The Controllers - Stay

Stay by The Controllers is a smooth and nasty groove with an epic intro and a mind blowing bass line from 1986. You can't go wrong when you play this and Intimate Connection back to back and then drop in Dance (Don't Geek).

The Controllers - Stay (Extended Club Version) [320 kbso, DivShare]

Old School Party Flyers

I came across to Toledo Hip Hop, a site that has conserved and scanned a huge pile of early 1980's party flyers. Great looking stuff that must have taken shitloads of skills and passion from the artists to put together since it's mostly handicraft. Put the needle on your Enjoy Records classics and start browsing. Here's a rock solid classic from 1980 to get things started.

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - Super Rappin' No. 2 [320 kbps, DivShare]

Sugarhill Gang - Hot Hot Summer Day

This is such a feel good classic and it goes great with the weather. I included Theo Parrish's version from 2003 as well. Though the re-edit goes quite far from the original it keeps the Roy Ayers-ish summer groove to it and it the edit goes heavy on one of my all time favorite Sugarhill lines: Freak Freak Da Funk Funk Funk Da Freak Da The Funk Funk Fuuunk.

Sugarhill Gang - Hot Hot Summer Day [320 kbps, DivShare]

Sugarhill Gang - Hot Hot Summer Day (Theo Parrish Re-Edit) [320 kbps, DivShare]

O.V. Wright - Let's Straighten It Out

For me Let's Straighten It Out is THE song when it comes to bluesy southern soul. It's one of the many great cuts on O.V. Wright's album The Bottom Line (1978). Some would say that the sound of Hi Records was losing a bit of it's tightness during the late 70's but this album is solid gold from start to finish. I find it to be the strongest release of the label in late 70's. O.V. Wright's collaboration with the late great Willie Mitchell works perfectly on the album. The result is not as sexy and slick as with Al Green/Willie Mitchell collaborations but it's equally soulful and somehow a lot more intense and powerful.

O.V. Wright - Let's Straighten It Out [320 kbps, DivShare]

On top of this one being a favorite southern soul tune, it's been sampled by RZA on one of my all time favorite Wu Tang beats.

Wu-Tang Design Remix Project

I came across to Logan Walter's Wu-Tang Design Remix Project and had to drop by to let you know about it. I really love the idea of redesigning some classic album covers but for sure it will piss off some purist who prefer the originals.

Basically Walters wasn't that impressed by the original cover art of the Wu-Tang related art work so he's redoing all the covers in the spirit of Blue Note. And he's doing it really well. Check out the first seven from his blog.

Inspired by the cover art I was thinking of sharing something of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx but I don't have the record at hand but what I have is an amazing remix of Rainy Dayz. Raekwon and Ghostface spitting over a smooth Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes classic You Know How To Make Me Feel Good.

Chef Raekwon - Rainy Dayz (Remix Long Dirty Mix) feat. Ghostface Killah [320 kbps, direct link]

Harold Melvin & Blue Notes - You Know How To Make Me Feel So Good [320 kbps, direct link]

Mr. Magic - Potential 1980 (Curtis Vodka's White Light Orchestra Edit)

I'm in the process of moving to another city. It's great to have a chance to move to a bigger city but the packing processs is a really schitty task. Anyways, while I was going through my stuff without getting anything done I found an unfamiliar looking USB memory stick. To my surprise it contained quite a few decent edits and some old blog house. The most positive surprise was Curtis Vodka's edit of Mr. Magic's Potential 1980, the holy grail of early disco rap. The ultra rare early Tony Pearson tune is a killer and so is the edit with 11 minutes of non-stop disco heat. It might be that this one's all over the blogosphere but at least I had slept on it so here you go.

Mr. Magic - Potential 1980 (Curtis Vodka's White Light Orchestra Edit) [320 kbps, direct link]

Big Daddy Kane - The Lover In You

After yesterday's post I remembered the last track of Prince Of Darkness. It's a nice skit with a great break from Don't Let Love Get You Down where Kane's long time DJ/producer Mister Cee grabs the mic.

Big Daddy Kane - DJs Get No Credit feat. Mister Cee [320 kbps, direct link]

While I'm at it, I might as well post another tune from Kane's 1991 LP Prince Of Darkness. The Lover In You was huge back in the day. It's smooth as silk and great for educational purposes. It was Big Daddy Kane and T-Ski Valley who taught me all I need to know about ladies.

