The White Label Rap Remix Files #1: It was a Hot Day in Queensbridge…

The origins of the first white label hip-hop remix can be traced back to a long forgotten film titled Running Scared, which starred Gregory Hines (who, amongst his credits as a top-shelf tap dancer and actor, dropped a solo album in 1986 with assists from Luther Vandross) and Billy Crystal (his first co-starring role in a motion picture, if we don’t include his turn as Morty The Mime in This Is Spinal Tap).

Although Michael McDonald provided the film’s title track (complete with a video featuring Billy and Gregory nailing beers with the bearded-wonder at a beach shack bar!), the man with the voice of an angel was not part of this story – instead, it all started with a single from the movie by New Edition.

Having recently lost Bobby Brown to the sirens call that is a solo career while recording their third album, Roxbury’s finest teenage vocal group bravely battled on with TV and film spots, appearing on an episode of Knight Rider, covering a doo wop classic for Karate Kid, Part II and recording ‘Once In A Lifetime Groove‘ for the Running Scared soundtrack. While the backing track for the song paled in comparison to their Maurice Starr/Michael Jonzun classics, the quartet were still nailing it on the harmony tip, and MCA Records generously included an acapella (sorry, A Cappella) version in the hopes that maybe someone out there could maybe do a better mix?

I haven’t been able to pin-down who was the first person in history to blend an R&B record over a rap beat, but in 1988 Harry Allen gave us a clue when he penned a brutally honest column for the Village Voice which collated his current favourite Rap Radio shows of the era, and highlighted the work of WRHU radio host Jeff Foss’ resident DJ for featuring”

‘Machete Master’ Johnny Juice (of Kings of Pressure, hip-hop’s most physi­cally rhythmic DJ), and Juice’s ‘Love Mixes’ (Force M.D.’s ‘Love Is a House’ over the Super Lover Cee beat, 4-X) hype like a pipe.’

This mention of the ‘Love Mixes’ may be the earliest print reference to this style of blend that would go on to set the tone of mixtape intros in the late eighties, before defining the Hip-Hop Soul sound of Mary J. Blige, Jodeci and every R&B group signed to Bad Boy Records. Harlem’s Ron G was also a big part of this movement, with his 1991 Mixes 1 tape taking blends to the next level by making the whole tape a blend rather than just the intro.

Kid Capri’s legendary blend of Stephanie Mills ‘Something In The Way You Make Me Feel’ over ‘Impeach The President’1 (for his 10/9/89 mixtape) is the perfect example of how well this style can work, delivering butter smooth vocals over hard drums – delivering an antidote to the over-produced, punk smoove R&B records of the era.

But two years before the Kid’s breakout tape intro, the likes of Grandmaster Vic, DJ Johnny Juice and DJ Hot Day were all developing this same magical formula at park jams, radio shows and on tapes. As Hot Day explained to Doggie Diamonds on his YouTube channel, MCA Records officially asked him to remix New Edition’s ‘Once In A Lifetime Groove’ in 1986 but weren’t happy with how raw his version was. On the advice of Eric B., Hot Day decided to press it up himself and release it as the ‘Hot Day’s Master Mix‘ 12″, with a couple of live Tragedy aka MC Had aka Intelligent Hoodlum recordings on the b-side, on Hot Day Records in 1987.

It’s not clear if this is the same version that Hot Day submitted to MCA in 1986, since the drums he used is the clean break from halfway through Public Enemy’s ‘Son of Public Enemy (Flavor Whop Version)‘, which wasn’t released on a 12″ until the following year – but maybe he got an advance promo via a record pool or just mixed-up ‘86 with ‘87.2 Either way, this ‘Master Mix’ sounds like a combination of programmed loops and live turntable work, as Hot Day scratches over the track and even mixes in doubles towards the end.

For those of us who didn’t get our hands on the original orange label version, Tuff City reissued it in 1992 (minus one of the Intelligent Hoodlum raps), giving it a second lease of life on record shelves. Years later, Nas ran into Hot Day and asked him if he could recreate the magic for his Life Is Good LP in 2012. Appropriately enough, the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul herself, Mary J. Blige,3 was enlisted to sing the hook for ‘Reach Out’ on the retail release, but Hot Day also created his own mix that combined the Nas raps with the original New Edition hook for old times sake.

Originally published at The Eight-Pint Hype substack.

1. In 2019, Kid Capri was surprised on-stage when Stephanie Mills appeared and sang the vocals live over doubles of ‘Impeach’! [↩]
2. I guess the Bomb Squad added a drum machine over the top of the ‘Blow Your Head’ loop to beef-up the drums when they remade the 1984 radio promo for album? [↩]
3. Mary was also rumoured to have been considered for the original line-up for The Firm. Maybe she refused since she was pissed that the group ripped-off the name from a British ‘supergroup’ formed by former Led Zeppelin and Bad Company members in 1984? [↩]