Generic list post: November 2022

Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when the U.S remake of Ghosts turned up on British TV. Gotta be the worst American remake of an non-American sitcom since the U.S version of No Activity, right? Damn, son - CBS have turned the best modern British sitcom into The Big Bang Theory with ghosts instead of geeks.

Reggie Griffin & Technofunk - Mirda Rock (7" edit) (1982)
Whodini ft. Peter Gunz & Lord Tariq - Can't Get Enough (1996)
Eatem - Magical (video) (2022)
Level ft. Mouse On Tha Track - I Don't Miss (2022)
Spitta - Power Ranger (2022)
Duke Deuce - Anna (video) (2022)
Homeboy Sandman - Radiator (2022)
Homeboy Sandman - Satellite (video) (2022)
Marlowe - Past Life (2022)
Seiji Oda - She Go! (Ocaso) (2022)

Other notables: Saweetie shouted out D-Lo and P-Lo on the sole highlight of her new EP; I'm hoping that this video is a hint that Homeboy Sandman & Edan are finally gonna drop the other songs they recorded together; can't wait until Fall Semester by Da PE Teacha goes viral; can you guess which classic Messy Marv song gets flipped on MzA1's Playin' Wit You Heaux?

Other stuff: I upped the zipfile for my Eatem compilation; EttelThun finally put his book up for pre-order; Party Sparty on his favourite Hitchcock inspired movies.

PS: still looking for Seiji Oda's virtual cassette exclusives if anyone has them

Scooby Du

Big Scoob - Can Du 12" single (2000)
1. Can Du
2. Brooklyn Flava


Some more Big Scoob 12" gems from his brief early noughties renaissance. A-side Can Du is some 45 King produced Hard Knock Life-core with a sample from Guys & Dolls; B-side Brooklyn Flava is some hard Rock Brownsville shit-talk with young Uncle Murda on ad libs (allegedly!) Both songs strike the ideal balance between Brooklyn thug-Rap and Golden-Era fun. Not so much Tunnel Bangers as Tunnel Woppers and that's word to B.Fats.

Big Scoob's career trajectory was proof that a Dancer-Turnt-Rapper could drop hotter music than the Rapper they danced for if they were willing to persevere long enough. Scoob hinted this was possible when his 1996 single Champagne On The Block was lowkey better than anything on Big Daddy Kane's 1994 album Daddy's Home, and achieved it fully in the early 2000s when songs like Kryptonite, U Got It, Can Du and Brooklyn Flava bodied anything on Kane's boring 1997 album Veteranz Day. Patience is a virtue, chess not checkers etc.

In hindsight, I wish I'd named this place Champagne On The Blog.

22 'Til Infinity

Marlowe - Past Life
(From Marlowe 3 album; 2022)


This is like the best Hieroglyphics single of 2022. A-Plus effort & execution to the rapper Solemn Brigham & the producer L’Orange for delivering All The Feels™ of a new Souls Of Mischief solo song. Solemn Brigham is, of course, the North Carolina rapper who dropped that Dirty Whip song last year. Reeeeeeewind for my favourite piano sample anthem of 2021:

Solemn Brigham - Dirty Whip
(From South Sinner Street album; 2021)



Like I said, Dirty Whip is the first Mello Music Group single which sounds like it could be a Maybach Music Group single from the era when Rick Ross kept his ear to the underground.

Plenty of Oda fish in the sea part whatever

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WTF are these two 'virtual cassettes' Seiji Oda is selling? As far as I can tell they're like an NFT meets KanYe Pest's stupid stem player album or some bollocks? All I know is that I wanna hear the exclusive songs contained on them, especially the song in the video up top. Problem is, transatlantic time differences mean I'm asleep during the brief windows of opportunity they're available for sale, and even if I did stay up late I still couldn't buy them because I don't use Cashapp or Venmo. Who's gonna hook shit up for ya boy Kenji Mizoguccimane?

