Rebel C & L.A. - Funky Music Is My Style

I heard this years ago but can't remember where and I had forgotten about it until I heard it again a couple of years ago, tracked one down for a very reasonable price and bought it. I really got in to UK hip hop fairly late due to the fact that I was a little prejudiced towards the British accent. Yes, I am British, English if you want, from the third best place in the world if you believe what you read in the paper but the accent still troubled me until Gunshot, Hijack, etc blasted on to the scene at 100mph and it was probably then that the interest / obsession really began. I had a few early electro 12"s like Hardrock Soul Movement, Mutant Rockers and so on but they were different. No lyrics. Still, let's not dwell on that now as this tune is a belter. You may have noticed that it's the B-side yest again that wins, hands down in my opinion. Good sample, boingy 808 bass, what more do you need? An interesting fact too is that it's on a US label which is unexplainable at this moment. The other side is decent also, JB sample, tough beats and worth anyone's money if you ask me but it's this one that I played the most. Disorda had one in a few weeks back which was the reminder I needed to go dig it out and do a fresh 320kbps rip for y'all. I didn't pay any where near that for mine, just in case you were wondering.

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Warren Mills - Sunshine

 I was watching football focus the other week and Ledley King was on with some local kids at some kind of get-the-kids-off-the-streets-through-sport type project and they described him as 'Spurs legend, Ledley King'. He was an excellent player but legend he ain't. I think Masterscratch, however, deserves legendary status. His tapes were the best around and he was pretty darned good. If you had one it was your prized possession and other people who heard it instantly asked for it too.
 He played the break from this record, if you can call it a break, on quite a lot of his tapes and I wanted it so badly but never knew what it was called. I was browsing in a used record shop we used to visit once a fortnight on a trip with a few mates. One of them saw it and told me it was 'that record Masterscratch used on all his tapes' and proceeded to describe it to me human beatbox style. I didn't believe him at first; how the hell did he know what it was?. It was 50p so I got it anyway, played it and was most pleased with my purchase.
 I searched around for some info on Warren Mills but no-one appears to know where he is or what he's doing now. The record on the whole is pretty lame and I'm sure Jive thought little Warren would be the next Michael Jackson but there's only ever one of anyone and there's certainly only one Masterscratch. Legend.

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The Brotherhood - Descendants Of The Holocaust (Remix)

OK, so, I'll hold up my hand and admit that The Brotherhood kinda passed me by when I was a young 'un. In fact it was 1996 before I even knew they existed thanks to MTV screening the video promo to 'One Shot' - still my personal fave - on the UK rap show that aired after Yo's demise which I can't remember the name of. I think I must have not exactly rejected hip hop by then but I was still hanging on to the old school electro years as hip hop was beginning to become boring to me and not like it used to be so I may have stuck my head in the sand. Luckily for me I didn't bury it too far as I watched all the music shows on cable telly in the hope something decent would come around and of course it did. I bought the double vinyl LP, 'Elementalz' from the Virgin megastore a few days later and I still have it today. And that's all I had by them for many years until the internet revolution opened a whole world of 'digging' and my collection grew and I was surprised to find this 'britcore' style tune about 5 years ago. The UK style was unique back then as not everybody wanted to don MC Hammer trousers and dance like you were running on the spot to heavy hip hop beats that were aimed at b boys and b girls who still wanted to be just that. Elementalz is a step away from this record, maybe more than one as it has the head nodding almost Pete Rock-esque production style  but I guess at some stage you have to catch your breath from the old school, hardcore, fuck you music that was the signature UK style in the late eighties.

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