my hip hop will rock and shock the nation Like the emancipation, proclamation (I mean seriously what a fantastic line)
Actually the first rap album that had skits (3 feet high and rising) probably had the best ones. Little game show in between songs,
Mine sounds like a fireplace, I’ve requested a replacement. The last 30 seconds of the songs on each side are particularly bad.
I think many of ya'll are overthinking the pressings issue. Clearly, VMP, just like Craft with their One Step, have based their recent pressings on pre-Covid demand; they probably even made these decisions a year or two ago. Thing is, since lockdown vinyl demand has soared, and companies have failed to up demand or they're on the backlog for manufacturing. Give it time, things will reach a more natural equilibrium at some point. As somebody mentioned, decisions made today won't be actualized until late '22.
Back to the Philly box. Pulled out my mint Dexter Wansel white label promo for a listen. It does sound very good (not great) and it is a great record, musically. I do think a reissue from VMP a la Bernie Grundman will sound even better. I think it’s a worthwhile box but as always, comes down to musical taste. Sonically, there is a lot “there” in the selections for this box and would benefit from audiophile treatment. I will likely order. I personally think we need many more soul/funk reissues and choices like these must be validated by the buying public…
It looks like the tides are turning, at least I hope, for soul and country reissues- both underserved.
Loving the Lee Morgan record. Unbelievable performance. Never heard this one before. Need to track down more Bernie Harris. Not surprised he’s also on Eastern Sounds. I was struck yesterday afternoon playing my 36 chambers when I had a gap in zoom meetings and while trying to plow through some project work. the way the bass disintegrates into ragged air had me pulling the covers off my desktop speakers to verify they didn’t have hole in them. Meanwhile the vocal performances just flow like pure fresh mountain streams over the top of the repetitive DIRTY beats. Made me fall in love with RZA all over again. can’t wait to break open fear of a black planet this weekend. I’ve been spinning the single disc with the venticular cover and all their other records pretty consistently for the past couple years. As much as I’ve listened to them since 7th grade. Hope to be saving the best for last out of this extremely high quality 3pk this month. Might have to break my 70’s Emmylou, Pieces out of the box in the garage just to spin Sunday morning and round out the month.
Yeah, looks like I signed up for a six-month outing to have two months of absolutely nothing I want. December looks good though. I gotta check out that RZA/BD to see if I still like it. I remember liking that and the Ghost Dog soundtrack back in the day but gotta see if they still hold up.
Store credit is your friend. There are always 1 or 2 Wednesday store drops per month that are worthy of my attention. YMMV
Received, cleaned and listened to my latest batch of Lee Morgan- Take Twelve and The Hawk Flies High by Coleman Hawkins. I'm thrilled to report that both are flat(ish) and dead silent. It's a sad commentary on the vinyl world when I'm ecstatic when records I purchase are actually playable- especially so with more limited releases. My recent success rate for new records not being warped or stitched is 50/50, and that may be generous, so I'm over the moon with these two.
My copy of Take Twelve is definitely not silent. Side A is pretty noisy throughout (after a cleaning). Might try one more cleaning but I doubt it’ll work.
NWA had some classic skits. Ice Cube had Robin Lynch and lots of others on Death Certificate. Look Who’s Burning was funny as hell when I was a kid. “I came up here to get a physical…for my job…you need a physical.”
in my opinion, it’s all George Clinton’s fault. He did skits with P-Funk on the Earth Tour album, which Dre and NWA directly copied on their records and Eazy E’s records. Them and Prince Paul. He was responsible for a lot of the east coast skits, which I agree are almost always annoying and immature.
Got another VMP delivery with a seam split. I don't know why but these splits really annoy me. I have a couple that I recently got from other online sellers, a double 45rpm Junior Wells has two seam splits and a Take Five AP version. My Charles Musslewhite VMP has a seam split too. VMP is really responsive and will take care of you but I've stopped after one replacement of Al Green before I just took the store credit. I've found Acoustic Sounds does the best job packaging when I request to take the records out of the sleeves. Usually put inside the shrink or the loose poly cover.
Prince Paul is arguably the only rap producer who truly knows how to make great skits. His own records have brilliant skits that contribute to the storylines
Skits are a big reason I often opt for CD over vinyl with hip-hop releases. Fake surface noise is another.