WNC Whop Bez & Shaun

"Spit God on them pills and that's word to The Reverend
You ain't cut how I'm cut, son, I'm rollin' off 7
On them fire bitches like 2007
A n*gga just sold me like 2000 for 7
Then a n*gga bought 'em from me 2000 at 7
Oh my God that's a profit, them pills fell outta Heaven"

Spitta - Power Ranger
(From Belly album; 2022)


Checked in on Baton Rouge's Spitta for the first time in a while. Turns out he recently caught the Furley ghost of Jackie Chain's Rollin' and dropped a Mighty Morphin Power Rapper track about pills 'n' thrills and bellyaches. Must be something in that water because Baton Rouge pill tracks hit different than pill tracks from other regions. Song is twistin' my melatonin, maaaan - call it a Ruff Ryder.

Happy Mondays - Step On
(From Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches album; 1990)

Pop goes the Ecstasy & Jalil

Whodini ft. Peter Gunz & Lord Tariq - Can't Get Enough
(From Six album; 1996)


The highlight of Whodini's 1996 comeback album on So So Def Records. Some pop-bass chauvinism par excellence with Whodini and Peter Gunz & Lord Tariq sounding surprisingly buddy-buddy together on the pan-generational tip. Basically, it's the best Sporty Thievz song not recorded by Sporty Thievz.

Gonna tell my kid this was Donnie Darko

Eatem ft. BR Cowboy - Magical
(From Magical single; 2022)


No bunny rabbits were patronised during this video. Voooodooooo running from Eatem's Magical. Video is some hocus pocus Lewis Carrol of the Bayou shit that don't even make no sense - but in a good way. Is this what happens when you mix the brown acid with the brown arses?

PS: hit the dancefloor and do the twist of fate to my Eatem's Greatest Pressure playlist.

My Mind Spray 5

A Love That's True Part 1 and Sittin' In My Car are my two favourite post-The Great Adventures Of Slick Rick songs by MC Ricky D precisely because they sound like they could be songs from The Great Adventures Of Slick Rick.

World Renown was the best song Slick Rick and Pete Rock recorded together during the sessions for Rick's Behind Bars album so of course that was the song which ended up getting shelved. Flippin' typical innit?

I hate to call Glorilla a One Song Wonder™ BUT everything she's dropped since FNF (Let's Go) has been so dour, so matter-of-fact and so completely lacking the zest which makes FNF (Let's Go) such a choon.

Or maybe Glorilla is the latest victim of Rap's cosmetic dentistry curse, wherein a rapper gets their teeth fixed and their music almost magically takes a dip in quality thereafter. Previous victims include Nas, King Louie, Gucci Mane, and Young Thug.

It's about time that Freeway & Peedi Crakk's Flipside is recognised and realised as one of the best singles of the Roc-A-Fella era. That song is a message in a bottle from State Property's peak, and pure electricity in a bottle which can make a corpse get up offa that thing and get on the good foot.

2 Deep (no Gang Starr)

Level ft. Mouse On Tha Track - I Don't Miss
(From Street Credit 4 album; 2022)


Good timing on a new Level & Mouse On Tha Track single since Mouse's Big Blossom single has been ownin' my speakers for the past month. I Don't Miss sounds like what a new Level & Mouse single should sound like without sounding like any of the previous Level & Mouse singles. Mouse & Level as a duo are kinda like 3 Deep minus Shell and with Level playing the position of Lil' Phat - both gents have very contrasting timbres but such good chemistry together and buku Baton Rouge energy. All in all, this shit is the best Level & Mouse single since DFWT.

Shoulda Been Mo

Coolio - Can-O-Corn
(From It Takes A Thief album; 1994)

Coolio · Can-O-Corn

The Coolio song which was never a single but really shoulda been. Certainly, it was the song The Source magazine's review of Coolio's debut album identified as the jam, and the song I rewound the most after Fantastic Voyage. Obviously the Everlasting Love sample helps, but Coolio brought some vivid lived-in autobiographical pathos from his own time on the pipe.

If KMD's Black Bastards album had dropped as was intended in 1994 then Sweet Premium Wine surely would have been the follow-up single to What A N*ggy Know? Name me a more anthemic song from Black Bastards which the iconic duo of Zev Luv X & Subroc both rhyme on. I'll wait. KMD - Sweet Premium Wine
(From Black Bastards album; 1994/2000)

fourfours · KMD - Sweet Premium Wine

Everybody Eats, B!

Better belated than Neveruary: for doz who asked for a zipfile of my Eatem's Greatest Pressure playlist you can download it HERE. Eatem is kinda like a rapper from Trill ENT's imperial era who woke up in the present day and decided to have his witty way with these wicked times we live in. Who else but Eatem could tour his local high schools performing songs like Whoop Sum and Go Get Yo F*ckin' Brotha? It's just a pity I couldn't include Stamina on the compilation because he still hasn't dropped it.

