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.
Ha ha, I'd completely forgotten about this track. It was bloody awful (imo), but it reminds me of all those feel good 80's movies that used exploited hip hop's popularity on their soundtracks.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Masterscratch was a good bloke and a part of the local history. I used to know him many moons back, and then didn't see him for years. But he made an appearance at the KID tribute jam last year. Good to see him again.
If you want any copies of those old Masterscratch tapes, check out the Pie N Ears blog. Scenes has done a lot of work pulling them all together, getting them cleaned up and then digitised.
No you're right, it is pure crap but that beat is proper def if you ask me, wasted on a track like this. I still have a few tapes I digitised myself but I'll check out that blog for some more action, cheers.
ReplyDeleteIf you want the cleaned up versions, check the comments for reups on my blog. Also if you need any tracks ID'ing, let me know.
ReplyDelete