This past weekend I was further unpacking some boxes of records. I moved this past summer and there were some records that were still in boxes because I didn't have a shelf for them. So I got the additional shelf and began unpacking what I thought was going to be classical, Christmas and Hawaiian records. To my surprise there was a handful of other types of records. 12" dance singles, jazz and blues records, R&B and funk. Some were ones I remembered buying and some I think were given to me. There was about 20-30 records in there that look like they may be great future records for the blog. I still have a lot of work to do to get them on here, so don't get too excited yet. I still have to actually listen to a bunch of them.
Who can ever forget how big a deal this was not only for hip hop, but for Aerosmith. I do. I loved the video and I loved the idea of mixing classic rock with hip hop. Rick Ruben really was onto something there. So put on your favorite Adidas and strap some scarves to you microphone stand and sing along. 
I'm sticking with the old school rap theme. Long before baby had back, Mix-A-Lot was rappin' up a storm with hits like this. Suburban white boys like me were listening to it while on our skateboards thinking we were so cool because we listened to what was then underground rap. We were too cool for The Fat Boys. Still am. Sorry, Fat Boys. Anyways, Mix-A-Lot was great. Late 80's rap was great. Skateboarding in the 80's was great. Man my childhood was great.
I'm sure this 12" is floating all around the blogosphere and the internet, but I've had this sitting in the wings forever and figured I should just put it out there. This was a DJ's copy and is well played. There are some mixes on this one. The club mix, while very 80's is also very fun. So sit back and kick back with some old school hip hop DMC style. For you DJ's out there, "Uptempo" and "Tricky Reprise" might be intersting tracks to mash up or mix with some other things. I think I'm going to try and work one of them into one of my mixes one day.
What? 1989? Can it be that this track is actually over 20 years old? Man time flies. And the technological subject matter of the song has basically come and gone. It is kind of funny, but before drug runners started using pagers or "beepers", pretty much just doctor's used them. Now twenty years later no one uses them, but doctors. I make that assumption soley based on "Grey's Anatomy" which depicts doctors using pagers. I guess even the doctors can't use cell phones in the hospitals, like everyone else. If anyone knows the reason for this, I'd love to know for sure. Well, whatever the case may be the beeper has come full circle and so this song goes out to all the doctors in the world still using a beeper.
If memory serves me correct, this song may be the most responsible for bringing the term "fly" into the mainstream. You may argue the Beastie Boys did it, but this was from the year before, so I'm giving The Boogie Boys credit. Sure it was around before, but this song really hit the main steam and then network television writers started putting it in dialog to sound hip and street. It's funny how the moment street slang hits the ears of TV writers they popularize it and therefore make it unstreet. I think I purposely avoided the term after this song for that very reason. Now however who cares. I say use "fly" as much as possible. In fact I'd say this song is fly. And if you can't handle the very 80's rap, then just listen to the dub.
Here are a couple of naughty tracks for your New Years Eve party. Definitely not to be played for the wee kids.
Admittedly I'm not much of a sports guy. I played soccer as a kid, but skateboarding was my real religion. I'm old and out of shape now, so I don't get on a ramp or session a street spot much anymore, but it is still my sport of choice. I however do appreciate other sports even if I don't really follow them. I don't watch basketball regularly, but when I'm at my parents house I will watch a game with them. Basketball is going non stop in their house all fall and winter. So for all you basketball fans here are a couple songs about Basketball.
Here's one I'm sure just about no one will know. Why you ask? Because this record was barely released. My brother actually raps on this record. He was involved with a bunch of different musical ventures back in the 90's. I don't think he was the driving force behind this production.
Here are 5 fun mixes of Shinehead's 1988 release "Gimme No Crack". When I first heard this record all I could think of was that is was borrowing heavily from Boogie Down Productions. Also of course Public Enemy comes to mind with the first couple lines which are basically right from "Bring The Noise".
Yeah that's right, Run DMC. I know there were earlier rappers and many of them get the titles of godfathers or rap or some other nonsense, but let's face it, it was these guys who really deserve the title. These guys wrote raps that were so good. So memorable. And they did that crossover thing that really no other act could do. I'm not talking "Walk This Way", though that certainly cemented their crossover appeal, just about everything they did worked as a pop song. They didn't just ramble on with 8 minute dance rap records. They were writing pop rap tunes, which no one was really doing. These guys set the blueprint for everybody that followed. I'm sure that could be a controversial statement and someone is going to strongly disagree with me, but that is fine. All I know is that I had been listening to rap since the early 80's. Grandmaster Flash and the ilk, but it wasn't until Run DMC where I was remembering the raps and I don't mean I remembered them after sitting down and memorizing them. They just wrote memorable lyrics/raps that just got into your head. True talents. True artist. True pioneers.
Here's a little old school for ya. This has an Eric B & Rakim flavor to it. Give it a listen and you'll hopefully hear what I'm talking about. This one will get your toe tapping and maybe even your booty shakin'.
Ahhhhh the soothing sounds of old school electro funk hip hop. It's like an old friend.
Long before Mix-A-Lot sang rapped about big butts he was putting out the jams in an old school fashion. His success in the mainstream I remember at the time being somewhat surrealistic, because I had been listening to and following him long before "Baby's Got Back" invaded the public consciousness in the spring of 1992.
This is one of those songs that for a long time I couldn't listen to. In 1986 this song was so overplayed. It was used for a Coke commercial which really pushed out of the realm of cool into the world of cheese ball in my teenage world. I still can't think of this song without thinking of that Coke add. I tried to find it on youtube for this post, but ater some preliminary searches I couldn't find it. I didn't feel like digging too much deeper into it. Anyways, this record was obviously a DJ's copy. The jacket actually have to identical copies of the record. They both are well played and it looks like they were even used or some scratching. So the quality isn't great, but you can find this song on Itunes probably or any number of places. It's not exactly obscure.
Here's a nice single from Rap Godfather Kurtis Blow. I don't know if this was ever released on an album. I can't find it in Allmusic.com. It does appear on "The Best Of Kurtis Blow"