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Seiji Sun

Seiji Oda - She Go! (Ocaso)
(From Ora EP; 2022)


The rest of Seiji Oda's new EP is too wishy-washy singy for my taste, but this song is some Wavy flava for my ear. Only Seiji can make acoustic guitar Hyphy slaps for star-crossed lovers basking in the glow of a sea-front sunset. The first Bay Area Rap song you could play next to OMC's How Bizarre or wot? R.I.P to the Maori bloke with the cravat.

BTW, it's also R.I.P to Tame One from The Artifacts. The 12" they did on Rawkus Records under the pseudonym of Brick City Kids is one of that label's best bangers no IMHO necessary.

Brick City Kids - Brick City Kids
(From Brick City Kids 12" single; 1997)

Zero Dark 40 · Brick City Kids aka Artifacts - Brick City Kids

Walk like a (Sand)man

"They call my place of birth the rotten apple
Where odds are long, the odds are better tryna win a raffle
Where every man's a king, but when a king don't have a castle
He feels more like a serf or like a vassal"

Homeboy Sandman - Radiator
(From his upcoming Still Champion album; 2022)

HomeboySandman · Radiator

You know how I'm always saying that Homeboy Sandman is kinda like a Fondle Em Rammellzee? Radiator isn't so much Beat Bop as Bang Clang. Some zensual-bap packed with grain of Sandman non-sequiturs which make more sense to me than most current N.Y rap. Old bean really said "it's practically medieval, if you're not interacting with my VEVO you're basically reacting to placebo, whether you're the type of chap that like to sit and sip a cappuccino or enjoy a finger-lickin' bag of Cheetos"!

Speaking of Sandman's VEVO, Satellite just got blessed with a video which captures the song's essence and puts a whole 'nother spin on this is the way we walk in New York. Been a big fan of people walking around N.Y.C set to music ever since I first saw The Wanderers in the late 80s.

"What a mix
It can’t be recreated in a pic
It can’t be recreated in a flick
Or in a GIF
What you see is not as much as what you missed
But what a gift that what you see is what get"

Homeboy Sandman - Satellite
(From his upcoming Still Champion album; 2022)


Bonus beats: Homeboy Sandman 2022 Quinary Of Quality playlist.

7 and 7 Is

Reggie Griffin & Technofunk - Mirda Rock (7" edit)
(From Mirda Rock 7" single; 1982)


Mirda Rock AKA the missing link between the vocoder-funk of Glory's Let's Get Nice and the wacky Electro-pop of Oingo Boingo's Weird Science theme. Much like Glory's Let's Get Nice, Mirda Rock is one of those early 80s choonz which hits hardest in its truncated 7" mix as opposed to the regular 12" mix that outstays its welcome by a couple of minutes. Notably used by 2 Live Crew in 1986 and Arabian Prince in 1989, Mirda Rock has barely been touched since. Imagine the fun Ezale & DJ Fresh could have if they freaked it.

True story: the only time Rap needed to exist on 7" single was the 1980s. Not only was it a handy format to snip certain early 80s songs down to a more listenable length, it was also a more affordable format for kids like me who discovered Rap in the mid 80s via chart hits like Run D.M.C's King Of Rock and Doug & Rick's The Show. The 7" single retailed at somewhere between 99p and £1.99, so it was the perfect format for 80s pre-teens who had to juggle our pocket money to accommodate Action Force figures and comics, sessions of Wonder Boy and Double Dragon in the local arcade, and singles like Whistle's Just Buggin' (Nothing Serious), Lovebug Starski's Amityville (House On The Hill), Run-D.M.C's Walk This Way, and the Beastie Boys' Fight For Your Right (To Party).

But then the cassette-single became the format de jour of the same pricepoint, the 7" single was quietly phased out for Rap music, and nobody gave a shit until the 2010s when boutique rare vinylz labels started reissuing 1990s Rap songs as overpriced 7"s for OCD middle-aged blokes who stopped listening to new music some time between 1997 and 2003. And so a whole pointless new cottage industry opened up, propelled by blokes who'd be stamp collecters if Rap music never existed.