James Brown's Future Shock can't be stopped

The dog's chewed up my copy of the Bloggin' 101 handbook so I'm currently oblivious to the exact guidelines on recycling topics, but I figure I can possibly get away with another post about the Grand Royal magazine article on James Brown's Future Shock TV show on some ATLanta cable channel since the original post was from when only IRL friends, a few 'net-buddies, and the IDCIYWIW musketeers read this place, and I've now scanned said article and found more comprehensive footage of the show since then. Click the JPG for the full size :





Cynics might suggest that the show was little more than a Soul Train rip-off used solely to plug releases from James Brown's record label, but I look at the Future Shock studio as a Shangri-La of Funk where even the token fat kid can Get Up Offa That Thing and hold his own in the dance contest. If the scan and that montage float your boat then check out the full 30 minute best of Future Shock video some dude called Eugene has stitched together from the Future Shock DVD of what little footage of the show which still exists.

Those first three issues of Grand Royal were so good (the 6 page Mulling Over The Mullet essay from issue # 2 remains one of my favourite pieces of magazine journalism ever), but it was all downhill from there on in with a Fernando Torres-like decline in quality which was concomitant with the Beasties themselves falling off after Ill Communication after they'd started flirting with Buddhism. It appears that great rap groups whose epithets begin with Bea and religion just aren't capable of mingling with one another because the downfall of The Beatnuts began when JuJu converted to Islam and cut back on the "... smashin' your teeth, fuckin' your wife, robbin' you, n*gga, kidnapping your niece, bless your cheek with a permanent crease, I'm a problem you don't need, you'll probably go run for police" talk.

BONUS BEATS :

James and the gang on Soul Train in 1973 with an awesome medley of Get On The Good Foot, Soul Power and Make It Funky :



You know how boxing fans' theoretical dream match would be Ali vs. Tyson at their respective primes? Me, I'm tryna see a James circa this period vs. Prince in 1985 dance-off rumble in the discothèque. How is that double drop scissor-split at 01:40 during the ..Good Foot breakdown even anatomically possible without serious testicular and anal injuries?

Firm Biz remix live on Keenan Wayans' show

Fooken' women, right? They moan about gender equality, but then aren't prepared to throw on the matching indigo jean-suits and wheat Timbs like the the rest of the crew when it's show time because they wanna parade around in their bra and knickers flashin' their shit on stage like they're the stripper in Carry On Behind :

The Firm ft. Half-A-Mill - Firm Biz remix (1997)



The only way Nas can ever clamber his way back in my good books is if he puts out another Lost Tapes album with the hitherto unreleased dirty version of the Firm Biz remix on it. I've already posted about that, so here's Half-A-Mill's full solo re-recording of it from his Da Hustle Don't Stop album five years later. Basically, Tony Touch should do a mixtape where all my favourite east coast rappers get busy over World's Famous :

Half-A-Mill - World Famous (2002)



Such a great rapper in the slightly less cerebral and more trife version of AZ mold, but you'd probably never have realised that if all you've heard are his 2 official albums. All praises to Verge for finding and cleaning up the one joint to leak from his evasive 1995 demo with DJ Scratch, and zipping it up with with various other 90s Milliato rarities like his 1994 indie 12", unreleased cuts and a multitude of freestyles a couple of years back on over on T.R.O.Y.

These Boosies done hypnotized me

So, some kid called Luis with a pretty outstanding Youtube channel dedicated to Louisiana rap has uploaded a grip of Boosie's DVDs which you can find here. I wouldn't bother with the Baton Rogue Gorillas documentary because it consists of about 12 minutes of footage between 30 minutes worth of adverts for really awful looking DVDs with titles like Streets Of Boston (solitary highlight : some dude freestyling to camera before shots start ringing out behind him, a tactic I'm hoping Beantown thugs will employ next time Termanology starts rapping), but the Gangsta Musik documentary is worth a watch for all Boosie and Trill Fam fanboys.

Sure, you could level accusations that it's just ig'nance-porn for middle class saltine rap fans like me since all the rote cliches of 'hood DVDs about rappers are accounted for with knobs on, but beyond the gun-pointing and marauding pitbulls there's good live footage and interesting interviews full of nerdy rap trivia like Webbie talking about the Do It Big/I Smoke I Drank situation and his account of what happened totally sinks the rumour that the latter began as a remix to the former. The whole mythology of Baton Rogue as the murder capital of America with Boosie plus various other members of the Trill fam entourage contributing to that statistic and the families of both rappers were integral components of their music, so it's interesting to be introduced to both throughout the vistas of their neighbourhoods. Similarly, part of what made the duo so appealing when I first discovered them via the Gangsta Musik album was that they were making the sort of gimmick-free, often introspective, regional gangsta-rap CDs with no concessions to trends or transcoastal collaborations which were hard to come by in 2005 (The Jack Artist being the other main exception) and which could've only been made by rappers marooned somewhere way out in the sticks, so it's also interesting that that sense of them living-in-a-bubble translates to film, especially since they weren't yet in the habit of shooting videos.

