Run-DMC - Christmas In Hollis

I was checking the TV listings fairly recently and noticed a programme called 'Beyond Magic with DMC'. It wasn't him. Happy Christmas readers.

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Scorpio & Jazzy Jay - (Go Michael) Air Jordan

Been busy, busy, busy so thought I'd offer up a really nice and criminally (geddit?) under rated 12" to keep you going a little while..

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Word Of Mouth (Feat.DJ Cheese) - Coast To Coast

There's a thing on the radio next week about John Peel presented by Annie Nightingale and for some reason when I read the blurb on it I was reminded of this record. There was a thing ages back on BBC2 and he introduced WOM doing this track as it was their new single. It's nowhere near as good as the mighty 'King Kut' but it's ok.

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MC Shy D - DJ Man Cuts It Up

Always rated Shy D back when I was breaking so buying this was a no brainer. 4Sight's pressings weren't always that great - the flimsy vinyl doesn't help - but it's very listenable and a good reminder of how we used to listen to music. I'm still trying to make some of my workmates understand but they shake their iphones at me and tell me that's all they need. My vinyl will last longer than your telephones you fuckers. That's what I tell 'em.

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The Masterdon Committee - Get Off My Tip

This has been on heavy rotation just recently. I remember John Peel playing it and remarking on how fresh Pebblee sounded and she still sounds fresh today. Brilliant record.

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C-Jam & Kid Frost - Commando Rock

Bank holiday Monday in England. Pissing with rain as usual. No way am I visiting any garden centre or diy store. This day was made for listening to fresh electro jams from commando rockin' '84. While you do the ironing..

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Rhythm Radicals - Dig The Move

Bought a copy of this again a few months back, only cost a couple o' quid, a decent record obviously highly influenced by PE but I think I'm going through some sort of crisis and need to get all the records I used to have to complete my collection. Then I'll stop. No, I will.

What's this world coming to?..

Newcleus - Computer Age (Push The button)

I remember playing this on the radio and got complaints for talking over the end bit. Not this time though.

Computer age is now...

M.C. Flex & The FBI Crew - Rockin' It

Here's another Beat Street Records purchase and the first time I heard it was at the youth club at a school on Myrtle Road. There were some guys who lived further up the road than we did and they used to come down and battle us at first before we kinda teamed up and there was this one guy who had a tape with stuff I'd not heard so I had to be impressed with his breaking skills in order to get the tape that had this on it from him. I was successful in doing that but having said that he did have some skills on the cardboard, the windmills were his specialty as I recall but I had more variations, you know, hands on your chest, hand on your knees, behind the back, etc. Oh, the glory days when I was young. And thin(ner).

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Fat Boys - Can You Feel It

How about some Fat Boys? I still have their first album which is great as it was the first long player I ever bought by a hip hop group and this tune in  particular was and still is one of the highlights.

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Moving...(Maybe)

I think I'm gonna have to move. I had an email recently stating that from 5th June I won't be able to log in using my existing email address I have with my current ISP and would have to create a gmail address which I did and have consequently messed things up behind the scenes and am no longer an administrator of this blog. My partner seems to have disappeared and I don't know his email address to fix things so if I want to carry on as normal, (and I think I do) then I'll be continuing things over here from 5th June onwards. None of the content on here will be deleted or moved to the new place either and if stuff is duplicated at the new spot then that's just me and my age. If this logging in problem doesn't actually become the problem it threatens to be then things will carry on here as normal. See you soon..

MC QP - I'm Hard

MC QP's only release is a mixture of hardcore hip hop and the almost verging on house music style electro so you can take a guess which is my fave on this particular 12". 'I'm Hard' was on a tape I acquired at school from 'the new guy' - I think I mentioned him before - and I was blown away. It didn't occur to me at the time but it's an obvious homage, I think rather than 'bite' of Run DMC's game changing classic, 'Sucker MCs' and a track I would forward or rewind to regularly because it was so, well, hard. Only one of my mates actually picked up a copy along with myself which I found puzzling but what the hell, they all started listening to house music anyway so fuck 'em. I'm joking of course. About the fuck 'em comment, not the house music. Well, part of me is. I hate that shit. That's why there's little mention of 'Hello Baby' over here. I don't like that tune. It was never on that tape I had either so I'm not the only one.

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Downtown Science - Radioactive

A bit of a leap forward this one if recent entries are to go by to 1991 and probably the best record of their short career. Sam Sever had been around a while before teaming up with Bosco Money for a couple of singles and a pretty decent LP. I had the other single off the album, 'Room To Breathe' but it fell out of the sleeve when I was getting out of my car after a deejaying sesh at a mates house and it skidded across the gravelly road runining one side completely. The worst part was one of my neighbours saw it happen and he he was also in the deejay 'profession' - weddings, birthday parties, you know, that kind - and he made some sarcastic comment which pissed me of a little. Still, I could mix and scratch and he couldn't. Probably.

