Showing posts with label 1990. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1990. Show all posts

Sunday, 16 August 2009

I'm large, fry me.


As promised earlier, here's a few tunes for your Sunday PM, nothing too taxing....

Chuck Chillout & Kool Chip - I'm Large (1989, from the No DJ Like Chuck 12").

K9 Posse - Ain't Nothing To It (12" remix, 1989).

Caveman - Fry You Like Fish (Jazz remix, 1990 12").

Saturday, 1 August 2009

Tracy Lauren Marrow






Time for a couple of Ice-T tracks, remixed and reworked...

Heartbeat (featuring War), 1989 from the Lethal Weapon 12".

You Played Yourself (Aladdin and King Tee remix), 1990 12".

Drama (Simon Harris remix), 1989, from the High Rollers 12".

Say what you like about Ice-T, he managed to convince his wife to pose for the sleeve... And it beats looking at Tracy Lauren Marrow himself. The Beemer is nice though, but not in red thanks.

Also, as a bonus for the weekend, have a bit of Ice doing his thing in 1984 alongside Chris "The Glove" Taylor and Dave Storrs on "Tibetan Jam".

Monday, 13 July 2009

Back to the Hip Hop

As with the last post, minimum of waffle, plenty of wholesome vinyl hip hop goodness, enjoy...

Zhigge with "Toss It Up" and "Drop The Beat Salaam!" from the '92 Toss It Up 12".

Sid & B-Tonn - "Deathwish I" and "Deathwish II" from the 1990 Deathwish 12".

The Brotherhood - "Alphabetical Response" (12", 1995)

Scientists Of Sound - "Raise The Flag" from the 1992 Scientists Of Sound E.P.

L.R.S - "London Rhyme Syndicate" and "Armed And Extremely Dangerous" (12" 1988)

Monday, 29 June 2009

With Bad Intention

1990 saw W.B.I Red Ninja release their 2nd 12", the War Bytes E.P.

Buying it at the time I was a touch disappointed, the production seemed overly dense and muddy and I didn't really feel the direction it was going in. Happily, going back to it now, 19 years later I'd say it's improved with age...

The rap on "X The Unknown" doesn't sound too great but the production is interestingly ahead of it's time and more electronic in feel than the other tracks.

"Bad Horsemen" benefits greatly from being an instrumental with some booming dub bass, nice horns and a killer piano break.

"Return To The Scene Of The Crime" chugs along nicely with oodles of dub and a few well chosen familiar loops. Again though, the vocal hasn't kept up with the production in the aging stakes, bonus point for spotting the Hijack sample.

Lastly, we have "Bad Testament". As with the other tracks here, it sports a confident amount of movie dialogue samples but Bugsy Malone?? A curious drum pattern contributes to the growing doubt but all is not lost... a generous portion of the Ohio Player's "Funky Worm" underpins the whole shebang and just about saves the day (everyone loves that funky, funky worm).

Tuesday, 23 June 2009

Emergency

Saving the best to last with this one. Taken from Kid Sensation's 1990 album "Rolling With Number One", "Emergency" is indeed the best and the last track on the L.P...

Bearing an uncanny similarity to Eric B & Rakim's "Lyrics Of Fury" in places (seems to be pretty much identical in terms of the way Funky Drummer has been compressed), the track seems totally different from the rest of the album in that it's pretty good.

By all means go and grab a copy of the album and then please feel free to argue with me regarding how the style was cool for the time and fitting for where Kid Sensation came from. In my opinion, "Emergency" is where it's at and the rest of the album is 33 & a 1/3 kinds of meh.

Monday, 22 June 2009

Upon the version

With the early nineties seeing an explosion of reggae themed "ragga-hip hop" and the seemingly somewhat liberal attitude of Jamaican copyright it was unsurprising to find white labels appearing with chatting over hip hop instrumentals. As with traditional dancehall, the instrumental (version) of the day was hastily re-recorded with new vocals and released asap while the track could still guarantee a busy dancefloor.

As a prime example of this, have a listen to Major Popular let loose over an instrumental even your grandmother will have heard a billion times... "Don't Stop".

While we are at it, let's also have a bit of "Supa" by Kenny Dope Presents The Mad Racket. Slighty different this, take a well known vocal (Don Dada) and remake it as a hip-hop crowd pleaser. While listening, why not award yourself a biscuit for every hip-hop track you can identify that's been plundered? Possibly because you are watching your weight?

Finally, completing this trio with a hip-hop remix of a big dancehall tune, have a gander at the Main Attraction remix of Cutty Ranks' "The Stopper"... Continuing the theme of well known instumentals and breaks, you may well recognise more than a touch of "Ashley's Roachclip" here....

Monday, 1 June 2009

We Don't Play

A lovely slice of classic but lesser heard US hip hop now, 1990's "We Don't Play" from Freshco & Miz coupled with it's A side partner "Ain't U Freshco?". Both dudes were highly acclaimed at the time, I'll not go on, they can explain all about it for their selves....

Monday, 18 May 2009

Laylow

Some of the best eighties and nineties UK hip hop came from London's Ladbroke Grove area. Here's a couple of slightly lesser known examples for your leisurely perusal...

Firstly, N.S.O Force Organisation with "Give It Up", released on 12" in 1989 and produced by J Saul Kane (better known as Depth Charge amongst other names...).

Secondly, The Mighty Ethnicz with 1990's "Murder", going some way to proving that any hip hop track that samples The Meter's "Just Kissed My Baby" is going to sound good enough or thereabouts without much more effort.

Thursday, 14 May 2009

Alphabet Soup vs Son of Bazerk

Over the spit and back to the USA now for two old favourites with a nice warm feel....

1991 for Alphabet Soup - "Sunny Day In Harlem".

1990 for Son Of Bazerk - "Change The Style".

I'm not even going to bother explaining further, both tunes are absolute gems (in my mind anyway, your mileage may well vary)....

Thursday, 30 April 2009

Check the technique, see if you can follow it...

Rae and Christian lovingly re-roll Nightmares On Wax's "What I'm Feelin'" from 1996, served on a bed of funk and garnished with a hint of turntable.

Then, it's back to 1990 and one time fastest rapper in the world MC JC-001 does his thing all over Al Green, leaving us with the lesser heard curiosity "Alone" by PartE Unknown (which I'm assuming was just JC001 and D-Zire being bored with their names).

Splendid.

Tuesday, 14 April 2009

Karate!

Between the release of their two albums, 1989's Recognition and 1992's Original Guidance, the Demon Boyz released "International Karate" in 1990.

This is ripped from a promo 12" and is vastly different from "Outernational Karate" the re-working that appears on their second album.

Enjoy...

Monday, 13 April 2009

A minute to midnight

11:59 - Killing Time, From the 1990 "Killing Time" E.P