Hardrock Soul Movement - Double Def Fresh (Get Stupid Fresh Remix)

This is my personal fave of all Hardrock's releases, ('Elaweaser' being my least favourite; what the hell was that?). Nothing much more to add really except Max and Dave were the first UK hip hoppers who truly made some stompin' drum machine driven electro tunes in the early to mid eighties and if you've not heard this for a while the progressive intro complete with Monty Python scratch will make your Christmas. No, it really will. I've had it on heavy rotation since re-ripping it and it really bangs and also triggers memories of the time which a lot of this old wax does, for me anyway. The title alone says 1986 is the years we had some great slang that not many folk understood and once again I think we should bring some of these back 'cos some of the new ones are shite and my mom uses some of 'em. Anyway, have a good Christmas and I have something I think is quite special for the new year which I'll try and get up here by the 31st December.

Get Stupid

360 Degrees - Pelon

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Freddy B & The Mighty Mic Masters - Coolin' On The Ave.

The Tuff City label rocked. Back then you could just about buy anything on that label without having to spin it first. I didn't buy this one though. I was given it by my house music loving mate I may have mentioned before. He use to play records to death and get fed up within a few weeks and either trade, sell or give them away. I may have mentioned that before too. He'd usually trade, sell or give them to me. I got lucky this time. He bought it brand new. I've had this since he gave it up about two or three weeks after he bought it. I played it again for the first time in years last week. I put it on my fave three list over here. You should pick your fave three and get in on the action too. B-side wins again? I think so. A def record if ever there was one.

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The Triple Threat Three - Scratch Motion

Not too long ago before the internet was invented sometime around 1988(ish) I was put on to and ad in Hip Hop Connection magazine for a mail order company called Beat Street Records. I ignored but a mate sent for the free catalogue and when he let me see his copy I nearly fell through the floor. Loads and loads of old school stuff that we couldn't buy as kids because we had no cash and also because no one in our town stocked U.S. imports. After my first order I received a monthly list and spent almost my entire weekly wage on records from B.S.R. After a while I started to fax my order from work and they'd fax it back with a reservation confirmation assuming they were all available. I didn't get them all as my mate's mail arrived before mine and he'd ring up and reserve his over the phone before I'd even got my list. That didn't matter though as he always played his stuff to death until he was fed up of it and he traded with me or sold it to me for less than he paid for it. I have to admit that it was fairly exciting anticipating the new list and what would be on it and when this one was delivered to my door I rang my mate to tell him I had it and he didn't and he'd just had his delivered before me. Still, I've got mine and he sold his some years ago on ebay as he's in to house music now the knob. I mean that in the nicest possible way of course. I don't know if Beat Street are still trading now and they did have a website eventually but it was crap. The stuff on it i mean. Nothing like the old days.

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D.ST. - The Home Of Hip Hop

I hated this record when I first heard it. I didn't like hearing rock style guitars on hardcore hip hop records, felt it softened it's edge slightly. I've matured since then and opened my mind a little and it's now one of my all time faves. D.ST. has always been a solid musician by rights and I wouldn't be the first to realise that he was way ahead of his time as far as skills on the turntable are concerned. I'm sure everyone would agree with that. I think when I was a lot younger the only thing I wanted to hear was the biggest beat around and loads of cuttin' & scratchin' and that's it. This record offers so much more than just that and I'm glad I wised up and gave it a second chance. (The second listening wasn't recently, it was a good 20 years ago). Some of the lyrics are great too, 'We say yes y'all before we talk' and 'real hip hop ma man' of course but the line that made me think a bit when I ripped the vinyl last week was this one; 'Just think, 1975, one whole decade has gone by..' 1985 and he's already talking about the old school talent. A fad it was not and like punk rock the new jacks have destroyed something that was once life consuming, for me at least and I don't know about you but I still can't get enough now and even though my life isn't quite as consumed with hip hop as once was these are the kind of records that I'll keep for ever.

just think, 1975, (nearly) four whole decades have gone by...

