Who Were the Gifted 4?

When I was a kid, living in Central Jersey, I didn't have access to all classic, old school records that started our genre. Everything from Run DMC and Whodini forward, sure; but all that disco era stuff was tough to get your hands on. Especially when all the stores had ditched vinyl in favor of cassettes and CDs. And of course, there was no internet. So people like me relied on compilation albums to get all the golden era classics from "The Breaks" to "Rappin' and Rockin' the House." And amongst all the founding fathers, legends and important records of the early days, there was sometimes a group in there, amidst all the others, who I didn't really know and didn't seem to have a history like everybody else: The Gifted 4.

Their name kinda blends in with all the Funky 4s, Treacherous Threes, Disco Fours... They sound like one of the bunch. But if you know your Hip-Hop history, you know who all those other groups are. The Gifted 4? Their song "Sounds of the Mic" was really fresh; but it seemed to exist in a vacuum. Who were the members? Where did they come from? Who knew? It's like they just popped into existence to round out these compilations.

But I really liked "Sounds Of the Mic," so when I got older I had to hunt 'em down on vinyl. And it was easy because they're not that rare; they had two 12" singles on Jive Records. It turns out "Sounds" was actually their second release.

Their debut single was called "Temper (Gotta Keep Cool)" in 1984. It's got a different feel to it than "Sounds"' (which we'll come to). It's got a a harder edge (for 1984), and feels more like a Furious 5 song along the lines of "Survival." They rap the hook in unison ("don't you make me lose my temper; if you do, you shall remember!") but they don't harmonize, and each MC tells a story about how they lost their temper and then faced the consequences ("and be a cellblock fool"). It's a serious song and the MCs are serious and tough on it. Even the instrumental is less disco-y and rougher, though it does have kind of a boppy electro riff during the hook.

There's a couple versions on the 12", including an Extended Version, Single Edit and a Dub Mix. And it's also got a B-side track, "The Arrival." It's more of a fun, typical B-Boy track, starting with them calling out their zodiac signs. They even name themselves: Jay, Guy, Chris and Mike T. So now we know who the members are.  :)  Overall, it's not as strong as the A-side, but the beats and MCing are still solid, and it's a good contrast to "Temper," giving you a more well-rounded experience. There's a fun Shakespeare-inspired segment where they they call out "Hark! Who goes there?" before each MC raps, and the DJ even throws in some scratches.

Then we come to "Sounds Of the Mic," which also dropped on Jive, in 1985. It's got a couple versions, including a Di'Mon Dub Mix, Beat Mix and Acapella Version. But it's basically just the one song. It's a heck of a lot of fun, though. This time the hook has them singing the chorus in an old school harmonizing style, "it's the sound of the mic, (here's how!) we rock you all night!  It's the sound of the miiii-iiic!"  Everything about it just sounds really good: the singing, the super catchy bassline, funky keyboard riffs, and the MCs, one of whom is putting on more of a radio DJ voice for this one. Credit probably primarily goes to the producer, but while the content boils down to nothing more than "get up and dance," it's just one of those records where all the elements come together and gel perfectly. There's even a surprisingly cool electric guitar breakdown, and it ends with them rapping acapella as the instrumental cuts out except for the hand claps.

Both their singles are produced by Dimon Brown, who doesn't seem to have any other credits; so I guess he was just down with - or possibly one of the actual - Gifted 4. He does also have a writing credit, but then so do four other people. So the Four might just be the MCs, and he's the DJ/ producer? That's just a guess though.

It's a shame these guys up and disappeared after this, because they were making better records than a lot of their more famous peers. I don't know if they were a studio group (like the Timex Social Club or Snap!, where the label assembled them) or not; but it doesn't matter 'cause they were dope. Having such an old school name as the Gifted 4, and a style to match, however, was probably a death knell in 1985 when Run DMC changed the whole game. I'd love to find out some or all of them stayed in the game under new names; but as it is, I have to recommend everybody at least track down the two singles we did get from the group. They definitely lived up to the "Gifted" of their name, whoever they were.

The Undying Dream of Biggie Smalls

(Youtube version is here.)

Pre- and Post-Lastrawze

So I haven't covered them on here before, but Lastrawze is a 90s group that Dope Folks has been putting out... They were a Miami group that didn't sound so Miami-ish because their producer, Sim-E was from Brooklyn. Lastrawze had a hot "random rap" 12" and full-length cassette in 1995. So, in 2012, Dope Folks picked it up and released that album, Instrawmental, for the first time on vinyl. They put it over two EPs. And now that that's done, the label has been working with them again, including them in their on-going Killed By Def series (you may remember I wrote about Vol. 1 here).

