Generic list post: March 2023

Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when Kylie Minogue's guest spot in the 2023 Ghosts Comic Relief special redeemed her half-arsed cameo in the Neighbours finale. She should be so lucky to have ever graced TV's G.O.A.T soap opera in the first place.

Fab Five Freddy - Sucker M.C's freestyle (1983)
DA Smart - Walk Wit Me (1997)
P-Lo - Regular (2023)
Day Day Sustaaa - Hit They Block (2023)
Curren$y & Jermaine Dupri - Essence Fest (2023)
Tisakorean - UHhH HuH (2023)
Busy Signal ft. M24 - Badman Ting (2023)
The Specials - Concrete Jungle (live) (1980)

Other stuff: I dropped lists of my top 40 desert island disc movies and my top 13 Rap songs from 1983, 1993, 2003 and 2013; The Spartorialist wrote about his favourite movie boozers.

Absolutely Fab

Fab Five Freddy - Sucker M.C's freestyle
(From ??????; 1983)


Sum shit I NEVER expected to hear: Fab 5 Freddy freestyling with chutzpah over Run-D.M.C's Sucker M.C's instrumental. If only Freddy had rhymed like this on Change The Beat. Better yet, if only Freddy had hit up Davy DMX and copped himself a Sucker M.C's Type Beat™ in the vein of Love Bug Starski's Starski Live At The Disco Fever or Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde's A.M P.M. Freddy's wearing his clobber from Wild Style in this clip so maybe it was some sort of promotional appearance for the movie?

504 Boy back!

Curren$y & Jermaine Dupri - Essence Fest
(From Essence Fest single; 2023)


I've rarely checked in on what Curren$y's dropped since 2011, but I'm feelin' Jermaine Dupri taking him back to the red bandana Magnolia Spit era on Essence Fest. ATL meets NOLA on the So So Jets Bounce All-Stars tip. This shit puts me in the zone to cue up Wayne & Curren$y's Triggaman immediately afterwards. Port of call: Réseau Drag Rap race.

My Mind Spray 8.5

While Kool Keith's new song with Edan ain't bad, it's also not a patch on Edan's own Kool Keith homage Ultra '88.

With all due respect to Like A Martian by Lil B, this Mac Dre picture was the Bay Area's O.G "like I'm rad, like I'm Brad, like I'm Chad" moment.

Last year 70th Street Carlos deleted a buncha his classic videos from YouTube including Cross Me and Keep A Glock. A couple of weeks ago Eatem set his whole YouTube channel to private. When did Baton Rouge rappers become such temperamental luvvies?

More proof rappers are terrible judges of their own music: Dove from De La Soul didn't like Breakadawn. No disrespect to the dead, but that's the worst opinion I've heard from a rapper since Ad-Rock said Intergalactic is the best Beastie Boys song.

Thinkpiece guys - mark May 13th in your calendars as the 10 year anniversary of P.Rico's Gladiator. One of the 'ardest Chicago Drill songs ever or wot?

Generic list post: Lucky 13

3's company and I'm out here tryna repair the number 13's bad reputation. So lemme hit you with my top 13 Rap songs from 1983, 1993, 2003 and 2013. Originally planned to do each top 13 in order of preference, but ranking songs in lists is for fools, fanboys and folks whose editing finger is less itchy than mine. Like Real Lies said: numbers rule my life, but I'm a man of words.

Best Rap songs of 1983 IMHO:
Run-D.M.C - Sucker M.C's
Jimmy Spicer - Money (Dollar Bill Y'all)
Spoonie Gee - The Big Beat (7" edit)
Rammellzee Vs. K-Rob - Beat Bop
Herbie Hancock ft. Grand Mixer D.ST - Rockit
Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde - Gettin' Money
Disco Four - Throwdown
Cybotron - Clear
Beastie Boys - Cooky Puss
Jonzun Crew - Space Is The Place
Grand Master Melle Mel - White Lines (Don't Do It)
The Furious Five - New York New York
Hashim - Al-Naayfiysh (The Soul)

Best Rap songs of 1993 IMHO:
Snoop Doggy Dogg - Tha Shiznit
De La Soul - Breakadawn
A Tribe Called Quest - Electric Relaxation
UGK - Pocket Full Of Stones (Pimp C remix)
Kool G. Rap & DJ Polo - Ill Street Blues
2Pac ft. Digital Underground - I Get Around
Notorious B.I.G - Party & Bullshit
Eightball and MJG - Armed Robbery
Wu Tang Clan - C.R.E.A.M
Pete Rock & CL Smooth - One In A Million
Mac Mall - Sic Wit Tis
Digable Planets - Escapism (Gettin' Free)
Geto Boys - It Ain't

