Executing Masterplans Y to Z

YZ: Taggin' It Up and Thinking Of A Master Plan
From: Sons Of The Father [Tuff City, 1990]

Blogging about less than prolific rappers is one of the most thankless tasks I come across when writing for Ear Fuzz. Even the most obscure funk and soul groups tend to have a page dedicated to them somewhere and some useless but mildly interesting facts. Alas, this is not the case with rappers. YZ has definitely released at least two albums and even has a best of compilation but facts about this rapper are vague to the point of nothing though at least I know that he has a MySpace page and that his nephew posts on Amazon. It appears that, despite the quality of his debut release and subsequent recordings, the internet refused to go nuts over him.

So, lets skip straight to the music again with YZ's debut album Sons Of The Father, a sweet piece of new school hip hop which, surprise surprise, is now out of circulation. Taggin' It Up showcases how well YZ's verses work with Tony D's sparse production. Listening to this album again made me realise how much I missed rap songs which concentrated on quality verses rather than on a catchy chorus.

Thinking Of A Master Plan flips the old Commodores master plan sample with a funky break courtesy of Average White Band. Simple and effective, it's only on the second or third listen that I noticed quite how good an MC YZ is, his political message successfully blended into the more routine lyrics to create a constant flow of information. Who knows, maybe he'll pop up again in a year or so.......

One Talented Duck

Monkey Man - Baby Huey & The Babysitters
from 7" on Satellite (1965).

Mighty Mighty Children, Pt. 1 - Baby Huey & The Babysitters
from 7" on Curtom (196?).

Baby Huey & The Babysitters produced one of my alltime favorite albums (The Baby Huey Story). And sadly it was their only one together, as lead singer/sometime composer James "Baby Huey" Ramey died before it was even released of health complications brought on by his drug use and weight problem. An excellent reissue of that album is available on both CD and vinyl now.

Prior to the relatively legitimate success that recording and releasing their LP (produced by Curtis Mayfield), the band was a live hit in Chicago in the mid-60s. Some of their early work can come across as overly showy and silly (check the group photo above with Baby Huey holding stuffed animals and wearing a toddlers suit), but even their earliest tracks showed off their tight-knit sound, excellent use of brass, and Baby Huey's powerful and infectious vocals. "Monkey Man" is a great example of this as it is hard to characterize it as anything but a novelty record with the grunting sounds and silly subject matter. However, the big beat, surf rock style is spot on. It doesn't even begin to show the brilliance they will achieve later.

"Might Might Children" was featured in a different form on appeared on the album, but this Pt. 1 version stands alone better as a song than the album version that was meant to showcase the infectious and crowd-involving euphoria that their live show could be.

After Ramey's death the band played with Chaka Khan for a while, and many of the members have since gone on to other musical projects. However, I'm pretty sure none of them are involved with this group.

Osibisa: Music Beyond Labels

Osibisa: Spirits Up Above and Rabiatu
From: Woyaya [MCA Records, 1971]

Apologies if today's post is a little abrupt, I'm currently experiencing the joys of a spring cold and am feeling less than sociable. However, before we go any further with this post you have to promise me something. Promise me you won't stop reading as soon as I refer to the following group as "World Music". Believe me, that term tends to send shivers down my neck and invite uncontrollable retching due to bad childhood experiences with my parents record collection. So, ignoring stereotypes, while Osibisa may be generally classed as World Music, this isn't some trendy fad music, oh no, this is proper soulful funk.

Composed of six highly talented musicians, the band formed in London at the end of the sixties but kept their Ghanaian and Caribbean roots tightly woven into the music they produced. Blending African rhythms with jazz, funk and rnb the guys were one of the first world music groups to gain international success and are still touring today. You can read more about them on their official website

Both songs are from their second release, Woyaya and showcase the versatility of the outfit. I absolutely adore Spirits Up Above, the way it takes a soulful intro with harmonies rising and falling over the trumpets and switches it up to an extremely funky jam session. Two songs for the price of one and both lovely.

