Get Fresh Batteries If It Don't Rewind

I'll close out this week in old school hip hop by posting the first big hit for LL Cool J, released way back in 1985. It's a testament to him that someone who started out in the mid 80's is still around releasing records. The Kangol hat-wearing hip hop icon has released fast paced tunes like "Mama Said Knock You Out", the famed ballad "I Need Love", and even as of last year has had songs on the R&B charts. Admittedly, I thought "Headsprung" was terrible, but the late 90's jam "Phenomenon" is some good shit. Plus, he's been in TV shows and movies so he has had one hell of a career. He calls himself the "G.O.A.T." (Greatest Of All Time) after an old Muhammad Ali saying, and it's not so ridiculous.

Here is his first song on the chart, "I Just Can't Live Without My Radio," produced by the great Rick Rubin very early in his career. Here all you have is J's vocal, a constantly ticking high hat, a pounding drumbeat, some scratching in the middle of the song, and short blasts of horns, and it's great as he raps about his big boombox that he loves to carry around with him at all times (yes, for you youngins, this is what some people used to hear music before the days of iPods).

LL Cool J-"I Just Can't Live Without My Radio" (7.50 MB, 192 Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/vVsglc233229/LL%20Cool%20J-I%20Just%20Can%27t%20Live%20Without%20My%20Radio.MP3.html

Oh, and to address something that I read on another website, it'd be inaccurate to portray me as someone who enjoys everything that Missy Elliott puts out. I mean, for example, when she bleated like a sheep on "Gossip Folks" or "Pass The Dutch",that was just terrible (thankfully for the former, the song is saved by Ludacris, something you can't say about the latter). But, she's had some kick-ass songs, such as "We Run This", "Get UR Freak On" (the remix with Nelly Furtado was even better, although the downside is that it gave Ms. Furtado the idea to abandon her unique sound and become another random pop chanteuse, which except for "Maneater" has proved to be a TERRIBLE idea), and "Work It".

I'll be back on Thursday with a rather odd video download.

And You Can't Explain Why You Claimed Your Cat

I know, I'm late with this. I was just swamped with things to do today and I didn't have a whole lotta time to write this until now. Funny thing is, this is going to be pretty short and sweet. Hopefully at least some of you are familiar with Kurtis Blow and his famed song "The Breaks", which oddly enough is the only song of his I really cared for ("Basketball" didn't do a lot for me). But, The Breaks is a monster jam. Besides it being very Goddamn funky, you also have Kurtis humorously rapping about how everyone experiences bad breaks in their life (such as dealing with the IRS, people who go to dinner with you but they make you pay the bill, and so on and so forth), but you should just go with the flow, which is a good life lesson overall. Don't be downtrodden by the bad things in life-enjoy all the good shit instead.

It should be noted that with the mainstream popularity Kurtis experienced, he was accused of being a "sell-out", so it's a phenomenon that has existed for years in the hip hop game. The music industry and its fans are quite interesting; as they rise up you feel happy to support something that isn't popular, but if they do become hot like gangbusters, you tend to drop them like a habit. Most of the time I don't get it myself, but alas...

Kurtis Blow-"The Breaks" (10.90 MB, 192 Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/cZ9w8W232240/Kurtis%20Blow-The%20Breaks.MP3.html

I'll be back on Tuesday with the last song for this old school week.

And I Got More Rhymes Than A Bank Got Dimes

This selection came when I was reading a random webpage one day and they mentioned Jimmy Spicer, an old hip-hop performer who had a long song known as "The Adventures of Super Rhymes" where he raps for almost 15 minutes straight with a unique sounding voice and delivery. I downloaded the song and what was said about it was true. If you can believe it, he raps about:

Being a rapper from "another planet"

Being Dracula and going to Studio 54 in NYC (!)

Being Aladdin and going to 1980

And more. It sounds odd, sure, but he has some great rhymes, as you can see here. The beat is pretty catchy too.

I know, the songs this week don't talk about "making it rain", or which skeezy bitch he wants to get wit, or tramps and ho's, or his bling and 23 inch rims or pouring out a 40 for his dead homey, but it's always nice to see a guy pimp himself without using constant vulgarities (I think Lil Jon's head would explode if he tried to do that for more than a minute at a time!) and use some unique rhymes too (and being able to understand the rapper is another important thing; sometimes I think there are too many guys out there who either rap way too fast or are total mushmouths). Hopefully you'll agree with me on this.

Jimmy Spicer-"The Adventure of Super Rhymes" (13.17 MB, 128 Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/7cOXo230773/Jimmy%20Spicer%20-%20The%20Adventures%20Of%20Super%20Rhymes%20(1).mp3.html

I'll be back on Sunday with another tune.

