Public Enemy - Fight The Power

ORIGINATION Fear of a Black Planet CD
LAST LISTENED TO last night
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT pretty bloody high
RATING ★★★★★

I was first intoduced to Public Enemy at the height of their powers at the beginning of the '90s. On a trip to Italy in '91 I picked up a copy of It Takes a Nation of Millions. Most likely it was because I had spending money and decided I would rather use it on music, than on some local tat. It was a bold, provocative album and it still is, however it is its successor that I listen to more often these days.

For me, Fear of a Black Planet is bolder, louder, longer and packs more hits. Biggest and boldest of all is the closing track, Fight The Power, which is both one of their funkiest tunes and their most relentless. Deceptively simple sounding, it is as intensely-woven as any Bomb Squad track, a bold mix of beats and samples that keep rolling and bouncing on and on, funky and tough. Over it Chuck D's rap is conscious, unyielding, calling for something more than peacefull acceptance of how things are. It flows smoothly, hitting on the beats, interspersed with some of jester Flav's less wacky interjections, giving Chuck pauses to catch his breath.

There is a fire here, of young bloods looking to kick down the old. Do they really think Elvis was a racist? Or are they rabble-rousing, beating on sacred cows? With PE and Chuck, you just never can tell.

Handsome Boy Modeling School - The World's Gone Mad (Feat. Del The Funky Homosapien, Barrington Levy & Alex Kapranos)

ORIGINATION White People
LAST LISTENED TO a few days ago
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT la la la
RATING

Wow. A fourth track from this album. That's practically unheard of. It's even more of a surprise given the full-on rawk action that's been shaking the walls in here for the past few days.

The World's Gone Mad has a bit of a reggae-ish vibe, which is not much of a surprise given that Jamaican star Barrington Levy is on here. He provides the focus of the song, but has two able assistants in tow. First up is Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, who takes care of the rapping that forms a good portion of the start of the tune. The rest of the vocal duties is taken up by Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand, no less, who provides more of a supporting role (although he does get one short bridge).

As usual, the HMBS have pulled together a pretty random collection of perfomers and made it work well. Hopefully now that all the best tunes from this (their second) album have been used up, we don't need to see them again for a while. Back to rawk for me now!
Further Handsome By Modelling School songs: Are You Down With It | A Day In The Life | I've Been Thinking | Class System which is lost somewhere in April

The Beastie Boys - Car Thief

ORIGINATION Paul's Boutique
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT fair
RATING

When the Beasties put out Paul's Boutique in '89, it was more or less universally ignored. The dense collage of samples employed, which mirror the three MCs rapping over each other, scared off many listeners expecting something closer to their first album. Time, however has been kind to the album and it now holds a privileged place in the history of hip hop. Basically, it was an album that was ahead of it's time. It's also an album that became more or less impossible to make just a few years later, when sample clearance law was tightened.

Car Thief contains large chunks of some laid back funk from the Funk Factory (Rien Ne Va Plus), plus an noitceable guitar break from Funkadelic's version of I Bet You. These are just the tip of the iceberg, with so many bits and pieces scattered about throughout the track, that it is hard to track them all down. Over this then, the Beasties rhymes fit into each other like hands in gloves. It's a mess of clever word play and pop culture references that was to become their stock in trade.

There is a really interesting site about Paul's Boutique, that has tried to list all the samples and references. It's also worth checking out Allmusic's review of the album which gives a good view of it's place in history.
Further Beastie Boys songs: Ricky's Theme

De La Soul - Take It Off

ORIGINATION Three Feet High And Rising
LAST LISTENED TO last month sometime
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT mmph
RATING

When De La Soul released their debut album, it's playful grooves where somewhat at odds with the prevailing fashion in hip hop at the time. Not that it was any less relevant or had less of a message, it just sugar-coated things more.

Take It Off has always been one of my least favourite moments on the album. There really isn't much to it and the repetitious use of 'take it off' just bugs me after a while. To be fair, though, i respect its anti-fashion/label stance. Still, it feels a bit like as album filler.

Monday morning mess

The shock of an early alarm and a head full of fuzz confused issues too much this morning. I ended up with a big old mess of random snatches of music. The biggest and most continuous snatch was from AC/DC's Rocker, but this was interspersed with a near equally large dose of Public Enemy's Welcome To The Terrordome, both of which would merit a decent mention in their own right. However, there where so many other bits and random pieces kicking around that it doesn't seem fair to pick out just the two. There was bits of the Beastie Boys The Biz Vs The Nuge, for example and even a part from Chris Morris' Pixies spoof Motherbanger which was a real shot from out of nowhere.

Ultimately, there was just too much random noise for anyone's head on a monday morning. No way to start a week.

