm back online now; my power's been restored.

If you're into Hip-Hop enough to be reading this blog, you probably know some of the story of "The Power:" Chill Rob G did it first, then a cheesy, pop group called Snap! copied it and released it as their own, with a much bigger marketing budget, nearly erasing the original from popular consciousness. But it's even more complicated than that; and it doesn't help that nearly every source, online and off, seems to get at least one major detail wrong. For instance, did you know that the original recorded is actually by Power Jam featuring Chill Rob G, or that the whole song's really just a remix of an earlier Chill Rob record?

Reading the original 12" label turns out to be both enlightening and additionally confusing. "A Wild Pitch reconstruction of a Logic reconstruction of a Wild Pitch production by DJ Mark, The 45 King," it says. On one pressing. On another pressing it says, "A Wild Pitch reconstruction mixed by Nephie Centeno Original production by DJ Mark, The 45 King," So that's what that song is. But what the Hell did that actually mean?

Okay, let's go back a year. "The Power" was released in 1990, but we want to start with Chill's last single from 1989, "The Court Is Now In Session," specifically the B-side, "Let the Words Flow." If you've got it in your crates (or if you just have Chill's '89 album, Ride the Rhythm - it's on there, too), give it a listen. I'll wait. Okay, got those lyrics in your head? Now listen to "The Power." Oh yeah! "The Power" is just a glorified remix; it's the same vocal track.

"Let the Words Flow," was produced, like everything Chill Rob G had put out by that time, by DJ Mark the 45 King. That's the "Wild Pitch production by DJ Mark" they're referring to on the "Power" labels. Neither Mark nor Chill had anything to do with the creation of "The Power" besides recording their original song, "Let the Words Flow." Turning that underrated track into "The Power" was all Power Jam, who just used the Acappella off that 1989 12".

Now, Power Jam's not exactly a "real" group. There are no other Power Jam records out there. I assume the name is just a reference to the title of the song they created. So let's go back to the messages on the label, starting with the first pressing. Wild Pitch is obviously Chill's label who put this record out, but who or what is Logic?

Logic was an underground German label that specialized in dance music. There, two DJ/ producers named Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti created their new track. They used some elements of the original instrumental, like the wailing sax riff that opens up "Let the Words Flow" (it's actually not a sample, but played by Jack Bashkow, who winds up getting credit on both the "Court" and "Power" 12" labels), and the recurring refrain where Rob's vocals stutter, "it's getting, it's getting, it's getting kinda hectic" is just a line from the original acappella being played with. The rest of the instrumental, though still largely sample based, sounds nothing like The 45 King's work. And since the original Chill Rob G song only had two verses and an extended instrumental break-down for the final third, in order to make it a more traditional 3-verse song, Michael and Luca just repeat Chill's first verse a second time.

And the hook is sung by Kim Davis. ...At least, on my 12" it is. Yeah; now it's going to get even more complicated. See, the hook everybody associates with this song is actually a sample from Jocelyn Brown's "Love's Gonna Get You." If you watch the video, you hear Jocelyn's sample. But not on this record; it's another singer, whose voice... frankly isn't nearly as arresting. Sorry, Kim. It's the same basic line being sung, but it's not the sample. The difference is pretty obvious to me, but if you're not sure, stick around 'till the ending, where she starts changing the line to "you've got the power" and even, "you and me and Chill Rob G." That's obviously not sampled from Jocelyn Brown.  It's also not Penny Ford. Who's that? Well, stick with me.

In an interview with Unkut, Chill Rob talks about how Wild Pitch came to put this out, "I think Stu Fine [head of Wild Pitch] probably had a deal under the table with Arista records out in Germany, and he actually licensed the record to them – but they didn’t have a deal for the US. So since the record was doing so big out there, Stu came to me as if he had no idea what was going on and he said 'Yo Rob, let’s put the song out. I mean it’s doing really well in Germany, we might as well make some money out this.' I mean it was me, it was my stuff, so I said 'Cool, let’s do it.'" I believe it was at this point that Wild Pitch commissioned the second version, which replaced the sampled hook with Kim Davis.

