Dog Day Beats: Attica! Attica! Attica!

3ree (A Means To Be) (Showbiz Remix) - Attica Blues
Tender (Organized Konfusion Mix) - Attica Blues
both from promo 12" on Mo' Wax (1997).

Since listening (and posting) some of Nicole Willis's old Mo' Wax output, I've been on a real kick for those old downtempo beats of a decade ago. Holy Moses has it really been that long? Regardless, in the late 90s there was a huge lull in Stateside hip hop that for me started in 1994 after Illmatic and Resurrection came out (roughly) and ended with the birth of the second Golden Age* corresponding to roughly the release of the Black Star album and Quality Control. Of course, hip hop wasn't dead in that period and in fact it was flourishing under the silly name of trip hop in the UK.

Attica Blues is one of my favorite groups from that time because of the luscious beats put together by D'Afro (ne Charlie Dark) and Tony Nwachukwu. Just listen to the tracks up today and I don't see how they can really characterized as anything other than hip hop, even with the haunting vocals of Roba El-Essawy. The Showbiz (yep, G, that Showbiz) remix of "3ree" uses the horn sample of the original with excellent crunchy drums to make sweet track that emphasizes the deep owed to sample-based hip hop. The Showbiz remix also showed up on the official single for this release, but as far as I know promo is the only place the Organized Konfusion mix of Tender can be found. We get a mellow downtempo beats gets characteristically interesting (and enjoyable) verses from Price Po and Pharoah Monch before turning the vocal duties back over to El-Essawy.

I love this kind of stuff and while it isn't the vogue of the UK scene it once was, plenty of quality stuff is still coming out (hint for the next post). Hmmm, kind of similar to the under the radar quality hip hop that slipped out from 1994-1998 and in the last few years.

*This Second Golden Age theory is one of my favorites as I feel like there was a great stretch from 1998-2004 that mirrored the commercial and artistic success of 1988-1994 consensus first Golden Age of hip hop.