Tuesday 29 March 2011

Only built 4 Alonzo "Mr Hyde" Brown linx

Dr Jeckyll & Mr Hyde - Yellow Panties (1985)



Remember the snippet of that upcoming interview with Alonzo Brown I posted about last year? Well, the whole shebang went live yesterday, and although the Troy L Smith dude who conducted it indulges in a pet-peeve of mine by calling them Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde rather than their officially sic moniker of Dr. Jeckyll & Hyde (because rappers ain't got love for Robert Louis Stevenson and don't adhere to actual spellings of literary classics), it's a dense read which takes in the crucial differences between Harlem and the Bronx, how seeing Luv Bug Starski live on stage in a room full of champagne drinking "dudes with gold chains and girls Jordache and Sergio Valente jeans" at some Uptown nightspot inspired him to start rapping, how Andre "Dr Jeckyll" Harrell once flipped out on him when he turned up to perform a live show in a sweatsuit, his Harlem World Crew days, how Genius Rap allegedly saved Profile Records and their relationship with the label thereafter, how they were jealous of Whodini working with Larry Smith, and his post-Jeckyll & Hyde career which included stints at Cold Chillin' and Warner Brothers, Hollywood restaurants which were ordered to sell fried chicken, and TV shows as diverse as New York Undercover and Cousin Skeeter.

Alonzo "Mr Hyde" Brown interview part 1
Alonzo "Mr Hyde" Brown interview part 2
Alonzo "Mr Hyde" Brown interview part 3
Alonzo "Mr Hyde" Brown interview part 4

The last few paragraphs of page 4 devolve into an irksome cliched old-school rapper rant where he moans about modern rap's supposed lack of variety, but I suppose this guy must be in his late fourties or early fifties by now so he's probably unaware of Curren$y, The Jacka, Yelawolf, Roc Marciano, $tarlito, Lil B, and the late career renaissances of E-40 and AZ. Being one of the originators of Uptown waviness alongside Spoonie Gee, he has no excuse not knowing about Max B, though, so someone needs to burn him a best of CD-R or *cough* my ‘Should've Been The Byrd Gang Album’ compilation.

2 comments:

brad said...

nice one

done said...

That sites the greatest.