Raibatu is a more African influenced piece, bass heavy percussion and flutes mixing with the piano and harmonies, slowly turning darker and more drum heavy as the song progresses, breaks for days.

World Music? Pah. It's all about good music my friends, fuck the labels.

Friends Since Grade School

Eddie Kendricks - "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye", "If You Let Me"
Paul Williams - "Feel Like Givin' Up"
From: One by One: The Best of Their Solo Years [March 19, 1996].

Approximately three years ago I purchased One by One: The Best of Their Solo Years on a limb. Priced at $9.99 (I think) for a double-disc of solo Temptations' songs should not be an "on a limb" purchase, but memories of Eddie Kendricks' "Keep On Trucking" scared my ears and I was tempted to lose faith in solo Temptation efforts. Long-story-short, while on Amazon I noticed this album is pricey and possibly a rarity (can double-disc CDs be rare?). I would never charge people between $46.99 and $99.00 for this CD, but I do want to get rid of it. I will trade One by One: The Best of Their Solo Years for something. I like sneakers, T-shirts, design, rap and vintage NBA. I am looking for a great biography on Jerry Wexler so that would be a dope trade, I'd even toss in something extra. Let's get our Internet trade on.

The Songs

The post-Temptations produced a catalog of notable singles that scaled Billboard charts for nearly a decade. Although Eddie Kendricks' success didn't yield several top ten singles like David Ruffin, his charisma tackled any doubt that his solo career was not relevant. Falsetto melodies like "Can I" and "Eddie's Love" possessed a signature warmth that Kendricks comanded over arrangments by the likes of Norman Harris.

Frank Wilson produced "It's So Hard For Me To Say Goodbye" and Tamala-Motown's David Van De Pitte arranged the song. He was known for arranging Marvin Gaye's scribbles that inspired What's Going On and several Motown singles that hooked Americans (notably white America) to catchy pop that was the anthem for a decade. The arrangement is perfect on "It's So Hard For Me To Say Goodbye," but the song did not do well on the charts (37 on the R&B chart 88 on the pop chart) and that underminds the beauty of what Van De Pitte did. The backup vocals, arrangement and Kendricks lead could be labeled as some early-Temptations single formula and perhaps that is why this single did not climb Billboard charts like "Keep On Truckin'." Female backups harmonize with Kendricks' falsetto vocals, but Van De Pitte's arrangement is the key element in this song. In under one minute Van De Pitte introduces a small orchestra and creates Motown magic.

In July 2005, Monkeyfunk put me on Paul Nice's cut up rendition of Kendricks' "If You Let Me" and around the same time I rediscovered that I owned (on compilation) this classic from People... Hold On. Wilson and Van De Pitte teamed up with Kendricks to make a single that could have charted higher (17 on the R&B chart and 66 on the pop chart) if released four years earlier in 1968 during a pre-psychedelic soul era. In 1972 Gilbert O' Sullivan and Roberta Flack stormed the charts for a combined 12 weeks at number one and it is no suprise that Motown had to adjust to a changing market. Norman Whitfield tried to mold a new Motown with acts like Rose Royce and The Undisputed Truth, but that fizzled and Whitfield left Motown in 1975 to head his own label, W Records (Whitfield Records). Kendricks' falsetto gift fell ill from constant smoking and in 1992 he died from lung cancer.

The suicide of Paul Williams reduced his legacy to newspaper headlines on August 17, 1973 when he shot himself near Hitsville USA (in 1972 Motown relocated to L.A.). Kendricks tried to save Williams' career by co-producing and co-writing "I Feel Like Givin' Up" and had Williams not commited suicide he may have had a hit. Although Motown's Gordy Records wanted to B-side the song with "Once You Had a Heart," Williams' suicide made executives shelf the single, because the lyrics matched emotions that were too coincidental to his suicide. The single was released on Motown Year By Year: The Sound of Young America, 1973 and later on One by One: The Best of Their Solo Years. This song is a powerful ballad that has the momentum of a Billboard Top Ten, because Williams comands Bill White's arrangement that is lead by Williams' raw emotion.