High Fidelity Three - B Boys Breakdance

I had a wander through my old neighbourhood last weekend. Saw my old house(s), the avenue I played football on with the meighbourhood kids, (can't do that any more, double parked cars all the way along, only used to be two on the whole street in 1976) and the newsagent's forecourt where we use to break on cardboard boxes taped together. Eventually we upgraded and got friendly with a future master graff artist who lived over the back of where we use to hang out and he let us in to his basement now and again and we could plug in the 'ghetto blaster' or 'boom box' or whatever you want to call it and save on batteries. We had it all worked out. Anyway, his older brother was friendly with some big hitters on the b-boy scene and he had a tape or two, one of which had the vocal version of this very slice of wax which I'd never heard before. The instrumental version was a firm favourite already thanks to Streetsounds Electro 5 so I had to have that tape. It took me quite a while to blag a copy and even longer to get the wax, 1989 if I remember rightly and it's mint and still is so enjoy this 320kbps rip if you can. 1984; what a year.

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Captain Rock - Cosmic Blast

I purchased the Street Sounds UK Fresh reunion DVD just a few weeks ago as I wasn't able to attend and have tio say I was a little disappointed with the Captain's performance. Not sure what I was expecting after all these years (how old is he now, in his late 40s or early 50s?) but he came on in his captain's uniform and ended up up bare chested after strutting around the stage rapping along to his old classics, (and let's face facts, they are classics) including this one, my own personal fave of the bunch. I didn't actually buy this until probably around 1987-88 as US imports were hard to come by and also I was just a kid in '84 and had zero cash most of the time. The Street Sounds Electro series of LPs were a godsend to UK heads like myself and 5 & 6 were on constant rotation, this 12" being on volume 6. Ripped the wax almost immediately after watching him and I was blown away almost like hearing it for the first time. And I can still remember all the words. Stone cold classic business right here, 320kbps rip.___ p.s. don't be put off buying the double DVD; if you're 40 something it's feckin' awesome to see the B-Boys with Chuck Chillout, Newcleus, Arthur Baker and the Captain amongst others. Not too keen on the new electro stuff though, sounds too much like house music to me..

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Lakim Shabazz - Need Some Lovin'

Lakim Shabazz sans the 45 king = not a bad record really. Shabazz himself undertakes production here and does pretty well it has to be said and even throws in a remix on the flip for good measure. Anttex contributes his two penn'orth (or two cents if you prefer) but the lead track is the strongest I think. A 320kbps rip of a piece of vinyl I seldomed played way back when is a good send off as I sold it last week for a paltry 99p. A bit of a disappointment but a sign of the current times. Now I need some lovin'..

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Most Wanted - Calm Down

Been quite busy of late but I managed a fresh 320 kbps rip of this monster classic which has been getting some steady ipod time I can tell you. I think I may have 'over-bassed' a touch but it still sounds def.

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Gang Starr - 2 Deep

What more could you want on a Sunday morning, eh? I bought this new in 1992 and fancied a listen but lo and behold it wasn't in my mp3 collection so as to put on the old ipod thingy so a def 320kbps rip was in order. I also decided to share it with you too. This was a UK only release and the title track alone is worth the asking price but with the half decent 'City Lick Mix' adding to the uniqeness and the thumping 'Take It Personal' and jazzy stylings of 'Now You're Mine' on the flip you have here a quality 12" that first dropped almost 20 years ago. 20 years. Hard to comprehend. Seems like only yesterday...

