Friday 26 November 2010

De Nile : where's the luv for Egyptian Lover?



"You see, in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend : those who thought Egyptian Lover's Livin' On The Nile was perfectly adequate as a 1 minute interlude on the One Track Mind LP, and those who couldn't rest easy until it'd been expanded to nearly 10 minutes in length on the remix from the Freak-A-Holic 12". Which are you, Tuco?"



Egyptian Lover - Livin' On The Nile extended remix



When Egyptian Lover was unfettered by time constraints he used the extra space afforded to him on his 12" singles to really unleash his inner-Prince and show his ass off (pause) with extended versions of his album tracks which explored nooks, crannies, and tangents the originals only hinted at. While his persona and image are what makes Egyptian Lover such a great character, the whole "fat bloke with a perm doing electronic songs about Egypt through a vocoder" schtick also works against him with regards to any sort of reappraisal because you'll seldom see him afforded the same sort of critical acclaim as, say, Juan "Cybotron/Model 500" Atkins even though they both shared a similar aesthetic to electronic composition throughout the early 80s until around 1986. Ah well, at least DJ Quik recognises his genius and wears his Egyptian Lover influence proudly :

DJ Quik & Kurupt - Jupiter's Critic & The Mind Of Mars



2 members of The Martorialst mob happened to visit an Egyptian exhibition dedicated to Tutankhamun's tomb and treasures a couple of weeks ago, and as we stood there gazing deep into the replica of his golden death mask listening to the tour guide recount tales of Tutankhamun's higher echelon flossin', I couldn't help but feel that Soulja Boy is the closest we have to someone who embodies his ostentatious spirit today. Btw, purely speculation on my behalf here, but I truly believe the reason Lil B came up with the cooking dance was to save face after Soulja Boy out-boogied him so spectacularly in the Pretty Boy Swag video :

4 comments:

H.L. said...

That SB/LB gif is hilarious.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Sent the mail, HL.

2SHIN said...

I wanna hate on Soulja Boy but everything I've heard so far from the new album has been kinda banging.

Finding out he fux with cocaine just made me like him even more, I'm all for more rappers taking "white ppl" drugs.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Rappers need to start snorting speed and sniffing glue next.

I've had a bit of a soft spot for Soulja Boy ever since I Got Me Some BAPES blew up on Myspace. Both Pretty Boy Swag and 30 Thousand, 100 Million are great.

Shopping Spree really should've been a single last year.