Big Daddy Kane - The Lover In You [320 kbps, direct link]

Top 8 of 2008

Lists are always fun to make but many times I end up forgetting something obvious from the lists and it drives me crazy. We'll see what I forgot this time.

I didn't buy a lot of new releases last year but anyways I picked eight albums and eight singles that first came to my mind as the strongest ones released in 2008. Thanks for 2008. Hopefully 2009 will be even better.

Albums

1. Menahan Street Band - Make The Road By Walking

2. Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It

3. Q-Tip - The Renaissance

4. Hercules And Love Affair - Hercules And Love Affair

5. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

6. The Five Corners Quintet - Hot Corner

7. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah

8. El Michels Affair - Sounding Out The City (Digi-LP)

Singles

1. Menahan Street Band - Make The Road By Walking

2. DJ Mujava - Township Funk

3. Mayer Hawthorne & The County - Just Ain't Gonna Work Out

4. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On (DJ Day Edit)

5. Bounce Camp - Big Dancin

6. The Bladerunnners - Champ (Club Mix)

7. Estelle - Come Over (only the version without Sean Paul will do)

8. Erykah Bady - Honey (DJ Day Edit)

Since two great edits by DJ Day made their way to the list, I'll share his latest and greatest edit so far.

Marvin Gaye - What's Going On (DJ Day Edit) [320 kbps, DivShare]

It's christmas time in Hollis, Queens

I'm flying back home for the holidays today so I figured it's time for a some sort of christmas post though I'm not much of a christmas person. I really can't stand these cheesy sellout christmas tunes. Especially I hate all the wack christmas raps out there. Luckily there's a couple of classic christmas bangers that you can count on. Run DMC's Christmas In Hollis and of course the classic Christmas Rappin' by Kurtis Blow are the ones for me. The beat on Christmas Rappin' is so dope that I hooked you up with the instrumental as well. The Furious Five is killing it on the same beat live in 1981. Check it out via Outside Broadcast.

Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin' [320 kbps]

Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin' (Do It Yourself Version - Instrumental) [320 kbps]

Run DMC - Christmas In Hollis [320 kbps]

Happy Holidays!

P.S. Make sure to check the video for Christmas In Hollis. It's hilarious.

20 Classic Hip Hop Album Covers Recreated In LEGO

20 Classic Hip Hop Album Covers Recreated In LEGO. Laughing out loud...

Marvin Gaye - Turn On Some Music

"Now when the music starts,

I'm gonna groove you slow and quiet."

Midnight Love was Marvin Gaye's last album (1982). He made a great comeback with it before his tragic death. He wrote and produced some great tunes for the album. There's more to it than Sexual Healing, for example my favorite Turn On Some Music. It's an overlooked song that highlights Gaye's majestic and sensual voice. I don't know if it's just me or can you hear his life long problem of being torn between bible and bedroom from his voice on this track.

Marvin Gaye - Turn On Some Music [320 kbps]

Btw, if some of you happen to have the instrumental version of Erick Sermon's Music, I would love to have it. The song isn't anything special but I could use the beat on something.

Erick Sermon - Music feat. Marvin Gaye [320 kbps]

Paul Nice - Journey To The Centre Of The Beats

Paul Nice is one of those talented DJs/producers that are consistently putting out excellent stuff but never get enough props for their work. If you aren't familiar with Paul Nice you got a lot of listening to do. Check out his excellent mixtapes Soul On The Grill vol 1 & 2, Sade Blends, Breaks For Days...the list is long.

The tracks that I'm sharing today are taken from Journey To The Centre Of The Beats released by Antidote Records in 2004. The mixtape contains some freestyles, blends and remixes. It's not as soild as Paul Nice's other stuff but the dubbed remix/mash-up of The Message impressed me back in the day and it still works for me. It really takes balls to change the beats of a Grandmaster Flash joint but Paul Nice pulls it off in style.

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message (Paul Nice's Super Duty Bootleg Mash-Up) [320 kbps]

Sugarhill Gang - Paul Nice's Megamix [320 kbps]

Videos courtesy of MTV's music search.

Coffee Breaks, pt. 5

What do you get when you take the best features of The Dap Kings, El Michels Affair, The Budos Band and Antibalas and mix them all together. The answer is my favorite LP of the year Make The Road By Walking by Menahan Street Band. The sound on the album is something amazing and what's even more amazing is that the album was recorded in Tommy Brenneck's bedroom on Menahan Street, Brooklyn.

