It's Sunday once again so I've picked a crate of records I haven't looked at for ages and decided that this one is in need of a little exposure in case you forgot about it. I don't remember paying much for this, probably about 3 or 4 quid a few years ago but it's a solid tune, nothing fancy, just hard rockin' drum machine driven old school niceness.
Decent effort by one of the UK's most well known MCs after he dropped the 'MC' of course.
'Tales Of What Daddy Did' was always a fave of mine although the subject matter is not, I guess you could say, anything to like. I don't know if all these came with the lyric sheet to said track but mine did.
Superb first installment of the instrumental mini LP series from UK undergrounders Def Tex. I have all three but this is the most scarce and the best I think. Yeah, it is..
I had a go at Beat Street just recently for being a bit rubbish but I think this record, albeit not by any means a hardcore hip hop record, is a corker.A bit of a boring Sunday was on the cards yesterday so I grabbed a crate of records and this was the pick of the bunch as I hadn't heard it for a long time. 1984 eh, those were the days my friend..
Once upon a time I was a budding DJ. I started off just mixing the records I already had but then came the breaks and I was hooked. The UBB series was the only commercial source where you got 8-10 tracks with a decent and often well known break on each cut so that seemed to be the way to go. I bought 'em all first time around including the elusive first press of volume 8, (which is not this one or this one) which was pulled almost as quickly as it was released due to copyright infringements or something, not sure of the whole story there. After I quit the deejaying thing due to lagging interest I carried on buying the wax as that's a more difficult habit to kick and I came across this little beauty. I'm pretty sure it's never been used as a base on any release to date, maybe on the odd DJ set,(which is where I first clapped ears on it), at some b-boy throwdown type thing as it's certainly one for the breakers. I'm not sure if attempting to share my enthusiasm for breaks is going to go down well and I hope Mach is ok with me posting such records but we'll give it a go shall we. Your comments both positive and negative are most welcome.
Here's a record I bought in '86 that I haven't played since '86, probably. It's alright I guess, not a standout track by any means but the beat was (and still is) the thing and this has a large one.
Just three cuts, Radio, Long and Instrumental versions. I prefer 'Rappin Insane' and will get a copy one day I'm sure.
I like this record a lot. It took me a while but I eventually bagged a copy about 5 or 6 years ago for a fiver which I thought was a bargain. Couldn't believe it. A fiver. And it's mint too. It doesn't seem to get too much of a mention when it comes to what could be described as 'classics' and in truth it probably isn't but to me it's the kind of record that gives me that instant nostalgic feeling that we all really enjoy. We like to talk about it and it makes us feel good. We love to remember the halcyon days' like old men reminiscing in the pub (or the doctor's surgery..) 'cos they were better. I remember walking down the street with the 'ghetto blaster' cranked to the hilt blasting this one out and people giving me funny looks. I didn't care though. Life's too short and they needed to hear it. So do you.
Quality real old school disco rap and my personal fave of all time by 'the five emcees [that] sound like one'. A friend of a friend had some relatives over in Detroit in the US and after a 4 week stay over there he brought back some tapes with him of a guy called 'The Wizard' on WJLB (I think) and one of them had this cut on it which was the first time I ever heard it. I couldn't find a copy for years so when the re-issue dropped it was 6 quid well spent. Just the two tracks, vocal and instrumental on this one and a couple of spelling mistakes thrown in to annoy certain folk. Enjoy (records)..
This is the second release by the lads from the West Midlands and is my personal favourite. Staying true to form there're three variations of the same track again but I feel this record just pips the one below for hardcoreness, (if that is a word). You can't deny that the break from 'Amen Brother' and a few sirens will make your Easter day just that little bit more special.
I think these guys, like many UK artists went under the radar somewhat and I also feel that if they weren't signed to this label maybe their records would be sought after more considering that they were recorded almost 20 years ago. There're three variations of the same track on here and all are presented in the firin' 'britcore' (I hate that word) style.
I was watching one of those Michael Holman old school DVDs this morning, volume 1 to be exact and the first one on it is some bloke called MC Easy Gee and he's rhyming to this. It's all very entertaining but the thing that kept bugging me was the DJ who kept on letting the record play too long and the rappers on the original recording are overlapping Easy Gee's rhymes. Why didn't he just flip the plastic and use the instrumental version? Anyway, I don't have an OG copy just this bootleg which I bought around 3 or 4 years ago and it's just as nice. Also, check out the producer's name mid right, I never noticed that before.
I've been walking to work (only part of the way) for a few months now to try and combat the inevitable middle age spread which has enabled me to listen to a lot more music than I normally would on my ipod thingy. I was trudging along in the pissing rain this morning and this came on and cheered me up a little as it's the kind of record I remember when I was a young 'un. Initial exposure for me was the B-side on John Peel's radio show and it must've been good because he played it on two seperate occasions and he didn't do that too often. The latest Fatlace podcast/radio show has some decent offerings too and they recall, albeit brief memories of John Peel's radio show as they're a couple of Northeners like myself and John Peel was the man for hip hop back then if you didn't live anywhere near that London so that's partly why I uploaded it today. And it's produced by Teddy Riley, which I'd forgotten, who made some thumpin' records before taking a turn down swingbeat & R & B Avenue and making some more commercial tunes aimed at the girls amongst us. This is quality though. Firin', speaker bustin', wife botherin', heavy drum machine driven hip hop and I love it.
