WOEBOT

6 Great Mid-Period Hip-Hop LPs.

So here it is, the first proper guide to Hip-Hop's golden era put together by an avowed outsider, ahem. Why is it that people assume they can "get down with the programme" without looking like a complete tosser (Jennifer "from the block" Lopez, Tim "diggity" Westwood and not a few hip-hop hacks, you know who you are)? Its wickedy wack old bean......

So firstly it should be stated that the true medium of Hip-Hop is the 12". End of story. However unlike other 12" dominated genres like Disco, or Jungle, or Detroit Techno there are bundles of truly great Hip-Hop "elpees" which aren't chockablock full of filler or lame attempts to master a variety of different genres (step forward practically every dance artist who ever made a long-player). In spite of this, one of the main reasons I put this list together is that I get sick of hearing people reccommending long-playing drek by Jay Z (he's a great singles guy notwithstanding) or even 80 minute turds by the combined uber-gang of Mannie Fresh, Timbaland and The Neptunes (these dudes make hot singles and placate the industry with nearly-all-filler LPs, the only exceptions being Missy Elliott's 1st and 3rd LPs and Lil Wayne's "Tha Block is Hot")

All these records are sort of findable. Many of the ones I've purchased have been re-issues, hey I'm as lame as you are, and I won't be offering a companion CD to this article with the express intention that if you don't own any of these records you bloody well ought to shell out and support the artists, who unlike the platinum gang, are probably right back where they started from. This is quite explicitly a buyers guide. My only caveat being that the bootleggers are doing a good trade with this stuff. Oh and don't you dare slsk this stuff....I'll haunt you.

Anyway without further ado here is the list:

1. Black Moon: Enta da Stage (Wreck 1993)

Number One! This is a fucking great record for which the word gruff was practically invented. Not as immediately hooky as others in this list, it's "deep" heavy shit which should appeal to those after a true sonic fix. Strictly middle frequency stuff, not that the bass doesn't go boom, the production is as furrowed as the brows on the cover. Like some of these other records it's dominated by gruff male "hunched" yob-gang rapping. That's immediately a problem for some twee liberals, but so what, they're not a bunch of effete pansies, get over it. I don't hear sexism, maybe war between the sexes.... The disc was produced at D&D studios (generally viewed as the home of hip hop) where DJ Premier produced his slew of classics. Built at a time when the resources of Jazz-Funk samples must have appeared infinitely fecund. You can almost hear Da Beatminerz palpable excitement at these mahagony off-key breaks. It's suffused with sensi (smoked like a salmon), tinged with dancehall reggae (Black Moon occasionally flip into patois), and bolstered with low frequency bleeps. I could practically write an entire book about this one record (entitled "No Moon more Black"), I haven't even started talking about what they actually say...........

2. Diamond and the Psychotic Neurotics: Stunts, Blunts and Hip Hop (Chemistry 1992)

Number One! The best kept secret indeed! Diamond's loops and breaks are both deliciously scrumptious and pack more crunch than a transit full of frosties. I confess I'm not really a lyrics man. If you weren't born and raised in the States you'd be very hard pushed to get what he's going on about most of the time: "I shoot it like a Jammy in, girls get the pantys in, even with a fanny in I might win a grammy and, maybe I won't so I'll chill like the pope, see I'll never mope cos I know my shit is dope, like colombian fishscale, ask my man Ishmael, Diamond D got props like a Cop." OK it's fairly clear: metaphorically speaking he's a decent shot and the ladies like him, he might win an award for his music, but he's philosophical about it, having the cool demeanour of the catholic leader (who like Diamond is also purported to smoke pot), he knows his records are good, in fact they're even as good as excellent super-strong imported south-american marajuana, if you want a character reference just ask his friend Ishmael (who pipes up) "Diamond gets as many nods of respect from his colleagues in the field of rap music as a policeman has notebooks, aviator glasses, walky talkies and doughnuts."*The point is that this "ultra-compressed" poetry flows wonderfully over hard-rocking breaks, if the ideas pitched and poetic flow is moving slow enough for you to actually pick up whats being said then its a bad rap. As far as I can see its about turning language into sound, and to be honest as a foreigner and outsider I think you're uniquely placed to really get this back from hip-hop. You're not mired down in basketball gags, you just nod your head to the hypnotic flow. This record is my favourite for this kind of surreal obfuscation.