The album came out just recently but the title song was released on a 7" already in 2006. Like so many times before Jay-Z was on the spot when hearing Make The Street By Walking. Or actually it was Diddy's Hitmen who found the tune and passed it to Jay-Z. You'll find more info on that here. I haven't been very impressed by Hova's production in the last couple of years but I dig Roc Boys or actually the whole album.

Menahan Street Band - Make The Road By Walking [320 kbps]

Jay-Z - Roc Boys (And The Winner Is...) [320 kbps]

MTV's new music video search

Hi! Just droppped in to tell you that I've been wasting my day browsing through old rap videos on MTV's new music search. The quality of the videos is good and the memories are priceless. I'm really hoping the folks at MTV would finally realize that M stands for Music, not My Sweet Sixteen and all that wackiness.

Please MTV, bring back Yo! MTV Raps.

Kleeer - Tonight

A whole lot of horrible funk with electric elements was done in the 80's. Luckily there's some amazing stuff as well. Kleeer's Tonight is one of those tracks. For some people, it's the definition of smooth funk and I don't disagree. The tune had an impact on the early classic sound of west coast rap though the band is originally from the east coast. The song dates back to year 1984 when it appeared on Intimate Connection.

Kleeer - Tonight [320 kbps, zShare]

And here's DJ Quick sampling Kleer on Tonite.

Coffee Breaks, pt. 4

My first intention was to acclaim David Ruffin and his past-Motown works. He's an amazing vocalist. There's something special about his voice, whether he's the frontman of the Temptations or going solo after he got sacked from the band. So there I was, choosing a proper song to upload and remembered that 9th Wonder sampled David Ruffin's Slow Dance a couple of years ago so I decided to continue the series of posts called Coffee Breaks.

Slow Down is soul music with capital letters. David Ruffin's voice is full of pain and pleasure at the same time. The song appears on Gentleman Ruffin that came out in 1980.

Slow It Down is a track produced by 9th Wonder and performed by Little Brother. The song appears on The Minstrel Show that came out in 2005. The beat is tight as **** so I also uploaded the instrumental that appears on this one.

David Ruffin - Slow Dance [320 kbps, zShare]

Little Brother - Slow It Down (instrumental) [320 kbps, zShare]

Little Brother - Slow It Down (album version) [320 kbps, zShare]

Coffee Breaks, pt. 3

It's been a couple of weeks since the last coffee break so I think it's time to take one.

Juicy Fruit by Mtume was a # 1 RnB hit back in the day (1983). The album is pretty mediocre but I like the keyboards and drum machines on it, especially on the title track. The version I'm sharing is the extended vocal mix taken from the 12".

The sample song isn't one of my biggest favorites so the reason I chose this is my love for Biggie's 1994 banger Juicy. If I would get into making top 10 lists, Juicy would most definitely be on the top 10 rap tracks of the 90's. The album version is good, no doubt about it, but Pete Rock's remix is solid gold.

Mtume - Juicy Fruit (12" Vocal Version) [320 kbps, zShare]

The Notorious B.I.G. - Juicy (Pete Rock Remix) [320 kbps, zShare]

The Notorious B.I.G - Juicy (Dirty Mix) [320 kbps, zShare]

I came across to this video of Paul Dateh and DJ Inka One mixing violin music with rap (and other stuff). It seems like a worn out idea from the 90's but I liked it...especially The Roots part of the mix.

MP3 of the mix seems to be available for download on Paul Dateh's MySpace. Go get it!

Coffee Breaks, pt. 1

I decided to start a series of posts called Coffee Breaks. The concept is pretty obvious (who's sampling who etc.) but I'll try to keep the content of the posts fresh.

The original song is from Ernie Hines' LP Electrified. The album was released by We Produce Records in 1972. At least I haven't seen any reissues so the album is really hard to find but definitely worth the trouble.

In the early 90's Soul Brother #1 Pete Rock spotted Our Generation while making beats for Mecca And The Soul Brother and used it for Straighten It Out. BTW, I used to have a nice unreleased vocal mix of Straighten It Out on my HD but I can't find it anywhere. Get at me if you happen to have it.

Ernie Hines - Our Generation [320 kbps, zShare]

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - Straighten It Out [320 kbps, zShare]

Pete Rock with his MPC