So to be clear, since nobody who writes about the dueling versions of "The Power" ever seem to acknowledge it - there are two versions of Chill Rob G's "The Power," not even including Snap!'s.

Wild Pitch put out both of Chill's versions on separate 12"s in 1990, and also included the song as a cassette and CD bonus track on Chill's album (it's not on the original LP). And like the second 12" pressing, the liner notes of the tape and CD credit production to this Nephie Centeno guy. I don't know too much about him; but he's a Hip-Hop writer and producer who also did the remix of Chill's "Make It" on his next single. So, I believe he's the guy who actually went in and replaced the Brown sample with Kim Davis for the second Chill Rob G version.

Because then, of course, you've got the whole remake version to talk about. The original German producers, Power Jam if you will, hooked up with Arista Records to put this single out as well. As you could probably imagine, now the song was caught up in an intricate web of uncleared samples, and different artists and labels claiming the rights to it. So Michael and Luca formed Snap!, under the aliases Benito Benites and John Virgo Garrett III. They didn't have Kim Davis in their camp, so they got a new singer, Penny Ford, to sing on their version.

They also got a new rapper. See, for Snap! to release this without Wild Pitch, they not only couldn't use Kim Davis, they couldn't use Chill Rob G, whose acappella started the whole thing. So they got this new guy, Turbo B, to record all new rap vocals. I mean, in a way, I actually kinda like his vocals. Certainly the way he keeps ending his verse with "or I will attack, and you don't want that" is charming in a very camp way. And even the rest of his rhymes aren't actually bad. But despite the fact that he's got a similarly deep voice, he's no Chill Rob G (though he still emulates the stuttering "it's getting kinda hectic" parts with his natural voice Correction 11/10/12: My bad; as pointed out to me in the comments, while Turbo lip-syncs that part in the video, interestingly, Snap! is still using Chill Rob G's voice even in their version for that clip). So the distinction was forever drawn: Chill Rob's version is the one preferred by Hip-Hop heads, while Snap!'s version is the hokier one for the pop music masses.

But Chill's version of the "The Power" gets the short end of that deal, too; since really discerning heads don't truck with any version of "The Power," favoring instead 45 King's not-remotely-euro-dance-themed production, "Let the Words Flow." I guess I'd have to go with that, too; but "The Power" is still a dope alternative. and worth having in its own right. And for my money, the version to own is the original Wild Pitch single with both Chill's vocals and the Jocelyn sample.

Time to get technical. As I've said, Wild Pitch put out two 12" versions of this in 1990, with the two differently convoluted production credit explanations. The first one has three tracks: Vocal, Instrumental and Acappella versions. That's the one that credits Logic. The second one[pictured], which credits Nephie, has four tracks: Vocal, Radio Edit, Instrumental and Acappella. The Logic one uses the sample; and the Nephie one uses Kim Davis. There's also a 2006 repress (you know, Wild Pitch's "When MCs Had Skills" series), and that's a repress of the original with just three tracks and the sampled hook. And the bonus track version on the Ride the Rhythm CDs and tapes is the Kim Davis version. So now you know. And Knowledge is power or something.

It's good to be back!

Collaborating With the Dead

While we're on the subject of living performers using verses of more famous, deceased rappers to make fake collaborations, let's talk about probably the most egregious example in hip-hop history. Remember Trapp? He's actually a singer, who made a whole career collaborating with Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac... at the same time. After they were dead.

This is his first single, "Stop the Gunfight" featuring 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G., off of his album Stop the Gunfight, featuring 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G.  That's how it's billed on the cover. This came out in 1997 on Deftrapp Records. Guess who owns that label? Hint: it's not 2Pac or Biggie.

So, guess what Trapp didn't have? Exclusive, unreleased verses from 2Pac or Biggie. Surprised, huh? These are just verses taken from a song called "Runnin'," That's right, the song 2Pac and Biggie already recorded together. He didn't even get creative and take verses from different songs to make something a little less familiar to us fans.

