EEEEEEEE

(photo credit: Jamel Shabazz...check out "a time before crack" and "back in the days" on Powerhouse press)
so, i'm walking through brooklyn and i spot a YOUNG cat wit a gumby. this cat happened to be walking wit a next brother with a flat top and dark fade. i must be dreaming. but I AM NOT. the 80s is back in full swing...just ax j*davey...uh huh uh huh.

ANYWAYS

i decided to go and tag some quintessesntial 80s joints...at least how i remember on radio. The Force MD's are frequently overlooked in my opinion. they mixed street corner doo wop with 80s R&B/hip hop. "Let Me Love You" was a smash on NY radio in 1984 (i just found out it wasnt a national hit) and they followed with TEARS, TENDER LOVE, LOVE IS A HOUSE. These brothers were bad...Tragedy struck the group twice as TCD and Mercury both passed away in the mid-late 90s. dope group.

4 by Four is another NY group (at least 2 of em was from the BX). They were one of the many new Edition knockoffs to come along during the 80s. This 1 song though (written and produced by READY FOR THE WORLD's Melvin Riley) burned into the consciousness of horny teenagers everywhere. I rarely see this.

MC EZ (aka Craig Mack) & TROUP blew my mind when i heard red alert playing this 1. i remember waiting for him to play it again for like 4 weeks. it'd be ill if i coulda burnt the MP3 straight from cassette live from radio...but dem tapes BEEN GONE. This song also certifies Craig Mack a special place in hip hop history...not many cats (see Puba post) made quality joints in 3 different decades.

Nice and Smooth ripped "We Are #1". Ok...its not a quintessential NY song but it is a quintessential H lloyd song. The rhymes, the crispy drums, the harmonies and word samples!!!

No need to say much about "i Got It Made". this is the businesslike mix though. i remember they use to play this one on KISS all the time and i'd be like "why they playing this 1???"

Force MD's: Let Me Love You (http://www.zshare.net/audio/3344754b19072e/)

4 by Four: Come Over(http://www.zshare.net/audio/3344653df93611/)

Special Ed: I Got It Made (http://www.zshare.net/audio/33448032fec49a/)

MC EZ & TROUP: Get Retarded (http://www.zshare.net/audio/3345003c74e9ea/)

Nice & Smooth: We are #1 (http://www.zshare.net/audio/3345173404bfe3/)

Who Stole My Last Piece of Veggie Chicken?

i'm a crazy artist because i'm overly cerebral; not to mention a moody ass virgo. lately with my new record i'm going through the morning sickness phase. i wake up sick...usually between 1-2am about 4 times a week. i usually get my best work done then. for some reason the quiet allows me to get "myself" out the way and just allow the music to happen. unfortunately...my moodiness normally wrecks havoc on those closest to me but that is for discussion on some next, other, parallel blogosphere.

mood swings are usually induced by writers and/or beat block. see...i can see the vision super clear, 40/20 clarity. its just easier saw than done. i'm not an artist that can just sit down and on command create. i mean i can but i just prefer to not work that way. sometimes the mpc magnetizes me. sometimes lines just come to me. i understand full well that this stuff is channeled. sometimes i got reception and sometimes i dont. i alternate periods of feast and famine. lately though it seems as if i'm being pulled in two different directions. i started the project with the intent of taking the subtle rock aspects of the quickie and embellish them, flesh them out further. and the music me and dude spectacular have thus far laid down is stellar in my own opinion. concurrently...i've made a couple of sparse. big drums, deep bass, glistening but subtle highs, low end theory 2008 type tracks. now i dont know how or if these would tracks could or would work together back to back... we'll have to see as the arrangements are further developed.

in other developments The Quickie EP will shortly be available in LIMITED EDITION WHITE VINYL (ooh)...i'm psyched about that. the record will also have a bonus cut plus 3 instrumentals. wretched of the earth is also fixin to license the digital rights for this LE quickie release to a very reputable label. The vinyl will be limited to 1000 copies. Y'all besta snatch these up. My first release (h.o.r. entertainment "Why It Gotta Be Me?" is fetching $100 all over da innanet!!!