* Please will no swanky yankies try and pick up my mistakes.

3. Showbiz & AG: Runaway Slave (Payday 1992)

Showbiz and AG were affiliated with Diamond's Digging in the Crates collective, shortened to D.I.T.C. There is another famous D.I.T.C. LP by Lord Finesse. I've heard it and I don't rate it. I have the Fat Joe one "Represent", thats alright. Digging in the Crates is the act of thumbing through second-hand records. We mentioned earlier that the records in this window of time are the results of sampling a certain kind of music. No it isn't Jazz rap, as Sacha Frere Jones joked (the only person to write about Hip Hop with any style, excepting the original shaolin David Toop) that if critics had paid attention to hip hop five years previous and the records it sampled then, they could have called it TV Rap. Well that's a bit of a conceit. Being a nobber record collector I know that you travel through the field of music in the same way as you cross a terrain, that's to say from connected node to connected node. This lot went from James Brown to Tower of Power, The Delfonics, John Handy, Flaming Ember, Kleer, George Duke and Billy Cobham. (All get sample dues on the Diamond LP). This is the window of time I'm referring too when i say (rather drily) Mid-Period. Quite quickly these guys ran out of sparkling hooky loops. They ended up ploughing through library records for breaks (hey great no sampling fees!) just because everything else has been bled dry. Signs of change? RZA going digital and ditching his Stax box-set and of course Timbaland. Runaway Slave, Great record by the way.

4. Gang Starr: Daily Operation (1992 Cooltempo)

May this serve as lesson to anyone a liitle too eager to write something off. I had an itinerant 1991 and therefore turned to tapes for my kicks. Three were on heavy rotation, a Charley Lee Dorsey comp (with nutty liner notes by Joe Strummer), The Ragga Twins "Reggae owes me Money" and Gang Starr's "Step in the Arena". That's a great record, quite clean in a way though. I remember my bro buying "Daily Operation" and thinking ("been there done that") and just ignoring the thing. Well guess what, I done screwed up. Just as mainstream interest in Gang Starr dried up so did Premier really master his art, bad timing Premo! The sheer style Premier brings to this record floated a thousand brilliant 12"s and the careers of Jeru the Damaja (whose "The Sun Rises in the East", distinguished by "Come Clean" nearly made it onto the Nearly list below), MOP, Nas and a raft of others. This record is a stone classic and "Hard to Earn" is great too. Premier is an effortlessly brilliant producer. His genius lies in his approach, not his raw materials, which means that practically every track is a winner.

5. A Tribe called Quest: The Low End Theory (1991 Zomba)

Once again wedged in the 1991-3 window and (like all of the LPs) sporting connections to the others. Exactly the same thing happened with this record. I had the (inferior) Daisy Age debut and overlooked this while my bro' picked it up, bastard! Possibly the biggest of these records commercially (Quest surfing the Jazz rap wave) and maybe the daddy. Ron Carter of CTI fame even lays down bass on "Verses from the Abstract"- but hey don't be fooled, this record isn't remotely "loungey" it's real skull cracking stuff. Best track "Show Business" with Diamond at the helm. Look out for a cameo by the nascent Busta Rhymes then of Leaders of the New School (whose TIME LP was also in the nearly Nearly list).