Consider It A Privelege To Hear This

K-Rob - I'm A Homeboy

After DJ Cheese won the DMC World Mixing championships in 1986 and pretty much turned the whole competition into what it is now he became an instant celebrity. Because of this, (I would imagine) he also 'guest scratched' on quite a few of Profile's releases in '86 and if you look you can see his name on the label in much smaller print the K-Rob's name which was the order of the day back then as emcees held a stronger position than the deejays even though they started it all off in the first place. But you already knew that. What you might not know is that Cheese himself made an appearance at the now demolished Limit club in my home town in 1986 and someone filmed it as they showed it on the incredibly small TV they had on the wall on subsequent Saturdays. (It was mainly a punk and indie type place but opened on Saturday afternoons for b-boys to hear new stuff and break on the rather large piece of linoleum. It was 50p to get in I think and the music they played was and still is the loudest music I ever heard, almost frightening how loud it was). What I'm hoping here is that someone must still have the tape as it is obviously a priceless archive that some of us would love to see again. It's highly unlikely that somebody from Sheffield frequents this blog but you never know. Oh, and this record is not too shabby either.

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MC Eric - Before We Get Started

I got this in a second hand record store for 50p a heck of a long time ago. It's a promo release and hand numbered on his own label and mine was number 87. I say was because I recently parted company with if for 60p during the vinyl purge I'm undertaking just now. I'm unsure as to why I bought it, probably 'cos of the price and I used to buy allsorts back then if it was cheap enough. When I got back home and put it on I must say I was pleasantly surprised as MC Eric had acquired a bit of a rep as being wack in some people's opinions (and probably my own) due to his appearances on some of Technotronic's earbashing house records. Which, from where I'm sitting, really were the wackest of the wack. And if you are one of those people who ignored his solo stuff for that reason I would encourage you to please try and ignore the name of the artist and just listen to 4 tracks of really quite decent hip hop music from the early nineties.

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Fat Boys - Breakdown

The Fat Boys. Who would listen to their records nowadays apart from the faithful old school followers like you and me? Most probably no-one with a name like that. Disco 3 was better I think but maybe that was a little too run-of-the-mill and they decided to change it. I wonder if they had an adviser? Maybe some hip hop version of Simon Cowell had a quiet word and convinced them it was the best way to get noticed. It was probably the same bloke who made them do that awful version of 'The Twist'. That said, their first album was the first full length rap LP I ever bought and I've still got it now. Word on the playground in '84 was that the Human Beatbox was the freshest thing around and if you didn't have it or even if you hadn't heard it you weren't worth knowing. I didn't know what 'Human Beatbox' was never mind that it was a person. Fast forward a couple of years and legendary UK DJ Mike Allen plays 'Breakdown' on his then London listeners only rap show and I get a copy and decide I want it. I had to settle for their 'Big & Beautiful' LP for years up until a few weeks ago when I picked this up for a fiver. It's a def record and once again the best track is relegated to the flip side, 'In The House' being the mediocre choice to try and top the charts. Oh and if these said 'Disco 3' on 'em I might be tempted but at my time of life wearing summat bearing the words 'fat' and 'boy' would be a huge mistake.

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Skinny Boys - Rip The Cut

I really like this one. Sir John Peel played this for me way back in life's golden age but the wax somehow passed me by. Eagle eyed viewers will notice that it's the B-side, 'Unity' being selected as the stronger track to lead with. But they were wrong. I eventually picked up a copy a couple of years back and I only paid £2.99 which some of you may think is too much. I don't know what it is about this record. Maybe it's the phaser effect on the scratching of the disco classic 'Good Times' or maybe it's the simple yet hard boom, boom, bap style beat. I know it's not for everybody so judge for yourselves.

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Roxanne Shante - The Def Fresh Crew

Classic tune, forgot how good it was until I heard it blastin' on the 'pod during the slow trudge to work this morning. Shante sounds dope on the mic even though some of the lyrics are a bit weird.... 'we come to party just to have action/just to prove to you that I'm not Michael Jackson'. The missus heard the intro when I ripped the wax and heard Biz laughin' his bollocks off to the beat and she totally understood what that was all about. No really.

