I've always been into megamixes and I think Mr. Mixx was truly underrated...him, Coldcut, Steinski, etc. I loved how that stuff was raising the bar. Mega Mixx II (1987)
I just bought the "How Ya Like Me Now" vinyl record for 25 cents, and it's in great shape. First time I am going to hear it is when I make a needledrop of it soon. I've always had his "Knowledge Is King" album.
Bought this in 6th grade. Listened to it obsessively. Didn't realize it even existed on CD. Gonna go buy it right now!
Funny thing about the Fila Fresh Crew tracks is that, according to D.O.C., he didn't know anything about the NWA and the Posse record when they put it out. In this DJ Vlad interview, he says, "I didn't know I was in the posse."
Another great LL Cool J album! My favorite track on Bigger & Deffer was the lead single "I'm Bad," which went to #4 on the R&B chart in the summer of '87.
I didn't know this song until years later, but I love this track! Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud "Do The James" This YouTube video plays the original 1987 12" mix. When they released their full length album a year later, it was remixed with no reverb on the "Impeach The President" drum sample. Both mixed are good, but I kinda prefer the one with all the reverb. It has been issued on a rare, awesome 1987 K-Tel comp if you're looking for the original mix on CD, which is the only place I've ever seen it besides the 12" single. Various - Hot Rap
HAH! And, on the inner sleeve of the album, it has a report card grading all of the current rappers of the day. Not surprisingly, the Beastie Boys came out with the lowest final grade of a C. Kool Moe Dee had some balls, man! Interesting that none of the other rappers took shots at him. BTW, Melle Mel and Grandmaster Flash also got an A+ along with Kool Moe Dee. According to the report card, he gave LL Cool J an A. So, it was all in good humor.
Sad to say my country's typically retarded over-reaction. Shameful how our press can set out to try and destroy something based on no evidence what so ever. Twats! I remember in 87 when Beastie mania was in full effect and kids were destroying VW's by ripping off the badges. My step brother, who collected Beastie Boys patches to sew on his jacket, actually wrote off to VW UK and got a badge from them. Very hardcore!
For their first 12" single, released in '87, the name on the label was spelled EPEE MD. (Their debut album would not be released until 1988.) Erick Sermon: “That was a break beat that we heard because [Kool DJ] Red Alert played it all the time. It was from Ultimate Break Beats. Everything back then in hip-hop was all break beats. “[The loop] is a little off. That's why when you hear Jay-Z telling the story of 'Ain't No Nigga' to Angie Martinez, he's saying how he told Jaz, 'Why can't you loop the beat like Erick did it?' “We spliced it, and looped the quarter inch tape around the room. There would be a chair here, with the tape, and we would [literally] loop it around that, and record it. We didn't know about samplers. Charlie Marotta, the engineer that was there, taught us how to do that. It was like nothing you'd ever seen before. " Full interview: Erick Sermon Tells All: The Stories Behind His Classic Records (Part 1)
As a Jeep owner I love the cover, but yeah, LL's diss tracks were so much better... 'To Da Break Of Dawn' , 'Jack The Ripper'... Moe Dee couldn't mess with that.
Wow, that's a rare track! Thanks for sharing it. (For those wondering, it's called "Uptown Is Kickin' It" by the Uptown Crew. It appears on the 1986 V/A LP compilation Uptown Is Kickin' It.)
Every year around the holidays, this 1987 classic always makes my playlist. Great video, too! Run-DMC "Christmas In Hollis"
I tell you what's great about this thread, is the fact that although I wasn't massively into hip hop like my step-brother was, I still enjoyed a lot of it, but quite a bit passed me by. Seeing all these posts with links has really helped me appreciate the history of this genre much more, and has made me want to check out other artists that previously I'd have ignored. I'm looking forward to all the education I'm gonna receive from everyone's future posts. Keep up the good work guys!
Certainly not the be-all-end-all list of greatest albums, I still enjoy browsing the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list on occasion. There are two 1987 hip-hop records that made the list in 2003 but were removed for the 2012 edition. Public Enemy Yo! Bum Rush The Show Boogie Down Productions Criminal Minded Regardless of whether they should or should not be on the list, what are your thoughts on these two albums?
Both great albums. I especially loved the PE album which I wore out on cassette. I saw them on the Def Jam '87 tour at the Barrowlands in Glasgow. It was an absolute riot, literally. Things really kicked off when someone threw a pint of lager over one of LL Cool J's bouncers who was standing at the front of the stage. He dived into the crowd to retaliate and it just erupted from there. Absolute carnage. What a night..!!
What goes on? Welllllllllllllll...... Yo Bum Rush The Show is a great album, somewhere between BAD and the more politically driven Millions and Fear. I love all three; Yo for really pulling me into hip-hop/rap by both feet - I had been into it before that but just playing, then Nation of Millions and Fear of... really opened my eyes to what was going on.....cheers boyeeeeees!
Two great albums, I think these two along with "Paid In Full" really started moving hip hop in a different direction. Three M.C.'s that each brought a different style to the forefront. KRS-One with his story telling tales of what was going on in and around his neighborhood and really making you think about what he was saying, Rakim just bringing a new flow of lyrics and how you could put rhymes together and be completely smooth on the mic and Chuck D. with those politically charged themes in his rhymes coupled with those Bomb Squad beats really started a change in how rap was looked at and where it could go going forward into the 90's.
KRS-One talks about the making of "South Bronx" (taken from the book Check The Technique by Brian Coleman). "I performed it for Scott [La Rock], he played the 'Funky Drummer' and started on the song, and it blew his mind. So we ran over to Ced-Gee's house and were like: 'Yo, Ced, we need that SP-12 [sampler].' ... Scott took records over to Ced and Ced sampled them and made the beat for 'South Bronx'... "So we went to this studio in Queens for twenty-five dollars an hour and recorded it in two hours. Fifty dollars on eight tracks, one take. I must have practiced it once and then recorded it, because Scott was like: 'All I got is fifty dollars!'... "And I was living in a freezer under the offices of B-Boy Records. They had a garage that had a freezer, like a walk-in meat freezer... I remember I had to keep a big brick by the door because if the door slammed I would suffocate and die. So I kept the door open and slept on sixteen crates put together with a mattress made out of clothes and newspapers. And that's where I was staying when 'South Bronx' came out... "I remember somewhere along at this time I got a job mopping floors at a children's nursery in Brooklyn... One day while I was mopping, 'South Bronx' came on the radio and I was buggin', with that mop in my hand. I had just put the Mop & Glo down and the record came on... But I still didn't realize the impact of it. It was a huge hit record. Red Alert played it on Kiss." Here's a link to the book: Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies: Brian Coleman, Questlove: 9780812977752: Amazon.com: Books
