King Tee - Paybacks A Mutha

This is another Mike Allen sure shot I bought in '87 after hearing it on his show but by then hip hop was on the rise and it was now National Fresh so no need to make trips down to that London any more. I bought this one a few weeks ago as I traded my first copy as was the norm back then. Tee's debut I think and it's a corker.

Smell my cheese you mutha

Jazzy Jeff And Fresh Prince - The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff

Another heater from JJ & FP from '87, his killer transforming styles made me wanna worship him like a god. Looks as though Jive didn't pay him the respect I did though; check the spelling of his name on the instrumental version. Never mind, tune's pure fire!

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DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince - A Touch Of Jazz

Been feeling this one over the last few weeks, a brilliant record and a very easy pick up these days if you never managed to bag one in '87 like I did. Jazzy Jeff was like some kinda god to me when I was trying to perfect the transformer scratch, made it sound super effortless and very easy. I bought one of those Gemini mixers that him and Cash Money used and it made the job easier but the crossfader wore out quite quickly and getting a hold of spares was difficult, especially if you lived in the UK and the internet wasn't invented yet. Never had a mixer as easy to use since that one though.
Have a listen to this if you've not heard it for a minute.

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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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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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Prime Time - So Damn Tuff

The TR808 is legendary as far as hip hop music is concerned and it appears to have made a comeback in recent years so why can't these new cats use it properly? Here's how it's done.

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Cool C - Juice Crew Dis

Is this the most irritating record ever made? Yep...

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Almighty El-Cee - We Have Risen

Re-up.

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Roxanne (Fly) Shante - Payback

Nothing wrong with a bit of Shante on a Tuesday evening. I got this on a London trip in '87 - Red Records on Beak Street I think - and traded it once but got it back soon after. 1987 was a bit of a mixed year if memory serves but the beat was what it was always about for me and the beats on here hit hard. I never really liked 'Freestyle Live' on the flip because I think it tries, but fails to sound like 'Def Fresh Crew' however the kick drum will make your floor rumble so it's not all bad. I say to Shante 'please come out of retirement and make some more records like this'. Everyone would buy it. Everyone.

I came first in a Schoolly D sound-a-like contest

Public Enemy - You're Gonna Get Yours

Re-up of this classic 12" (I assume this is the one you meant?) and the only PE 12" I have left in my collection. An interesting point to note is that Johnny Juice was responsible for the mind blowing scratching on the 'Terminator X Getaway Version' and I didn't find that out until I read this.

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Ultimate Choice Feat. Finesse & T.L.C. - You Can't Front

I got this mid last year and for a very reasonable price too. Been on my wants list for a heck of a long time after playing it to death on and old Mike Allen tape and I can't really afford to pay hiked up ridiculous 'random rap' prices so let it slide for some time until I got lucky. It's these kinds of records that you just couldn't get a hold of when they first dropped unless you lived in that London place or traveled there every week and there was no chance of that for me being an honest Northerner with limited cash available. There still isn't. So thank goodness the internet has made the world a smaller place and I don't have to get off my arse and go hunting for wax any more. And neither do you. I hope it's been worth the wait 'cos I think it's a dope slice of true hip hop that hasn't been shared much, if at all, in it's entirety and at the time of writing there's none on ebay but five on discogs, the cheapest being 40 euros which is about 30-35 English pounds that also being more than I can allow myself these days to spend on records per week. Anyway, happy new year, sorry it took me so long and I do hope it's not an anti-climax because it really shouldn't be. Long live real hip hop.

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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 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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World Class Wreckin' Cru - Best Of

I wouldn't consider myself to be a very big fan of the Wreckin' Cru but I do like the debut single a lot. Songs such as 'Juice' with it's heavy breathing, 'House Calls' and the diabolical 'Lovers' were never really my cup o' tea even though I did once own two out the last three that I mentioned. 'Surgery' however is a fine record indeed and the version on this comp, although it is not listed as such on the label or the sleeve, is a remix and a pretty good remix too even though it does sound very much like the original. I think the lyrics are brilliant too and it's one track I know all the words to and can mime to in my room whilst rockin' the b-boy stance. Yeah right. Also please, no mention of the shiny suits and lip gloss, thanks.

1. The Fly
2. World Class
3. Surgery (Remix)
4. Juice
5. Lovers
6. House Calls
7. Cabbage Patch

Man, the freaks ain't freakin'

Magnetic Force - Hip Hop Bystander

I've only had this 12" for around 3-4 years now, got it off ebay from the USA and the postage cost me 3 times as much as I paid for the wax but I wanted it and it's pretty scarce so I bit the bullet. The guy I bought it from got it from the Jam Pony Express DJ team, as you can see from the stamp, and they're pretty well known stateside I'm lead to believe. I first heard this on a Mike Allen tape from '87 that a mate recorded on a visit to London, (his only reason for visiting London that particular day). He asked me if I wanted to go but I declined after he said he was 'just going to wander the streets and get the first train back in the morning'. I really didn't fancy roughing it in London so he managed to blag someone else to go along and he did let me copy the tapes when he got back which was surprising as he could be a bit of a twat. I've not seen him for about 15 years..

