It’s a quick random flashback to the spring of 1989, where hours were spent entertaining friends in my dorm room with this album. A stroke of genius it was (and is). Here’s my favorite cut, complete with samples of Hall & Oates’ “I Can’t Go For That”…
De La Soul - Say No Go (mp3)
Buy 3 Feet High and Rising
I’m not going to knock Diddy for this one. If I was standing next to Jessica Biel, I’d probably gaze at her golden globes too. Well done Diddy! What a great segue into another Old School Friday!
Schooly D: Am I Black Enough for You? (mp3) - from 1989’s album of the same name, this was Schoolly D’s fourth release. With songs like “Black”, “Black Is…”, “Education of a Black Man”, “Black Education”, “Black Jesus”, and “Black Power”, um, yeah, I’d call it afrocentric.
Slick Rick: The Moment I Feared (mp3) - Ricky Walters, aka Slick Rick, left Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew in the late 80’s to embark on a very successful solo career (even with a two year prison term in the midst of it all). This one comes from his 89 debut, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick.
Whistle: Barbara’s Bedroom (mp3) - Who remembers Whistle? “We’re Only Buggin”, anyone? This album was on regular rotation in, what 86, 87, I think?
I haven’t busted out the old school in a while. Let’s, shall we?
Man Parrish: Boogie Down Bronx (mp3) - Buy
Cybotron: Clear (mp3) - Buy
Mantronix: In Full Effect (mp3) - Buy
Planet Patrol: Play at Your Own Risk (mp3) - Buy
2 Live Crew: Get it Girl (mp3)- explicit - Buy
Or go to eMusic and go crazy! It’s Old School Friday!
Wordpress, the blogging software behind this blog, has a cool feature that snatches comment spam and tucks it away so I can delete it. I have a question. Who are the people that spend their days creating this stuff?? What low-life wastes of space get up in the morning and look forward to a day of carpet bombing the internet with this trash?
What the hell is hentaipowerpuff?? On second thought, I don’t wanna know. It just mystifies me that there are people that do this. Obviously $$$ is the driving force, but holy cow, what a way to make it.
Thank you. I guess I needed to get that off my chest.
So before I post another Springsteen tour update, I thought I’d spice it up a little. These songs have absolutely nothing to do with eachother. Or do they? I guess, like the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, that it wouldn’t take too many steps to connect them up. Hmm, Til Tuesday, Billy Bragg & Wilco, and Boogie Down Productions. Maybe they all played the same festival in Finland one year. Entirely possible.
Boogie Down Productions: Criminal Minded (mp3) - from Live Hardcore Worldwide.
Til Tuesday: Coming Up Close (mp3) - from Welcome Home.
Billy Bragg & Wilco: Walt Whitman’s Niece (mp3) - from Mermaid Avenue.
Oh, and here’s a YouTube link to a 4 year old banging away on the drums like a pro.
This may be the most disturbing and yet most transfixing video of all time. Paris Hilton strips down to her skivvies and sings a very-”uhh” horrible-”uhh” version of “Happy Birthday-uhhh” to Viagra poster boy Hugh Hefner on his 80th birthday…..
Paris, you’re pretty and all, but just go away, will ya? Your 15 - no 45 - minutes was up a couple years ago. Be gone-uhhh!!
Video of Paris Hilton singing Happy Birthday. (from the Superficial)
Run-DMC: Dumb Girl (mp3) - from Raising Hell
Whodini: I’m a Ho (mp3) - from Back in Black
Okay, attention all old school connoisseurs (even I had to look that one up). I need your help!! I’ve been digging through my old tapes, and need help identifying the artist that performs this song… the old trick of putting the lyrics into Google is not working!
This old school joint comes from a mix on a Milwaukee radio station that used to have a nightly hot mix (WLUM). I taped a bunch of them between 1984-1986. One of the mixes has this song thrown in… I would be indebted to anyone who could help me figure out who recorded it. I figure someone out there will know…
Mystery Old School Jam: “Don’t You Wanna Dance” ?? (mp3)
In the early 90’s, X Clan exploded on the hip hop scene with two kick-ass Parliament / Funkadelic-laden, afrocentric, hard hitting albums: ‘To the East, Blackwards’, and ‘Xodus’. Now, after a long hiatus, in which member Brother J formed a new group, Dark Sun Riders, and another, Sugar Shaft, died of AIDS-related complications in 1995, X Clan is back.
The Brooklyn-based group is making a comeback, with a 2006 release - ‘Return from Mecca’ - in the works. They have an unreleased track up on their web site called “Weapon X”. It’s classic X Clan with the intense rolling beats and Brother J’s booming baritone controlling the flow.
They offer a few mp3’s on their web site, including the essential “Funkin’ Lesson”and “Grand Verbalizer What Time is It?” from their debut album. Here I have their unreleased track, along with the title track from ‘Xodus’.
X Clan: Weapon X (mp3) unreleased | Xodus (mp3) from Xodus
So I’ve been going through my boxes of old cassettes, and am starting the arduous task of converting them to mp3. The first to get the treatment was ‘Terminator X & the Valley of the Jeep Beats’. As the DJ for Public Enemy, T.X certainly made his mark as one of the most original and vibrant DJ’s in hip hop. In 1991, he released this debut solo album, bringing in a wide variety of mostly obscure guests: Bonnie & Clyde, Juvenile Delinquintz, Spacey B Experience, etc.
But he did pull in Chuck D. and Sista Soulja for “Buck Whylin”. He also goes reggae with the track “DJ is the Selector”, sung by Dubmaster. From the old school, here’s a little taste of Terminator X.
Terminator X: Vendetta…The Big Payback > Buck Whylin’ (mp3) | DJ is the Selector (mp3)
My college partner in crime, Jason, noticing my recent trend of reaching way back into my past (80’s Prince), emerged recently with an email containing the Beastie Boys version of ‘Bennie and the Jets’, as sung by Biz Markie. He “originally had it as a floppy pull-out 45 from that Beastie Boys zine, Grand Royal. Like a perfume insert from one of those (you’re-not-a) beauty magazines, except it reeked of beastibizfunk.” Amen brother.
Beastie Boys w/ Biz Markie: Benny & the Jets (mp3) - found on The Sounds of Science (1999)
Ah hell, here’s one more old school classic I was reminded of recently on Sirius BackSpin:
EPMD: You’re a Customer (mp3) - from Strictly Business (1988)
Like me, Jason recognizes The Three Amigos as a timeless classic (he noticed my singing bush reference recently), and threw in My Little Buttercup (mp3) for good measure.
“It’s a sweater!!”
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