To Cold Act Ill Or Get Retarded

Captain Rapp - Bad Times (I Can't Stand It)

Bit funky this one. I heard this on a Wizard tape a mate of a mate brought back form his stay in Detroit in the late eighties. Didn't know what it was called at the time but he did some glorious things with his two copies on that tape. I only bought it on a whim around '88-'89, probably because there was nothing else to go for at the time and it turned out to be this, if you know what I mean. There's two instrumental versions on the flip side of this re-issue, the original release apperaing initially on the legendary Saturn label in 1983. Didn't know that until yesterday.

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MC EZ & Troup - Just Rhymin'

Sunday again and what better way to celebrate than a 320kbps rip of a classic slice of wax from '88. I don't remember listening to this before purchase so I'm pretty sure I chose it because of the label it was on. 'Get Retarded' on the flip don't forget which is arguably the stronger track but both efforts have something to offer. Y-side wins again?

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Solo Sounds - We're Chilly

Some old school party style pressure for you now. My poor quality mp3s were deleted forever in favour of a fresh 320kbps rip of this re-press after it hit the streets a few months ago. There was an original for sale on ebay at the time (went for $85.00) but that's way too much for my budget so buying this was a no brainer. There's only the two cuts one here, vocal and dub and I can't really tell you anything about Solo Sounds that you can't already find out for yourseves so we'll leave it at that. It's only ever about the music anyway. For me at least.

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Steady B - Just Call Us Def

Whatever happened to that word, def? It had quite a lot of use in the mid eighties but it kind of fizzled out and 'dope' seems to have taken its place. 'Mos Def' is probably the most recent use that comes to mind but I'd like people to go back to using it as an adjective. I don't think I ever used it out loud. When we were kids everything was 'bad' (meaning good of course). 'That's a bad tune' or 'that's a bad move'. You get the idea. A lot of slang words went mainstream, the most obvious being 'chill out'. I heard my mom say that to one of her friends on the phone just the other day and she's in her mid sixties. Her friend is even older and I'm sure she knew what it meant. The power of the media, eh? I think old words like 'def' and 'fresh' should make a comeback so I'll start it off today with this power house of a record which is still a personal favourite so I did a def 320kbps rip so it'll cave your chest in if you play it at the required volume. 'Fly Shante' is on the flip which is another thumping, drum machine driven track, not to be confused with the later release on the same label by Shante herself that was produced by the real king of the beats, the man Marley Marl. I bow to thee, oh great one.

'Don't Mean He Can't Hear When I Say He's Def'

Roxanne Shante - Runaway

Roxanne Shante rhyming over a solid Marley Marl beat is just what the National Centre for Runaway & Missing Exploited Children needed. I wonder if they were approached to do it and if all proceeds went to that particular charity? You wouldn't have thought a lot of cash could be made off the back of an indie rap record from '85 would you? Well I don't know if my purchase contributed anything towards it but I kinda hope it did. Lyrically it's a step away from the norm as far as your average Shante records go but the beats are still rock hard. I got it from the record fair when it came to town around '88-'89 for 2 quid, still sealed too as were the other three I got at the same time; 'Queen Of Rox', 'Bite This' and 'Roxanne's Revenge' all equally banging records, all still sealed and cheap at half the price. I still have all four to this very day too. Sweet vinyl. Hard to let go. Must hang on. Must. Will.

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Stetsasonic - Just Say Stet

I always thought this was Stet's best record. When I first heard it on Streetsounds Electro 11 I thought it was dope. None of my friends at the time liked it and turned their nose up at it, thought it was a joke record with no street credibility whatsoever and that's always puzzled me. It was all about the beat in those days and it's as hard a beat as any so it can't be that. They're shouting the lyrics too which is good, controlling the mic like MCs did back then. Prince Paul doesn't disappoint on the flex either so what's the problem? I think the problem was that all of those so called friends stopped being bothered about hip hop music and started listening to eighties pop music instead so in my opinion they were never that interested in the first place. One of 'em (I only found out about this just before Christmas last year) traded a tape of mine full of dope jams which I could never afford to buy myself for one by Simple Minds. Simple Minds? I don't hold a grudge 'cos it was a long time ago but what a nice twat. I always wondered where that tape went an'all.

