Friday 12 August 2016

Just sayin', bruv: Whodini edition

Whodini - Featuring Grandmaster Dee
(From Escape album; 1984)



AKA the 5 Minutes Of Funk instrumental. Back in the '90s there was a HHC magazine interview with Whodini breaking down some of their classic singles where they admitted 5 Minutes Of Funk was an instrumental track Larry Smith made as a showcase for their DJ Grandmaster Dee which banged so hard they couldn't resist rhymin' over it. It's all luv to Jalil & Ecstasy for including both incarnations on their Escape LP, but they really shoulda played the background and just let Larry get his groove on for dolo because Featuring Grandmaster Dee is one of the few rap songs which works best as the version without any rapping. Think of it as the O.G The 900 Number in that respect.

1983/1984 really was the only good era for instrumental rap: 70% of the Wild Style OST, West Street Mob's Breakdance - Electric Boogie, Hashim's Al-Naafiysh (The Soul), Davy DMX's One For The Treble, Herbie Hancock & Grandmixer D.ST's Rockit, DJ Red Alert's Hip Hop On Wax Volume 2, and Featuring Grandmaster Dee here.

6 comments:

THE GUY said...

ALL THIS SAUCE THAT U THROWIN' ALL I NEED IS KETCHUP

d said...

Some of my fav rapping of theirs on that, that beats incredible but. I wanted them rapping on Underground, it even had a hook and everything.

Funny how stubborn listening to rap makes you of "wasting" instrumentals, like I have to skip the HNIC intro cos Im just like this could have Prodigy rapping on it. Theres like 1 out of a hundred old let the dj get some shine tracks that doesnt put that thought in the air.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

0 minutes left!

step one said...

always enjoyed this. Armand Van Helden made good use of it on this early AV8 joint

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OutwLCliTFo

(Comes in at 1:20)

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Never heard that before. Nice.

kyle said...

poor Grandmaster Dee, first they rap over what was supposed to be his track and then they publish the instrumental without asking him to scratch. they did him dirty :o