I figure that my annual Hip Hop Lessons have taught the masses enough about the true meaning of Hip Hop that I really don't have to go all out with the old school park jam tapes this year (plus whoever flooded the internets with all those Cold Crush / Bambaataa / Crash Crew / Furious 5 etc. mp3s over at the Wu-Tang Corp. and other sites gave y'all enough lessons to last a lifetime or even longer). But I will still celebrate the spirit of my original Thankstakings Day posts and drop another old school gem on y'all while I wait for the wife to finish cooking the turducken or whatever it is she's cooking that has the whole house smellin' good and schitt and got a brutha hongry as a muhfuhr.
This one is the second part of the Mr. Hyde / Mr. Bond / Starchild / Ronnie Green jam at Foster Center from 1979 that I posted previously (but has now been zapped by Z-Share, so until it gets requested and I re-up it, it's gone). I've had like hundreds of old school tapes over the years, but I must say that this is one of my favorites. Not necessarily the best, but I just like the hell out of this schitt. No planned out routines, no harmonizing, no showstopping moments, just the basic essence of Hip Hop- mc rhymes, breakbeats and echo chamber. This dude Starchild, who I never heard of other than on this tape (I'm pretty sure this ain't Kool Kyle), is crazy def with the nursery rhymes; Mr. Bond has the raw b-boy style; and Mr. Hyde kills it on a couple of occassions (Hyde definitely should be mentioned when you talk about the best of the early emcees IMO). And Ronnie Green's beat selection is always fresh to me.
BTW and FYI, Jekyll & Hyde's DJ Ronnie Green is actually better known to some as Captain Rock (yes, the same Captain Rock who had a few electro rap hits back in the 80's). Funny story about Captain Rock- me and my crew did a show opening for Captain Rock back around 1985 or so. We did our thing, then went out into the crowd to watch the good Captain's set. Well, I guess Rock and his crew must have been moonlighting as male strippers when they weren't engaged in teh electro rap because midway through their show they did this little choreographed move where they slightly lowered their slacks and... man, I can't even describe it any further without being on some serious PAUSE schitt. I feel soft even admitting that my eyes saw this schitt happening. So I'll leave the rest of that to your own imagination... I guess the girls in the front row liked it, though. Me, I just wish I woulda stayed backstage.
Another BTW- the pic at the top of this post is just one of the great back-in-the-days flicks by Jamel Shabazz. You should already be well aware of the brother's incredible work, but if not Google up some samples and then buy as many of his books that your Paypal account will allow for. RECOMMENDED REAL SCHITT MATERIAL.
MR. BOND, MR. HYDE, STARCHILD & RONNIE GREEN - Foster Center 1979 PART 2
I thought maybe it was just me, but looks like the worst case scenario is true- pretty much all the old audio appears to have been wiped out by Z-Share. I think it has something to do with that alien spacecra- err, I mean that meteor that crash landed in Western Canada recently... yeah, that's probably what happened. Something from outer space wiped out the Z-Share audio. Well, if anybody out there needs any of the old stuff that's no longer available, drop me a line and I'll see how much of it I can re-up. At some point I may try to just get all of the mp3s back up, but really, unless somebody requests something there's really no good reason to even bother with it. Therefore... I probably won't bother with it. But if you have any requests just hit me up and I'll see what I can do. Man, do you realize how many pron links out there in cyberspace have now been rendered useless??? This is almost as bad a calamity as the collapse of the United States economy, I think even far worse. Why must I cry?
How many of y'all remember when I used to do the "Ten Beats To Catch" schitt in Rap Sheet magazine? Oh, you were only 7 years old back in 1994? Okay, never mind that. You may perhaps recall the "Shit I'm Feelin'" piece I used to do on the old World Of Beats website. Don't know that one either? You have no idea who I even am, do you? Ahhh, well... time moves on, I guess.
Well, I think I want to kinda resurrect those ideas and start hittin' you with regular songlists of the stuff I've been listening to, for whatever it's worth. Maybe give you a reason to seek out some different music that you wouldn't normally check for, or maybe just give you another reason to view me as a strange, strange person. Be forewarned, though- everything I listen to is NOT THAT REAL SCHITT. My tastes are varied (and I guess a little strange, too... I dunno, I listen to all kinds of schitt, yo).
