Friday, 28 January 2022

Late pass: He's The DJ, I'm The Vicar

DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - The Reverend
(From And In This Corner... album; 1989)



This song could be a TEMPUR mattress the way I've slept on it. As far as late 80s jams built around vocal samples go, The Reverend belongs in the top 3 alongside LL Cool J's The Doo Wop and Nice & Smooth's Dope On A Rope. Plus, with that Mary Mary drum break it had the potential to be a Running Man classic. So why isn't this shit heralded as one of the best Jeff & Will album cuts? It's a mystery, Father Brown.

Random-Rap spods tend to be terrible cheerleaders for the Golden-Era because they'll turn their noses up at a killer Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince album track but spunk themselves silly over some mediocre obscure 12" by a 5th rate MC Shan clone. That's why 95% of vinyl purist blokes make useless music guides, and if you disagree then you can see deez.

PS: MC EZ & Troup's Get Retarded is disqualified from the late 80s jams built around vocal samples canon because it's Craig Mack doing the Zoom, Zoom, Zooming himself.

7 comments:

Yohan said...

R.I.P. Philaflava. The traditional rap forum of yore still sadly hasn't been replaced, even in today's super connected world. Reddit is shit for most rap discussions, the blogosphere died out and I seriously can't find the energy to sit through hours of podcasts which I could've also spent listening to the music itself. Thank god for the Martorialist comment section.

Spartan said...

Had no idea The Monkees were the source of my fave Run-DMC song until reading this post.

Cheers.

Anonymous said...

"Feel the groove, bust a move
Yo, yo I'm tired, what about you
Man this is somethin' to dance to"
NWA rocked the Sly & The Family Stone sample better.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

It's like a Baby Blue reunion up in here.

Mary Mary - the drum break so good its provided the backbone of songs from artists as diverse as JVC Force and Cornershop.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Anonymous, no way - The Reverend is a better song.

Ben said...

I'd suggest you check out Stay Fly on that Doe or Die 2 Deluxe edition he's rapping over an 80's break beat and sounds great over it.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Oh wow, the Larry Smith & Davy DMX drum track which ruled 1983 👍