Handsome Boy Modeling School - Class System (Ft. Pharrell Williams and Julee Cruise)

ORIGINATION White People
LAST LISTENED TO last week
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT goody gum drops
RATING

Another from this popular album (round these parts) and it is again of the downtempo ones. This time the guest vocals come from Julee Cruise, who takes the part of a society bride. The standpoint of the part takes a pretty viscous swipe at that class of person. Williams' soulful chorus and provides a good contrast to the nastiness. One of the high points of the album.

Public Enemy - 911 Is A Joke

ORIGINATION Fear Of A Black Planet
LAST LISTENED TO last month
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT not all that high
RATING

At the end of the ‘80s, their were few groups as influential as Public Enemy. Their mix of politically strong rapping with a funky, dense sound collage practically re-wrote hip hop over night, as well as having effects felt throughout rock. Their focal, at least on record, was (and still is) Chuck D, the main rapper. Live, however, Flavor Flav, the second rapper and partly comedic sidekick tended to take the centre stage, with his demented demeanour and penchant for wearing large clocks (to signify what time it was).

In 1990 they released their third album, Fear Of A Black Planet. It was both a critical and commercial success. On 911 Is A Joke, Flav takes centre stage, with a rap spotlighting the deficiencies in the emergency services when it came to helping those in poorer neighbourhoods. Whilst it doesn't have the two-voice interplay that was one of PE's trademarks, it lacked for nothing in its punch. The rap is every bit as hard hitting as Chuck D's, albeit coloured by Flav's skewed take and rhymes. It is also musically one of the high points on an album that has barely a weak second.

Handsome Boy Modelling School - I've Been Thinking (Ft. Cat Power)

ORIGINATION White People
LAST LISTENED TO last week
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT fair
RATING

This is a nice piece of downtempo hip hop. There is some nice atmosphere in the loops and the vocal is fine. But it's not as strong as other tracks on the album and consequently, seems rather uninspired. It'd probably be a better track taken on its own merits.

Handsome Boy Modeling School - A Day In The Life (Ft. RZA, Cedric Bixler & Omar Rodrigues (The Mars Volta) & AG)

ORIGINATION White People
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT purdy good
RATING

The Mars Volta and Wu Tang seems pretty far apart, but thanks to the genius of HBMS, they come together wonderfully. The Mars Volta lads take the choruses, whilst in-between them the rappers take the centre stage. RZA is the first up and pulls some particularly enjoyable rhymes out of his bag, especially "we collect antique ammunitions / and plus we got them big guns / you only see in science fictions", which you just have to love. However, the choruses are probably the most memorable parts of the tune, not that i have a clue as to what they are about.

Handsome Boy Modeling School - Are You Down With It (feat Mike Patton)

ORIGINATION White People
LAST LISTENED TO sunday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT whatever
RATING

The Handsome Boy Modelling School are producers Prince Paul (of Stetsasonic and De la Soul fame) and Dan Nakamura (who was part of Dr. Octagon and the Gorillaz, amongst others). On their two albums they have become famed for their extensive list of guest vocalists over their unique brand of Hip Hop. This track is from their second, less critically successful album and features former Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton making a rare excursion into coherence.

Having been a long time fan of Patton, it was first and foremost his work with FNM that appealed. Since the end of that band, his vocal work, whilst always distinctive, has not so much strayed as run full pelt from convention. In particular his work with Fantômas is just plain nuts. Over their several albums there is barely one recognisable syllable. Which has its time and place and i'd be a liar to write that i never visit that time and place, however i still enjoy hearing his voice in coherence.

Here as one might expect, he does employ a fair range of different voices and styles from his vast arsenal. But they are all engaged in singing, or rapping, actual words and it is a rare treat.

Musically, HBMS are on the ball as ever. Their gift is to be able to not only put their various vocalists at the centre of each piece and build a different sonic background for them, but to be able to join all the disparate pieces together to form an harmonious whole. This is an approach that could probably only work in Hip Hop. Seen from afar, the album's patchwork array of styles reflects the cut-and-paste approach that is the mainstay of Hip Hop.

This piece is has a deep and slow groove that is instantly recognisable as one of theirs.

DJ Kool, Biz Markie, Doug Fresh - Let Me Clear My Throat

ORIGINATION um, dunno
LAST LISTENED TO no idea
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT curiously good
RATING

A top piece of hip hop but one, sadly, that i know very little about. What i do know is that DJ Kool put together this track out of some timeless breaks, including the famous sax used by The 45 Kings. The reason for me waking to it today is that one of these breaks is from Kool & The Gang's 'Hollywood Swinging', which is the b-side of 'Funky Stuff' and that was one of a marathon run of 45s that Craig and i converted to mp3s yesterday.

Both Biz Markie and Doug E Fresh where guests on this when it was recorded live in a Philadelphia club in 1996 with a very lively crowd. It is party hip hop of the first order.