Hot Chillin’ just announced a DVD release of in studio footage from Pete Rock & Marley Marl’s celebrated WBLS show In Control.
In other old school New York radio news, Will C has been killing it with Mr. Magic week.
Marley sits down with James Brown skinsman (||) Stubblefield to discuss “Funky Drummer”. This is hip hop and my last post of the night. Via Okayplayer.
Too Nice – “On a Mission“
from On a Mission 12″ (Singh, 1987)
I wrote about Too Nice once before, many moons ago. This is their second joint, before they signed to Arista and got overshadowed by a 45 King remix they were getting outshined on the indie tip by Marley Marl.
MC Nice Gee gets shamelessly Rakimish (right down to the “writin’ [my name in grafitti] on the wall“) and cleans up the hood while Marley desecrates the Jimmy Spicer Dollar Bill Blips. Edwin Birdsong’s name is on the label resulting in some sort of an intergenerational torch pass (although that would probably falsely imply that Birdsong was even a fraction of the icon Marley would become). It’s not a particularly important record but it’s one of a decent sized handful of infrequently mentioned extra-Juice Marley productions.
Before and as the Juice Crew was fully formed Marley was bouncing around as house producer for labels like Express and Nia (which distributed Birdsong’s Singh imprint). Not to mention his WBLS days. (I just found that on google. Why didn’t anyone tell me A To The L has been absolutely killing it with the old school tape rips over at altrap?) But unless you’re the type of person who has rap nerd glasses or ebay saved searches you could easily mistake his legacy for one that begins and ends with Cold Chillin’.
Anyway, it’d be nice if there was somewhere people could go to find comprehensive discographies for The Marleys, Ced Gees, Mantronixes, Paul Cs, etc. Prodby is an incredible resource, but it’s limited in it’s album oriented scope. Most first decade hip hop is single only and many of these dudes work is getting lost in the shuffle. Lets get this shit a proper CD compilation while we’re at it. I already have three different issues of In Control Vol. 1. But afaik “Games of Life” has never been on CD. Well it’s probably on some illegal overseas mixtape, but I mean, these records are 20+ years old, where are the comprehensive and legit retrospectives already? Until then my horrible rips will have to suffice.
KRS One f/ Poet – “Victory”
from Hip Hop Lives (to be released, 2007)
An unexpected collabo considering Poet basically dedicated the first half of his career to dissing Kris. It’s like a “Black Republicans” for old grown heads. Except Poet never made an Illmatic (though on the other hand he never made an “Oochie Wally” either.) KRS does the talking loud and saying nothing shit that has bogged the later part of his career but he does it really well. He seems to be reigning in the crazy to mere self importance for this album. Poet kinda kills it in the same way he’s been kinda killing it for twenty years. Marley’s (Ghost Producer’s) beat is fire. The “Where are They Now?” remixes proved that most of the old guard rappers just need some solid production to sound great. Hip Hop Lives might end up being a better album than Hip Hop is Dead.
This is a Future Flavas rip and cuts off during KRS’ last verse but you get the basic idea.
