Zee Rocks The 5ive-O

Monkee business

There was a period in rap where every second song mined breaks from Ultimate Breaks and Beats, to the point where it became a little cliche unless the samples were masterfully chopped-up by someone as accomplished as Ced-Gee or Paul C. The story behind how Breakbeat Lou slowed down and chopped ‘Amen, Brother’ has been told to def – erm, sorry – death, but it’s worth remembering that he also performed invaluable edits on many of the tracks included on the Octopus Breaks/UBB records, making them far more suitable for extended break beating sessions for those who bought doubles (ie. everyone).

Take for example the classic Monkee’s track, ‘Mary, Mary’. The original 45 release (reportedly an exclusive to Australian shelves when they toured)1 and album version only includes a paltry three seconds of clean drums on the intro, which makes for thirsty work if you’re a DJ trying to keep it going for four minutes for your MC’s! But thanks to Lou’s handy tape edit, you get an extra two bars of breathing room to spin it back. As a result, more DJs could use it at shows, and by 1988 rap records were positively lousy with those sweet, sweet drums for the next couple of years.

As Run explained in this SPIN interview from May 1988, their version of ‘Mary, Mary’ was recorded way before Tougher Than Leather was released:

‘I think that I should just be able to drop records when I want, and when I got these hits, or these notions come…I made “Mary, Mary” so long ago, this jam would have bust their face. I’d have been busting everybody’s ass so bad by now. But “Mary, Mary” got to sit and wait. Fucking headaches.’

While I’m sure Run-DMC’s single would have had more impact if it has been released right after they recorded it, it sounded very old hat to me in 1988 when compared to BDP, the Juice Crew and Rakim. For my money, there are two far superior takes on the break that followed in 1989, as the Monkee’s drum loop ramped-up in popularity. 2

Prince Rashad and DJ Brother Lee-Luv – a couple of former New York City cops – give The Monkees record an absolute thrashing. As DJ Ivory from The P Brothers points out in Freddy Fresh’s The Rap Records book:

‘The scratching on this puts even Moe Love’s cuts to shame. Even when the record skips mid-scratch, DJ Brother Lee-Luv carries on like a trooper.’

For reference, Moe Love from Ultramagnetic MC’s was responsible for some of the most brutal scratching ever committed to tape – just check the halfway mark of ‘Ego Trippin’’, where the cutting resembles Fred Flintstone crashing through a brick wall with a jackhammer.

‘Ain’t That The Truth’ also benefits to the extra percussion added over the drums and using a superior guitar section from the original, not to mention an energetic vocal performance from the Prince.

5ive-O-Posse -’Ain’t That The Truth’

Things got even more hectic when Zee Rocks The Copy threw his Kangol into the ring and unleashed the beautiful chaos that is ‘Speed It Up A Little Faster’. The titular MC shouts out his DJ, Grandmaster Mark X, over frantic drum triggers and cuts for an engrossing trip that’s all over in under three minutes and sounds like it was recorded through the built-in mic of an old boombox, which is by no means a bad thing.

The song was recorded in Camden, New Jersey and credits Dana Goodman as the producer aka the guy who paid for the studio time. Dana has quite the history in the music business, as he was originally the drummer for Chicago-based soul group Onstage3 and later formed the rap and soul Pop Art label with his brother Lawrence.4 Zee Rocks The Copy repped North Philadelphia and apparently recorded another seven tracks in 1989, according to the ever-reliable YouTube comment section where his daughter appeared twelve years ago with the unfulfilled promise to upload the other songs.

Zee Rocks The Copy – ‘Speed It Up A Little Faster’