Alternatively, maybe I just enjoy watching Boosie & Webbie getting women to pull their skirts up and then jiggle their arses around? Check it out :









I know a lotta rappers watch a lotta gangsta movies; I'm talkin' Gangsta Musik, no this ain't no gangsta movie; matta fact i think you should also watch Boosie & Webbie in their Ghetto Stories : The Movie gangsta movie; then slap some of their music asap, particularly Gangsta Musik. The Luis kid hasn't upped that in full, but someone else has so now you can enjoy Trill Entertainment's very own I'm Bout It or Baller Blockin' where Boosie isn't quite the sawn-off Satan he's often portrayed to be by the media since he's remarkably victim-friendly to the white ppl he carjacks.

BONUS BEATS :

Webbie ft. Lil' Phat - What's Happenin' (2011)



A few people posted about this song last week before I had a chance to, so I'll just add that it's some 2011 Murder Rap type shit in every department. Where the American justice system taketh Boosie away, rap giveth us another great yelping gangsta rapper who sounds like he has a clothes peg on his nose in his place with DB Tha General hitting a rich vein of form on The Young O.G II mixtape earlier this year, so someone needs to make a Webbie & DB album a reality.

On The Go

Here's some scans from On The Go magazine # 17, which was their best issue as its auteur Espo AKA Steve Powers finally allowed the music coverage to exceed the boring pictures of Cope 2's graffiti with interviews with such rap luminaries as Flavor Flav, CNN, Camp Lo, Godfather Don, Krs One, The Artifacts, DJ Riz and Dr Butcher, as well as rap album and 12" reviews, reggae 7" reviews, a Diggin' In The Crates section including Harlem River Drive by Eddie Palmieri, a Biggie tribute, and amusing cartoons about scumbag record sellers by Julian Bevan. Click on the pix to read 'em in full size :





They'd even diversified their music policy to include adverts for releases by non-east coast gangsta rappers like Big Mike, Master P, and 3X Krazy by this point, but, alas, it proved to be their last issue and ascended to rap mag heaven shortly thereafter. Here's the Fresh Cuts 12" review pages where the pre-Biggie & Kim version of It's All About The Benjamins, Fondle 'Em releases by Cage and Lord Sear, promos by Mobb Deep, ODB, The Alkoholiks and The Fugees, and cuts by indie-rap-in-'97-staples such as Mike Zoot and Mr Complex all hang-ten comfortably together; describing an Arsonists song as being "ill Chewbacca sounding new wave hip hop type shit" is precisely a billion times more entertaining than any of the music a group as workmanlike as the Arsonists made, so, for better or worse, think of the entire section as an impeccable snapshot of what you'd have found in the racks at Fat Beats N.Y or heard on the Stretch & Bobbito show that year :







BONUS BEATS :

Top 3 songs from the Fresh Cuts reviews which aren't It's All About The Benjamins. Refer to the reviews themselves for all relevant information and analysis of them :

Godfather Don - Seeds Of Hate (1997)



Black Attack ft. Problemz & Al Tariq - Verbal Attack (1997)



Mobb Deep - After Hours G.O.D Part III (1997)

It's international RecordStoreDay today!

Which appears to be some sort of worthy gesture for dull rock fans who buy 180 gram Bob Dylan reissues every decade and indie dudes who call records vinyls judging by their website, but you - YOU! - can help me celebrate it by finding/selling me copies of the Solja Ragz sampler EP and the J. Prince presents... RNDS compilation sampler EP with Wood Wheel by UGK on it, which does exist according to Noz even though it isn't listed on Discogs. Failing that, maybe somebody could just use some Tony Bennett 7"s to buck-fifty bothersome internet vinyl purists like Wicked 22 and A.C The Program Director? It's what Thomas Edison would want.

In the meantime, here's a couple of 12" only cuts. Thanks to Step for putting me onto the Dipset joint after my Kay Slay album cuts appreciation post last year :

The Diplomats ft. Kay Slay - Harlem (2002)



Not to be confused with that other Cam & Kay Slay track called Harlem, but another 2002 Diplomats song originally intended to appear on Kay Slay's first Streetsweeper album like Drama King, Drama Gang which ended up consigned to mixtapes due to record label red tape. Killa starts this ivory-tinkering banger by interpolating Ma$e's opening lines from Feel So Good and maybe the warm weather has got to me this morning but I'm thinking that 2011 would be the perfect time for a Horse And Carriage part 2.

Camp Lo ft. Tyler Woods - Gotcha (2005)



I think this was a sequel remix to Gotcha from Let's Do It Again that got nixed because Jocko couldn't clear the Shoot 'em Up Movies sample which then turned up on wax 3 years later in 2005; but I know that this ranks between DOOM's Red And Gold and I Met My Baby At V.I.M by Kwest Tha Madd Ladd as far as joints with the Shoot 'Em Up Movies break go, and that's a sweet place to lay its head since the former is a bona fide classic and the latter is merely pretty darn great. Gotcha is probably the closest the Lo have gotten to any sort of introspection on record, and bearing their hearts could've proved disastrous for a group whose steez is permanently set to all style and very little substance, but, damn, it works in this instance and this is one of those great lost singles which woulda, coulda, shoulda been an N.Y radio show staple had the circumstances been right or their label had enough brown bags of that payola dough.