"Runnin'" has a bit of a storied history. If you read the review for Interscope's Thug Life vol 1 by 2Pac's first group of - as Unkut would say - weed carriers that appeared in The Source back in 1994, you probably got excited hearing about this collaboration of 2Pac and Biggie.* Then, when the album actually came out, you wondered where the Hell it was. That was certainly my experience. But then, the following year, it appeared on the One Million Strong compilation album... an album built around a posse cut inspired by the million man march. It was full of interesting odds and ends like this. Then, after Pac died, the song started appearing on every dedication mix tape and unofficial Machiavelli compilation under the sun. Finally, Interscope decided to finally release it themselves on their Resurrection soundtrack album (the same one that featured the 2Pac and Eminem single I covered before) and even its own single.

Oh, and at some point during all that mess, Trapp took it to use for his own purposes.

Now, because "Runnin'" was recorded for Thug Life's album, it also featured those guys; but of course they've been cut out of this version, to give us more Trapp crooning time. Nothing else has changed. Unlike "Kings," or other songs of this ilk, Trapp didn't even change the music - it's the exact same instrumental.  All he did was remove the Thug Life guys and put himself in there. Now, to be fair, Trapp isn't a bad singer - he's kind of weak voiced, so you have to keep reminding yourself to pay attention to him when he's singing; but otherwise he sounds good. But obviously the original version, with all the other original rap verses, is infinitely preferable. This is just a song made to capitalize on all the mainstream fans who have no idea this isn't recycled music they probably already had in their collections.

My cassingle here features three versions... Two are both labeled as the Original Version, though one is actually a clean version with reversed curse words. And #3 is the R&B Version, which basically just a shorter mix featuring Trapp singing over Thug Life's instrumental by himself. And there's also "When I Come Down," which is a Trapp solo song from his album. That's right, the album billed as Trapp featuring 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G. actually doesn't feature Biggie or Pac on most of the songs... yeah, try to look surprised, guys.

But Trapp didn't stop here! Oh no. First there's the matter of the album. It features both versions of "Stop the Gunfight," so there's nothing exclusive to the single except the radio edit... and interestingly, it also says the R&B version is featuring 2Pac and Biggie, even though it's very specifically the version that cut them out of their own song. And all the rest of the songs are just solo Trapp songs except one, which he released as his second single: "Be the Realist."

I bet you forgot 2Pac and Biggie did another song together, huh? They were both guests DJ Eddie F's 1994 album, appearing in the posse cut "Let's Get It On" (also with Heavy D, Grand Puba and Spunk Bigga). So, what has Trapp done? Cut out Puba, Spunk and the Heavster, leaving only 2Pac and Biggie. Yes, using the original instrumental and everything again. And Trapp doesn't even sing or appear on this one at all!  He's just made and appropriated a short, edited version of "Let's Get It On."

That was all in 1997. But a couple years later, we see Trapp was persisting with this enterprise! In 1999, he released four compilation albums on DefTrapp: Ladies of Gangster Rap, Latino Gansgter Rappers, Dirty South and The Pac and Biggie You Never Heard (spoilers: you DID hear all that Pac and Biggie material before; and also Trapp features on that album a lot more than either of them). They all feature a bunch of popular rap songs and of course many Trapp songs. Yes, even Ladies of Gangsta Rap features Trapp solo songs. And 2Pac and Biggie were stuck on the Latino Gangster Rappers album despite neither of them being remotely Latino. And to think, they never even knew Trapp when they were alive.

I'm not sure what happened to Trapp after 1999, but I figure there's a good chance the story ends with somebody from Death Row or Interscope sending him to the bottom of a river. But whether it ended grisly or not, I think this tale's already appropriately spooky enough for the season, don't you?

Rappers, you'd better play it safe this Halloween... keep one eye over your shoulder and stay away from the graveyards... or else you might find yourself Trapp's next unsuspecting collaborator! MUAH HAHAHAHA!!!! 