Mayer Hawthorne - Just Ain't Gonna Work Out / When I Said Goodbye
The Revelations featuring Tre Williams - I Don't Want To Know / Sorry's Not Enough
Francis Guillon - By My Side
Kanye West featuring Young Jeezy - Amazing (my daughter's favorite joint of the moment)
Q-Tip - Life Is Better (featuring Norah Jones) / Move / The Renaissance / Won't Trade / For The Nasty (Remix)
Chicago - Feelin' Stronger Every Day
Ambrosia - You're The Only Woman
Electric Light Orchestra - Evil Woman
People Under The Stairs - The Wiz / The Ultimate 144 / Party Animal No. 1
Raphael Saadiq featuring CJ Hilton and Stevie Wonder - Never Give You Up
Sam Cooke - A Change Gonna Come
Jon Lucien - World Of Joy
Lighthouse - One Fine Morning
The January Tyme - I Could Never Love You
The Damnation Of Adam Blessing - Dreams / Lonely
Five Stairsteps - Ain't Gonna Rest (Till I Get You) / Behind Curtains
Lord Jamar featuring Raekwon - Original Man / Supreme Mathematics (Born Mix)
Hmmm... I been postin' a lot recently for a guy who was acting like he was one step away from suspending the blog indefinitely, huh? I think I've been invigorated by The Coming Of Obama... he's gonna make everything better, not only in the United States but also in the world of THAT REAL SCHITT. And possibly on other planets and even mythological places like Asgard... I'm just assuming here. His influence is just that far reaching.
But anyway, today I'm gonna drop some obscure rap schitt from 1982 courtesy of a guy named DJ Magic Ray and some other guys who go by The Undefeated Three. The rhyming on this 12" is pretty standard 1982 era no-name rap fare, but the beats are HARD. I bought this joint when it first came out and used to practice trying to scratch it on my mom's record player... most of y'all are probably too damn young to know about it, but this was one of those old school record players with the little arm that holds a stack of records and drops the next one down after the last one gets to the run-out groove. Man, we used to f**k up perfectly good vinyl back then!
I'm giving you both the A and the B sides... vocal and instrumental with bonus beats. I'm almost scared to listen to this... it's gonna make me want to squeeze into my extra smedium mock neck and Lee jeans with the permanent creases I used to wear back in '82 (just say no, Phill).
EDIT: I did not realize that this Undefeated Three was the same Undefeated Three that was down with Tuff City Records and included the legendary Funkmaster Wizard Wiz- I just found this out myself from reading a post this week on what is quite possibly the greatest real schitt website to ever hit the interwebs, Unkut.com (respect is due). You can check the FWW interview here- it's a good one. See that, you learn something new every day.
DJ MAGIC RAY AND THE UNDEFEATED THREE - Unity Rap
DJ MAGIC RAY AND THE UNDEFEATED THREE - Unity Rap with Bonus Beats (instrumental)
It's a little after 10 pm eastern time here in the good ol' U.S. of A. and it looks to be a wrap.... wow. Dan Rather said last night on CNN that a McCain win would be an upset of "biblical proportions". Well, the seas have not parted as of yet and doesn't seem that they're going to anytime soon. Again I say... wow.
O'Donel Levy - Dawn Of A New Day
Is it me, or is the classic Ultramagnetic 12" "Funky" b/w "Mentally Mad" hard to find in MP3 form out there on the interwebs? I don't know much about such things, but I was having a hard azz time even finding a scan of the label, let alone a cotdamn MP3. Well, I happened to burn the songs onto CD-R before selling most of my Hip Hop vinyl, so at this time I will share with you these two songs which are among my all time favorite Ultra joints.
Miscellaneous Ultra factoid that you may or may not care to know: the "MC Ultra" chorus on Ultra's breakout single "Ego Trippin'" was provided by Bronx underground legend Keyboard Money Mike, who is probably most famous for being shouted out on BDP's "Still #1". Miscellaneous Phill Most factoid that you may or may not care to know: Keyboard Money Mike told me this himself back when I was considering signing with his production company back around 1989 or so. Well, some of y'all might find that schitt interesting.