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Street Kings - Gettin' Fresher

Been listening to this one for a bit now and I'm lovin' it. I haven't had it all that long, four years, maybe five and the ad didn't mention the label being destroyed by a five year old either. Still, five quid's not too bad and the vinyl's mint and it still sounds dope, much better than all this golden era stuff. There. I said it. '83-'86 was my golden era anyway. Download this if you're curious as to what hip hop used to sound like. It's these kinds of records that got me into all this in the first place.

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Point Blank M.C.s - Hard To The Body

When US 12"s first arrived in Sheffield they were £6.49 each. That was quite expensive for a school kid on a £1.50 a week paper round. The only way I could raise the other much needed cash was to starve myself and save the £1 my mom gave me for my school dinner. OK, I wasn't exactly starving but it used to do me considerably in if I remember rightly. Back then it only cost two English pence to ride the bus in to town as Sheffield had the lowest fares in the country until privatisation smacked the council up the side of the head and it all changed forever. Virgin (pre 'mega') was the only outlet stocking fresh new US wares and even then they didn't advertise it. I must've been informed 'cos I can't remember how I found out but you had to ask to see the 'imports' and the bloke behind the counter would plonk a scabby looking cardboard box in front of you with about a dozen records in it. As you just sifted through you had to make a judgement by picking out stuff with colourful looking names as you hadn't heard of most of the them unless the late, great John Peel had spun it at some point. Times were hard. If you became a regular at the shop then the 'import bloke' would break the seals sometimes and play a snippet to help you decide. I still remember holding 'The Bridge' by MC Shan in one hand and 'Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble' by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince in the other and I'd not heard either so guess which one I chose? Anyway, this one was in there and I kept it all these years as the beat is dope and it makes parts of my house vibrate if I play it loud enough. Oh, and it's my guess that it's the only hip hop record to mention one time king of the jungle, Tony Blackburn near the end. Oh, and I did return some weeks later to buy the MC Shan record.

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Run-DMC - Sucker MCs / It's Like That

It's 1983, school holidays I think. I leave my house to see who's out and about. We all seem to congregate around the newsagent's shop at the top of the road as there's lots of room for b-boying (the new thing that's taken over from the BMX craze for a lot of folk). No-one's there. I can hear music so I start to walk and eventually see the son of the owner of the newsagent on the other side of the road singing along to the whatever song it was on his 'ghetto blaster'. He had the largest portable hi-fi system on the street. Massive it was. He was loaded too. Always got the newest stuff, best BMX, best trainers. His dad even built a mini BMX track but we were all allowed to use that, which was nice. He himself was massive too. He was a year younger than me but he was freakishly tall, stood 6'6" and had size 12 feet when he was 13 years old. I asked him where everyone was and he blanked me totally and just sang along to the record that was on. I pulled a face and watched him as he looked straight forward, never acknowledging my presence for a second and I became impressed as he appeared to know all the words. And he wasn't singing, he was rapping. 'champagne, caviar and bubble bath...' 'take that and move back, catch a heart attack...' I turned my attention from him to the music and was immediately hooked. I fancied myself as a bit of a drummer (I had two old cricket stumps that I used to hit my bed with in time to my punk records) so the pounding beat mesmerised me. I was already heavily in to breaking, hadn't ridden my bike for weeks but this was my first taste of hip hop music. I sneaked a peek at the tape and it was 'streetsounds electro 4' and that was my first purchase at the record stall in the market when I mustered up enough cash. No more punk records for me. A transition had occurred and there was no looking back.