Killed By Def Vol. 3. like the others, is split into two distinct sides. Side A is Sim-E's older group, School Dayze. These are the guys he was down with when he was younger, and until now, all of their material has gone unreleased. We have three tracks from them here, all recorded back in 1992. So, you're probably wondering: is this material worth a damn, or just some embarrassing high school talent show stuff?

I'll tell ya, I might actually like this better than Lastrawze. Honestly, the production and MCing are pretty consistent between both groups' projects. But the School Dayze stuff, probably just by virtue of its belonging to a slightly earlier era, is more hype. A little faster, higher energy. Lastrawze is really dope, but for me, this has the edge.

And if the comparison is lost on you because you haven't heard any of the Lastrawze stuff, well... super jazzy production with lots of great, shifting samples. And the MCing, on the School Dayze stuff especially, is on sort of a Leaders Of the New School tip, but without the over-the-top craziness of Charlie Brown or Busta. It's Leaders but more refined and coordinated. I'm not sure one is necessarily better than the others. I know the bigger personalities lend themselves to more media coverage and thus bigger fan-bases... But as I've mentioned a few times before, I tend to prefer the more steady and refined to the attention-chasing and zany.

So, that's the A side: pre-Lastrawze. The B-side, then, is post-Lastrawze, with brand new tracks produced by Sim-E and featuring established Brooklyn artists Roc Marciano and Smif 'N' Wessun, as well as a track with the more underground west coast outfit Strong Arm Steady. For me, this EP is all about the School Dayze side, and the new stuff is just a decent little bonus of some stuff I wouldn't buy otherwise. But I have a feeling some heads are going to feel more strongly about the new material, especially since Mr. Marciano has been the flavor of the month for a while in the hip-hop vinyl scene.

Sim has updated his production style a lot for his new stuff. Like, yeah, there's a bit of a tempo difference between School Dayze and Lastrawze; but if you didn't know, you wouldn't guess that this new stuff was by the same producer. It's still very good, and especially fitting for the artists; but also drier and less compelling. It's just more background-y and easy to not pay attention to. Roc's song (with an uncredited cameo by Rock of Heltah Skeltah) is the strongest MC-wise, and Strong Arm Steady's has the best, and most atmospheric production. The Smif 'N' Wessun song is decent, but kind of spoiled by an annoying hook.

So yes, I do recommend Killed By Def 3, primarily for side A (and Lastrawze's records, if you missed 'em).  Serious Roc collectors will need this too, because Sim has produced a solid entry into his catalog. And it's cool to see how Sim's evolved into a more Large Professor-y style in the 2010s; but for me it's all about those lost, vintage goods.

Bloody Cheerful

You only have to look at the cover to know that "Bloodshed Hua Hoo" by Crustified Dibbs is an oddity. Crustified Dibbs, of course, is the name RA the Rugged Man used when he was briefly signed to Jive in the early 90s (though interestingly, they wrote it up like Crustified was a group and RA was a member... but RA was the only guy).  And although RA leaked a white label of his song with Biggie and low quality dubs of the shelved album, Night Of the Bloody Apes, have circulated widely, this is actually the only record of his they put out.

1994 was the year the brief horrorcore bubble burst, and this single was right on the borderline. You could tell Jive was behind this... Picture cover with a wide release, they made a music video for it, hooked him up with one of the hottest producers of the time, and they even created a promotional comic book set in Suffolk County High School. In fact, the comic book and the music video follow almost the same "plot." Starting out in his special ed class (which was also a skit on the album called "RA Classroom"), RA turns into a monster right out of the 1969 Mexican horror film Night Of the Bloody Apes (which the album takes its title from) and murders just about everyone, leading to a sort of gruesome uprising of his fellow special ed students.And in both the video and comic, the only dialogue is at the very beginning, after which he only raps the lyrics to "Bloodshed Hua Hoo."

But it's interesting that, if you listen to the lyrics, there's actually very little horrorcore about them. It's basically just a lot of cliched hip-hop non-sequiturs strung together in a rambling Ol' Dirty Bastard-inspired flow, "wit da new-eh, style for your crew-eh, and I could just make it get to ya baby, blauuhh (Yo kick that real shit!) Now what was it? Got disgusted, now bust it, ya microphone is rusted, I buh-buh-buh-ba-bum rushed it."  It's also pretty juvenile ("check the floors with the jabber jaws. 'I got a man.' Shut ya mouth and drop your drawers!"). The "Hua Hoo" part of the title is basically just their attempt to spell out his incoherent ODB-like sputtering. He's even prone to briefly breaking out into disjointed song like ODB did, singing the old spiritual "Nobody Knows the Troubles I've Seen" and Positive K's "I Got a Man." Apart from the key word "bloodshed," which he almost refers to as a new dance rather than anything to be scared of. It's actually quite an upbeat number, and there's nothing really horrorcore about this song at all. In fact, you could say that about a lot of the songs on his shelved album ("Every Record Label Sucks Dick" hardly expresses feelings of the dark and supernatural).  A few of his songs do, like "Toolbox Murderer" (also named after an older horror film) or "Bloody Axe," but even then, he drifts pretty far off of it to make cheesy punchlines about "ya moms" and Beverly Hills 90210.

