Memories of Mr C.

A couple of years back I did a piece on Paul C using Dave Tompkins biography, Paul was one of the unsung elevators of early hip hop. To this day it still defies my belief that this guy rarely gets a mention, let alone enough credit for his contribution, despite there still being so many people still active within the world of hip hop that worked with the man.
So to my surprise, I then see two Paul C related articles pop up in the same month! And both are outstanding!!

The first offering is from film maker Pritt Kalsi, who has produced a 3 part documentary that in his own words is "not the definitive documentary or story of Paul C McKasty". But considering it runs for almost an hour and a half, contains interviews from friends, family and artists that he worked with, and given that there has been virtually nothing before it, its as good as we're ever likely to get and it goes way beyond my own expectations.

This is not your average film, it’s a little slower in pace when compared to most documentaries and it doesn’t contain any of the music that Paul C produced, but this provides space for the contributors to talk in more depth.

The personal reflections and stories from his collaborators - Pharoahe Monch, CJ Moore, Casanova Rud, O.C., Dr Butcher, Breakbeat Lou, Mikey D, Rakim and Ultramagnetic amongst others - really get into the history of that era, what it was like to work with Paul C and the way he influenced/mentored Large Professor. This film has clearly been a labour of love for Pritt Kalsi, and all credit goes to him for the hard work that has gone into making this documentary and for sharing his passion and work with us.

To watch the movie you’ll need to visit Kalsi’s own site:
Part 1 & 2 
Part 3


On the same day, the StrictlyBusinessHipHop blog published a compilation list of Paul C productions. Due to the lack of acknowledgement given to engineers and producers back then, it is probably impossible to pin down all of the productions he did, or had a hand in. So this list is a massive step towards a fairly definitive list.

So you've now got a list of Paul C productions to go and hunt down, but wait, the StrictlyBusiness boys went one better and have provided downloads for the majority of this list. I'm sure you’ll appreciate that a lot of work has gone into this and some of the tracks are hard to find, so this is a real gift.

Check it out here - http://strictlybusinesshiphop.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/strictly-paul-c.html

Paul C Biography

Today marks the anniversary of the death of Paul C in 1989 (it also would have been Guru's 50th Birthday!).
Any respectable hip hop head who was 'living hip hop' in the late 80's and very early 90's will now know who Paul C was (if ya don't know, then this is a must read).  I say 'now know' because at that time he wasn't a big name commercially.  He was the guy behind the scenes, the man behind the desk, the dude whose name appeared in the small footnotes in the bottom corner on the back of the album cover.  He was largely unknown.
How someone who was so instrumental in progressing the art of production and taking things to that next level could be so overlooked is beyond comprehension.

It was only later on, after his murder, that ordinary folk really started to understand just how talented and influential Paul C was.  He was completely ahead of his time, he was an innovator and creator, and he fully deserves his place in hip hop history alongside Herc, Bambaataa, Flash, Marley Marl etc.  Many of the artists he worked with at that time knew of his skills and recognised that he was a pioneer, but this respect and recognition didn't really extend to the record buying public.  Mainly because his name wasn't always shown in the credits. 

Fortunately, in 2001 Dave Tompkins spent 3 months researching the story of Paul C and put together this fascinating, absorbing and compelling narrative.  This has got to be the most concise collection of facts and recollections about someone who is largely undocumented.
With contributions from Ultramagnetic, Rahzel, Large Professor, Pharoah Monch, Prince Po and many more, this is about as close to a biography or written documentary as we're ever likely to get.

I'm not going to dwell on this any further as Tompkins' article tells you everything you need to know and a lot more besides.  He sets the scene, he takes you right back to that time and he puts you in the mindset of those who were there.  It's not a quick read, so grab a drink and a snack and absorb yourself in some classic hip hop history.  You're hip hop knowledge will be expanded by the end of it!

http://crunkster.abstractdynamics.org/archives/003807.html