I’m not buying the sauce the Bawse is selling on Deeper than Rap. I explain why in this review from this week’s Time Out. The assignment encouraged me to revisit Trilla, though. Now, that is a solid album. Been cranking this, too. Dude sounds real good on a fast early ’90s beat. Or maybe it’s just this one in particular. I don’t know why he stops after the one verse—I’m left wanting to hear a few more. “Fake Saigon, maybe”> any line on Deeper Than Rap.

Time Out also published my review of the new Wu-Tang covers album by El Michels Affair. A solid pickup for serious Wu fans, but are there enough of those any more? On a side note, I feel silly typing this but Blackout 2 could end up being the best rap album of…the quarter? first half? I heard it in a very muggy, dude-filled room last week, and was semi-amazed by the consistent quality of the tracks I heard.

Freezing my ass off @ first (pre-season) Mets game at Citi Field.

Published a few pieces about baseball recently, something I hadn’t done in a while. In this past week’s Time Out, I compare and contrast a pair of new books by Daryl Strawberry and his fellow ‘86 Mets alumnus, Ron Darling. Also wrote this piece a few weeks ago in which I recommend a handful of obscure New York parks where you just might be able to get on a baseball diamond on a nice day without a permit.

Flyer courtesy: Sugar Bear

Brits love Sugar Bear’s “Don’t Scandalize Mine.” It got so much burn at Manchester’s Hacienda club, it was included on EMI’s Hacienda Classics compilation. Thom Yorke has been documented dancing to it. They throw together videos like this. Unfortunately, however, Sugar Bear, was not embraced as wholeheartedly at home on Long Island, where he came up with Flavor Flav and Townhouse 3 (the crew that would later become Son of Bazerk) in Freeport before following Public Enemy out the gates of 510 S. Franklin St. in Hempstead, a.k.a. Bomb Squad HQ.

Though “Ready to Penetrate,” the B-side to “Don’t Scandalize Mine,” got some New York radio play thanks to its appearance on Kool DJ Red Alert’s We Can Do This compilation, Bear never recorded again save for an appearance on British DJ Richie Rich’s I Can Make You Dance LP. And that’s what makes “Don’t Scandalize Mine” b/w “Ready to Penetrate” such a rare beast: a 12″ single by a one-release artist with not one, but two, great sides. Read the rest of this entry »

Larry Smith’s name rarely shows up in discussions of the “greatest” hip-hop producers. But the sea change Smith ushered in on Run-DMC’s “Sucker MCs” makes advancements associated with more lauded beatmakers like Pete Rock, Dr. Dre and Timbaland arguably pale by comparison. In building “Sucker MCs” around nothing but the kicks and claps of an Oberheim DMX drum machine, Smith (and co-producer Russell Simmons) killed off the quick-buck rap records of ‘79-’82, and laid the framework for hip-hop that reflected the hardcore vibe of park jams while actually bringing something musically fresh to the table. In this post written just after RUN-DMC’s recent induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Russell Rush commendably points out to his public that Jam Master Jay wasn’t the only person missing from Daryl and Joe’s side that night. Smith, the musical mastermind behind RUN-DMC’s first two albums as well as classic tracks by Whodini, Jimmy Spicer, Kurtis Blow and the Fat Boys, is still recuperating from a serious stroke.

Jalil from Whodini told me Russell has been footing his old co-producer’s medical bills: I hope that’s true. While Russell’s launch of RUN-DMC helped put him on the road to mogulhood, Larry wasn’t as fortunate. I had a very brief conversation with him a few years back, and the gist of it was that he frequently changes phone numbers to avoid bill collectors; the interview I’d hoped to arrange never happened. Unable to find a proper retrospective of Larry’s contributions on the web (let alone a decent photo of dude), I figured I’d pick up where Russ-O left off, and compile a list of the most vital productions from St. Albans, Queens’ other Mr. Smith: Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to a little help from some friends, my recent Just-Ice posts have gotten a flattering number of hits. Figured I’d take the opportunity, then, to post up some of my other recent contributions to XXL’s “Backtrack” (formerly “Classic Material”) department, since they don’t put these online. Jump for three greatly underrated ’80s rap classics: Stetsasonic’s In Full Gear, Kid ‘N Play’s 2 Hype and the king of all underrated ’80s jawns, Whodini’s (somehow out of press) Escape. I’ll be posting some outtakes shortly. The great Brian Coleman, who started “Classic Material”, turned his interviews into two great books, so I figure why not get a few good blog posts out of ‘em. Read the rest of this entry »

Lakeview is a middle-class Black neighborhood sandwiched between the upscale, almost all-White enclaves of Rockville Centre (to the east) and Malverne (to the west), just south of Hempstead. Geographically, it’s very narrow and easy to miss: many Long Islanders, even those who grew up nearby, don’t know it exists. I used to work there and one thing I always noticed was that it’s kind of a bucolic place, except for this one, very hood shopping strip with a bodega and a laundromat that felt like it had been airlifted out of Brooklyn or the BX. That strip, on Woodfield Road, is the primary location for Hard 2 Obtain’s “L.I. Groove,” one of my favorite Long Island-based rap videos. Often, groups from L.I. would film their videos in the city instead of giving viewers the sort of local perspective that we got from acts from, say, Brooklyn, L.A. or the South. This is the opposite, taking us around the Woodfield Road area as well as nearby Long Beach, site of the impeccably photographed album cover for Ism & Blues, their lone LP. Read the rest of this entry »

When I interviewed Just-Ice about his classic ‘86 debut, Back to the Old School, for XXL recently, I asked him about his use of the term “blunts” in the track “Little Bad Johnny”—the first such mention in any rap song. His response was a detailed account of the evolution of every rapper’s favorite weedsmoking instrument. Naturally, this tangent didn’t make the piece, but I thought those interested in New York lore might appreciate Just’s breakdown of how the Jamaican practice of smoking weed out of large, hollowed-out tobacco leaves (known as “fronto leafs”) evolved into an NYC ‘hood staple and, eventually, an ubiquitous rap talking point. Read the rest of this entry »

The photo credit for this pic says “Cat Stevens”

Extra Golden are a half-Kenyan, half-American band whose sound mixes a variety of American rock styles (Southern rock, psych) with benga, a celebratory, electric guitar-based musical form popular in Kenya’s Luo region. The result is something indescribably awesome, and should not be confused with corny, rich kid Paul Simon-wannabe bullshit. I dug their first album, Ok-Oyot System, back in 2006, and I like their new one, Thank You Very Quickly, even more. I wrote a brief piece in this week’s Time Out to preview their show this Saturday at Le Poisson Rouge. Their label, Thrill Jockey, put together this charming little promo video for their second album, 2007’s Hera Ma Nono. I think it really captures the feelgood essence of the whole project. Watch and smile.

I spoke to Just-Ice about his first and best album, Back to the Old School, in this month’s XXL (Rick Ross cover). As those familiar with the original gangster of hip-hop’s catalog and life might expect, he was alternately intense and hilarious. More from Just in a minute…

It’s been almost a month since my last post. In that time, I got my ass kicked by some labor intensive writing projects, turned 30, went out to California for my first full on vacation in years, came back home, did some more work. Somehow, to the detriment of whatever momentum I had before that point, blogging about music was the furthest thing from my mind through it all. Ready to get back to business, though.

Reviewed the new UGK in this past week’s issue of Time Out. Can’t get enough of this album. Except that god damn Akon track. I don’t hate Akon as much as some other people, but Christ, way to mess up a potentially great thing. Several weeks after writing it, I stand by my five-out-of-six rating, though.