And instrumentally, "Bloodshed" doesn't have a horrorcore feel at all, either. Believe it or not, it's a Trackmasterz joint, with classically 90s New York drums and bass hits, sparse jazz notes and that Lynn Collins/ Rob Base "Yeah!" vocal sample. It sounds like something Lord Finesse should be rocking over, not a shaggy, muttering delinquent character. In fact, a lot of purists would probably feel annoyed that Dibbs ruined a dope instrumental if they'd ever bothered to listen to the song that closely in the first place.

But if you're not that uptight about it, this is a fun, screwball single. Disappointingly, the 12" only features the Clean Version, though. And since the album never came out, that makes the proper LP Version prepare rare, outside of those hissy 8th generation albums dubs. That's why I've also hung onto my cassingle version, which is missing the Clean Version (as if anybody cared), but has the curse-filled uncut original in proper sound quality. On the other hand, the 12" has the Instrumental and Acapella over the tape.

Whichever version you get, though, also features two remixes. The first is the Sunny Balls Mix, which keeps a lot of the original version's production, but puts in a new, deep bassline and a vocal sample singing softly int he background of the entire mix. The original's better overall, but if you're in the mood for a smooth jeep boomer, this one has its place.

Then on the flip, there's "Bloodshed Level 2 (Nigga Niles Crusty Remix)." You'd expect from the way they've titled it that this is a whole new song, or at least a lyrical remix. But no, it's just a second remix of the same vocal song, though it is further removed from the Trackmasterz beat, with a distorted, slightly more appropriate "bloodshed" vibe. Unfortunately, the remixes are only available in clean edits on both the 12" and cassingle. They're both produced by Marc Niles, who joined Jive with RA and stuck around to produce some of the label's other stuff (including Shaq!) during their stay, and continues to work RA sporadically to this day.

But as you can see in Phill Most Chill's Rap Sheet comic above, Crustified was fully adopted into the horrorcore subgenre by the hip-hop culture regardless of the lyrical content of his only released song. And overall, that was probably really good for his career, but it also meant Jive pushed him out the door as soon as word got out that kids didn't think rapping about ghouls 'n' ghosts was as cool as rapping about street gangs. But hopefully everybody at this blog has gotten past following the high school cool/ uncool paradigm, so you just have to decide if you're in the mood for a serious, credible hip-hop 12"... or something silly and gonzo like this.

Proteus 4XL Meets The Sugarhill Gang

(Youtube version is here.)

The House Party Bully

So, I mentioned in yesterday's post, that Full Force reprised their characters as the bullies in the first two House Party movies on their latest record. But what I didn't mention is that this isn't actually the first time they did that. Way back in 1990, on UTFO's fifth album, Bag It and Bone It, Bowlegged Lou joins EMD, The Educated Rapper on "If You Don't Wanna Get Pregnant..." But he doesn't join him as himself. Instead he raps in character as Pee Wee, easily the most memorable of the bullies thanks to his unreal, cartoonish voice.

Bag It and Bone It was a weird album for UTFO. Doctor Ice had left the group to pursue his solo career, so EMD takes the front seat here. And, while there are some clean and even positive messagey songs; the bulk of it is dirty to the point of almost mean spiritedness. It's like they decided hip-hop was no longer going to support an old school group like UTFO anymore, so the answer was to become the east coast 2 Live Crew. A group that basically never cursed even in the late 80s. and just talked about sex through winky innuendos suddenly produced an album that could rival Willie D's, with lines like "I'm greedy, I want ALL the punanny; I don't give a damn if it's sister or mommy." Bushwick Bill rapped about killing a girl and having "sex with her corpse before I left her," but I'm not sure The Geto Boys were even prepared to cross the incest line. And back in 1990, this type of stuff was still shocking. Especially since nobody saw it coming from the guys who released "Bad Luck Barry" and "Fairytale Lover."