Don't Push Me, 'Cause I'm Close To The Edge

One of the most important artists in the rap genre all time (let alone old school hip hop) is Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, who in a few weeks will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside such people as R.E.M. and Van Halen. This album is a cursory but still important glance at explaining why they're renowned. Even though they were only together for a few years the Furious Five left an indelible mark on the genre. If you're familiar with them, it's probably due to "The Message", the first ever rap where social issues are discussed and mentioned in a serious manner. Before that, though, their records either showed off Flash's scratching skills or were party records featuring kazoos (really).

The first song I'm putting up is known as "The Birthday Song". While it's not the best of their party joints, I have to put it up today, as February 22nd happens to be my birthday. That's right, I turned 26 today even though I still look like I'm a teenager! You'll get to hear that, indeed, they used kazoos as an instrument for everyone to get down to.

The second song is a similar song to "The Message" in that they talk about serious social issues. This is "New York New York", where you get to hear about a person jumping off the ledge due to problems in his life, someone having to eat dog food as he can't afford real food, prostitution, and most heartbreaking, a young mother putting her newborn child in a trashcan as she can't afford to feed both. It shows the darker side of inner city life and its importance is showing how too many people have to live in that environment. Don't worry, though, the song is very catchy too.

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five-"The Birthday Song" (7.93 MB, 192
Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/uCEnmz230124/Grandmaster%20Flash%20_%20The%20Furious%20Five-The%20Birthday%20Song.MP3.html

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five-"New York New York" (9.94 MB, 192 Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/JDS8CA0230127/Grandmaster%20Flash%20_%20The%20Furious%20Five-New%20York%20New%20York.MP3.html

Friday afternoon I'll post a more upbeat tune.

Hey, it's still Tuesday night over on the West Coast…

It's appropriate for me to start off this old school hip hop week by uploading what was the first ever successful hip hop song, even though The Sugarhill Gang weren't exactly a well-respected "crew" by any means. That's right, it's the classic "Rapper's Delight". Everyone is familiar with it, but I don't know how many have heard the full album version, all 14 and a half minutes of it. As it's such a historic song, it pays to hear the full version rather than any edited version of it, right?

In my opinion, even better than "Rapper's Delight" is their song "Apache", which samples a song from the 70's with the same title. I'll always remember the song and attach it to the memory of some pro wrestlers at a Hooters after a show (don't ask).

Some of you may be familiar with "Apache" due to it being sampled by Missy Elliott in her song "We Run It", which was a song I liked, meaning that you only heard it for about one week on the radio stations (you can't get in the way of such genius songs as "Fergalicious" now, can we?). I'll upload that too, for a nice threesome.

I'll be back sometime Thursday afternoon (I promise!)

Sugarhill Gang-"Rapper's Delight" (19.87 MB, 192 Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/P23On2q229194/Rapper%27s%20Delight-The%20Sugarhill%20Gang.MP3.html

Sugarhill Gang-"Apache" (8.57 MB, 192 Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/ZyGJvtT229195/Sugarhill_Gang_-_Apache.MP3.html

Missy Elliott-"We Run This" (4.70 MB, 192 Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/gsLPR229196/Missy%20Elliott%20-%20We%20Run%20This.MP3.html

Happy President's Day

It would be the ironic thing for me to pick a political song where countries such as the US are bashed in honor of President's Day. I don't mean to be a hipster here but that's exactly what I am going to do. This song is a meeting between punk and hip-hop (or even funk). It is a record from Time Zone, a group put together by Afrika Bambattaa. A guest vocalist on this record, known as "World Destruction", is John Lydon, best known as Johnny Rotten of The Sex Pistols and Public Image LTD. It's a totally bizarre idea for a duet, and yet, it ends up working as the music behind the lyrics is awesome and funky and both guys do a great job of singing their political manifesto about how things (according to many people) got fucked up in the Reagan-era 80's. This isn't really a place to talk about politics, but even if you don't agree with what they said, you should still enjoy what's a damn good song from the 80's.

Time Zone-"World Destruction" (7.68 MB, 192 Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/nMCfx3228466/World%20Destruction-Time%20Zone.MP3.html

I'm trying out a new service where you just click on the link and it sends you to a page where you can click on another link and it will download the MP3 right onto your computer without having to unzip it by WinZip or another similar service. I'm sure everyone thinks that's a better and easier way to d/l songs.

Starting tomorrow is my Old School Hip Hop week.

I'm Pushing Things Back A Day

I've been swamped the past few days, so instead of posting a tune today and starting the old school hip hop thing on Monday, I'm just pushing things back a day, so the hip hop week will start on Tuesday, and on Monday I'll post a song that isn't related to the week but is still quite good.