Beantown Boogiedown - Thursday Throwback

(Belated) Thursday Throwback! Heavy D- Nuttin' But Love (1994)

nickdawg — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:42:18 +0000

I usually just skip the Thursday Throwback for the week if I don’t get around to posting it, but have to draw an exception this time around. Heavy D’s “Blue Funk” LP was the very first CD I ever owned, I bought it back in late ‘92 with my first Discman. A highly underrated album without any singles played heavily on the radio, Blue Funk was a slow burner for me that I learned to appreciate later on. Largely instrumental for putting both P Diddy and Notorious BIG on the map; Heavy D put them up on several tracks in “Blue Funk”, probably some of their earliest cameos!

Following Blue Funk came “Nuttin But Love”, which was also critically praised. However, this album also had several radio friendly cuts, one obviously being the title track. “Nuttin But Love” had a killer jeep beat and seamlessly tied in hints of both R&B and dancehall. Pretty much an anthem that got nonstop play during the dog-days of ‘94. It was one of the Heavster’s last hits, but his status as a hip hop legend was set in stone at that point.

It was saddening to hear about Heavy D’s passing earlier this week. Rest in peace.

Thursday Throwback! True Culture-It's So Good It's Bad (1991)

nickdawg — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 03:20:39 +0000

True Culture’s “It’s So Good It’s Bad” is a vintage hip hop joint I only discovered a few weeks ago. It’s a track that stays true to the hoodie-over-Karl-Kani-jeans consciousness that was prominent in east coast hip hop culture in the early 90s. Although the beats of “It’s So Good” actually register quite a bit slower than many of its hip hop counterparts circa 1991, the drums pack a major punch to make up for it. Sampling jazz was still a “new” thing in 1991 (although everyone and their grandmother in hip hop would be doing it a mere 12 months later), yet True Culture was ahead of the curve in that respect; those hammond keys punctuate the verses quite nicely.

Apparently a Yo! MTV Rap staple, “It’s So Good…” would end up being their only one. True Culture disappeared from the hip hop scene as fast as they entered into it, leaving only one full-length album in their footsteps.

Thursday Throwback! Whodini- Freaks Come Out At Night (1984)

nickdawg — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:31:08 +0000

I wanted to rep an old school Halloween rap song for this week’s TT. The challenge being, there aren’t many old school Halloween rap songs out there, and fewer that are any good. Then there’s Whodini. “Freaks Come Out At Night” is the most logical choice.

Honorable mention to Geto Boys’ “My Mind’s Playing Tricks On Me”, but they talk about Halloween being on the weekend. It’s on Monday this year, fools. Should’ve posted that video two years ago.

Thursday Throwback! Original Concept-Pump That Bass (1986)

nickdawg — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:37:45 +0000

I really am a sucker for pretty much ANYTHING with an 808 kick bass. Original Concept’s “Pump That Bass” not only checks the box above, but also has a second distinction. It’s one of those songs you’ve heard thousands of times without actually realizing it. That’s because many of the vocal and scratch stabs in Pump That Bass were endlessly sampled in classic hip hop tracks that came out during the decade that preceeded it in 1986. Coldcut’s remix of “Paid in Full” was likely the first major song to utilize a vocal piece from it the following year.

So if you’ve ever wondered where the “Get a little stupid…get, get a little stupid” line comes from, well now ya know.

Although mainly instrumental sans the scratching and vocal sample above, this was another example of the rock-rap merging that was very heavily prominent in the Def Jam fortress around that time.

Thursday Throwback! T La Rock-Bass Machine (1986)

nickdawg — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:31:45 +0000

This is 808’s, no heartbreak though. Breakdance, maybe….heartbreak, no. Mantronix proved very early on that the 808 was more than just a failed drum machine designed for rock bands who couldn’t afford session drummers. Even though a YouTube video hardly does it justice, just listen to those kicks.

Thursday Throwback! Dr. Dre-Puffing Blunts & Sipping Tanqueray (1992)

nickdawg — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:36:25 +0000

So I’ve never posted a Dre track in our thursday throwback series before, my bad. As easy as it would be to post pretty much ANYTHING from The Chronic, you’ve probably already heard every single tune from that album a million times by now. Instead I’m digging slightly deeper here with “Puffing Blunts And Sipping Tanqueray”.