So, anyway, UTFO was missing Doc Ice, but they were still an official Force Organization. The Force still has co-writing and production credit for the bulk of the album. And, yes, Bowlegged Lou takes the mic to record a proper duet with EMD on this one song. As Pee Wee.

On the album, the song is preceeded by a long-ish skit where EMD says, "I wanna do this with that character you was playin' in that movie." That's followed by EMD and Pee Wee calling in a "bitch" and talk her into sucking their dicks. Because that's the unwritten second half of the song title... "If you don't wanna get pregnant, suck the dick." It ends with sound effects, like that Biggie skit, except with the added bonus of Pee Wee getting off in his crazy high-pitched voice.

Then the song starts and the production consists of an actually really funky loop with tight, jazzy horns. The raps (and yes, Pee Wee has full rap verses; he's not just here as a background character) are angry and x-rated (really, just call up that crazy Pee Wee voice in your head aa you read the following lines, "you mean to say my dick's hard for nothin'? Well, spread your butt cheeks 'cause I'm fuckin' somethin'!"), but the music is surprisingly upbeat and cheerful. There's an amusing breakdown where the girl voice sings "I'm sucking it baby" to the tune of LL's "Jingling Baby."

Surprisingly, they released this as a single. I mean, instrumentally I could see it warranting it a single, but there's no way this song could play on any radio or TV station. Amazingly, there is a Clean Version on here, but it's useless. There's not a five second span of this song that isn't curse-filled and x-rated.

The b-side is the album track "Hoein' for the Dough." In contrast to the A-side, this is a slow, calm song, with EMD's flow sounding downright Southern. It's got a really funky bassline, though, and some nice, underplayed scratches by Mixmaster Ice. Lyrically, well, the title tells the whole story; but EMD does manage to breathe some extra life into it with colorful details and an extra smooth delivery.

And this 12" has an exclusive, too: a Slammin' Remix of "If You Don't Wanna Get Pregnant..." It completely replaces the original instrumental elements with a hype and very 80's track. Interestingly, they cut out the part of the girl singing "I'm sucking it, baby" but replace it with Ice scratching in LL's line, "go 'head, baby." You'd never get the reference if you weren't intimately familiar with the album version, but there it is. It's a pretty dope mix, though the original has the advantage of sounding more original, whereas this sounds like multiple songs we've heard before. But it's all kind of wasted, anyway, since x-rated Pee Wee basically turns the whole thing into a novelty track.

As such, even though there's clearly a lot of talent evident, it's hard to actually recommend this single to anyone beyond a quick, "can you believe this exists?" listen. I guess that's why it's one of the most common bargain bin fillers in the genre ...not to mention the end of UTFO's recording career. But curiosity seekers ought to know that this dark side to the House Party soundtrack is out there in the world. And I wonder how close Jive Records was to asking Lou if they could just sign Pee Wee to a solo deal.

UTFO, Roxanne Shanté & Full Force - Roxanne, Roxanne (The New Chapter)

If you're under thirty, just go ahead and skip this post.

Now, for everybody still here - holy shit!

Where to start? Well, okay, Full Force is back with a new album. Not excited yet? Neither was I at first. I mean, I remember buying their first comeback album, Sugar On Top, and just thinking "bleh." I didn't even bother to pick up their second comeback LP in 2001, Still Standing, which featured mostly live recordings of their old hits. Who needs echoey, inferior renditions of records I already have? The ship had sailed on these guys, and I'm not even sure how big I was on their past albums. They were at best uneven. And this is a hip-hop blog, not an R&B fansite.

Well, it's still a couple months off, but on August 26, Full Force's With Love From Our Friends, which is finally their first comeback album to capture everything that was so great about these guys in the first place. And it's not just a new album, it's a reunion album with basically everybody they've ever worked with ever. I mean, granted, a couple of the superstars they've produced, like Justin Timberlake aren't here. And Lisa Lisa is conspicuously absent. But it's seriously an overwhelming list. Here's just some of them, the ones I'm not going to delve deeper into further below: Faith Evans, motherfuckin' Shiela E, Raphael Saadiq, Shanice (remember her?), Tisha Campbell-Martin, Tevin Campbell, Naturi Naughton, Silk, Troop (now that's takin' it back!), Next, 112, Allure, Regina Belle, Howard Hewett and Raymond Luke Jr. (star of that Broadway show Motown: The Musical). That's just the ones I'm not gonna talk about.

I said this is a hip-hop blog, not an RB fansite. So rest assured I wouldn't be covering this if there weren't also rappers on hand as well. And I'ma get to that, but for everybody who group up with The Full Force Family, let me finish geeking on the other stuff first. The roster is overwhelming, but what really stands out is that the production, instrumentation and arrangements are really strong here. This isn't a washed up group cashing in on their name and industry connections. This is a really impressive album.

