Old Rap Music
4-Ever Fresh – “Urban Sound Surgeon“
from I Got A Good Thang 12″ (Tommy Boy, 1988)
In case you were wondering the origins of the below jpeg that turns up when you type “New Rap Music” into google, here is 4-Ever Fresh’s “Urban Sound Surgeon.” Later popularized on a Dr. Octagon record, the vocal clip is often misattributed to Chuck D. It’s not. It’s Philadelphia’s 4-Ever Fresh, who basically dropped a one off Tommy Boy joint then disappeared completely.
Frustratingly I can’t find the quote now, but I think it was in Brian Coleman’s tome Check The Technique that some Tommy Boy signee talks about how the label required a certain amount of 12″ sales before an artist was deemed worthy of an LP. So acts like Digital and De La were eventually commissioned for full lengths while less successful artists – 4-Ever Fresh, Uptown, Too Poetic – languished in obscurity. Talk about some real rap What Ifs. Just a few barcode scans could’ve totally altered the DNA of this hip hop shit and we would have been talking about some nameless 4-Ever Fresh album in the same breath as 3 Ft. High & Rising.
Or not.
March 15th, 2009 at 7:45 am
interesting. another connection made. i knew, i knew the lyrics from somewhere. thanks, man!
check it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyEvQqBDwFA&feature=related
March 15th, 2009 at 7:58 am
A member of Digital Underground mentions it in Colemans book.
March 15th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Yeah, man, I remember that from the 90s, how Tommy Boy would float a single and then rush the artist to get an album made if it stuck – I think this is how House of Pain’s first album came to be, as well as Apache, and we know how the ‘We Love You Raheem’ and ‘Doo Doo Man’ singles wound up.
Interesting. I wasn’t sure about the sample, but now seeing that it’s a Tommy Boy promo 12″, it makes me even more curious about the Automator/Shadow/Paris/Tommy Boy connections.
March 16th, 2009 at 7:14 am
i allways tripped off “what if”comics….cuz if u think about it…all comics are “what if”///liek “what if this was real”….
but yea i allways thought it was chuck d tooooo…also holy calamity scream insanity…heard that onna few records
March 16th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Thanks for sharing. Uptown’s “Dope On Plastic” might be in my top three songs Tommy Boy ever released. Not a week goes by that I don’t “what if” that one, though… preferably if Tommy Boy might’ve done that instead of ohhh… Information Society (not De La).
Few label slides (Rap-A-Lot, Death Row, Wild Pitch) sadden me as much as watching Tommy Boy go from Bam and Steinski to De La and Naughty to Coolio and then losing Royce, followed by Gucci Mane.
Last I heard, they signed a kid group and are distributing Khia-O or something.
BUT… in TB’s endless series of re-releases, I did hear that Afrika Bambaataa was going to write liners/do a mix of De La Soul Is Dead whenever that may be.
March 16th, 2009 at 11:59 am
paine: how did rap alot records slide??? if u ask me their the most consistent hiphop label ever
March 16th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
“BUT… in TB’s endless series of re-releases, I did hear that Afrika Bambaataa was going to write liners/do a mix of De La Soul Is Dead whenever that may be.”
All Hip House/Global Beat!
March 16th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
well hip house>>>rnb …
March 16th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
David,
My opinion is… Rap-A-Lot has the catalogues to die for. But since the days of “going Gold in Texas” went out with ‘05, Devin left, Scarface (if he does this group album, will be on Def Jam with J Prince getting points, a la Fix), Z-Ro left…
I’ll buy Wacko’s release when it drops, but I think that the machine is part of the consistency. Aside from recycled Scarface records/The efforts with Yukmouth/Outlawz in ’90s, you’re right… RAL doesn’t make bad records. But the machine matters, and like Death Row post ‘97-’98 tax write offs/catalogue firesale… RAL seems more about baller blockin’ its ex artists than anything.
I could be wrong, but that’s how I see it. I will say that if RAL put out its whole catalogue again, a la Wild Pitch, I’d be probably more excited than any other album-label in rap.
March 31st, 2009 at 8:00 pm
yeah i like cats too.
April 28th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
4EVERFRESH IS THE BEST RAPPER TOMMYBOY EVER RELEASED. DJ FINESSE IS STILL SPINNIN AND WILL BE RELEASING A UNFORGETTABLE CD