WOEBOT

Ecstatic B-boys on Slight Return.

How I laughed at DJ Hell’s comments at some Miami drinks party, words to the effect of: “Oh yeah man Puffy’s House record’s going to be massive, gonna change the game, squirm-squirm, oh Puffy I love you.” With one eye on International Gigolo’s US sales. Thinking hard with the remaining two brain-cells how he can massage his roster into a Hip-House direction.

Elsewhere Herbert stroking his invisible goatee, musing on this global validation of House music. (By the way I listened to that Herbert record, it is pretty crap. First track’s nice, but just reach for your pre-Marsalis Man with the Golden Arm Soundtrack and THINK.....the original is always better blah, blah, blah, sneer, sneer.)

Apparently Puffy asked Nellee Hooper in Ibiza who he should hook up with to realize his ecstasy fantasies (I didn’t say he had anything approximating a heavy habit, even that he had ever taken the drug). Nellee Hooper says: “Puffy go see the Felix Da Housekatt.” The most sensible thing he did since production on that excellent Naomi Campbell record. I cherish my copy, the only one sold in London. But bitching aside, Hip-House IS Chicago innit. Fast Eddie, Chip E, and Doug Lazy.

It’s a weird development, which I’m almost certain will have no impact on mainstream American hip-hop, despite it having it’s own Xtacy dream a year or so ago in the hands of Ja Rule, Missy Elliott, et al. Puffy’s a distant iconic figure, lacking the rhizomatic connection to the underground to kick off a cultural turn-around.

Funny that the context of this potential explosion is the Platinum. B-Boys on ecstasy in the UK (where it’s flourished) have always swung more towards a marijuana/ecstasy combo rather than the courvoisier/cristal/cocaine/ecstasy cocktail which floats the US scene. B-Boys on "X" here (in consequence?) have always been gutter psychonauts. The likes of Shut Up and Dance, DJ Crystl and Dizzy Rascal. Puffy’s gonna be all glossy and sumptuous with Felix’s lush productions. Isn’t Da Housekatt in a new UK commercial? I swear that’s him.

All this time I was in a chalet at Butlins in Skegness. As luck would have it Luka was staying in a caravan on one of the nearby sites with his wife and five kids. Luka told me over a chip butty that Puffy has his own dedicated goatee stylist (THIS IS TRUE!)

Posted by Woebot at May 24, 2003 01:20 PM