It's also all over the map. Their press sheet says this album "reflects the group's broad range of sounds and styles." That's always been how Full Force rolls, but seeing as how this song features the entire planet, it's even more wildly all over the place. Ce Ce Peniston and Freedom Williams (our first rapper) come back to make a club hit. Of course Cheryl Pepsi Riley is back, and she has a great classically R&B song with Meli'Sa Morgan and Vivica A. Fox, who actually provides a killer intro. And there's a great duet with The Force MD's. With Love is often religious - this album even features a childrens' choir - but they manage to make it all sound great.

Okay, now get this. Remember how Doctor Ice ended his album with a crazy half skit/ half song with a cameo by Blair Underwood, as his character from LA Law? They even brought HIM back on here! He's on this posse cut where a bunch of guys, including Malcolm Jamal Warner, Omari Hardwick and Big Daddy Kane do spoken word poems about Heaven over a choral song by the Force and Najee. Actually, Kane's appearance is the most disappointing on this album, since the spoken word stuff is corny ("her persona would make Malcolm Jamal want her") and un-engaging on the most skippable song. The production still makes it very listenable, but Kane is just wasted here.

And okay, I'm almost done; but I've just got to talk about the craziest song on here, "Dance Dance, Throw Ur Hands Up In the Air Air" by The Force and Samantha Fox. Yup, they brought everybody back! And they're on full-on autotune mode; she sounds like Ke$ha; and unless you absolutely hate these kinds of songs (a lot of people do; couldn't blame ya) it actually works. This song really continues The Full Force tradition also of the crazy, silly B-sides, because The Force revive their characters from the House Party movies. You know the bullies with the crazy voices? Well, they're back in full "I smell.... PUSSY!" mode. And if that's still not enough for you, there's a bonus verse by Flavor Flav, yes also rapping in autotune. And man, he totally should've been on "Blah Blah Bla;" forget those wack 3Oh3 guys.

Look, this album was designed for a very particular audience whose minds are gonna be blown. But anybody else who checks for it will at least find very well made, eccentric album. And yeah, I haven't even gotten to the final, most important track yet.

If I didn't feel the need to fangasm over this project, I could've just skipped to writing baout this one song, because this is the one readers of hip-hop blogs should care about: "Roxanne, Roxanne (The New Chapter)." Of course, you know Full Force had to bring UTFO, the UnTouchable Force Organization back, and this is a whole new song all about that same old girl, with Force singing a new hook and the guys kicking all new verses. There have been a couple UTFO albums without the full line-up, so I guess I should specificy that yes, all four are back, Mixmaster Ice even has some nice scratching moments. The instrumental is a really cool blend of that original 1984 feel with all new, modern elements; and yes they hold true to the original by changing the instrumental for each verse. Bow Legged Lou's son is on here, and yeah, that feels like some forced nepotism, but he sounds fine on here for his short part, so it's alright. I remember tweeting to a fun, 2014 "Roxanne, Roxanne" update by some random internet rapper which was pretty fun; but this is a real deal follow-up by the original guys and actually given a physical release. Oh, and did I mention that Roxanne Shanté is on here, too? And she sounds great kicking it in total '84 mode, still setting it off on the EMD:

"Let me tell you the story I think that they forgot;
It was downtown Brooklyn,
It was really, really hot.
The day-a it was sunny,
He told me he had money;
He was broke and a joke
And he thought that it was funny.
He said he was a rapper,
I told him 'I should slap ya,
Start running sown the block
And them boys gonna cap ya.'
He went running down the block
But he didn't get far.
They caught him and they did 'im
Like it was WorldStar."

Thirty years later, they're all parents now; and they're finally having it out on a Roxanne record together. Whether you care about the rest of the album or not is one thing - just how many of your developmental years were soundtracked by all these people - but all you old school heads gotta at least check out for this new "Roxanne, Roxanne." It's good times.

Omniscence's Tri-Factor

It's been a minute since the last one, but the third chapter of Omniscence's Raw Factors has just landed. And I'm excited to say that this time around I've never heard any of 'em. We haven't heard low quality, mis-titled portions on the online mixtape versions, none of these songs appeared on my promo EP. It's all completely brand new. ...Except, you know, that it's from the 90s.

So, like the previous entries, this is a simple three-song 12" with the instrumentals on the reverse. No sticker cover, no frills. Just top quality remasters of three long-lost joints that we've been waiting decades for. It's not fancy, just essential.