One by One: The Best of Their Solo Years is a nice find with a string of David Ruffin singles including "Common Man," a song that Jay-Z immortalized on The Blueprint's "Never Change." Another interesting single rap revived is "Don't Look Any Further" by Dennis Edwards and used for Tu Pac's anti-homage to Biggie Smalls, "Hit `Em Up" (and an obvious Eric B and Rakim's "Paid In Full"). Rumor is that Chaka Khan was supposed to sing with Edwards on "Don't Look Any Further" and Khan flaked leaving Edwards in a pinch (Siedah Garrett replaced Khan).

Blue Friday

Cherry Hill - Big Bill Broonzy
from All The Classic Sides 1928-1937 (JSP).
Broke Down Engine - Blind Willie McTell
from The Definitive Blind Willie McTell (Columbia).

Another post inspired by a good book, in this case Elijah Wald's Escaping The Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues. The book is a pretty wide ranging exploration of early blues, and utilizes the story of Robert Johnson as a focus point to consider early blues as a whole. The book is interesting to fans and novices of the blues and to anyone who is interested in American pop music history. Today's post was inspired by a small component of the book that discusses how later (largely white) generations rewrote the history of the blues by focusing on some of the more romantic characters, such as Robert Johnson, who were largely romantic because they never made it very big and their recordings were ultra rare or nearly lost. I think there is a lesson in their somewhere for many of the readers of this site.

Anyways, it would make sense to post some Robert Johnson track, but honestly everyone should have his complete works since they all fit on a single CD and are uniformly wonderful. Largely because of that album I've looked into a lot of other Delta and country Blues artists, and have only occasionally found gold. You hae to deal with compilations with often staggeringly bad audio quality for the sake of completeness (the Blind Blake compilation comes to mind). But up here are two tracks, I've enjoyed. The first is "Cherry Hill" by Big Bill Broonzy who was incredibly popular early in his career (like this recording) and regained his fame by going back to this old-timey style in 50s. In between he was a very big influence in creating the Chicago blues (read electric) style. I definitely prefer his acoustic picking style, and his showy vocals here backed by a pianist identified only as Black Bob (Like whoa!).

Also up is "Broke Down Engine" by Blind Willie McTell (actually blind from early in childhood if not birth). McTell played the 12-string guitar also enjoyed a long career even if his surviving recorded output is somewhat limited now. People like my parents would know this song because Bob Dylan covered it, but to me the vocals are haunting in the contrast to the toe tap induced by the guitar work. And when he knocks on his guitar body to accentuate the "knocking on my door" lyrics it is a nice touch (also it makes me think I have an IM message, but that's another story).

Running It In The Ground

Bloodstone: Tell It To My Face and Ran It In The Ground
From: Natural High [London, 1973]

Time to visit the world of Soul groups today with the strangely ignored Bloodstone. Apart from an unexpected appearance on Jackie Brown's soundtrack with the title song of this album, Natural High, the band seem to be well and truly sitting in the lost and forgotten pile of artists that drift round thrift stores waiting to be rediscovered.

From first appearances you may be fooled into thinking that Bloodstone were just another ex gospel group offering honey dripped ballads but stop your assumptions in their tracks! The band actually had a lot more bows to their strings, playing their own instruments and mixing up the soul with the occasional guitar riff and psychedelic overtones to great effect. While their sophomore effort, Natural High, was undoubtedly their most successful album the band had a career spanning 20 years and it's definitely worth picking up any of their albums if you spy one.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that Bloodstone went one further than most groups by not only scoring a blaxploitation film but starring in it as well. Personal recommendation would be to check out the album before the film though, one's dated a bit better than the other if you know what I mean.

Having said all that I'm going to offer up two tracks from the album that fit the funk soul mode perfectly. My excuse? They're both crackers. The second side of the original album medleys the group's songs so I'm afraid both tracks end abruptly.