This track was on the B-side of the 12” single of Dre Day, so it isn’t ridiculously rare, but if you weren’t a DJ you probably never heard it before. It easily would’ve blended in on The Chronic, complete with the Doctor’s signature G-funk sounds, piercing synths, and Eazy-E disses. The programming was a little weird, with Dre and the Lady of Rage swapping verses for the first few minutes, then the basic loop repeating ad infinitum for about seven minutes at the end. But remember it’s a Dre production, so he could loop a single bar for a half hour and it would still be a masterpiece!

Back in the early 90s, recording non-album B-sides that were only on 12” singles was a pretty common thing a lot of rap and hip hop artists were doing. The CD single format started to phase out in the mid 90s as labels wanted to push the full albums more heavily (for higher profit margin obviously). This meant that 12” singles respectively became more stripped down, with just the main, clean, and instrumental versions of the main song, and maybe a remix if you were lucky. Pretty sure this was the only released B-side Dre did in the Chronic era.

Thursday Throwback! Gigolo Tony-Smurf Rock (1986)

nickdawg — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:20:50 +0000

I have a hard time envisioning a song released today that incorporates not only the Smurf theme song, but also “Old McDonald Had A Farm”, that still manages to sound fresh. Somehow, Gigolo Tony pulled that off with his electro bass classic “Smurf Rock” in 1986. I guess the scratch cuts, which were still a few years ahead of their time, balance out the banjo and flute used on the riffs of our previously mentioned childrens’ anthems. Oh yeah, I kind of like how they tease the riff of Debbie Deb’s “When I Hear Music” midway through too. Why does music always have to be so SERIOUS, man?

Thursday Throwback! Party Rock-Set It Off (1986 Electro/Freestyle)

nickdawg — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:14:04 +0000

Although this track shares the same song title and style as 1984’s classic anthem by Strafe, “Set It Off” by Party Rock has nothing to do with that jam. What we have here is a six minute brick of pure unfiltered vintage electro. I don’t know too much about the Party Rock crew, aside from the fact that they pressed up several 12” singles in the vein of this track around the time. “Set It Off” can easily be played today and still sound fresh (in a hip, Miami Vice way). Six minutes of 808 breaks, vocoded lyrics, and aptly timed pads that refuse to overlap with the vocals.

“Set It Off” is no different from most other electro tunes that came out in the mid-late 1980s, but it’s still well produced. And as the MC says at the end, “The rhythm of the drum machine, is right on time.” And that it is.

Thursday Throwback! Al B Sure-Nite And Day (1988)

nickdawg — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 02:18:52 +0000

I honestly have no idea what the hell happened to Al B Sure after cutting his 1988 “In Effect Mode” LP, but hey, he made his impact on R&B and New Jack Swing music in a span of just 8 short songs. I bagged this LP last weekend for a dollar at Cheapo Records in Boston; I knew pretty quickly it was a dollar well spent.

Obviously the highlight is the album’s opener: “Nite And Day”. Even though I was only old enough to add and subtract at the time, I actually recall this track being played about every 30 minutes on the radio, especially that summer. The album was actually split right down the middle: 4 slow jams, and 4 upbeat but under-appreciated New Jack Swing pieces. Unfortunately the latter 4 were released ahead of New Jack Swing’s heyday, which didn’t start until the following year (which was when I was old enough to multiply and divide, by the way).

Production quality is very well done for a record this old, the keyboard pads have a ton of life in almost every song! But I won’t bore you with the tech talk for now.

Thursday Throwback! Cindy Mizelle-This Could Be The Night (1984)

nickdawg — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 03:53:18 +0000

Going back almost 3 decades to uncover some classic breaks on this one. Cindy Mizelle did not release very many tracks in her career. “This Could Be The Night” was her first in 1984, followed by a few sparodic 12”s in the 90s over a decade later. Ah well, at least the song in question was good enough to be showcased in the classic b-boy and breakdance documentary Beat Street, released the same year.

“This Could Be The Night” had quite a pop lean to it, clearly suggesting it was upbeat enough for even a non-breaker with zero hand-eye coordination to at least nod their head to it. Even after breakdancing briefly fell out of style later on that decade, Mizelle’s track was in full rotation in roller rinks across the continent.