I won this on ebay last week for less than 3 quid which I thought was a bargain. I had never heard the A-side before but the B-side was always a personal fave of mine as DJ Cash Money gets busy good style on the scratching cut. I used to love the way he cut up the fat boys' 'come on beatbox play one for me', (which still sounds dope today), on 'You're A Pest' and I tried to emulate that many a time I can tell you. 'Sally's' Attack' is the inferior cut in my opinion but her name should win an award even though 'The Human Beat Breath' could be conceived to be a little disgusting sounding. Oh yeah, and they spelled 'you're' as 'your' on the label which is a schoolboy error and should've been corrected before going to press.
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.
Want to become part of To The Break Of Dawn? We're looking for anyone wanting to share out of print hip hop, electro, freestyle, dance... anything with a dope beat. Leave a comment with your email address or better yet shoot an email to machiventa858 at yahoo dot com and I'll add you to our list of funky dope contributors.
I was 'suffering' with a bit of a cold last weekend so I stayed in bed an extra couple of hours and decided to watch 'Beat Street'. Now, I haven't seen it for a number of years and I have to say, it's pretty bad (and that's bad meaning bad). I searched for the Rocksteady bits, watched Melle Mel do his thing right at the end and swiftly switched to the superior and infinitely more entertaining 'Wild Style'. The music is real hip hop, the graff is real graff and the people are the subjects of the whole thing are the real deal too, (which is obvious from the acting but what the hell). Check out the Beat Street OST if you haven't and just count how many real hip hop tracks are on there and, considering there are two volumes, it's really not that many. Compare those to the one volume of Wild Style and it goes without saying that the music is more relevant to the whole movement even now. Watch Wild Style and not Beat Street for true hip hop legends. Jazzy Jay and Kool Herc only have bit parts in Beat Street and even Melle Mel is impersonated for the first verse of the title track. What the hell were they thinking?
Been after this 12" for longer than I can remember now but that good-things-come-to-those-who-wait business has paid off for once. I put up the B-side scan as that is the tune I remember the most. In fact I don't remember anyone ever playing the A-side when I was a kid, it was 'bea...bea...beatbox' all the way. It could sound a little minimal to new ears but I was real pleased when it was delivered on Friday and it sounds just as fresh as the first time. To me at least.
Dope mid eighties jam and one that I didn't pick up first time around. I stumple upon this about 4-5 years ago whilst wading through an online acquaintances mp3 collection (of his own records mostly) and downloaded it 'cos of the title, which, incidentally, is the way I used to buy records in the early days as some of the people behind the counters in the stores 'didn't have time' to play a snippet of what you were interested in. Anyway, it's a really good track and I bought my own piece of wax about 2 years ago, still sealed for £2.78 which no-one on this earth could possibly sniff at.
When I was about 13 we formed an after school society and called it 'breaking club' and we held 'meetings' twice a week. At first we had to be chaperoned by a teacher and it usually lasted for about an hour. There were around 15 members at first but enthusiasm faded (amongst the weak..) and attendance soon dwindled to 5 and the teachers stopped showing up so we ended up staying as long as we wanted and some weeks we even stayed every day to practice on the shiny wooden floors in the hall and we all got quite good and formed a crew called 'Faze 4' (yes, that's right, there were 5 of us). After some months we all got kinda bored, the 5 became 3, we were dancing to the same music because it was too hard to get new tapes and records were non-existent until one day a new kid started, heard about the club and joined up and he brought a tape with new stuff on that we hadn't heard before. All hail the new kid (can't even remember his name, think it might be Joe) and the rebirth of 'Faze 4'. I don't need to tell you the name of the first cut that blasted out of the stereo. That's why old music is the best.
Dope 12" from '86 with some big reverb on the beats a la 'PSK' make this your typical fare from this era. This is the kind of record I loved back when I was a young 'un, rock hard beats, no nonsense rhyming and loads of scratching. The main hook of the tune is, 'you never heard a dj with cuts like these' and whether or not that was true is immaterial really; they big up their dj and their crew and tell everyone else that they're the best. Job done.
A1 - Classic Material (Album Vocal)
A2 - Classic Material (Remix Vocal) Remix - Diamond D
A3 - Classic Material (Album Instrumental)
B1 - Spontaneous (13 MC's Deep!) (Album Vocal)
B2 - Spontaneous (13 MC's Deep!) (Remix Vocal)
B3 - Spontaneous (13 MC's Deep!) (Album Instrumental)
Download (MediaFire)
