Filling The Gaps

Being a bit of a nerd for hip hop trivia, I was pleased to see the soundtrack for the early 80's movie Breakin' 'n' Enterin' posted up on the 1994hiphop.net blog.  I blogged about this movie last year so if you aren't aware of it, check out this post for more info.

Although the availability of the soundtrack was of interest to me, it was the narrative that accompanied it that intrigued me the most:

In 1983 director Topper Carrew produced a documentary about the Radio Club called “Breakin’ ‘n’ Enterin’”. For this early piece of West Coast History Ice T, Egyptian Lover and The Glove recorded five songs which were released on the legendary ‘Radio Crew’ EP. The artist Dupont who also first appeared on the soundtrack did three songs for this documentary; filled with vocoder voices and electro beats, which were well ahead of their time, but his tracks never made it on to the original vinyl pressing. The EP is one of the rarest pieces of vinyl in Hip Hop history, only pressed 25 times for the cast of the documentary.

This 2008 release contains the original 5 tracks that appeared on the EP in addition to the Dupont tracks.

If you've watched the movie then you'll know that Dupont's music is heavily featured, in fact it kind of becomes the films theme tune!  So it's seems harsh that it was left off the original EP.  But regardless, it's nice to have access to a 320kbps rip all these years later, especially as I'm never like to find (or afford) one of the original EP's.  Here's the track listing and download link, and many thanks to Juicy for sharing the link and his knowledge.

01 Ice-T – Intro
02 Radio Crew, The – The Glove – 6 PM Mix
03 Radio Crew, The – Spray It – Super AJ
04 Radio Crew, The – Breaking & Entering
05 Radio Crew, The – The Glove Meets The Egyptian Lover
06 Radio Crew, The – The Egyptian Lover’s Theme
07 Ice-T – Breaking & Entering (Rap)
08 Dupont – Burn
09 Dupont – Break Dancer
10 Dupont – Let’s Rock

Download

Art of Rap

Well, after all the hype, opinions and criticisms, if you haven’t yet seen Ice-T’s rapumentary Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap then here is your chance. Although a minority have criticised it for one reason or another, the majority seem to have welcomed its presence and feel that it fills some of the gaps that previous documentaries have failed to cover. And, it does attempt to cover the art of emceeing, rather than being a collection of interviews with old schoolers talking about how hip hop got started.

For me, this film is a welcome addition.  No single film is ever going to document hip hop perfectly, or explain the art form in consierable detail, and no matter how many people you interview there will always be an alternative opinion from someone.  But hey, it's that complexity that makes hip hop so compelling and captivating to such a broad audience.

Given that this is Ice-T’s directorial debut, I think he’s done a pretty good job. Yes it could have been better and yes it could have included so-and-so. But in fairness to Ice-T, I guess this is what happens when you have to make the film a certain length and appeal to broad enough audience that you can justify the filming costs and get it onto the big screen. With that in mind, I think we’re onto a winner. After all, when was the last time you saw a rapumentary hit the big screen like this one did?

The DVD was released yesterday and although I can’t confirm it, it appears to be longer than the film, so I’m guessing it will contain additional footage and interviews, which may go some way to pleasing the critics.

Peace
Mike Check


Note: - To get the film to play without the advert, make it full screen. Alternatively, you need to click a little x that usually appears somewhere beneath the green 'download' button.  This will close the advert and allow you to play the film at the smaller resolution.  Don't download the advertised software as you don't need it and it'll probably screw up your computer.

Golden Era History

Large Pro breaks down his classic records

I think the title says it all.  Extra P tells Complex.com the stories behind some of his classic joints whilst this month sees him release his latest LP Professor @ Large.  Essential reading:

http://www.complex.com/music/2012/05/large-professor-tells-all-the-stories-behind-his-classic-records-part-i/#gallery

Nas - The Making of It Was Written

Complex.com has produced a number of gems this month.  As well as the Large Pro stories, they've also produced something that is long overdue, a proper look at Nas' 2nd LP It Was Written.  His debut LP Illmatic has been analysed, dissected and digested to the point where there is nothing new left to say, but his 2nd LP is largely ignored.  As Complex rightly point out, it's his best selling LP to date and there was so much riding on it.  How the hell do you follow up Illmatic?  It could have easily been a flop and signalled the end of Nas' career, but it didn't, so how was this achieved:

http://www.complex.com/music/2012/05/the-making-of-nas-it-was-written/

Free Ice-T albums

The OG rapper has offered to share two of his lesser known albums for free. 

The first is an album that was originally recorded in 2004 when he was part of the SMG collective which consisted of Smoothe Da Hustler, Trigger Tha Gambler and the Ice man himself.  However this album was never released worldwide and therefore it is relatively unheard.

The second album is more recent and is released under his Twitter moniker, Final Level. 

To obtain your free copies, go to his bandcamp page and select to 'buy' the album.  Then enter 'zero' in the price box.