*The November 1994 review by Kharay Turner says, "On a lighter note, the Notorious B.I.G. drops the funniest line on the posse cut "Runnin' From the Police": "Me, run from police?/ Picture that/ I'm too fat/ Nigga fuck around and catch an asthma attack."

Shaq Chino and Pun

So Chino XL's new album just came out. It's actually a double CD (no vinyl, naturally), called RICANstruction: The Black Rosary. The caps are there because otherwise you'd never get the pun. I'm me, though, so I had to check it out immediately. There I was, listening to the sound clips on ughh, and I see that one of the songs features Big Pun. I'm sure I don't have to tell any of you reading this that Pun died twelve years ago. I got to interview him right before he left us; he really was a Hell of an MC. So immediately, the instant I see that, my heart jumps a little and I'm wondering: wow, has Chino sat on an unreleased Big Pun collabo all these years? After all, he said exactly that when he was promoting this album back in 2009 ("I do have a project that everybody is about to hear with him. ...it is vocals [from Big Pun] that no one has ever heard."). This could be some crazy, ill... But my brain doesn't even let my heart finish that notion. Don't set yourself up for the world's most predictable, crushing disappointment, dummy. Give it a listen, and it's gonna be some old Wake Up Show freestyle or something that you already have.

So I play it and it's a new song, called "Kings," produced by a guy named Focus, who I think was one of the many younger producers on that DoItAll album. Anyway, it's a duet. Chino brags about it on the hook: "this collaboration is biblical, mythical, insane... Chino and Big Pun, a true lyricist dream." And for some reason, the DJ feels compelled to make a thing about the fact that both Chino and Pun have referenced Nat King Cole at some point in their careers[oh, and that's why this song is called "Kings." I honestly just got that this second. Oy vey], by cutting up both of their old lines in the hook. Well, regardless, Chino makes no bones about the fact that he wrote his part long after Pun had passed on, saying, "Big Pun's in Heaven making angels sing; Chino is still in the physical, making your name ring." Predictably, though, Pun's verse is hauntingly familiar.

I just couldn't quite place it. We're now past the point where any teeny, tiny piece of me might still be holding onto the hope that we've been given a killer, unreleased Pun verse. Now my brain just wants to label it as a part of whatever song it's from and file it away forever. Fortunately, this is the internet age, so instead of spending all night dwelling on it, I just google a couple of Pun's lines and see that they originate from a song called "BX Niggas," which debuted in 2008. Apparently it's an epic, unreleased track discovered by the filmmakers of a retrospective Pun documentary called Big Pun: The Legacy; and to hear it all, you've gotta buy the DVD.

Bull shit on that. I recognize this Pun verse, and I've never heard of this screwy doc before. I reviewed another, quite good documentary on Big Pun; but this ain't that. This is something I feel confident calling screwy even though I've never seen it because they're advertising some tired, old Pun material as a special unreleased exclusive for their movie.

So back to Google. Now I'm getting results that say it's a part of some song "The Bigger They R."  Apparently it's an unreleased song from the 90's that we're only getting to hear these days because it's been leaked onto the internet by producer Domingo. But, no, damn it! Whatever song this verse is from, it's something I own and have had in my collection for years. Long enough, at least, for me to have completely forgotten what the heck it is. Get out of here with your phony Youtubian "internet leak" mythos. Whatever I've got, I know it's not called "The Bigger They R." But, looking at these later listings, I come upon the piece of the puzzle I needed to put it all together.

This song features Shaq. Yes, that Shaq, the only Shaq. It also features Fat Joe, but that doesn't narrow anything down when it comes to Pun. Shaq, however? I have every single record by Shaq ever released. I don't just mean the full-length albums; I have all the 12" singles, guest appearances, the soundtracks, the multiple promo EPs of his unreleased Superfriends album, the picture disc that looks like a basketball, the greatest hits, the German 12", Kazaam. And in return for me sharing that last little piece of information with you, all I ask is that you never ask me why. I just have it.

