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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Cut Master D.C. - Santa's Beat Box

I wanted to be able to scratch like the Cut Master real bad. I would say he was the first major influence on me as far as scratching goes but if I'm honest I never quite got it the style I was looking for before I gave up in the early nineties. Listen to track 3 at around 2:08 and tell me that doesn't still sound dope today. Happy Christmas readers.

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Def Defiance - Rhyme Children/Chemical Attack

Bought myself one of these last week and it's dope. Limited press 7" single on nuclear green vinyl with colour picture sleeve. You know you want one so get one here:  www.blinerecordings.bigcartel.com
B-Line Recordings is fast becoming my favourite label, only missed this one so if there's any left I'd like a copy please.

Cut Master D.C. - The Night Before Christmas

Well, it's almost here and I've resisted for a few years now but here's a fresh 320kbps rip of one of the Cut Master's better releases. The absolutely bangin' drums on this one still do it for me every time I hear it.
Part two of TTBOD does Christmas next week..

'Here comes Santa Claus'

Aleem - Release Yourself

Another classic from the NIA label and Streetsounds Electro 5 which still sounds fresh today. I never actually owned Electro 5 until years after it was released but I recorded a copy off a mate, ('Home taping is killing music' - sorry Morgan but we all did it) a few days after he bought it in '84 and that particular mate at that particular time thought this was the best record he'd ever heard. I disagreed as 'The Buck Stops Here' and 'B-Boys Breakdance' were harder sounding what with me being a b-boy and all but I still bought a copy as it is an astoundingly good record.
p.s. I'm currently ripping a couple of Cutmaster DC Christmas tunes so get ready..

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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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Supreme Force - You Gotta Come Out Fresh

Always liked this one, had it since '86 too, this is my kind of record. Crews bouncing off each other before passing the mic, you know, the Cold Crush or Fantastic Five type of thing. Everybody around this time had to be influenced by those guys and it's evident here. Tough beats, solid rhymes, and they're called 'Supreme Force' so it was a no brainer for me. NIA was a decent label too.

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MC Chill - MC Story

I think MC Chill is under represented on these types of things. My first listening experience came via a tape one of my brothers got from a new kid at school - I think I made a reference before - and he presented it to me with marks out of 5 for each track and he gave 'Bust This Rhyme' a '2' which, I think is pretty unfair as he 'left' hip hop around the same year and now listens to anything from Pearl Jam to Bing fuckin' Crosby so I give him '0' out of 5 for that choice. Anyway, an online acquaintance showed me a youtube vid of a live performance of Mr. Chill upped by the man himself so I thought I'd dig this out to show some respect and enthusiasm I guess for a decent 12" from '86. My personal fave is 'Downbeats' so I might get around to that at some point if I remember. I really think ' The Prophesy' is one of his worst but, what the hell.

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Smitty 'D' & Rock Squad - Kic Kic

Won this earlier this week on ebay. Had it back in '86 but you know how it is when you're young and have no cash flow but I'd forgotten about it and had a lowish bid and won. It was a little different to a lot of tunes released that year due to the sampled beats which were a little strange sounding to my young ears. The B-side is more of an authentic '86 sound but I don't like it as much. A random factoid here; I think Smitty 'D' is PMD's brother although I haven't bothered to check. I think I read it in an EPMD interview years ago in HHC or summat. Cool record.

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Chrome & Ill Inspired - You Should Know!

I bought myself one of these last week and I don't mind saying it's real hip hop done properly. Available from here and here and also from this guy. Very nice.

Divine Sounds - Do Or Die Bed Sty

I fuckin' love this record. I traded something for it back in '86, can't remember what but I've had it ever since. I haven't seen the guy I got it from for over 20 years now but I do remember he had it spinning when I walked in to his room and asking him what it was and him replying, 'why, do you like it?'. I obviously replied in the affirmative and I walked away with it that same day. He always preferred the uptempo miami bass stuff so that's maybe why he gave it up so quickly. He'd trade all sorts and the only slow tempo record I remember him liking was Double Duce's 'School Breakdown' which he described as 'magic' but I still got that one off him. And he went to London for that. Now all he plays, I'm told, is house music. Sucker.