Peace
Mike Check

Where have you been?

Regular followers are probably thinking that I forgot to compile my usual monthly round up of interesting discoveries that I've found on my many journey's through the information super highway.  Well the truth is, that recently I've just not found very much that has been worth sharing with you. 

With so many blogs and websites taking time out to regroup after the megaupload situation, new and interesting content has been temporarily scarce.  The good news is, that things seem to be picking up a little, and this month there are some real gems for you.  Let's hope this trend continues, but in the mean time here's my blogwatch for April:

Trophies

It’s not too often that I find myself being both excited and nostalgic - at the same time - about new music. But this week’s new release of O.C. and Apollo Brown’s new LP Trophies has done just that. I started hearing the hype about it a month or two back, and the early tracks they leaked to promote it had my ears open, but I still had my reservations as to whether this could really live up to all the hype.

Well I’m pleased to say that it’s better than I expected. Apollo Brown has successfully crafted 16 tracks that perfectly compliment O.C.’s style and flow. Many of the tracks sound like they could be unused beats from the vaults of early 90’s producers like Pete Rock, DJ Premier or Buckwild etc

O.C. is back at his best, allowing his cadence to effortlessly intertwine with Apollo’s beats. The end result is a stellar album from start to finish. And if you don’t believe me, you can check out the whole album here (which contains a couple of free download tracks). If you like it, please support the artist and head over to their bandcamp page and buy a copy (it's only $9.99). It’s also been pressed on wax for all those vinyl heads out there.

Check the album after the jump, along with the trailer for Ice-T's new documentary, a critical review of Rza's Bobby Digital and a Tupac resurection!!!

Breakin' 'n' Enterin'

(This is the image for the OST, but it's the actual documentary being reviewed here)

In my recent Silver Anniversary post I reflected on some of Ice-T’s history in the game. I was specifically looking at his contribution from 25 years ago in 1986 but I also mentioned that he may well have been the first rapper/actor as he’d already had cameo roles in the films Breakin’ (1984), Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984) and Rappin’ (1985).
But then I got an e-mail from my homie Jsta, a fellow blogger over at the Phuk-tha-muthaphukkin-police blog. He hit me up on the documentary Breakin’ ‘n’ Enterin’ (Yep, there are far too many apostrophes in the name, but it is the correct spelling) from 1983 which is Ice-T’s first on-screen appearance. Damn, this is nearly 30 years old!!!

Although Ice-T has a significant amount of screen time in this documentary, and this was my primary reason for checking it out, what’s actually most important here is the excellent cataloguing of the west coast break dance scene in the early 80’s. Ice-T is just one small contribution to this, so I’ll come back to him later.

There are hours of footage that document much of the early Rock Steady Crew battles and many more that catalogue the east coast scene in general, but this is a huge injustice to the west coast who had an equally vibrant, and some might say more varied, scene. That’s where Breakin’ ‘n’ Enterin’ attempts to redress that imbalance.

Silver Anniversary Series - 1986 - The Wrap Up (Part I)

As 2011 draws to a close, so does my series of reviews focusing on records and artists from 1986.  Instead, I'll soon be focusing on 1987, which was another hugely important year in hip hop's evolution.  Anyway, let's get back to 1986 whilst there is still time to review it.

When I came up with the concept for this series, I did some homework to make sure that there was plenty of significant and meaningful material to review, and I was surprised by just how much history there was that was either being forgotten or had passed many of us by (myself included).  I drew up a hit list of the main artists I thought should be mentioned, and I'd hoped to do many more articles in this series than my time has permitted me to do (but that's the life of an ageing b-boy juggling work, family, blogging etc). 

One of the biggest difficulties has been verifying my facts.  I've got a pretty good memory and my knowledge of the old school and golden era is pretty good, but being certain that something was released in a particular year, or on a certain label all needs verifying when 25 years have passed me by.  It's surprising just how many records were released in one year, and then rereleased on a different label the following year (maybe only a couple of months apart), especially when comparing US and European releases.  Many of the artists from this era don't appear on wikipedia, there aren't any Amazon reviews etc, so it's taken some considerable time to pull this stuff together. 

So here I am at the end of the year with a short list of artists that I'd hoped to shine a spotlight on, but never got the time to.  It seems a shame to let them fall by the wayside, so what I'm going to do is give a brief summary of each of these as they all deserve recognition for their work and contribution to the evolution of hip hop music and culture.

As there's so much to cover, I've decide to split this edition into 3 parts.  The first two will focus on the artists and the music, and part 3 will be a little Christmas bonus (download) for you in keeping with this series. 

Ice-T

First up is the Ice Man.  1986 was a key year in Ice-T's career, it's when everything started to take shape and ultimately in 1987 he would sign with Sire records who he would release his debut album with.  But in '86, it was his 12" single Dog N The Wax that was