And now I can picture the record sitting right there on my shelves, with a bright, blue label and their names running along the top. Pun has only appeared once on any of Shaq's projects, and it's this 12"! It's called "Shaq Crack and Pun," and it's a dodgy white label (well, it has blue labels, but you know what I mean) release claiming to be from "Avalanche Recordings," and the track-listing is all screwed up. It lists a Dirty Version on one side and a Radio Version on the other; but just looking at the wax, you can plainly see there's four versions on here. One's an instrumental and one's a TV Track or something. But hey, it's "Shaq Crack and Pun!"

The track's nice and hard... I'm assuming the internet's right about Domingo having created it, because it sounds like his work, and an excellent example of it at that. Of course Pun steals the whole show and there's really no reason for anybody else to touch the microphone after him; but Fat Joe manages to come with some slick rhymes too. And Shaq? Well, he just kinda bounces around from one silly reference to another (he is, after all, the world's only graduate from The Fu-Shnickens' school of MCing), mashing up the English language to force multi-syllable rhymes and concepts that don't really exist: "movin' like the predator, camouflage injectorer, rhyme wreckerer." You can tell exactly the kind of fast-paced, rugged, mind blowing bars he wanted to deliver here. But hey, I bet Joe and Pun wouldn't've looked too impressive on the basketball courts either. Life has a nice way of balancing everything out.

As for "Kings?" It's got an all new beat (for that matter, "BX Niggas" seemed to have an original instrumental, too) which is pretty bombastic and pulls you along with it. And this is hardly the first time a deceased rapper's material has been recycled so a newer MC could make like they were collaborating with one of the greats. It's not even the first time it's been done to Big Punisher. The practice has become so common, it doesn't seem to even trip radars anymore. Notice how I'm the only blogger talking about this. But - and I'm not being entirely facetious when I say this - I think I would've enjoyed this even more if Chino had left Shaq on there.

Supe, Supe, Super Rhyme!

(Youtube version is here.)

Natural Elements Demos Unreleased Still.

Now here are a couple of interesting items that hit EBay at the same time Chopped Herring released their Lost Demos and Instrumentals EP. This could be directly related to that release, or it could just be a timely coincidence. But either way, it's quite interesting for us Natural Elements fans. Demos! Here's the tracklistings for all three (taken from the auction descriptions):

Left: 1) Bust mine 2) Money and moves  3) We all f@#$%*g high
Center: 1) Live the life 2) Relax 3) Don't sleep 4) Puttin in work
Right: 1) It's a triple team 2) I gots it hard 3) Life ain't fair you only here for a minute 4) Every single day 5) Wishing on a star

Some of these titles are decidedly more recognizable than others... "Bust Mine," for example, is probably their greatest, best known hit; while "We all f@#$%*g high" is more mysterious. It's also worth noting that the tape on the left is specifically labeled as "joints for 97," so we know when that one's from. So let's see exactly how much we can glean from these track-listings, shall we?

As I said, "Bust Mine" is obvious. And the EBay listing description gives us a little extra info to go on: "Bust Mine was the only song to come out on Dolo Records single release." But "Money and moves" sounds familiar, doesn't it? That's probably because the hook to one of their other biggest hits, which just so happened to come out on the same Dolo 12" as "Bust Mine," uses that expression as the body of its chorus. The hook for "Paper Chase" is, "it goes money and moves, moves and money. Gotta make money, 'cause bein' broke ain't funny. On a paper chase, ain't nothin' for free. Everybody got a price; everybody got a fee." Color me cynical, but I think the odds are very high that "Money and moves" is just "Paper Chase," and the seller is wrong about "Bust Mine" being the only previously released song from there. Especially since, except for the middle one, I don't see any song titles written on the tapes. Which makes me think the seller listened to the tapes and guessed on the titles based on the music... and "Money and Moves" would be a very good guess for the title of "Paper Chase," if you didn't already know it.

The next one is an L-Swift solo tape. Here we're told (again in the item description), "Live the life was the only song to come out on a EP 12" single release." That would be absolutely correct if it weren't woefully out of date (remember, these auctions just ended under a week ago). "Puttin' In Work" was on Chopped Herring's 2011 Lost Demos EP, and the other two are on CH's brand new EP.