Best Rap songs of 2003 IMHO:
T.I. - Be Better Than Me
The Diplomats - Dipset Anthem
King Geedorah ft. Mr. Fantastik - Anti-Matter
Mac Dre - Dipped When You See Me
Ghostface ft. Jadakiss - Run
Andre Nickatina - Conversation With A Devil
David Banner - Cadillac On 22's
Too $hort - Burn Rubber
Freeway ft. Peedi Crakk - Flipside
Bubba Sparxxx - Jimmy Mathis
Blaq Poet - Poet's Comin
Twista ft. KanYe Pest & Jamie Foxx - Slow Jamz
5th Ward Weebie - Supa Sunday In N.O

Best Rap songs of 2013 IMHO:
Max B - Take A Flick
Ezale - Foreal Foreal
Migos - Hannah Montana
YG ft. Rich Homie Quan & Jeezy - My N*gga
Mouse On Tha Track ft. Level - Get It Back
Gunplay - Drop Da Tint
Lil' Wayne ft. 2 Chainz - Rich As F*ck
Grip Plyaz - Ray Lewis
Boldy James - Moochie
Rocko ft. Future & Rick Ross - U.O.E.N.O.
Uncle Murda ft. Rocko - Wu Wuu Wuuu
Z Money - Regular
Suga Free & Pimpin' Young ft. Nate Dogg - 15 Minutes To 5

Bonus beats: Mac Dre's Pawns In The Game also dropped in 2013. Possibly my favourite unreleased 90s Rap song to finally see the light of day last decade.

One 4 the Britz by the Yank

Good news: Joe Massot's 1981 Dance Craze documentary about the British 2 Tone Ska scene is finally getting a Blu-Ray/DVD release by the BFI on March 29th. Great news: it's also getting a big screen release at various independent cinemas across the U.K from March 22nd. You better believe Dance Craze is a documentary worth seeing at the flicks because it's 80% comprised of concert footage and those remastered live performances by The Specials, Madness, The Beat and The Selecter are gonna look/sound incredible on the big screen. Night boat to the pick n mix.


**EDIT** some background info about Dance Craze by the BFI here.

Street Smartz

"Almost anything you wanna know, you can talk to me
But if you wanna see it... walk wit me"

DA Smart - Walk Wit Me
(From Walk Wit Me CD single; 1997/YouTube; 2011)


Hat tip to Mic Terror for hippin' me to this Chicago classic. Essentially, it's a walk-thru tour guide of Chi-Town's roughest neighbourhoods with production by Legendary Traxster. The devils are in the details here, so this is a very vivid song for outsiders which was/is probably very useful to hometowners. Evidently Walk Wit Me still rings bells as a Danger Zones For Dummies audio-manual since the song dropped in 1997, got blessed with a video in 2011, and now sits at a couple of million views.

DA Smart - possibly the O.G Mr. Chi City, definitely the only husky Chicago blk guy who kinda sounds like Yelawolf.

Sustaaas are doin' it for themselves

"Me don't speak no English to detectives so don't ask me
I ain't seen or heard shit - ain't no egg, you can't crack me"

Day Day Sustaaa - Hit They Block
(From Hit They Block; 2023)


Another slab of Baton Rouge granite from Day Day Sustaaa. In Day Day's Bayou tapestry, Hit They Block is too short to work as a proper single so it jams hardest if you use it as the B-side to Get Somebody Else To Do It.

Yay: a reference to Phat Baby's Proper Play (FWS).

Nay: wearing KanYe Pest's ugly shoes in 2023.

So, who we rollin' with? We rollin' with Windrush

Busy Signal ft. M24 - Badman Ting
(From Badman Ting single; 2023)


Hooooooold up, wait a minute - who and who on the same song? Even the dearly departed Mystic Meg couldn't have predicted that the Jamaican Dancehall artist Busy Signal would drop a London Drill riddim with the We Don't Dance Brixton breh who looks like Ivan Toney. Nor could Mystic Meg have predicted that the aforementioned gentlemen would go together as naturally as rice & peas. A yard 2 yard type big choon, and when I say yard 2 yard I ain't talkin' about that Consequence & Rhymefest song, booiiiiiii.

No shotz @ that Consequence & Rhymefest song, mind. - that's the jam and you can read that in Genesis.

