YAY: an amazing clip of Melle Mel & Duke Bootee lip-syncing their Electro Vérité classic Message II (Survival) on some German TV show in 1983.
NAY: hang on - that's not Duke, it's Rahiem from the Furious Five just like in the video for The Message. Yet more shiesty Duke Bootee erasure by Sugar Hill Records or wot?
AYO: word around town, Melle Mel's Zed from Zardoz lookin' outfit was the tipping point which forced Run-D.M.C to flip Rap's whole sartorial script with their Adidas tracksuits, Lee jeans, and Double Goose bomber jackets.
MAYBE: was Melle Mel's outfit the inspiration for 2Pac's infamous studded leather vest? 'Pac thought he was Mob Piru but looked more like a Crippendale in that thing.
Son, as long as the talent and spark is there, son, MC TREE G is gon' grow, God. MC TREE G is gon' grow like a sapling.
TREE really floated ova da wudz with this one. Proper evergreen pulp diction pre-order from the new MC TREE G stock right here. Lookin' forward to the album sprouting 4 real next week.
CeeFineAss ft. MoneyBagg Yo - Payback 2.0
(From Welcome To My City album; 2020/YouTube; 2021)
Very rare modern instance of a remix ya host prefers to the original. Nothing to do with the presence of MoneyBagg Yo, everything to do with the More Ounce To The Bounce pressure lettin' Miss Cee go full 69th Ward Ceebie.
(Actually, that's a tad unfair to MoneyBagg Yo since "bring your luggage and your phone but no feelings in here" is a great line on the hotel, motel, Holiday Inn tip.)
Unpopular but undeniable opinion: Homeliss Derilex are the ownerz of Rap's best F*ck You song. I don't dig them jokes and, yo, I back up my quotes so lemme explain why - ig'nant west coast underground Gang Starr was a difficult steez to pull off but Homeliss Derilix nailed it here like Chris & Snoop.
A long time ago on TV sets here in the U.K there was a ramshackle yoof show called The Word. Filmed in Manchester on friday nights it benefitted hugely from Yank artists being in town for live shows and consequently ended up featuring the British TV performance debuts of Generation X big hitters like Cypress Hill, Snoop, The Pixies and Nirvana.
Naturally, yours truly had a compilation VHS tape of the show's best live clips which got rocked until the tape sadly popped sometime in the early noughties. Thankfully, in the years since all the performances have turned up on YouTube - all except The Pharcyde's rendition of Ya Mama, that is. Well, guess what I've just found on the 'Tube, lads!
Bonus beats: the two greatest performances in The Word's history were Oliver Reed's shitfaced rendition of Wild Thing and Onyx's barnstorming version of Throw Ya Gunz, the latter of which is essentially an extended stage invasion by the Moss Side mandem.
Bonus bonus beats: the most underrated Rap performance in The Word's history was Craig Mack doing the Q-Tip remix of Get Down during Mack & Biggie's Bad Boy U.K tour of 1995 - specifically, underrated by me since I've only come around to accepting the remix is better than the original in recent years.
In hindsight, The Word's head honcho Terry Christian probably regrets booking Mack instead of a Biggie performance of the One More Chance remix. But the reason The Word was so very special™ is that it's the only TV show on Earth to have performance clips of Ya Mama, Throw Ya Gunz and the Get Down remix in its archive - singles which weren't the respective artist's largest hits but are still legitimate classics.
Much like Big Poppa, we'll always miss The Word here at The Martorialist. That said, since The Word went off air in 1995 appearances on U.K TV by The Charlatans have dropped by 70% - silver linings eh?
Cellski - Still Clappin'
(From Uncle Cell album; 2021)
Bona fide Dope Fiend Beat blues courtesy of Cellski - some proper mogadon mob music slap. It's a pity Uncle Cell doesn't produce more beats because that man has BEEN knowin' how to construct a Slap Classico since the Young Cellski days of Streets Of Frisco. Lest we forget that man was also behind the boards for Won't Be Right.
The Jacka ft. Cellski - Won't Be Right
(From Tear Gas album; 2009)
If you can listen to Won't Be Right and not end up shirtless and screaming "I JUST WANNA CLAP ALL MY ENEMIES" by midway through the first chorus then are we listening to the same song, bro?
Bonus beats:2 Sticks was too lowkey to be the lead single from Cellski's new album. However, if you flip it and bounce it into the B-side for Still Clappin' then its Quiet Storm subtleness hits hella different.
Damn! Smoke an invisible Jazz cigarette for Ricky Powell. Those mutton chops he sported in later life made him resemble Vassily the Meerkat but it's all pumpernickel because he's the only man to ever look fly in Pony kicks. If a picture is worth a thousand words then the Rickster's best pix were on some Moby Dick type shit. Here's ya host's top five favourite Ricky P flickaronies.
Bonus snap: Rickoi even shot the most quintessentially Edan pic of Edan ever.
The Streets - Weak Become Heroes
(From Original Pirate Material album; 2002)
Not a lotta people know this but ya host is a big fan of Weak Become Heroes by chirpoi Brummoi c*nt Mike "The Streets" Skinner. It's the one thing Skinner ever recorded where I found his inherent cringe-factor endearing rather than embarrassing, and the song struck a perfect balance between British kitchen sink melancholy and Balearic dancefloor magic. The latter can also be said of Real Lies 2020 single Boss Trick, thus it's the true heir to Weak Become Heroes in the canon of Everything But ThePet Shop Boy-core.
Definite hint of classic London Trigger flow on this. In fact, if Giggs had grown up as a so sensitive North London sad lad then he might have recorded Boss Trick.
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