Tell It To My Face is a classic slice of the kind of insulted funk that the Temptations set the bar for, the singer chastising his woman for her gossiping attitude. With a bit of guitar, rolling drums, a mix of tenor and bass vocals, an organ stab and screaming harmonies for the conclusion it'll put a smile on the face of the most miserable broken heart.

Ran It In The Ground is all about the vocals, mixing tenor and bass to exquisite measure over that kind of blissed out wandering groove that seventies soul groups caught to perfection. I love the slow build of the backing singers vocals as the momentum builds for the suitably epic finale, orchestra in full flow as the song reaches it's climax. The band even manage to segue in a spoken word summary. I could listen to tracks like this till the cows came home.

The Audience's Listening To Cut Chemist

Cut Chemist - "The Garden"
Cut Chemist feat/ Edan, Mr. Lif - "Storm"
The Audience's Listening, album release date July 11, 2006

"They say you get as long as you need to make your first album, but the second one you get a year!" - Cut Chemist

According to Billboard Magazine, it took Cut Chemist one year to clear all samples -"sometimes you have to remind them what their song is"- used on The Audience's Listening (way clever album title). Chemist sacrificed his role with Jurassic 5 to concentrate -"it's easy for me to get distracted"- on an album that Warner Brothers and fans have anticipated for two years. Using resources and influnence like his name is Jerry Wexler, Chemist utilized 24-months to craft a barrel of songs and cut that barrel to a dozen songs that Warner Brothers will push in July.

If passport stamps were pussy Chemist would be a pimp, instead the cat is a globetrotting record collector -"I wanted it to be that way, to kind of give it a texture of, 'Hey, I go all over the world and buy records!'"- that put time in Brazil to create "The Garden," a song fueled by authentic Brazilian sounds. "The Garden" is a marked summer anthem that will get spins from alpha-hipsters to middle-aged wives. Beautiful vocals from Astrud Gilberto (note: Ear Fuzz tigercats, please tell me what A. Gilberto sample that was) sex up "The Garden." Fantastic arrangement page-marks Chemist as an elite member of the same people who have their names printed on Chemist's records.

The Documentary

B+ and Eric Coleman produce today's next producers (J Rocc, Babu, Nuts, Cut Chemist and Madlib) with time-stamped drummers (Paul Humphery, Derf Reklaw and James Gadson) to document a team of intelligent musicians. The video footage is from Brasilintime: Batucada Com Discos, a documentary that began in `02 and is coming out this summer. Look at the all-star team of Brasilintime.

"Light gay bossa nova." (This is the video link for Windows users)

"Storm" is electro-swayzee-rap to the max. Edan and Mr. Lif bring raw intelligent rap to "Storm" and Chemist's production is bound to make hipsters dance with their Cherrios. At 3:28 "Storm" is short and it's OK, because this jacked-up Jurassic 5 beat is like tight denim on Vivica Fox. "Storm" is vintage Chemist -the man who conitues to play Saturday nights at Hollywood's Star Shoes- and his keen production on "Storm" demonstrates Chemist's relevant time with Jurassic 5.

Tracklisting

These are the confirmed songs on The Audience's Listening:

1. Motivational Speaker
2. M 1st Big Break
3. The Lift
4. The Garden
5. Spat
6. What's The Altitude (feat. Hymnal)
7. Metrorail Thru Space
8. Storm (feat. Edan and Mr. Lif)
9. 2266 Cambridge
10. Spoon
11. A Peak In Time
12. The Audience Is Listening (Theme Song)

Release date: July 11, 2006

Cut Chemist's website
Cut Chemist's MySpace

That Coffee Cup has my thoughts on Outkast's August 22 release of Idlewild and lead rap single, "The Mighty O." Get at the single and read here.