My Mind Spray 8

Had a lotta fun at Souls Of Mischief's 93 'Til Infinity 30th anniversary show last week. Very surprised by the amount of zoomers ìn attendance and particularly liked how the group came on stage in matching S.O.M bucket hats and fisherman coats. Excellent chemistry/energy from the Hiero lads, and they even performed the album's sample clearance victim Cab Fare.

And speaking of live shows, Duke Deuce & his hypeman hitting a stage invader with a DDT/body slam combination was clearly part of the performance. Nonetheless, the Julianne Escobeda Shepherd lookin' ass stage invader took one for the team because that shit looked painful.

Already mentioned in a previous My Mind Spray post that I wish some reissue label would do a deluxe remastered CD of Boosie's Bad Azz Mixtape Vol. 2. I'd also like deluxe remastered CDs of Sean Price's Donkey Kong Jr., D-Lo & DJ Fresh's The Tonite Show, Mouse On Tha Track's Millionaire Dreamzzz, and Z Money's Rich B4 Rap.

I'm starting a petition to ban people from people describing Rap songs having "punk rock energy." 95% of the time "punk rock energy" translates as "this is some first-take freestyle brainfart throwaway I'll listen to three times and then forget ever existed."

So, anybody got an MP3 of Say It Loud by Big Scoob? If not, I'm gonna have to cop the 12" and take Step One up on his offer to post the single to him so he can rip me the audio.

Like A Martin

P-Lo - Regular
(From STUNNA (deluxe) album; 2023)


If you're a seasoned NorCal Rap connoisseur then you already know that P-Lo singles often contain easter eggs which reveal his inspiration/intention for the song. And so when Young Bay AZN God breaks into that Lil B flow in verse 2 the penny drops: Regular is big Like A Martian energy crossed with giggin' HBK Gang synergy. Peep that video too - P-Lo went from HBK producer to HBO production which looks like it was partially shot in Narnia. Shouts out to Mr. Tumnus, we in this bitch.

Generic list post: Desert Island DVD Discs

If Party Sparty posts a Desert Island Discs movie edition, I want in...

Here we go, yo, so what's the scenario?: you're marooned on a desert island with plentiful food & drink, a solar-powered TV/DVD player combo and you can choose 40 movies by 40 different directors to while away your time. What are you gonna pick and what's the best method to whittle your choices down to your essentials? Obviously variety is important, but honesty and rewatchability are paramount innit? So, as much as I love prestige canon classics like The Third Man, Rear Window, Rio Bravo, The Apartment, The Wild Bunch and Aguirre, The Wrath Of God, none of them made my list. Unapologetically, I'm a late '70s baby who was raised in the '80s and the movies I grew up on tend to be the ones which I find the most rewatchable. Of course, you could accuse me of succumbing to nostalgic soothing comfort viewing, but you'll never convince me that Stanley Kubrick ever made a movie as good as Back To The Future, Stand By Me or The Lost Boys. Anyhoo, If I'm stranded on that imaginary desert island then I'm stuck with these movies and they stuck with me.

White Heat (1949)
12 Angry Men (1957)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Carry On Screaming (1966)
Point Blank (1967)
Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
Deep End (1970)
Monty Python & The Holy Grail (1975)
Jaws (1975)
Dawn Of The Dead (1978)
The Wanderers (1979)
The Warriors (1979)
The Thing (1982)
Wild Style (1982)
Rumble Fish (1983)
Repo Man (1984)
Gremlins (1984)
Fright Night (1985)
The Quiet Earth (1985)
Back To The Future (1985)
Stand By Me (1986)
The Fly (1986)
The Lost Boys (1987)
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)
Withnail & I (1987)
Evil Dead 2 (1987)
Heathers (1988)
King Of New York (1990)
New Jack City (1991)
Juice (1992)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Groundhog Day (1993)
True Romance (1993)
Casino (1995)
Buffalo '66 (1998)
The Truman Show (1998)
Chopper (2000)
Sexy Beast (2000)
Shaun Of The Dead (2004)
Toy Story 3 (2010)

Bonus beats: some old music VHS tapes which really need a DVD release - Run-D.M.C's Live At The Ritz 1985, Beastie Boys' Licensed To Ill collection thingy, Faith No More's You Fat B*stards - Live At Brixton Academy 1989, and Ice-T's O.G. The Original Gangster Home Video. The latter was the first Rap album to be released on VHS tape with a video for every song, so don't ever try and tell me that Ice-T in his 1986 to 1991 pomp wasn't a trailblazer on multiple different levels.