ULTRAMAGNETIC MCs - Funky
ULTRAMAGNETIC MCs - Mentally Mad
This is another segment of the Soulman "Philladelphia Beat Mission" cd for you if you don't already have it (I dropped the "Play The Breaks" portion of the mix awhile ago). This one, titled "Lasalle Funk Session", was a little 25 minute set I put together for live DJ gigs back when I thought I might get into playing out (I decided not long after that playing out was not for me). I also wanted to show people that although I prefer to be all over the place with my musical selection, I definitely am able to concentrate on one style and keep a party moving with actual mixing, blends, etc if need be. Honestly, though... I hate that schitt. Well, "hate" may be too strong, but it's hard for me to stay interested if all I'm playing or hearing is the same type of schitt over and over. I want all genres, all tempos, a plethora of musical flavors. And I like rockin' them old school Hip Hop style, just ziggazigga-ing schitt into the mix. Regardless, I was cool with how this one came out (although I never got a chance to add some of the finishing touches on it that I had planned). I guess for the hardcore funk 45 dudes most of this stuff will not be obscure enough- nope, I didn't go to some remote island in the Pacific ocean to find any of these records, unfortunately. As usual, I mixed in some fairly rare joints with some classic material. Long as it's funky it's all good IMHO. The tracklisting-
Syl Johnson - Ode To Soulman
Billy Baron & His Smoking Challengers - Communication Is Where It's At
Brothers Of The Ghetto - Rockin' Chair
Honeydrippers - Streakin'
Howard Wales - Huxley's Howl
Marvin Holmes - Find Yourself
Patricia & Jimmy - Trust Your Child
Mighty Flea - Ode To Billy Joe
Explosions - Hip Drop
Masai - Across The Tracks
Kenny and the Beach Boys - Big Payback
Oscar Harris - Relax Before Doing Sex
SOULMAN - Lasalle Funk Session
I've been getting some e-mails and messages asking why I haven't been adding much new content to the blog recently. Good question. To be for real for real, I just haven't been all that into THAT REAL SCHITT recently. Don't let me be misunderstood, I still love the real just as much as always. But what seems to happens to us as we get older is that... well, life happens. REALLY real schitt. So as much as we may still enjoy some of the things that consumed our lives earlier on, we just don't have as much time for that schitt as it gets later. Which is why you have all these millions of people who once rode hard for that boom bap style Hip Hop, and suddenly, presto- their old azzes done seemingly vanished. They're still around and they still like the real schitt, but they're too busy trying to pay bills and battling with baby mamas and running from the cops after violating probation for the 3rd time and doing stints in rehab and whatever the hell else they're doing. Like I said, really real schitt.
Luckily I have managed to navigate through my own life fairly successfully, so my worst drama is stuff like going to parent / teacher conferences. And even those are pretty drama free since both of my kids are A students and very well behaved (Daddy Phill accepts nothing less, believe dat). But still, raising children and maintaining a household is serious work- both time consuming and tiring. Joyful and rewarding work, no doubt, but work nonetheless. And although I'd like to tell you I have the stamina of gorillas injected with the strength of eighty midgets, the truth is that ol' boy gets worn out on a daily basis and honestly has no desire to stay up until three in the morning trying to put together halfway decent THAT REAL SCHITT posts on the regular. So this is what it is- I'm not gonna shut down the blog or anything, but I'm just gonna post something whenever I can. It's probably gonna continue to be infrequent, but check back here every now and then and see if there's any new content. Or I guess you can subscribe to one of those RSS feeds or something? I don't even know how that schitt works. But whatever... I'll be back from time to time, so keep checking in.
This has actually been a pretty great week for me- Wednesday night the Phillies won the world championship, which was the first here in Philly in 25 years. Went to the parade yesterday- looked like everybody in the whole damn CITY was downtown representing! Took my youngin's down to be a part of history, and even though we had to break out early due to my little girl being slightly horrified by the drunken celebrating and public urinating that was going on all around us, it was a GREAT thing to see my city revelling after so many years of being denied that ultimate prize. Like Chase Utley said at the celebration : "World champions. World F*CKIN' champions!" It was a pretty perfect day.
