Reflection Eternal : 2000 Seasons (from Fortified Live 12")

Reflection Eternal featuring Home Skillit : 2000 Seasons (Rawkus, 1997)
Mood : Info For The Streets (Blunt, 1997)

Reflection Eternal featuring Mos Def & Mr Man: Fortified Live (Rawkus, 1997) (Bonus)

If you ask me, this 12” contains everything I want to hear from Talib Kweli. When you come up with two powerful songs like Fortified Live and 2000 Seasons it’s quite hard to follow up with something of the same quality.

So of course later when their album came out (like what, 4 years after this single ?!) they had rave reviews, written by people who either didn’t even know about this single or were giving props to the idea of Reflection E, the idea of an independant scene. Thus missing the point : Train Of Thought was boring.

Regardless of Rawkus unlimited sticker budget, the Fortified Live 12” was a genuine indie record, with two unpolished demos pressed up on an umastered vinyl. The static that was Hi-Tek’s trademark was nowhere to be found on the LP. Most of his loops sounded like they were sampled off of CDs. Check Mood’s Info For The Streets for a good example of a scratchy sample à la Hi-Tek.

Fresh Gordon : My Fila (from The Fresh Commandments 12")

Fresh Gordon : My Fila (Tommy Boy, 1986)

Fresh Force : She’s A Skeezer (Sutra, 1986) (fixed)

You could have been the worst prick in the world, there was something that people just didn’t do in 1986 : diss Run DMC. They were sitting on top of the world with their third album in 3 years, working with the best producer of that time, touring all around the world and yet they still had rspect from the street. Sure, they had a long running beef with Grandmaster Flash, but cared about him in 86 ? So the thing at that time to create a buzz was answer records. A record wasn’t really popular if it didn’t generate an answer record. Sometime answer records were on the same label, like No Show that was on Reality, the same label that put out The Show (but of course Salt & Pepa’s Show Stoppa was on Pop Art). So My Adidas was such a hit at that time that it spawned a few answers.

Fresh Gordon of The Choice MC’s also known as Gordon Pickett was a musician and engineer who had a minor hit with Feelin James in 87, and later hooked up with Salt & Pepa who he help recording Push It. Fresh Gordon was so afraid to be seen as a hater that he had to pout a disclaimer on the record sleeve to say it wasn’t made to disrespect Run DMC. On this B Side he was trading rhymes with The Jazz, later known as The Jaz, later unknown as Jaz O.

Another group who was trying hard to surf on the success of My Adidas was this duet of Chris Martin and Chris Reid who made a song where they had Charlie Casanova making same exact beat, had MaleyMarl cutting the same scratches and their were using the same flow line for line, but with totally different lyrics. I think it was less of an answer record than a simple rip off. Those two rappers really didn’t have much skills, and their later carreer under the moniker Kid & Play proved it.

Stetsasonic : Anytime, Anyplace (from Speaking Of A Girl Named Suzy 12")

Stetsasonic : Anytime, Anyplace (Tommy Boy, 1991)
Stetsasonic : I Ain't Making It (Warner, 1989)

I'm moving this week end so I packed up almost all my record collection, except for a couple of records that I kept for this blog.

Stetsasonic was one of my favourite groups in the late 80's / early 90's, I remember seeing this record when I was on vacation in Florida, summer 1991. Back then I was buying most albums on tape, because it was more convenient, but also for the numerous bonus cuts that were not on wax. I never had a CD player, records and tape were way cheaper. I know people claim that the sound quality of the CD was better but seriously : when you listen to rap why would you care about the sound quality ? If you're into classical I can understand, but who wants to hear a clean sounding rap record ?

Anyway, so at that time a few records on Tommy Boy had very different tracklistings between the tape, the vinyl and the CD. Not only the sequencing was totally different but sometimes the CD would have tracks that were not on the tape and vice versa. So I remember being in the record store comparing the tracklisting of the tape and the CD. I settled on the tape, and then the next day I saw the 12" with another track that was not on the cassette.

A week later I was watching TV and KRS One was performing in Living Color and the host held a copy of the Criminal Minded vinyl album. I thought to myself "hey I have this album, but the artwork sure looks better in this format". This is probably the biggest influence TV had on my behavior.

This is not really relevant, is it ? Anyway here are two tracks that were not on Stet's albums, Anytime, Anyplace from Speaking of A Girl Named Suzy 12" and another song they made in between In Full Gear and Blood Sweat No Tears, called I Ain't Making It .