6= Main Source: Breaking Atoms (1991 Wild Pitch) / Ultramagnetic MCs: The Four Horsemen (1993 Wild Pitch)

A head-to-head here with these two on the WIld Pitch label. Would the person who stole my Wild Pitch singles comp kindly return it to me? Number 6 "joint" because they both score a 70% hit rate to the other records 95% (thats still awful high) but such is the kick of their greatest tracks that all is forgiven. The Main Source LP is loveable for the wounded masculinity of "Looking at the front door" and the storming "Just Hanging Out" with the Large Professor's gourgeous bouncy loop of Sister Nancy's "Bam Bam" and alot else besides. All these dudes know their ragga, just remember Shabba Ranks was riding very high at this stage, booming from all the best jeeps. The violent red, gold and green righteousness of reggae might have seemed a credible influence/direction following the daisy age dalliance. Those colo(u)rs, just look at these record covers!

Finally the Ultramagnetic MC's "The Four Horsemen", a nasty, sick, evil, fucked up record. This, I reckon is the point zero of Lapdance culture (not exactly something to celebrate but we can't avoid it vis "In da club"). I hear you with your Blowflys and 2 Live Crews, but maybe they're parochial sensations, also maybe they're nice people. Kool Keith is clearly not a "nice" man. This is somewhat different from these other records which all have a warm heart. Fans of concussive PCP Gabba, 4Hero era-Darkcore, and Sheffield Bleep and Bass should go straight to side D and the 4 track mash-up. It's hard to hear the joins on this killa symphony, the stabs seem slightly different track by track but thats the only clue you get to the cues. Keith goes yadda yadda in his bitchy whinge threatening rappers with just about every preposterous insult his stinking mind can concoct. Aaah lovely you've gotta hear it!!

So thats it. In true hip-hop style (indulge me readers) I'd like to give a shout out to a few people. Firstly Big Johnny Lyall from back-in-the day (now the Monarch of Scottish Hip-Hop and man behind the Scratch club, Johnny owns an original copy of the Main Source LP!) also Neil "Babes" (former UK Subbuteo champion and now watch that centre-forward digit on the 1200s! Neil hipped me to the Black Moon) and last but not least Phal "Bust-it-out" Cullum (keep rocking the funky breaks bad bwoy!). (weeps) I love you guys! (draws breath) I'm gonna wind it down before I get too carried away. So in conclusion I give you:

The "Nearly" List:

(Those records not quite hot enough to make the TWANBOC top 6, but which nonetheless are groovy) bear in mind this is a fraction of the possible candidates. Submit your faves and I'll blog 'em up baby.....

Del the Funky Homosapien: No Need for Alarm(1993 Elektra)


Better than his Daisy Age debut (that old cliche). King of the West coast Hieroglyphics crew and latterly Gorillaz MC (oh no!). This album fits our time period, has some ace tracks, but not enough. Cullum, who has the patience of a buddhist monk, will tell you I'm quite wrong. Features mysterious Parisian Toure.....

Souls of Mischief: 93 til Infinity (1993 Zomba)


More Hieroglyphics crew. Worth admission for the title track alone, a built on a 33rpm Billy Cobham track played at 45, but then you're wandering around a deserted cinema. Nah, its pretty OK.

KMD: Black Bastards (1993 Subverse)

Not as good as their Daisy Age debut, the brilliant "Mr.Hood" (I bought it the day it came out- haters!) but still pretty cool. This was bootlegged for years. The story goes that the record company freaked when they delivered it, dropped KMD and canned the LP. Doh!

Freestyle Fellowship: Inner City Griots (1993 Island)

This is any interesting record. Emblematic of this fecund moment of time. Freestyle Fellowship were a kind of improvising outfit, shades of The Last Poets. There is a touching/brave grassroots community feel to the record. Take those earlier comments about Reggae (vis routes from Aquarian rap) and times them by ten, not nihilistic like the Ultramagnetics record but in many ways as dark and foreboding. The rap on "Six Tray" has a Cronenburg/Crash styled theme, which is doubly dread in its context. These are AvantYobs with their faces pressed against the glass.

Posted by Woebot at March 4, 2003 11:29 AM