Now, the description for tape #3 doesn't tell us anything about its songs. But four of those songs are the first four songs on the Lost Demos EP, so not much mystery there.

Of course, without hearing them, any of these songs could, I suppose, be alternate versions. There is,  after all, more than one version of "Life Ain't Fair" floating around out there, as I've covered in a previous Natural E post. And hey, maybe "Moves and Money" isn't "Paper Chase." It probably is, but we can't be totally sure without hearing it.

So I'd love to be able to hear everything and find out what's what. But essentially, we're just left with two songs that are really compelling: "We all f@#$%*g high" and "Wishing on a star." Are these just screwy titles for songs we already know and love? Or are they awesome, never heard before killers? Maybe whoever won them will let us know. Or maybe they're currently being remastered for Chopped Herring's next vinyl release.

P.s. - Also of note is the fact that the same seller had a two-song Last Emperor demo tape up at the same time, which was all produced by Charlemagne. The titles were "Meditation" and "On!" "Meditation" later appeared on his compilation CDs, but I'm not sure what "On!" is...

Natural Elements Demos Unreleased No More!

It's time to get excited, Natural Elements fans!  ...Again.  Because Chopped Herring Records has just (finally) come out with their follow-up to last year's amazing Lost Demos EP, called Lost Demos and Instrumentals.

So, the title pretty much lays it out for ya. It's another six-song EP, but this time it's half unreleased demo joints and half instrumentals. Instrumentals, that is, of three of the unreleased demo joints from their previous EP, which, frankly, I never imagined we'd ever see. I mean, it's (painfully) rare enough when great, unreleased demo tracks get unearthed and pressed on wax. How often do the instrumental versions of such unreleased demos get unearthed and released on wax? Pretty much never! So, I'm sure I'm not alone in being less excited by the instrumentals as by the full demo tracks; but it's damn impressive, and I'm sure there are instrumental heads who are very excited to see these on wax. ...And, it's also important to note that Chopped Herring is only charging half their usual price for this EP, exactly because it's half full of instrumental-only tracks.  They deserve a lot of credit for that!

So, I won't say much more about the instrumentals... You can already read about the full songs in my post on the Lost Demos EP.  I'll just clarify that the instrumental version of "Life Ain't Fair" is the harder version from the Lost Demos EP, and not the R&B-ish one I wrote about for Hip-Hop Connection.

So, should I stop wasting time and get to the tracks we're all really curious about? Okay! First up are two L-Swift solo tracks, "Relax" and "Don't Sleep." Actually, Mr. Voodoo seems to be lending his voice to "Relax," too, but he never kicks a verse, so it's essentially a Swigga solo. And they're great, vintage songs, both recorded in 1993 and recorded by the only producer whose name should be on this project: Charlemagne.

By the way, both of these are specifically noted as being the "Demo Tape Versions" on the label here, just like "Puttin In Work" on Herring's last record. I asked the question in my last blog if that means there are alternate, Non-Demo Tape Versions still waiting to be released. But I suspect this is just CH's way of confessing that these particular tracks have been ripped from a cassette, when they usually work with the original master recordings for optimal sound quality.

Well, I recall saying that "Puttin In Work," "seems like it may've been sourced from an actual cassette; but it still sounds surprisingly good." But apparently that wasn't enough for Chopped Herring, who explain on their website that, "Now we have had the cassette joints re-mastered at a different facility than the last EP we did (always thought Puttin in Work couldve been better) and now we can proudly present 2 other tracks from that tape." And I do agree that these tracks do sound even a bit better than "Puttin In Work." It's just a teensy bit tinnier than a nice master would be, but it's beyond just "acceptable." And Chopped Herring are apparently very convinced nothing better will ever surface, saying, "We can assure you that NO OTHER BETTER VERSIONS will ever come out on vinyl - the originals are LOST and all that remains is the demo tape, so if you hear the odd bit of vocal distortion sorry cats, but its the only surviving source!" I mean, you can't argue with that; they used Caps Lock. And seriously, I'm quite happy with what we've got here.