1. Vocal
2. Instrumental

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Just-Ice - Cold Gettin' Dumb

I bought Peanut Butter Wolf's 45 live boxset last week which is the inspiration for me digging out the original 12" and posting it here. Fantastic tune, the x-side's nothing special but the OG is top drawer stuff, Mantronik was way ahead of his time with these absolutely thumpin' drum beats, play it real loud.

Yo, change the bass

Public Enemy - You're Gonna Get Yours 12" (1987)

RE-UP

PE really broke new ground on this single with Rebel Without A Pause, recorded after Yo! Bum Rush The Show. The most notable part of the song was Hank Shocklee's sample of the trumpet glissando from The J.B.'s The Grunt and is easily one of the most memorable sounds on the planet. A quote from an interview with Shocklee reveals some interesting tidbits behind the making of the track: "’Rebel’ is interesting because that was originally done with the only sampler that I had at the time which was the Mirage. And the Mirage, if you know the Mirage, it’s a 4-bit sampler that gives you three seconds of sample time and that’s it. And it was [as if] the stars lined it up for me. I was doing this thing again, and I was trying to catch it and I caught the right piece of it in three seconds. Because one thing about the Mirage is when you have three seconds, and you know you only got three seconds, and your piece is really three and a half seconds long, but you really want to catch the best three seconds out of that, well, you got to keep doing it until you catch it right the way you want it". Another very interesting fact is the drums. At first listen it seems like just the Funky Drummer chopped up a little with another programmed beat for the chorus. "That record has four different beats, one is the change beat, one is the original verse beat, the other is the short verse beat, and the fourth being the ride on the beat. And it has ten different turnarounds, all those little kicks, all that stuff is programmed, you know, each one does not repeat itself. So it gives you the illusion of the record is constantly getting better as opposed to it just staying linear". Also noteworthy is Terminator X's rock 'n' roll scratch (yes that's really him this time). "When he first did that piece, you know, the Rock 'n' Roll part, when Chuck said: ”Terminator X“ I was expecting, something (shows something huge with his arms). And then he came in and he would - (makes very small moves with his hands) and then he came up with ’tchgtchgtch’ – I was disappointed when I first heard it. You know, I took it home and I listened to it. And then I said: ”There is something in here that I like but there is something that I didn’t like about it.“ And so, when I went back to the studio, I had the engineer pull off the bottom on it because there was a lot more bass in it. And it just sounded muddy to me. Once Steve pulled the bottom of the whole shit popped out like crazy and it was my favorite piece in life. And even to the point when he took the ’Pee Wee Herman’ ’Get-a-get-a-get’ (scratches in the air) to give it a extra like (waves with his arms) – oh shit – I thought that that was probably the most brilliant piece of scratch work on a record to me ever".

Quotes from the Red Bull Music Academy interview with Hank Shocklee

A1 - You're Gonna Get Yours (Vocal)
A2 - You're Gonna Get Yours (Dub/Terminator X Getaway Version)
A3 - Miuzi Weighs A Ton (Vocal Mix)
B1 - Rebel Without A Pause (Vocal Mix)
B2 - Rebel Without A Pause (Instrumental)

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Buy at Discogs

Big Daddy Kane - Raw / Word To The Mother (Land) 12" (1987)

A1 - Raw
A2 - Word To The Mother (Land)
B1 - Raw (Dubapella)

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Witchdoctor & The Dominating 3 MCs - Kickin' It Live

When I was a young 'un I listened to the late great John Peel's radio show every night religiously just to hear the hip hop as he was the only DJ playing it at the time, amongst other oddities and weirdness of course. I heard this one on that show and managed to get a copy some days later from Roulette records in Sheffield (which is now a sandwich shop) and it cost £12.99. I know this because I still have it today and it's a dope piece of wax, one I'd never want to sell, firin' on every level. 'Rock The House' became my personal favourite mainly because of the rhyming style but also the beat is off the chain, very experimental, no-one would do such a thing today. The cover's good too. One of them has a red shiny coat on and white moon boots. Also very experimental, no-one would do such a thing today and he probably shouldn't have back then. the password is 'tothebreakofdawn'. Didn't mean to do that, force of habit.

The dominating 3, Brooklyn's best crew.