These past few days, I started imagining an alternative timeline where Run-DMC released Tougher Than Leather in 1987 and how that might have changed the trajectory of their career. By no means do I believe it would have prevented the inevitable slide down from the top of the mountain, but it certainly would have softened…
Admitting to sampling Ultimate Breaks and Beats is one of the last remaining sacred cows of rap music. Ghostwriters and beat-jacking entire songs all seems to be fine and dandy these days, but the pride of claiming that you personally found every drum sound, horn stab and loop in the dollar bin of a ‘Mom…
Keith LeBlanc died this week, leaving behind an extensive catalogue of music as a member of the Sugar Hill house band, Tackhead and Litle Axe. I interviewed Keith in 2015 for the Past The Margin book, so I thought I’d share this excerpt where he discused the making of his ‘No Sell Out’ single on…
Listening to the 2LP reissue of No More Mr Nice Guy from last year, I noticed that one of the bonus cuts was the dub version of ‘So What’, which I’ve never heard of (there’s also the unheard ‘Return of the Bass’ mix of the title track, which sounds better than the normal one just…
Despite his numerous sins against breakbeat albums, even a broken clock is right twice a day and on this particular day Simon Harris aka Mr. Music of Life made a nice little remix for L.A. bloke Ice-T. It’s typical of the British production style of the era, where it apparently mandatory to add sirens and…
First we got ‘Bait’ on the first Red Alert album, and then on his next compilation he gave us an alternative version of ‘Funky’ with a new intro, different Ced verse and an extra Keith rap at the end! Was this recorded as a promo for Red a year after the 12″ mix was released,…
There’s been a lot of Melle Mel talk the past couple of days, so it seemed like a good opportunity to share some choice quotes that others have made about the legend himself – as found in the printed pages of A Decade of Unkut Interviews. Mikey D: I’d already won the belt, now they’re…
Here I was, this whole time thinking that I needed to get this Marley Marl remix of the ode to Dapper Dan’s favourite pugilist, when the real knock-out was Teddy Riley’s dub work on the flip. Ted was in the midst of his proto-New Jack Swing era, delivering dancefloor-ready rap jams for Moe Dee, the…
Somehow I completely missed this amazing original mix of LL’s ‘Illegal Search’ until I picked up the 12″ of ‘Jingling Baby’ last year. For starters, it reminds me of Little Shawn’s ‘Hickey’s On My Chest’, which was released three years later with Howie Tee’s take on the same James Brown loop and still rocks on…
I present the first (and only) edition of M-Low News, possibly the finest collection of press clippings ever included in a rap single. M-LOW (aka Music Lovers of the World) was the Rocky Bucano’s first foray into the music business, before he teamed-up with Jazzy Jay to form Strong City. The first release from Wayne…
Billed as ‘The World’s First Ever Live Rap Album’, this is taken from a showcase put together by the Music of Life label, recorded at Cafe de’Paris London March 14th 1989, featuring Tim Westwood and a bunch of UK performers such as Demon Boyz, MC Duke, Merlin and Daddy Freddy, as well as The 45…
One of these dudes is G. Wiz I guess. Captain G. Wiz was a member of the Mighty Mike Masters, who held it down with Freddy B for the memorable ‘The Main Event’ and the not-quite-as-great ‘The Main Event (Round 2)’, plus that single they did with Ced-Gee and Paul C. (‘We’re Back’/’Coolin’ On The…