Gettin Bizzie On Those Who Slept

Bizzie Boyz: For Those Who Slept and Mission Accomplished
From: Droppin' It [Yo Records, 1990]

What with Independent J and GIO147's posts in the last week bringing back the new school sound and the sun still shining on the sceptered isle I felt inspired to add another new school offering for your listening pleasure.

In a flash of genius I opted for a group that I a) Don't know anything about and b) Am unable to find out anything about even with the awesome power that is the internet. All I can tell you is that the group featured Ski who went on to produce a good portion of Jay Z's debut album among others but that's all been covered by other blogs in the past. I can't even find a pic of the group, sorry.

However, give me a chance to redeem myself and you may be pleasantly surprised. Everybody and their great aunt is pretty familiar with the Bizzie's single Droppin' It, a classic slice of nice and easy rap, but I thought I'd share with you a couple of tracks from the album that dropped nanoseconds before the group disappeared of the face of the earth for ever.

It'd be a big ask indeed to expect the group's album to live up to the single but what is surprising is how solid the longplayer is. Ok, it makes the same mistakes as nigh on every other group of the period with some very unnecessary hip house and reggae-lite tracks but inbetween these lie some true forgotten gems.

For Those Who Slept is a great slice of summer rap that bubbles along with an irresistible confidence and charm. I always offer a favourable ear to "day in the mall" raps and this is up there with the best of em. If sunshine could be concentrated into a rap song it'd probably sound something similar to this.

Mission Accomplished brings old school fast rap with aplomb, Ski showing that he was a more than competent MC before jacking it in for the beats, as he rips up the microphone and shows "more control than Janet Jackson". This would slay in a club as much today as it would 16 years ago. Summertime rap to roll with.

Quannum Ritz

The Writz - Gift Of Gab
from 12" and also Fourth Dimensional Rocketships Going Up on Quannum Projects (2003)

HelloHiHey! - Lifesavas
from 12" and also Spirit In Stone on Quannum Projects (2002)

While GIO147 and Junior have been bringing it from deep with their Grand Daddy IU/Bizzie Boyz posts, I'm coming from the shallow end of the crates today with two recent Quannum Projects records. Both of these tracks feature prominent use of that most thuggish of musical inspirations - Irving Berlin's "Putting On The Ritz."

Gift of Gab teamed up with producer Vitamin D multiple times on his solo debut, the ponderously title Fourth Dimensional Rocketships Going Up, including today's first track "The Writz." I've always enjoyed Vitamin D's strictly sample based production techniques, but this slowed down, minimal track did not hit it off with me. Mostly i think it was the molasses beat was too simple and a poor match for Gift's high-pitched and high-speed vocals.

It doesn't help that Lifesavas put out at almost the same time the single "HelloHiHey!" from their debut album Spirit In Stone. Produced by Jumbo the Garbageman & Vursatyl, "Hello" leads off with a hot guitar lick and snappy boom-bap drums and then completely hooks me with the sung chorus which is where Vursatyl starts "putting on the ritz." I'm usually not a big follower lf lyrics in hip hop being far more interested in the beats/music, I think the multiple personalities all played by Vursatyl is pretty dexterous and definitely very funny. As a topper the M. Night reveal is that these voices were the rappers of Christmas past, present, and future for Vursatyl. Deep? It isn't Kierkegaard, but it is a long way from snowman thuggery also.

Mixtape Madness/ Co-op

Co-op - "Intro/ 1 Thing/ For The Devil"
"Rosa Parks/ K-os/ The Foreigner I Used To Be"
On The Regular Mix CD, Independent, 2006.

DJ Co-op is a staple in my community and recognized as the only nightlife promoter that matters. His parties are packed with hundreds of sweaty bodies that indulge in frivolous entertainment. Don't be fooled though, Co-op is not "just" a party DJ. After placing third in Winnipeg's 2005 DMC competition that cat jumped provinces to Saskatoon's DMC competition and placed first; dang, that's called determination. Co-op's success story does not stop at the DMCs. He has played alongside Jazzy Jeff, The Herbalizer and Dan the Automator among several other notable performers.