Finally, then, we have "Yes Yes Y'all," a 1994 radio promo recorded for DJ Mayhem's radio show. To be clear, this is no quickie on-air freestyle. Mr. Voodoo and especially L Swift kill it here; kicking all original verses over a perfect, indie NY track. And it all sounds recorded like a professional song, with a nice scratch hook. This is labeled as the Radio Version, but there are no censored curse words or anything. I guess that's just CH's way of identifying its radio promo origins?

If you're a Natural Elements fan (and if you're not, are you sure you're in the right genre? This is hip-hop, son), you know what this is: e-fucking-ssential. And Chopped Herring have again brought this to us with first class treatment. It comes in a sticker cover, as you can see above, and they've really got the material sounding as good as it can, considering the limitations of the source. This is limited to 350 copies, 75 of which are pressed on mixed black and silver (silver) wax, 75 on turquoise (turquoise), and the rest on your traditional black. This can be ordered direct from choppedherring.com; and remember, the price is right on this one, too!

Whoa! Werner's Got a Face Lift?

Not me, but the blog got a face lifr. For me to get one, that's gonna take large cash donations alongside any e-mail requests. heh So yeah, though. I actually started work on it ages ago, got stuck (it looked like crap and some of the features started giving errors), and so gave up on it and left it alone. But then when my Twitter feed mysteriously died, I went back into my secret Test version of this blog and got stuck back in. Now I've finally fixed the problems I got held up on and have brought over the changes to the live blog that I'd actually been planning to implement for a while.

So it's not a huge graphical overhaul or anything. I didn't want to change the basic look, feel or classic Bloggery style. It's really about functionality and improvements. So what's now?

The third column: That's the big, in your face change. I'm sure some people would suggest I just get rid of the cumbersome, ever-growing link list of all the artists I've blogged about. But, no way! I love it; I love that it keeps growing, and there's such an exotic list of hip-hop artists on there, from the great to the seriously under-appreciated..You'll have to pry that out of my cold, dead hands. But giving it its own column does take some of the ridiculous length out of the page, which is nice. Also, if anyone's concerned, the main blog column hasn't gotten any narrower. It might look that way, with two columns alongside it as opposed to one, but no; it's the exact same width, no encroachment. I've just widened the whole blog to accomodate the new column.

Editorials - That extra width allowed me to add another button to the navigation bar I'd actually had in mind when I first created it (the nav bar): Editorials. That's basically for all my posts that aren't write-ups of a particular record or movie, like the majority of my posts are. This post is an, "editorial," as is - just for examples, my video talking about the Lord Finesse v Mac Miller lawsuit or my post about digital download cards being packaged with vinyl releases.Since they're not necessarily posts about a particular artist, it's just a handy little way for keeping them from getting lost into the ether.

New Gadgets - Now that I've got a whole third column, I don't have to keep that stuff so pared down. So I've stuck in a few things that are fun or maybe handy, and easily ignorable for those uninterested. Let's see, we've got:

• New Twitter - This one's better than the old one I used to have, because it also features the retweets I make of compelling links and articles from other twitter folk. My twitter handle there at the bottom is also a direct link to my Twitter page.

• Search Box - It's back! I took it away years ago because it didn't really work. If you searched for, say, "Outsidaz" it wouldn't even bring up all the posts I'd written about The Outsidaz that were specifically tagged "outsidaz." But it seems like Google's improved it since then, so from some quick initial tests, at least, I think it's working as you'd expect now. Plus again - there's more room so why not? Even an imperfect search might be handier than none at all. Though of course, I still prefer the huge list in the middle.  ;)

• Popular Posts - I'd always stayed away from this option because it seemed a little cheeseball, but I tried it on the test blog and I dig it. I like the look with all the little thumbnails, and I've never been one to look at my "google analytics" and all that stuff, so it kinda blows my mind which posts have been determined to be numerically the most popular. The Father MC one I know, because of the insane comments that have been going on there for years, but that Treacherous Three post? I think it was a pretty solid entry, but really, why? I wonder how often that list will change. And Wanda Dee is number one - go, Wanda!