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CD III - Success

I remember a mate of mine at the time singing the 'buying closets full of leather jeans' line to me while we stood at the hip hop rack in the record shop 'diggin' as you'd call it nowadays in an attempt to jog my memory and I couldn't remember this tune for the life of me. Until I got it home and played it of course and was most pleased. I think this can go down as my favourite CD III tune with 'And You Know That' coming a very close second. One of the best electro tunes of the year in my opinion and also Hitman Howie Tee's first group in case you didn't know although on here he hadn't taken on the 'hitman' moniker just yet and he's referred to as 'DJ H.T.'

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Awesome Foursome - Funky Breakdown

I replied to a comment a while back now and mentioned hearing this blasting out from someone's back garden while we were playing football on the field next to the scout hut near where I lived and I just stopped playing and listened and wanted it pretty badly. So I got one.

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Great Peso & Mr Nasty - It's Time To Rock

Another stone cold classic from '84 and one which always reminds me of Beat Street for some reason. Nothing more to say really, just one I've been feeling a lot over recent weeks.

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Roxanne Shante - Roxanne's Revenge

Classic electro 6 business and the first time I ever heard Shante rock the mic. I got this and three other Shante 12"s from a record fair held at the Leadmill in Sheffield and all four cost me 12 quid and they were all sealed too, which was nice. This would have been around 1987 I think and I still have 'em all today. I was still breakin' in '84 and this tune and 'The Original Human Beatbox' by Dougy Fresh were the biggest tunes around, for us at least, at the time. Happy days..

'I met this dude with the name of a hat'

Roxanne Shante - The Def Fresh Crew

Re-up. More classic Pop Art era Shante coming soon..

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Uncle Jamm's Army - What's Your Sign

I heard this in the Limit club one Saturday afternoon and freaked out. I also have good memories of DJ Mongoose - I've told you before but I'll tell you again, he was the resident DJ at the club on Saturday afternoons and he's also DJ Mink's older brother - scratching the classic 'fresh' sound from Fab 5 Freddy's famous single over the instrumental version and that freaked me out even more thus inspiring me to want to scratch like that myself. I don't have the tape any more, can't even remember what else was on it and if I'm honest it would sound pretty wack now but the memories of hearing it for the first time and wanting to replicate it so badly are good and that's what matters. The observant among you will also notice that this is the B-side as the A-side, 'Naughty Boy' is a dreadful track and should never have seen the light of day never mind have been chosen as the A-side to any single but I have recorded it and included it in the file for the completists out there.

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Roxanne Shante - Bite This

So, I'm back from my summer hols and ready for action, kind of. Here's a def slice of wax from '85 as requested in the c-box and it is Shante's best record I think. Marley Marl rocked the biggest beats around and that's exactly what I was looking for when I was a young 'un, still am now I guess. Do you remember when there was no regular hip hop played on the radio and you had to wait for the next Streetsounds release or maybe scrounge a tape off someone who was connected to someone else with a bit of cash who could afford US imports just to hear some new stuff? That was the only way you could get anything new and it was painful when you craved new music but it just wasn't quite reachable, especially when you had little or no money to hand. Then you heard a record like this and went wild? Yep, me too. '85 was a great year.

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Bad Boys feat. K Love - Bad Boys

Requested as Inspector Gadget but I think you'll find this is the tune you were looking for. I think most people know but this record is an early appearance by MC Serch later of 3rd Bass. Talking of 3rd Bass, have a little looky here...

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Word Of Mouth - King Kut

Nice request, tune.

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Disco Four - Get Busy

Re-up.

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K-Rob - I'm A Homeboy

Re-up.

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DJ Born Supreme Allah - Two, Three, Break (Part II-The Sequel)

OK, I've been incredibly busy of late, not much free time to spare so this'll be as quick as playing this record. This is like the Hip Hop On Wax 12"s, same on both sides and only one track but what a record. Enjoy your Sunday afternoon and if Murray wins the tennis I'll try and up summat extra special when I've a minute.

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Tricky Tee - Johnny The Fox

I got a few second hand records from 'SMR' via Beat Street Records in the mid to late eighties and I'm pretty sure this one is the last of the batch that I still own. Still a top record this after nearly thirty years. Fire.

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