Cop ya own copy if you is a baller.

http://woerecords.gemm.com

Wretched of the Earth is now a limited edition vinyl only label. no more Cds. Look for 3 sided vinyl, picture discs....OK OK...enough of the advertising. soon come. all ima say is cats is colonizing the art and i'm resisting like queen NZINGA.

nobody stole my veggie chicken. i did leave my (veggie) schrimp pad thai from VP's 2 (NYC y'all know whattup) out and had to throw it out this morning..."i left out my pad thai and had to throw it out" sucks as a tagline though.

paz

DEMON FUZZ!!!!!!! and other treats

Ok...H. Lloyd is seriously on some black rock funk type steez right now (wait til yall hear the new record). i digress. demon fuzz is no secret to beat diggers. it was 1 of those holy grails (the original still is) before the reissue gods came forth and release it in every available format known to man. anyways my newest, latest, and most favoritest song happens to sample this (quite cleverly i may add). i wont give you the name of the artist/song/album but i'll bless you with some hints...artist name rhymes with rashid (rasheed)..album is called the opposite of peace and the tune features 1 sexy siren with a truly unique name....ahem.

Demon Fuzz: Past, Present, & Future (http://www.zshare.net/audio/3308075ac7ecdf/)

Speaking of Black rock, funk and soul...who embodied this paradigm as the rotary connection did?? i dont know...but a recent #1 album samples this about 2:58 in... Richard Evans is the king of arrangement (or at least a Prince)...shucks.

Rotary Connection: Love Has Fallen on me (http://www.zshare.net/audio/330816847c82ac/)

Tony Williams Lifetime is another of the fusion groups that i have been really into. Emergency may be my favorite (could be wrong...i know the artwork of the album..too lazy to get up) but there comes a time is one of my favorite tunes FO SHO! The lyrics are worth the wait (bout 3 minutes in...i'm thinking about lifting them "there comes a time when you want to be older, there comes a time when you want to be bolder...I love you more when it's over...i love you more when it's over...CLASSIC!). Until the vox kick in...tony, larry young, ron carter and guitarist Ted Dunbar keep it FUNKy!.

Tony Williams Lifetime: There Comes A Time (http://www.zshare.net/audio/3308309d68b066/)

Howard Lloyd exposes Himself

aiight ok...so i been exposing other cats sample fodder and lest i be accused of being biased, today i will expose myself! i will forewarn you...i come from the "whatever is PHAT" school of thought in relation to hip hop production i.e. if it takes a jack, i will jack; if it takes a flip, i will flip. regardless of the methodology, for breaks and music i tend to gravitate towards the rare and obscure. my word samples are obvious because im using them for (1) sound and (2) nostalgia. i want people to know where they are from for the most part.

first up is BLOODSTONE. i actually recorded We Did It the summer of 2005. it was kind of a joke. i like to poke fun and have fun with the music. so i thought, "lemme do a chipmunk soul type of song" and "i'll put produced by KAYNE WEST" to generate some buzz. i wrote the record rather quickly (its prolly my simplest rhyme ever) and recorded it. i let Louis Logic hear it and he was like "this is great". at that point the "quickie ep" was born. i had resigned myself to producing but Louis telling me how much he liked We Did it coupled with COUNT BASS D praising "throwbacks" (linked below) initiated my re-entry to the vocal booth. THANKS GUYS.

Ironically...people always like the joke songs much more than they like my "serious" 1s but how do you think it felt when people gravitated to my intro w/ an 8 bar(!) verse (shake my head). it surprised me cuz i thought it was one of those abstract beats that would go over heads...but it seems i have many intelligent fans! The drums on that 1 come from Lincoln Mayorga, the piano from this weird WEIRD Michael Mantler record. The MM tune (part 1) is excerpted for two reasons. (1) the song is 8 minutes long and is an exercise in ...uh...the eccentric (2) i wanted the part i took to stand out...so the excerpt begins there.

anyone who knows me...knows i have this humongous polish break fetish...i mean..i got em ALL and 1 in particular shows up front and center on the quickie EP. Zalatnay Sarolta "HADD MONDJAM EL" i cut for not 1 but two breaks. aint saying which 1s though. they have recently re-released this sarolta album (i hate when that happens). i would argue NO1 used those breaks before me though!!!!!

**i know cats WILL sample from MP3s and i aint giving it away like that...so if you notice that these mp3s are a lower bitrate its because YOU GOTTA GO FIND THESE COT DAYUM records yourself. Bad enough i gave you the names. If 80kbps works for you...sample til your hearts content.

Bloodstone - We Did It (http://www.zshare.net/audio/3124158fae043c/)

Lincoln Mayorga - Peace Train (http://www.zshare.net/audio/3124191dc4e8bf/)

Michael Mantler - Part 1 (http://www.zshare.net/audio/3124207fe37956/)

Zalatnay Sarolta - Hadd Mondjam El (http://www.zshare.net/audio/312422549367d8/)

Howard Lloyd - Throwbacks (http://www.zshare.net/audio/3124247c4e551e/)