• Other bits - I've also enabled direct links to the RSS Feed for the blog and its comments, plus the "Subscribe by email" option. Is that really useful for anyone? I dunno, it might be, so what the heck. I'll probably be tweaking what's floating around the bottom of the last column for a bit, so if anything seems a bit goofy, it'll probably get fixed.

So, I don't expect I've blown anybody away with what I've done here. I didn't go all fancy flash design or anything. But I you generally agree that they're changes for the better.

Juice Crew Greatness

This is one of those records I didn't find out about until years and years later, when it was quite old. Growing up, I was a huge Juice Crew junkie. I was a big fan of a lot of artists, but pressed to pick an all-time favorite, it would have to be The Juice Crew (and a favorite within the Juice Crew? Unpossible!). And, man, was I missing out back then. This record is one I'd dream about - literally! Sometime after "The Symphony II," when it seemed like the crew was winding down as a cohesive unit, I can still picture a dream I had of turning the TV to BET late at night to catch a music video for a huge, brand new posse cut from the whole line-up: MC Shan, Kool G Rap, Shanté...  Come to find out decades later, thanks to the internet, such a record actually existed!

The Juice Crew Allstars, collectively, put out a record back in 1987 on - of course - Cold Chillin' Warner Bros. And it's not just one Juice Crew super posse cut, it's two!

The A side is called "Evolution," and it's not just your typical braggadocio skill flexing. It's actually a serious song with a message, where each MC takes the role of a key figure in black American history. MC Shan is Martin Luther King, Kool G Rap is Malcolm X, Glamorous of The Glamour Girls is Maya Angelou and Debby Dee is Harriet Tubman. TJ Swan sings the hook, and it's produced, of course, by Marley Marl.

What? You don't remember any Debby Dee in the Juice Crew? Well, it doesn't help that they've spelled her name differently here; she usually put out records as Debbie D. No, I don't mean Dimples D. Debbie D was an MC who Marley was working with in the 80's. She probably didn't leave much of an impression because she went pretty poppy; but if nothing else, you should know her as one of the original Us Girls from Beat Street!  So yeah, she's an original Juice Crew member; now you know.

And, boy, does it sound like a classic Juice Crew track - it's got all the elements. Rough, echoed drums, a simple but funky bassline, just a hint of synths, Shan's distinctive voice and Swan's singing: it is pure, undistilled Juice Crew history. You might wince when you hear Glamorous mispronounce her alter ego's name (she pronounces the last syllable of Angelou like Lou Grant), and some of the early deliveries feel a bit stilted (especially compared to the later work of guys like G Rap), but it's still a treasure.

If you think that comes up lacking at all, though, the self-titled "Juice Crew All Stars" on the flipside fills in all the gaps. If the line-up to "Evolution" felt like it came up just a tad short, how about we keep Shan, G Rap and Glamorous, but also add Craig G, Tragedy and Roxanne Shanté? And this time we cut the shit and just have everybody go for theirs and flex skills. All over another traditional Marley beat with even bigger, "Kill That Noise" style drums and his trusty "Oh my goodness!" vocal sample.

This is nice and hardcore. G Rap opens up with some, "Kool G Rap terrorist, metaphor analyst, fans I enlist, foes I dismiss" shit, Shan brags about not only having a come prepared with a bullet proof vest, but "bullet proof sneakers," and Trag is in full teen-voiced Percy mode, but still coming vicious with a slick echo effect when he says, "my brain is the bomb, my mouth is the detonator!" Even the girls come tough. And how many other times do we get to hear Kool G Rap and Tragedy on the same track together? None! This is the only one in history; can you believe it?

These joints were never released on any albums, just this sweet, sweet 12". If you missed it like I did, it's pure Juice Crew wish fulfillment.  And if you were hip to it back in the day, it's still a great record to go back and revisit.