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UTFO - Leader Of The Pack

UTFO had their moments. I wasn't keen on their debut release but I bought it all the same. This was always my fave though; picked it up some years back now, still sealed and a steal at two and a half quid. The emcees had skils but it was always the deejay I was interested in. Mixmaster Ice was underrated I reckon. He had that particularly cool scratch where you had to be real quick on the cross fade and do a kind of double back and forth with the record whilst doing the same with the fader, difficult to explain and I hope you know what I mean but it took me years to perfect but I did and I was the only one in our 'circle' that could. I don't know any other deejay that did that scratch; there probably was but he was the first I ever heard that did. Later releases didn't interest me that much. I bought a couple more of their LPs, 'Skeezer Pleezer' and 'Doin' It' but they just sat in the crate for years with little interest shown so they eventually went the way of the bay. Full Force's production skills were alright I guess but their harmonising on some of UTFO's stuff is ok for some but it's not for me, thanks all the same. 'Bite It' comes a close second to this for me which I'll get at some point no doubt, until then this is the only slice of wax I have but I think it's their best.

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D.E.F. Featuring DJ Three D - D.E.F. Momentum

Hated this for such a long time but it gradually grew on me so I got myself one. Back in '85 I personally preferred the harder, less melodic style and unlike just about all of my mates of the time I always loved the sound of the vocoder, of which this has plenty.

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CD III - And You Know That

My second fave CD III track and once again it's a b-side jam. This is the Canadian release and as you can see, they spelled the crew's name wrong. The a-side, 'Summer Jam' is ok but forgettable and has never really had a regular spot on the mp3 playing device. Still, this is a memorable one from a tape I had in my mid teens and I like it a lot.

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MC Craig G - Shout

Massive beats were a big thing for me in '85, still are, and I reckon this is one of the biggest beats ever made. Still one of my all time faves, a little worn these days as I've had it some years now but heavy as hell on the eardrums. Nottingham old school legend Masterscratch used this on loads of his mixtapes, particularly the 'Def Mix' on the flip. I cannot for the life of me remember who I got all my Masterscratch tapes from but I had about 5 in total and to me they were priceless as there weren't too many scratch djs around who were doing their own tapes and were actually any good. A possible point of interest is the production credit which is down to 'Double M Eye' which I would bet is one of Marley Marl's aliases but I'm unsure so maybe someone in the know could confirm that for me. Killer tune.

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Party Rock Crew - Which School?

Here's an old Mike Allen spin from '87 which I only bought a few months back as I forgot all about it. Some might say it's worth forgetting but I like it and it was another bargain at 3 quid so I snapped it up. There's not a great deal on my wants list from this particular year as I would say hip hop in '87 was a bit of a mixed bag but this is pretty decent.

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Kid Frost - Terminator

Classic electro business from '85, first heard for many UK b-boys on Streetsounds Electro 9, me included. My youngest brother bought volume 9 but I inherited it after he lost interest in hip hop along with brother number two many years back. 'Rough Cut' was my first experience of Kid Frost's mic style - it was on a tape I borrowed off a casual acquaintance which I remember almost having to beg for - and to this day I still can't decide which is the better of the two. This is the second press, the original I remember having a yellowy coloured label but that kind of thing never bothered me; it's all about the music. And most of the time the memories too.

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Kaptain Jam & The Mighty Finesse - I Can't Stand You

Bought a copy of this last year after trading my original purchase in the late eighties and I think it's a pretty fresh jam. A mate of mine bought it on a London trip and I had it within a couple of weeks 'cos he used to play records to death and get tired of them fairly quickly. I was guilty of doing the same occasionally but he now has zero records in his collection and I still have a few and it's steadily growing back again to where I think it should be. If I still had every record I'd ever bought it'd be in to the thousands and I'd need a bigger place but sacrifices had/have to be made 'cos not everything you buy is a winner. 'The Way We Rock' is the B-side cut which I used to prefer but after a recent re-cap I'm not so sure. It only cost me three quid too.

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Robbie B & Jazzy J - Rock The Go Go

How was Christmas then, alright? We're back with a boom with this corker, so good that Schoolly himself had to have it for his own label and twinned it with 'Jazzy J On The Scratch' which is also a very tasty offering but not quite as good as the A-side in my opinion. The OG had the scratch version as a seperate track to the vocal cut but they've been conjoined here to make one big beat fest. 'Boogie Down' has also been omitted from this release but they're both pretty easy rekkids to pick up so I'll re-buy the other one another time when there's nowt else more pressing to spend my hard earned dosh on. Happy new year and I'll hopefully continue where we left off although I'm thinking of mixing it up a littlewith the older electro cuts and some old school UK action but we'll see.

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