Factors 3 opens with its hardest joint, "Represent." It features a young MC I've never heard of named Lil Kalef, but he more than holds his own. Both of them come off rougher on here than any of the Omniscence material we'd heard back in the day - it kind of reminds me of when Kool G Rap debuted Jinx the Juvy. It helps that the track has a serious New York vibe, though of course it's actually by Fanatic as usual.

The next track, then, has a smooth, nighttime vibe. Om's punchline style hear sounds a little more forced and dated here. If this was a new song, I'd say it's a little corny; but any heads picking up this release are surely fiending for the old 90s shit they've been missing out on. So you're gonna be happy to hear it, and Om sounds good enough over this track that even if it rhymes did rub you the wrong way, you'd have to give this song an overall pass.

And we finish up with "Dick Suck." We might lose female listeners here, or just mature ones, who don't particularly care to hear Omniscence brag about how he's going to get girls to give him head over and over again. But it's not actually a sex song. It's just all about how he and his crew finally made it, putting out a record (little did he know), achieving success, and so "this year, we're gonna get our dicks sucked."  This song actually sounds feels the most like the classic Omniscence material we've heard in the past, and it even features an uncredited Big Kap, who also hosted the original snippet tape most of us heard on those booty "mixtape" versions of Raw Factor. Oh, and he performed "Amazin'" with Omni on the Illstyle Live album. This is the song that will really fit all your expectations of what an unreleased Raw Factor track is gonna sound like... and that's definitely a good thing.

Look, you already know if you're one of the people that needs this in your life. If you were a backpacker in the 90s, reading the monthly Hip-Hop Quotables and tracking down the indie hip-hop projects you couldn't hear on the radio. If you're one of us, all you need me to tell you is that this volume doesn't disappoint. It's every bit as good as the previous entries. So don't let the facts that this is the third in an ongoing series and there's nothing fancy or glossy about the packaging to resell you on the concept let you lose steam and miss out on this. Because you'll regret ti down the line when you don't finally have the complete, original Raw Factor in your crates.

Before Cool V Was Biz Markie's Main Man

This one reminds me a lot of that Brothers Unique record, for some obvious superficial ways... It's an old school, PSA-like message song about the importance of education by a rapper who only put out one record. And it's produced by genre outsiders who usually make non-hip-hop records. Plus it's on Sutra Records.

But Abdul Tariq's record is also quite different. This time, it's not made by a bunch of jazz guys but disco guys. Specifically, it's produced by Bert Reid of Crown Heights Affair. And it's several years more modern, 1986, so it's got a much more electronic feel. Spacey sound effects, loud handclaps and multiple keyboard lines. It's super upbeat and happy, basically, with girls singing "got to get your education!" and Tariq joyfully shouting "pop pop pa-pa-pa-pop pow!" When he's not rapping to tell you to "keep your eyes in your books." What he lacks in skills he makes up for in sheer enthusiasm. And during all this, there's also a male singer on a funkier, almost Keith Sweat tip going off in the background.

The record label credits the R&B girls as Jamaica Girls, and that's not just a fun way to describe the neighborhood girls he brought into the studio to sing for him; they were an established disco trio who put out several records throughout the 80s. And they actually play a big part on this seven and a half minute song. They don't have a lot of lyrics, but they're singing more "pa-pop pa-pop"s and "educaaaayshun,"s through the whole song, even while Tariq steps away from the mic for breaks. The male singer isn't credited... perhaps it's Tariq himself. That would be a little odd, since he almost duets with him at one point; but it's certainly possible. And the keyboards are provided by Jeff Smith, who's apparently better known as a saxophonist. But here he's playing futuristic keyboard riffs.

But for us hip-hop heads, the most interesting name in the credits is easily Cutmaster Cool "V," who's credited with scratching on the B-side. Yeah, he's not on the main song. But on they have a Dub Mix and Instrumental on the reverse, and he scratches on both of those. I mean, you'd expect the Instrumental to be exactly like the A-side, minus the voices, but it's not. It's a couple minutes shorter and.... features Cool V.

And it's certainly the same guy. I mean, I could accept two "Cool V"s existing in this world as just a coincidence; but both calling themselves "Cutmaster Cool V?" It's gotta be the same guy. And this is 1986, the same year Biz Markie debuted on wax beat-boxing for Roxanne Shanté. In fact, the Dub mix features a small sampling of human beat-boxing, which could actually be a clip of the Biz. ...I mean, it's probably not, but hey you never know. Update: according to Cool V himself, it's him doing the beat boxing, inspired by Biz.

So yeah, the Dub Mix is the more hip-hop oriented of the two. It doesn't have most of the lyrics from the A-side, naturally, but it does have some vocals by Tariq unique to this version. And it has Cool V's cuts and that that really brief beatboxing moment I mentioned.

