Just found this on Google. I used to have this on my wall as a moody teenager. Please excuse this self indulgent post.
Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
Old School
Monday, August 10th, 2009RIP Baatin
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009Back in the days when I lived a year of hell in Leeds I could only afford a record every few months. I used to switch the price tags on the records in HMV and nine times out of ten they didn’t even check. I copped many a LP for the price of a 12”. Fantastic Voyage Vol.2 by the legendary Slum Village was ‘purchased’ like this and it kept me going for months. I didn’t even yearn for other records. Good news for HMV.
Jay Dee, T3 and Baatin. Soul food. Detroit soul food. Deep and simple, stoned grooves with snappy laid back rhymes. Summer days. Weed scented. Similar in vibe to latter period ATCQ (who were produced by Slum Village aka The Ummah). Super producer Jay Dee is dead. Baatin died today. There is only one member left of the original line up. sad news. Never 50 fucking Cent is it? RIP Baatin.
jazzzzzzzzzzzz
Saturday, July 25th, 2009Sadat X – Wild Cowboys
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009Released in 1996 when I was a poor student. Broke as a motherfucker but still with a record player I was living in Manchester and would often trawl through Piccadilly Records in Manchester looking, with flat pockets, in the windows and the racks at records I couldn’t afford. Around this time I saw this from Sadat X who was dropping his first solo work outside of Brand Nubian. Out of all the Brand Nubian members Derek X aka Sadat X was always my least favourite. He was the one that had the annoying voice and I preferred Jamar and Puba but there was always something about his flow that intrigued. Over time I have begun to appreciate his idiosyncrasies and unique style and so I downloaded some of solo albums a while back. Wild Cowboys (for some fucking reason Cowboys were in vogue in mid 90′s hip hop for a short while) is a fucking great album. Bit of a flop on release but surely must be a nomination for cult classic these days. Wild Cowboys is an album in the strictest sense – no real stand out tracks as such and the singles that were released from it – Hang ‘Em High which is some weird Diamond produced Cowboy thing and Showbiz’s Stages and Lights and the party jam Lump Lump – are all fully passable but not hit record material. No, The album tracks are where its at homeslice. Sauce For Birdheads is a jazzy, plinky plonky hip hop masterclass not least of all because it features Shawn Black. Shawn Black who litters this album but is now M.I.A. Seemingly disappeared after this release which is a real shame because he brings a lot to the rap table. Open Bar is a stunning sloooow jam featuring Puba and is indeed smother than a fez on the head of Kojak. This is all good but there are two real stand out moments. Stand out moment number 1: Petty People. This could have come straight from Stunts, Blunts and Hip Hop – Diamond D on the board and Sadat and Shawn Black rip this to shreds. Its so good. THIS should have been a single but they overlooked it for Lump Lump? Crazy ish. Second Stand Out Moment: Escape From New York. Pete Rock delivers a beautiful, soul laden groove whilst Sadat laments how hard life in the Big Apple is (his girl just caught a case). These two make the album an essential purchase alone but then you have the stoned Hashout (this whole album is high as a kite come to think about it) which is very trippy but menacing with it and Shawn Black, again, provides the lyrics ‘pop the block, we bubble like Shampoo’. Been trying to get an US OG copy for a while but saw some chump posting a mint copy on Ebay today for 8 pounds instead of the usual 20+ quid on Discogs. Buy It Now. Done. You have been.
Rock On – Funkdoobiest
Monday, July 13th, 2009There was a time when, just after Cypress Hill dropped their first album, that DJ Muggs had hip hop on lock. His sound was unique, raw and brash and funky as a pair of James Browns socks and he was highly sought after as a producer. His stock only increased when he produced Jump Around for a average MC called Everlast already dropped from Ice-T’s Rhyme Syndicate label and turned him into a superstar if only for a month or so. I doubt even Muggs would have believed how big that record would be but there it was and so the logic goes that anything he touches would follow a similar path. We see it so many times in Hip Hop where, when any group blows up, all the weed carriers around them get signed which is where Funkdoobiest enter the scene. Latino stoners with cartoon covered record sleeves and friends in high places. Their first album was proceeded by the the Muggs produced ‘Bow Wow Wow’ which is a slowed down Jump Around with extra bass which, AT THE TIME was banging but alas has not aged well. Thankfully that was one that slipped through my fingers however their debut album on clear vinyl was purchased on its release and I was not disappointed. Its a great album and the real stand outs are the T-Ray tracks. Lovely, subtle things and hidden away at the end of side one and simple, effective Hip Hop. ‘Whose the Doobiest’ and Where’s It At’ stand out for me but there are others. The problem with light-hearted, cartoony, stoner rap is that its doesn’t stay with you like a Word…Life or Illmatic does so after my initial buzz I kind of got bored and looked elsewhere for a high hence me overlooking their second LP and the rest of their careers. This is why I missed Rock On from their second LP Brothas Doobie. The 12″ has the title track (which, by itself is a lovely DJ Muggs produced slow burner) but its really the remix by the brilliant Buckwild that does the trick for me. Picked up for $2.50 not including P&P on US OG WAX. You can’t front on Discogs science.
The Reason
Saturday, July 4th, 2009I fucking love this.
Back To The Future
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008Picture the scene. A spotty teenage boy is sitting in his bedroom in Stanford-Le-Hope playing records. His adolescent mind already captured by the magic of Hip Hop he hungrily devourers any slab of vinyl he can get his hands on. These are the days before MP3′s so every piece of music that he heard was purchased with either pocket money or the daily wage of a Saturday job. It averages out at one or two records a week and during the late 80′s it was hard to keep up with every release such was the lack of money and sheer quanity of classic records being released. Being as this exotic, vivid and captivating music was made on the other side of the world and not yet part of mainstream consciousness everything had to be either imported from America or you had to try and find a UK licensed copy tucked away in some obscure section of the record shop. These were the days when Our Price and HMV had tiny sections marked Rap waaaaaaaaaay before the ‘Urban’ section took up half the record shop like today. One UK label, Gee Street, used to licence various records by Idlers Records of New York who, among other artists, had the Jungle Brothers on its roster. What this meant is that record shops had no need to import the original US release and instead Gee Street released a UK version however they wanted and their own bastard way.
Todays Song is…
Sunday, April 13th, 2008Switching up speeds like Bruce Lee driving a Fuji in a movie I offer this gem from the latest Underworld long player. Over nine minutes long and one of only four decent tracks on Oblivion with Bells it is none the less a thing of great Beauty. Play it loud on decent speakers.
This weeks joint is…
Saturday, March 29th, 2008Proof Is In The Puddin’. West Coast before West Coast equalled Dre soundalikes and ganstazzz. Is it the Frank Zappa sample? is it the Trumpet solo on 1:00? is it the various breaks scattered around the track like little puzzles or is it that early 90′s sense of fun that makes this THE SHIT. Mad Kap – slept on dopeness. Enjoy.
This Weeks Joint is…
Saturday, March 15th, 2008Step back relax coz Ed OG’s about to come off…
And come off he does. Classix.