In 2004 Co-op released Co-operation Volume 1, a mix of unique blends that were similar to what Z-Trip has done. In December 2005 Co-op hosted a series of parties called On The Regular and a month later Co-op released On The Regular Mix CD. The mix is tight with rap cuts and blends that form well with Co-op's public image - think nice guy with Canadian prairie fashion sense.

Plenty of nice tracks are on this mix. From Jurassic 5 with The Dap Kings' "Red Hot" to Esther Williams' "Last Night Changed It All," Co-op came correct. The first track, "Intro/1 Thing (For The Devil)" heated up the -30 C winter like it was hotter than July. Amerie's "1 Thing" blew up last summer (especially the Siik remix) so blending "1 Thing" with The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy For The Devil" definately caught my attention ('Da-ba-da-ba-oh' is that next shit).

Personally, K-os' "Man I Used To Be" is a Michael Jackson gimmick that was molded for MuchMusic/ MTV video rotation; no, I don't like it. When I heard K-os' "Man I Used To Be" instrumental with Outkast's "Rosa Parks" everything made sense. The chorus to "Rosa Parks" is a classic and it fits perfectly over "Man I Used To Be." Following the Outkast/K-os mix is Foreigner and K-os in "The Foreigner I Used To Be." That blend is totally bananas before "bananas" became a catch phrase.

Co-op's resume is deep and his latest achievement is attracting A-Trak and The Rub to Winnipeg for their May 10 performance for the Sunglasses Is A Must Tour.

"I even got soul in my penis"

Grand Daddy I.U.- "Sugar Free", "Somthing New" and "Soul Touch"
Smooth Assassin, Cold Chillin' Records, 1990

In 1990 Grand Daddy I.U. had cats shook with Smooth Assassin. NYC radio showed I.U. -a Queens born, Long Island raised rapper that had a silky rhyme flow- love rotating "Sugar Free," because the song had that modified-new-jack-swing sound that exploded between `89 and `92. Teddy Riley can be praised (or blamed) for new jack swing when Riley, Aaron Hall and Timmy Gatling formed Guy, but without new jack swing and Eddie Murphy movies (Harlem Nights, Boomerang, The Distinguished Gentleman) there is no reason to remember that period of time*.

After his brother, DJ Kay Cee, convinced him to make a demo, I.U. was signed to Cold Chillin' Records. I.U.'s association with the Juice Crew (Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Kool G Rap, Roxanne Chante, MC Shan, Masta Ace and Craig G) gave people an idea of his capablities. Smooth Assassin dropped and emerging NY rappers saw a glimpse into raps' future that placed clever rhymes ahead of showmanship and gaudy clothing.

"Something New" is genius. In 1966 James and Bobby Purify hit number six on the pop charts with "I'm Your Puppet," a classic from Muscle Shoals songwriter/ producers Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham. Thirty-four years later Cutmaster Cool V and Biz Markie loop "I'm Your Puppet" and a generation of teenagers get down to a loop their parents sock-hop'd to. Lyrically I.U. wrecked the competition with punchy lines that bounce with Markie's drum pattern and float over "I'm Your Puppet's" piano keys.

"Soul Touch" is NY scratch rap before Gang Starr blew up. I.U.'s brother Kay Cee provided the cuts and probably found the chorus sample. I.U. is great on this track. Line after line he commands rap cliches before they could be called cliches. "I got soul in my ankles, soul in my hips, soul in my back and soul in my fingertips, in my shoulders and in my wrist, I even got soul in my penis." OK it can be argued those are some lame lyrics, but the man raps, "So let the soul be heard, `cause it's preferred and that's word to Big Bird," in the same song; again, I.U. had this on record way before anyone else.

I.U.'s second album, Lead Pipe, came out in 1994 and it has a gang of classics like "I Can Do Dat," "As I Flow On" and "Represent." Coincidently tomorrow there will be a second I.U. post on my other blogsite Coincidently I just posted those tracks on my other blogsite, Inebriated Coffee Cup... umm yeah, coincidently. Add Grand Daddy I.U. to the MySpace list.

