Looking At My Gucci It’s Cowbell Time

Schoolly D: Housing The Joint and Saturday Night
From: Saturday Night! The Album (Schoolly D Records, 1986 & Jive, 1987)

You know, it’s a mystery to me why Schoolly D is not more celebrated than he is. Sure, if you ask people about the founding fathers of modern hip hop Schoolly’s name will often pop up on the list but want I want to know is why people don’t actually play his records anymore? Unlike some other legendary influential figures, Schoolly’s eighties records more than stand up to the test of time, their period flavour adding to the appeal not to mention that most of them contain absolutely killer beats.

Saturday Night! The Album has always been one of my favourite Schoolly productions. Despite causing controversy on it’s release for it’s tales of inner city life, the album focuses more on the inane and surreal than the political. This record also symbolizes the forward thinking of the man, originally being released in 1986 on his own record label, the imaginatively titled Schoolly D records, before being rereleased in 1987 with extra tracks on Jive Records.

Schoolly kicks off the album with Housing The Joint and what a way to start an album. Introducing the proceedings with a pounding apache beat, Schoolly combines this with some raw as hell cut up scratching of Sly & The Family Stone’s Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin) from DJ Cold Money and little more than a tease of a funky guitar riff. Schoolly’s mcing on this track is almost of no importance as the hypnotic beats and scratching quickly take over.

The title track itself, Saturday Night, is rightly regarded as one of Schoolly’s best. If you’ve ever expressed remorse at the lack of cowbell in rap these days then look no further than this record my friend because this is the ultimate in cowbell tracks. Utilizing the oft sampled Synthetic Substitution break, Schoolly comes hard on this tracks production, cowbells clanging and snares and kickdrums thumping hard. This time round Schoolly graces the track with a full rap, narrating his tales of weekend adventures and coming of like some kind of proto Slick Rick.

I know many people have dissed Schoolly for his rapping skills but when he combine s it with production of the caliber of this album then it really is high time people started putting him back on their playlists.