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The Boogie Boys - You Ain't Fresh

This is the first US import 12" single I ever bought. Got it from the Virgin store before it became 'mega' on the high street (it's a pub now and not a very good one either. It's one of those crappy wine bar types where you're not allowed to wear your football shirt on match day). Anyway, I first heard it on a tape one of my brothers brought home from school and I remember 'The Show' by Dougie Fresh was on there and 'Don't Fess' by Sha-Quan too and also that he'd given all the tracks on it marks out of 5 and for some reason he gave this the shamefully low mark of 2 out of 5. I didn't agree of course and bought it the following week and played the hell out of it. The sound of the kicks and snares always astounded me and I built a picture in my head of this enormous wall of machinery making this brilliant drum sound that was virtually unique to hip hop music at the time. The best mix for me was always the extended 'High Noon Mix' as around halfway through there's a part where the drums get super heavy and almost knock you sideways. I still think it's a dope record and it's definitely a keeper for me if only for nostalgia's sake. Oh, and I can't remember what mark he awarded Sha-Quan but he gave dougie fresh 5 out of 5.

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The Almighty El-Cee - We Have Risen

I bought this around September last year. It was on my wants list for a long time but I kept pushing it back in favour of other stuff I wanted more. A friend of mine bought a copy in '87 because he got to the rack before I did and there was often only one copy available and some wax never got re-stocked so I was stiffed by a few seconds (and 20 odd years) until now. He traded his a few years later for some shitty house record 'cos he was/is into that crap when it blew up in the late eighties. I tried to like it but failed as it's obviously aimed at girls. Dope record this though, in perfect, unplayed nick too. I paid a tenner, which might be a tad over the odds for some but I think it was a fair price for the condition it's in. I've invested in a few old/new slices recently including this, this and this and pre-ordered this as the desire to buy vinyl refuses to leave me even though I've got less money now than I had back then. That would be the privelege of living with my mom then..

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Black, Rock & Ron - Stop The World (1989)

Hailing from Hollis Queens, Lord Black (David Cootryer), The Ruler Master Rock (Gregg Walsh), and Ron Scratch (Ron Walsh) released their first single "Hard Rap" on Next Plateau in 86 under the name the Vicious Four. Released during the emergence of the "New School" where samplers and drum machines such as the Lynn Drum and the SP-12 hit the market, producers and hip-hop artists were better able to create a less expensive and more complex structure to tracks that wasn't previously available without having connections or a backing band. In 1987 Black, Rock & Ron hooked up with Jazzy Jay who produced their next single "That's How I'm Livin" also on Next Plateau. At the request of LL Cool J they then went on to be managed by the one and only Russell Simmons' Rush Town. Then getting signed to RCA Records and featuring co-production by Tony Sims & Thomas Davis and executive production by Jurggen Korduletsch, Black, Rock and Ron put together the material for their debut album "Stop The World". With legendary engineers Paul C, DJ Doc, and Skeff Anselm at the boards they put out an underrated classic, a few 12 inch singles, and a couple videos. They were even involved with the Hip-Hop Against Apartheid - Ndodemnyama (Free South Africa) anti-apartheid song, but like some of the unfortunate rap artists of the time, Black, Rock & Ron just seemed to fall off the face of the Earth into obscurity.

I'm posting the US version along with some of the German release and 12" tracks as a "bonus disc".

320kbps CD Rip
01 - Intro
02 - Stop The World
03 - You Can't Do Me None
04 - True Feelings (True Rock Mix)
05 - Black Is The Word
06 - That's How I'm Livin'
07 - To Hear Black & Rock Rap
08 - Getting Large
09 - Rap Life
10 - Act Like U Know
11 - I'm Tired
12 - 3 Brothers And Yvonne
13 - Black, Rock & Ron (Video Mix)
14 - My Hometown
15 - Who's Got Next

Bonus Tracks
16 - You Can't Do Me None (Prince Paul Remix Vocal Mix)
17 - Tired Of All This
18 - True Feelings (Paul C Hip Hop Remix)
19 - We Be Wilin' (Wild Things)
20 - Black, Rock & Ron (Radio Version)
21 - You Can't Do Me None (Prince Paul Remix Beat Mix)
22 - Pieces I / Pieces II

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