Ain't no shots at Tony Bennett, btw, because Boulevard Of Broken Dreams is an absolute tour-de-force.

Twerk them towels

I guess this barnstorming TV performance of Three 6 Mafia's classic with Lil' Flip when he still looked like a sea lion with 2001-era Triple H facial hair solves the mystery of why you always see black dudes walking around with towels in the summer, because I guess a brother just feels naked without something to twirl around in the air if a DJ Paul & Juicy J produced banger comes on the pub jukebox?

Three 6 Mafia feat. Lil` Flip - Ridin Spinners (Live On 106 & Park, 2003)



I know Sippin' On Some Syrup and Stay Fly are the more popular choices, but I tend to favour Ridin' Spinners as the best Three 6 single of the last decade because John Carpenter OST-sounding-but-still-club-friendly-headbustin' Three 6 Mafia and is the best kind of Three 6 Mafia. Gotta confess that I was totally oblivious to the original version of this with Lil' Wyte and La Chat until last year, though, and it's more evidence that a cracka can't catch a break in the Hypnotize Minds camp.

And speaking of Three 6 Mafia and Lil' Flip songs from Da Unbreakables AND original versions of songs from Da Unbreakables, here's the non-Screwed-but-still-Chopped version of Rainbow Colors which was sadly lacking from the retail album :

Three 6 Mafia ft. Lil' Flip - Rainbow Colors O.G version (2003)



There are some songs which benefit from the extra thump a Screwing gives them - DJ Screw's version of C-Bo's America's Nightmare sounds bombastic where the original was a little too light in the steeltoes, and I sorta prefer the entire Screwed 'N' Chopped version of Cham' & Paul's Get Ya Mind Correct CD to the regular version for the same reasons. The original Rainbow Colors, however, sounds far less sludgy and much more infectious and John Carpenter OST-y in its original un-Screwed incarnation, so feel free to twirl your towels to this one from now on.

Peaks and valleys

^^^ Complex get one of these for including AZ's Live Wire in their Buckwild Tells All voyage through his production credits because that's, like, the best pairing of their talents and a far from obvious choice since it only officially appeared on the end of A.W.O.L in a mixed dollop of bonus joints from the shelved Final Call album. Never knew Nas was originally scheduled to appear on it, but I'm glad he didn't because Serious was pretty much the perfect note for them to end their career as a duo, crashing and burning in an inferno of Incredible Bongo Band breaks and Nas telegraphing how worthless he'd become by concluding his last verse with a mention of Coldplay.



^^^ Vibe, on the other hand, get one of these for not including Suga Free's classic Street Gospel in their otherwise excellent DJ Quik piece where he breaks down every other notable album or song he's produced. No The Konnectid Project Vol. 1 is understandable and acceptable, but not including a top 3 Quik produced album like Street Gospel (for doz that still sleep, it's basically the magnum opus of misogyny-rap and Quik's Doggy Style) is almost as scandalous as there not being any sort of good quality version of the superior video mix of the Pure Pimp joint Sug' did under the Royal Rock moniker back in 1992. Fuck it, at least Vibe included a blurb on the Penthouse Players Clique album with the revelation that Quik "fell in love" with Paul's Boutique.

Penthouse Players Clique ft. Eazy-E & DJ Quik - P.S. Phuk U 2 (1992)

I tinkered with my best rap singles of 1999 - 2009 post

The best rap singles of the noughties ('99 - '09)

Since it's been doin' Toy Story 3 DVD sales numbers over the last week thanks to someone linking it on one of the Somethingawful.com forums, I thought I'd give my Ego Trip Book Of Rap Lists singles style noughties post an overhaul by increasing the 15 singles per calendar annum into a more rounded 20 choices per year, switching a few singles I was off on date wise to their correct years of residence, adding a few songs I either didn't realise were singles or had slept on back in 2009, generally just moving songs up and down lists, and starting anew with my favourite 20 singles of 2010 now enough time has passed for me to be able to make sense of the year. I always used to hate the way Sight & Sound magazine would let their contributors list their favourite movies in alphabetical order rather than any kind of hierarchical structure of preferance come poll times, but, oh man, after putting together a list like this I can see why it's such a critically sound strategy because I can't look at this list without spluttering in disgust that I've ranked Grindin' higher than Lovely, The Essence and It's All Gravity; a matter this recent edit has put right.

Also mentioned some of the notable absences in the '79 - '98 lists in the Ego Trip book in the post, which is great timing because in the new Fat Lace spodcast Drew points out the sheer injustice at the Ego Trip crew deciding that Down The Line deserved a spot in ..The Bad.. section of their posse cut Clans, Posses, Crews & Cliques chapter alongside such communal duds as Ladies In Da House and No Hook.

Nice & Smooth ft. Preacher Earl, Melo T, Bas Basta, Asu & Guru - Down The Line (1991)