The instrumental has some scratching, too; but it's just for a little bit. Despite being called the "Instrumental," it's got a good deal of vocals, including a lot of singing by the Jamaica Girls. The most notable unique element of this version is that it has a huge saxophone part. Nobody's given credit for that on the label, but it's surely got to be Smith, right?

Anyway, this whole record is fun. It almost feels like one giant song, rather than three versions of one song; and that's the way I'd recommend listening to this one. Just rock it all the way through like a huge monster jam. Lyrically it's pretty light and preachy, but it's just so hyper you won't even notice. It's too bad Tariq didn't make any other records, because I'm sure they would've been fun. But I guess Reid had his non-hip-hop career to get back to, and of course Cool V was called away to make all those classic Biz records; and we wouldn't want anything to have stood in the way of those. So this winds up being just an entertaining one-off, as well as an interesting historical footnote.

The Push It To the Limit Rapp

Hip-hop, what took you so long? It wasn't until 2006 that Rick Ross sampled the epic "Push It To the Limit" song from Brian DePalma's Scarface. I mean, Scarface is like #1 iconic movie associated with gangsta rap. The Geto Boys made so many great songs with its crazy vocal samples and took so much inspiration, to the point where one of their lead members changed his name to Scarface. Clips of it have been heard on literally countless rap records - go ahead and try, you won't be able to count them all. And just about every inch of the soundtrack has been combed through for usable hip-hop loops.  Remember that killer Kool G Rap and CNN collabo "This Is My Life?" They flipped that peppy tropical music from when Scarface went to Havana to score and turned into a sick track.

And yet, midway through the movie, one song in Scarface is put front and center. It's a big, 80s pop rock monster. And they play it during a montage of Scarface's rise to power, so you're really listening to the full song play front and center, rather than behind dialogue and sound effects. It's not score, it's a massive song with lyrics and energetic background vocals and everything. But nobody looped it until 2006. I mean, technically, somebody may've used a little snippet and merged it into their track; but nobody made a real "Push It To the Limit" song before Ross.

And he really uses it. Like, I can remember an interview where DJ Ready Red talked about how he mixed multiple samples creatively in every track he made and didn't respect producers who would just loop the main thrust of a song and call it their own. Well, by that standard, he must hate "Push It," because this is doing nothing but rocking that song.

Not that I think there's anything inherently wrong with that (sorry, Red). I mean, hip-hop comes from a long tradition of making "rap versions" of existing songs... Spyder-D's "I Can't Wait (To Rock the Mic)" is one of my all-time favorite hip-hop songs; but I certainly can't praise its instrumental originality - it's just Nu Shooz's "I Can't Wait," turned into a rap song. After all, it all springs from the original hip-hop house parties where MCs were rapping over spun records, not newly created beats; and it's not like anybody was trying to claim they wrote those disco tracks. And just like Spyder-D called his version of "I Can't Wait" "I Can't Wait," Ross is totally up front about calling this what it is: "Push It."

Production credit is given to JR (although, interestingly... they don't credit anyone on this 12"; only in the album notes), and to be fair, it's not like Ross is just literally rapping over original instrumental. They loop just the main chorus portion and throw on some typical Miami bass studio sounds in there to flesh it out with more of a proper 2000s hip-hop feel. But they certainly use the signature, most identifiable moments, including the original "push it to the limit" line from the original hook. And, rather boldly, they actually keep that vocal part rocking throughout all of Rick's verses. Ross actually has to add his own "push! I'm pushin' it. Push! I'm pushin' it" hook on top of that just to separate it from the rest of the song. The only thing it's missing (and probably would've had if this version was made twenty years earlier) is a breakdown that uses even more lines from the original song as a bridge.

You can front if you want to, but this sounds dope, and the rest of the day after hearing it you'll eb walking around your office singing "push it to the limit" to yourself. How could it not work? It was a total freebie, a  a gimme for the first rapper to come along and scoop it up. Plus it's thematically perfect for Ross as he lays done his typical bars about, of course, pushing weight. That was the unintentional(?) pun of the song in its original context, so it's too obvious for Ross not to do it here. That's actually the song's weakest point, since a lot of his lyrics are too generic to really be compelling, and the only lines that stand out are kinda corny ones, like that "who ever thought that fat girl would grow into Oprah" line. A little more time spent on the writing could've made this song one of the greats; but as it is, it's more just a fun 12" to keep in your collection that you can always go back to for an easy, head-nodding amp session.