This past Tuesday I went to a rally at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania for the man who will be the next president of the United States, my homeboy Barack Obama. I'd like to say that this was also a perfect day, but for most of it it was HORRIBLE. I left my house at about 6:30 am and it was raining, but I was expecting it to be a light rain that would end later in the morning and the temperature would be mild (I have tvs all over my house that I could've watched the weather report on, plus radios, internet access and even the weather widget on my iphone- yet for some reason I had no real information on what the weather would be, just my own uneducated guesswork). I bounce out the house rockin' the 'Lo leather and had a little $5 umbrella in the whip in case I needed it. BAD MOVE. I get out to the rally and the line to get into the event is long as F*CK. The morning chill turned into a bitter coldness. The light rain turned into a cotdamn downpour. And the wind is whipping right the f*ck THROUGH us. But I'm here now, so I'm gonna try to tough it out. Another bad move- I shoulda got the f*ck back into my ride and took my azz the hell back to Philly as soon as I saw how that line went around the block and down a few more blocks. The next hint that this was not someplace I wanted to be at was when I learned while standing in line that this was going to be an outdoor rally- I was under the impression it this was gonna be held indoors (the main reason why I dressed rather lightly). And that they were not going to allow umbrellas at the event. WTF??? x 1,000. By this time I'd been in line for about 90 minutes and was soaked, even with the $5 umbrella. The cold azz wind had me frozen to the bone. Man, this was some bad schitt! I'm telling you, as a dude who grew up through some arctic-like winters in Connecticut with no heat in the house, this was possibly the worst weather-related experience I ever had to endure. But there was no turning back at this point- I'm already all f*cked up, so I might as well stay to see Barack so at least I won't have gone through this bullschitt for nothing. My final indignation: seeking shelter in a cotdamn porta potty for the last 45 minutes before Obama hit the stage (and I tell you, thank God for that piss-closet, because I don't think I would've made it standing out in that freezing torrential rain for another 45 minutes). But believe me when I say this- once Barack Obama hit the stage (and early, thankfully) it made my whole ordeal worthwhile. Seriously. Not that he said anything new, but as a black man who's grandmother used to tell him about her grandfather who was born in slavery (so we're really not talking about very many generations ago), what's going to happen this coming Tuesday is huge beyond anything I ever could've imagined. So I can't even tell you how important it was for me to see this man in person. And look, Barack is no messiah... who knows how things are gonna go for the next four years. He's not Martin or Malcolm either- he's still a politician and he plays some of the same games that every politician has to play. But I do believe that he's a good man who is gonna do everything in his power to get this f*cked up situation that America is in right again. It's not even close that he's America's best hope. And I think that's the word right there for me- HOPE. That's something that most black people in this country have never had, and there's no way that you can improve your life, your family, your community, your condition if you don't have that four letter word. On Tuesday America is gonna elect a black President Of The United States- how can you NOT have hope once that happens? Everybody get out there and vote and let's ensure that it goes down. So I f*cked up my 'Lo leather... what the hell, it was time to upgrade anyway. It was worth it.
MUSIC TO VOTE TO: CJ - Young Politics (excuse the lo-fi MySpace mp3s... if anybody has this in higher quality please holla at a pimp. And if you have the shelved CJ album PRETTY please holla at a pimp... I really need that.)
I figure that my annual Hip Hop Lessons have taught the masses enough about the true meaning of Hip Hop that I really don't have to go all out with the old school park jam tapes this year (plus whoever flooded the internets with all those Cold Crush / Bambaataa / Crash Crew / Furious 5 etc. mp3s over at the Wu-Tang Corp. and other sites gave y'all enough lessons to last a lifetime or even longer). But I will still celebrate the spirit of my original Thankstakings Day posts and drop another old school gem on y'all while I wait for the wife to finish cooking the turducken or whatever it is she's cooking that has the whole house smellin' good and schitt and got a brutha hongry as a muhfuhr.
Posts
