Other notables:WTF by Valee & Harry Fraud with Twista has got me fiendin' for a Twista single produced by Harry Fraud; two years later we finally get a remix of Cootie & BiC Fizzle's Supafly; whoever A&Rs for Lola Brooke has clearly been listening to Eatem.
Other stuff: I showed love to Dick Fontaine's 1984 documentary Beat This: A Hip-Hop History and ended up defending Malcolm McLaren from Fontaine's criticism; EttelThun did an M.O.P deep cuts mix and of course he included 187.
So, this is the point where everyone pretends they've always been big Sinead O'Connor fans. See Me? I was a big fan of I Want Your (Hands on Me) being used to marvellous effect twice in the fourth A Nightmare On Elm Street fillum. Pour out a little Jameson for the only Na hÉireannaigh lass to ever record a song with MC Lyte. She was Ireland's first minister of the First Priotity posse and that's word to Auldio Two.
Sinead O'Connor ft. MC Lyte - I Want Your (Hands On Me) (remix)
(From I Want Your (Hands on Me) single; 1988)
Dizzee Rascal - Street Fighter
(From pirate radio; 2002/Boy In Da Corner album 20th anniversary reissue; 2023)
Shout outs to Chun-Li, she was THAT bitch! Been fiendin' to hear Dizzee Rascal's Street Fighter in full pristine CDQ for years and finally it's here! Some gobshite enfant terrible Grime recorded for Boy In Da Corner but shelved due to the Street Fighter II sample. Only a myopic 'murican or a frontin' foreigner could possibly deny this song a place in the canon of best video game-sampling Rap choonz alongside Super Brooklyn by Cocoa Brovaz, Mac Man by Beanie Sigel, NBA Live 2004 by Twista, Get It Back by Gucci Mane & 2 Chainz, Lincoln Continental by Danny Brown, 2 Brothers From The Gutter by Percee P & Diamond D, Game Over by Lil' Flip, Cha Cha by D.R.A.M, Eternal by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Never Been by Wiz Khalifa and Human Video Game by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. If Giggs' Monsta Man samples a video game, then that deserves a place in the canon too, natch.
Dick Fontaine's 1984 documentary Beat This: A Hip-Hop History is very much the Beat Street to Style Wars' Wild Style: a corny companion-piece made by outsiders which still captures the magic of early 80s New York. Endure Gary Byrd's dad-rap narration and Afrika Baambaataa with 2 studded belts wrapped around his noggin so you can enjoy such highlights as a DJ cuttin' up Black Grass while the Rock Steady Crew strut their stuff, Kool Herc driving around the Bronx in a droptop Cadillac with gigantic speakers propped up in the back seat, DJ Jazzy Jay on the decks at a basketball court block party, graffiti artist Brim crossing the tracks of an elevated station like he's James Bond to the sound of Jonzun Crew's Space Is The Place, and the Cold Crush Brothers dressed like Rick James' Band doing a live routine over Jeckyll & Hyde's Gettin' Money. There's even an interview with the infamous N.Y vandal squad coppers Hickey & Ski who were later immortalised as Fred Flintstone & Barney Rubble on one of Seen's whole car trains.
Malcolm McLaren also pops up to talk about being in New York with Bow Wow Wow and ending up going to a block party deep in the rubble of the South Bronx where he met Afrika Baambaataa. This, of course, lead to McLaren importing Hip-Hop kulcha to Europe via his Buffalo Gals single/video. Back in the late 2000s ya boi Martaveli went to a screening of Dick Fontaine's 1988 follow-up documentary Bombin' hosted by Fontaine where he said he regretted including McLaren in Beat This because ol' Malcolm was "a culture vulture opportunist". O rly? You say opportunistic, we say gave the opportunity to Trevor Horn & Anne Dudley and The World's Famous Supreme Team to record classics like Buffalo Gals, D'ya Like Scratchin'?, World's Famous, and Hey DJ. Malcolm In The Middle™ of greatness: music which could have never existed without his galaxy brain impresario vision of putting Horn & Dudley with two New York radio DJs. Plus, if we're talkin' posh English blokes accusing each other of being "culture vulture opportunists" then what did Dick Fontaine ever do for Hip-Hop other than those two documentaries? Name 3 Ultramagnetic MC's songs, m8!
Needless to say, some of the Beat This scenes featuring that nonce Afrika Baambaataa have NOT aged well, particularly the one where he meets some young lads in a dark room and then takes them away with him. Cash Money was an army, Zulu Nation was a grooming gang.
J Hus metaphors givin' me flashbacks of Hell Rell's album cover. Massacre is ya host's favourite example of the Roadrapfrobeats sound on Hus' new album, but I prefer this Colors performance to the studio version. "They never seen such a skinny man in a big puffer jacket" back for 2023, baby! As demonstrated here, Hus has a very malleable natural mouthpiece, which is why it deactivates my chakra when he smothers his voice in generic Auto-Tune on certain songs. Now, let's get a Dreck-less Colors performance of Who Told You next.
Don't get it twisted, Gzus Piece is also lightin' up #MondayMass like Christmas with new techniques which are more holistic mixed with pimp shit and some spiritualistic. Here at The Martorialist we're perennially in a 12" single state of mind, so these two singles go together like Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett as an A-side and B-side. I swear both songs is all chicken whether they're wings or they're tenders.
True story: Rich Off Drugs is the first time I've come across the word Sassafras since Green Day dropped Dookie.
Peggy Gou's latest single being Britain's inescapable ipso facto 2023 Song of The Summer is the universe correcting its two previous mistakes of Starry Night not blowing up in 2019 and Dreck ruining J Hus' 2023 summer anthem. Much like Starry Night was kinda like a City-Pop House version of Bananarama's Aie a Mwana, (It Goes Like) Nanana is kinda like a City-Pop House version of Bananarama's Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye). More importantly, it's the only song which can unite BooHooMan lads, ASOS "Get The Look" lasses, Primani Joes & Joannes, Stone Island scallies, Gorpcore zoomers and Gen X Clobber Connoisseurs™ on British pub dance floors right now. It's a beautiful thing when a song you love by an artist you like takes over the real world innit? Hat tip to XL and ATB.
Myopic New Yorkers won't admit it, but MC Shy D rocked that navy & red leather Adidas Superstar tracksuit better than Run-D.M.C. Naturally, I had to cop the polyester version when Adidas reissued it 2017, and it was notably rocked by Maine Musik. Adidas' last great Superstar tracksuit before the brand switched to cheaper materials and added that damn contrast piping to all the tops.
YouTube currently recommending me Loon interviews has reminded me of a few things: This Ain't Funny is a deep cut which really shoulda been a street single; flipping Schoolly D's Saturday Night into some Fake Neptunes jiggyness on How You Want That was a minor stroke of Bad Boy genius; Loon ghostwrote one of my favourite Puffy lines ever with "have you ever been to St. Tropez and seen a brother play a mandolay?" on I Need A Girl Part 2.
An A&R who shoulda been fired: the label guy at Big Beat Records who decided that the A-side of Percee P & Ekim's debut 12" single should be the middling Now They Wanna See Me rather than the killer Puttin' Heads To Bed or the fast-rap classic Lung Collapsing Lyrics. You had one job and you blew it twice, m8.
One of the absolute worst things about the Rap Internet is that it's fulla gormless basic bastards who primarily talk about music in terms of maths - be it first week sales, streaming numbers, view counts, chart positions, social media followers, Top 5 MC lists, "1 Gotta Go" polls and release date anniversaries. These lads are a buncha L7s and when I say L7 I ain't talkin' about Donita Sparks & Dee Plakas, booiiiiiii.