*Not true. Michael Jordan's first three-peat was between `90 and `93.

FYI: I asked Grand Daddy I.U. (via e-mail) about these tracks and he answered my questions. I was really interested in where these tracks were made. He had written that Soul Assassin was recorded at Power Play Studios in Queens and engineered by DJ Doc of B.D.P. fame. I've always wondered what I.U. stood for, well it's his real name. He said the lyrics were a relfection of how he felt and how he vibed off the production.

The Messenger Of Spring

Doug Carn: Western Sunrise and The Messenger
From: Adam's Apple [Black Jazz, 1975]

Man it is so sunny here this morning! It's been a longtime coming but Spring has finally reached the British Isles. London's looking gorgeous as the rays bounce off the smog and the sunlight glistens on the layers of garbage outside the office (I may be in a minority of one but I reckon the biggest impact of the 40 odd years of terror threats in London has been the removal of all bins from the City centre, way too much shit on these streets).

So what better time then for some spiritual, uplifting, but at the same time heavy as they come, fusion?

Doug Carn is a strange figure in the world of jazz. A highly gifted musician and a possibly even more gifted arranger, Doug's kinda flown under the public radio for near on 30 years, despite releasing quality album after quality album and even outselling Ramsey Lewis in the mid seventies. I hardly have the power to change all this but every little helps so here goes.

One of the great talents of Doug Carn is the way he merges the vocals with the instruments. Western Sunrise is a nice example of this as Doug and his wife Jean deliver the vocal performance while the horns provide accompaniment, performing variations on the main riff over samba style percussion. I love the way that Carn manages to get this big sound from what was in actual fact a pretty small group of performers, multilayering the instruments beautifully.

The Messenger is like nothing else on this album, Doug dropping the vocals and relaxed vibe to go for an all out sonic boom on the keyboard, hitting it at full tempo as spacey synthesizers reverberate over the top, the drums propelling the track along. Far out and furious, this is about different from your normal spiritual jazz as you can get but it's as welcome as it's unexpected and guaranteed to blow away any winter cobwebs you have left between your ears.

Fake You Left and Go Right Down The Lane

Now You're Mine - Gang Starr
from White Men Can't Rap EP on EMI (1992).
I Wish (street mix) - Skee-Lo
from 12" on Wildcard (1995).

I am so basketball addled right now, it is surprising I can get anything done. A big portion of that is that my life-long favorite team is currently and somewhat surprisingly up 3-1 on Phoenix and their Most Valuable Canadian, but it also is the general greatness of NBA basketball right now. And this has some relevance to music also, bear with me.

Any day now Nike should unveil new ads for post-season, at least they typically do. Being excited about adverts would normally alarm me and seem silly except that Nike makes the greatest commercials ever. Miniature movies with superb editing, style, graphics, and of course music. You can catch classic commercials on the old interweb currently featuring production by Arika Bambaata and The Neptunes.

Dip back even further and there was this classic featuring the sweet shooting Ray Allen, which features "Words I Manifest" by Gang Starr. For some reason I remembered that commercial featuring a different Gang Starr track: "Now You're Mine." Maybe because "Now You're Mine" is a super fantastic track, or maybe because it is in the not super-fantastic hoops movie White Men Can't Jump (aka Money Train: The Prequel), or maybe because it would have been the better track for that commercial. I mean Guru's lazy monotone delivery seems particularly devastating when discussing how he'll thrash his opponent. If someone came at me with that much heat on some mellow, unblinking action I'd take it well more seriously than all the shouters and flexers (Berkeley RSF, what?!). Found on either this EP from the movie's soundtrack or on the 1994 album Hard To Earn, I've even heard "Now" was on once a limited B-side with "Mass Appeal" on Chrysalis, but I've never seen it for what it is worth.