This was his second single after the platinum hit "Hustlin'," so it probably gets overlooked a little more than it deserves. And like that one, it's featured on his debut album, Port Of Miami. This Def Jam/ Slip 'N' Slide/ Poe Boy Records 12" comes in a sticker cover and just features Dirty, Clean and Instrumental versions on both sides. And even DJs who don't like Rick Ross may well have this one in their crates just for that instrumental. But come on, it's quintessential Rick Ross; this beat waited decades for this guy to come along. Even if you're a die-hard backpacker, you've gotta give the man this one.

Crazy L'eggs, Not Crazy Legs

You may've noticed I have a keen interest in exploring the fresh, under-appreciated rap records from the 80s and 90s Miami scene. I've found myself often saying, "now, this isn't your typical..." But what is the typical? I figured it's time I wrote about a "generic" bass release, if only as a reference. This is the kind of record that had most of us shaking our heads on the east coast whenever we heard mention of Miami bass.

Right off the bat, let's be clear. Crazy L'eggs is no relation to the hip-hop icon Crazy Legs, of the original Rocksteady Crew break dancers. Crazy L'eggs (named after the brand of pantyhose) is best known for making a club record out of the kindergarten song, "If You're Happy and You Know It" ...which stayed surprisingly true to the original.

Crazy L'eggs is one of those rappers who didn't rap. Like Luke. His earliest singles featured Aim To Please, who did his rapping for him. But his later releases did away with rapping entirely and just relied on L'eggs doing a bunch of shouty hooks. And also like Luke, he didn't do his own production either; which always had me wondering why a label had signed him to make records in the first place. I guess he was a local DJ or something with a name to cash in on?

Anyway, this particular single is "Doin' His Own Thang" from 1993 on Pandisc Records. Pandisc picked him up after he did the admittedly distinctive hook to a successful Prince Rahiem song ("Loose My Money"), and put out all his records through the early 90s. He only released a handful in his full career, actually; and he never had a full length album, though Pandisc would sometimes sneak out more unreleased Crazy L'eggs songs on random compilation albums which were probably intended for an an unheard LP.

You generally don't see his picture on his 12"s or anything (the sticker cover to this one doesn't include his image, just the same blue background), so my cassette picture cover is interesting in that regard. It's produced by Devastator X, who of course had a hefty career in Miami bass, and so this has a very heavy instrumental. If you've heard both, you might've noticed that parts of it are actually pretty similar to 1994's "Happy and You Know It," which X also produced; and which featured several identical musical elements. In fact that's because "Happy and You Know It" actually recycles this instrumental completely - it's the same track, only with the children's song chanted over it in place of some of the original chants. In fact, some pressings of "Happy" included "Doin'" on the flipside. But between the two, this is the one I have to go with, if only because it's impossible to listen to "Happy and You Know It" without feeling like a huge goofball. But even if you put that factor aside and unselfconsciously rock out to either song, I think I'd still say L'eggs sounds better on this one.

The instrumental is ever-changing and replete with dope sounds and samples. I brought this up as an average record, but instrumentally it's actually better than average. But with no rap verses, the beat had better change up a lot; because otherwise it's nothing but a litany of unending and completely generic bass music phrases for the full duration: "whatcha wanna do? Ride it! Whatcha wanna do? Ride it! Whatcha wanna do? Ride it! Whatcha wanna do? Ride it! Whatcha wanna do? Ride it! Whatcha wanna do? Ride it! Yeahhh! To where? In the middle! To where? In the middle! To where? In the middle! To where? In the middle! To the flo', let's go! To the what? To the flo'! To the what? To the flo'! To the what? To the flo'! To the what? To the flo'! To the what? To the flo'! To the what? To the flo'! One more time, let's do it! Whatcha wanna do? Ride it! Whatcha wanna do? Ride it! Whatcha wanna do? Ride it! Whatcha wanna do? Ride it!"

Now, don't just skip that highlighted bit. Read it carefully. That's a literal transcription of just thirty seconds of this five minute song. And it just goes on like that. When he said, "one more time," I just thought oh no, please! I understand that this was meant to be played in clubs where you can just rock out to the instrumental; and I'm sure everyone who actually enjoyed this song in 1993 probably just tuned this guy out. But it's fucking tedious to actually listen to; and what does it say about a MC whose music is best enjoyed by tuning him out?

It turned out, Crazy L'eggs really needed Aim To Please. Or any MC or singer who could carry the vocal portion of a record. Oh, and a solid, established producer to make his instrumentals. When he had that combination, his records worked, and when he only had one or the other, they only half-worked, as in this case. So it's obvious why L'eggs needed those guys, but the question is, why would any of them need him?