As a lesser bonus another all time classic hoops track is here in the form of Skee-lo's pity fest "I Wish." Working on the G-funk formula this track isn't the sonic equivalent of DJ Premier's work, but it is pretty solid and high on the nostalgia factor me. As a player I'm probably more in line with Skee-lo's desire for more height than Guru's braggadacio, but I bring the intangibles, cagey veteran style.

Put It On The Line

Ghostface Killah w/ Wigz - "Out The Way"
Ghostface Killah - "Struggle"
Ghostface Killah w/ Raekwon - "The Watch"

The Ghostface and Trife Da God has been out for a minute and it's not too bad. Lot's of pre-Fishscale hoopla pushed Put It On The Line and ghetto-hipsters lined up quick math to purchase this CD/ DVD.

Neatly packaged CD/ DVD combos hit the radar hard. Usually a gang of remixes, OK B-sides and collaborations with third-string musicians fill the CD while gimmicky video footage of unreleased music videos and visual op-eds fill the DVD; now erase everything I have written about CD/ DVDs when considering Put It On The Line.

The first track on the album is "Cocaine Trafficing" with Ghostface and Trife. The whole "we major" on bricks reminds me of a new "Criminology," but the production from Look Out Entertainment sounds heavily influenced by Jay-Z productions. Coincidently, Trife is really on some HOVA-type delivery and large on the early-`90s NYC hustle raps. Trife's "Hustle Hard" confirms that he has taken a page from Jay-Z's rap book (incidentally, Jay-Z "borrows" from Biggie Smalls like money from pawnshops). Example, "Thugs with hidious scares/ bag the prettiest broads/ and teach them how to move coke/ in their panties and bras," wait, there is more:

"That was nine-seven when Biggie Smalls gave us the script/ the Ten Crack Commandments on how to manage a brick/ shopping bags popping tags with the brand-newest shit/ no more hand me down rags my apperance was dipped."

Jay-Z Lyric Casserole

1 Biggie reference
1 brick, or "snow" if a brick reference is not available
3 cups of "new shit"
1 post-bling reference

Bake for 45-minutes and let cool for 15-minutes before serving.

Damn Duke, looks I just baked me a ghostwriter's pay cheque.

Ghost's "The Sun" with Raekwon and Slick Rick is official. Cats that are not too deep into the Tony Straks' catalogue will find a new favorite. Ghost shines over a sample driven "Stuggle" (sampled from?) but "The Watch" with Raekwon is sure to make heads bop. Que the Chauncey-type intro reminiscent to "Daytona 500" and then it happens; holyshit, Barry White joins the party!

Now a history lesson that O-Dub put me up on through a recent J-Love interview. "The Watch" was supposed to be on Bulletproof Wallets with "The Sun," and were pulled. Unless you were keen and bought a first issue you won't. "The Watch" was pulled, because of a Barry White sample ($$$) and "The Sun" was pulled to avoid a lawsuit, because RZA lost the sample!

Live Ghost is priceless and the DVD portion of Put It On The Line would have sold minus a CD. The interlude to "Holla" is vintage Ghost explaining how babies are made.

"A-yo this is the music right, my mother and my father used to fuck off of shit like this, right. It's like when theywas doing shit like that, them motherfuckers made me and shit, you know what I mean. So now when you see me, you see my kids, I fuck off of shit like this now."

Damn. Next thing Ghost says, "Put the blue light on, man," and "Holla" carries clout for cats in the audience. The DVD is brilliant. Cappadonna, Killah Priest, GZA, Masta Killa and Son God (Ghost's adult child) appear on classics like "Liquid Swords," "Ice Cream" and "Be This Way" that make a potential gimmick official.

I've selected three tracks and none of them have Trife; a little oversight on my part. How about that "Misdemeanor" sample from Foster Sylvers on "Out The Way," not too shabby; "Misdemeanor" is too nice not to be every rappers' sample. I will post that "Holla" with the interlude in a couple days.