Hurricane G : Wuteva (from Coast To Coast 12")

Hurricane G : Wuteva (Hola, 1997)
Hurricane G & Das Efx : Coast To Coast (Hola, 1997)

Hurricane G was a key member of the Hit Squad who unfortunately never blew up. Erick Sermon’s baby mama was Redman’s hype (wo)man during his first tour and expectations were high in 1993, but besides guest verses on We Run NY and Bom Bom Zee, she never released anything notable while she was rolling with the Hit Squad/Def Squad.

Her decision to stay under Parrish Smith management after the Hit Squad demised proved to be a bad one. She had the Funk Doctor Spot himself shopping her demo around in 1993, where she had a song called Milky with Erick Sermon and Redman, and The Bitch produced by Reggie. She was rumored to sign to Capitol in 1994, but nothing made it to retail. She disappeared for a moment, and was spotted kicking a verse every other year, with people from various crews (with Xzibit in 1996, with Organized Konfusion in 1997 or on Cocoa Brovaz’s LP in 1998...)

Her first and only album “All Woman” came out in 1997 on Jellybean’s label Hola, the Home Of Latino Arists. Older B Boys may remember Jellybean’s name from his cover of The Mexican that was a minor electro hit in 84, or for his production credits for Madonna. Anyway, he founded a label in 1995 which signed artists based on their ethnicity rather than their skills. Needless to say that Jellybean had absolutely no idea on how to promote a hip hop record. Unfortunately the album didn’t have any beat by Redman, nor Erick Sermon. The production was handled by another latino artist, Domingo. The album was not available on vinyl, it had very little promotion and bad distribution.

While a lot of people heard Hurricane G on Puff Daddy’s PE 2000 (if you don’t remember that was a Public Enemy cover that Sean Combs did thinking it would stop Chuck D from suing him for not clearing his sample in 10 Crack Commandements) the biggest accomplishment of her career is probably her short appearance in Redman’s Tonight’s Da Night. She will always be remember as the girl who said “Yo yo Redman, what the fuck ! Get with that ruff shit.”

Yeah, I know Wuteva was on "All Woman", but nobody bought that album anyway, so who cares ? Oh, and I also put Coast To Coast, so that I don’t have to waste a post talking about those gimmicky Das Efx...

Positive K : A Good Combination

Positive K : A Good Combination (First Priority, 1989)
MC Lyte : Rhyme Hangover (First Priority, 1988)
Positive K : One To The Head (Island, 1992)


OK, so today's b-side is not a b-side. But I guess you all understand that my main concern is to highlight stuff that you don't find on albums.

"A Good Combination" was released as the main track of a sort of split 12", that also included an MC Lyte song from First Priority's compilation. As far as I know the song was never on any album, and as strange at it seems (to me anyway) Positive K never had any album during his days at First Priority. He got credit for writting lyrics for Alliance, MC Lyte and Audio II, shined as the only guest rapper on Brand Nubian's classic first album, but Nat Robinson never cared to give him a chance to make an album on his own. His first (and i think only) album was released on Island in 1992, and of course "The Skills Dat Pay Da Bills" did not include any of the First Priority material. I love that album, I used to listen to it all the time. The record had nice production by both LG's (Easy LG & LG Experience), Silver D etc, but I can't help to dream about how dope his album could have been with circa 1988 productions.

I first heard "A Good Combination" on Babu's mixtape "Comprehension", where Kan Kick did a remix. His version was aight, but it only made me want to find the original 12". The bare drum beat and the low b-boy chant in the background make you think about "Top Billin", But that song is a classic as well, the title has been re-used many times, it's now part of the hip hop lingo. DJ Eli had a song by that name a year ago.

Soon after his first album, Positive K kinda disappeared. It seems that he was supposed to work with Puffy, but things turned bad. Never heard of him since. I guess he's ghostwriting for some bad rapper nowadays.


Positive K : A Good Combination (First Priority, 1989)
MC Lyte : Rhyme Hangover (First Priority, 1988)
Positive K : One To The Head (Island, 1992)

OK, ce n'est pas une face B dont je parle ce soir. Peu importe, je crois que tout le monde a compris que le but du site est juste de faire redécouvrir des morceaux qui ne sont pas disponibles en album.

"A Good Combination" était sur la face A d'un split single, sur lequel figurait aussi le titre de MC Lyte qui était sur la compilation de First Priority "Basement Flavor". Autant que je sache, ce titre n'était sur aucun album, et aussi bizarre que ça puisse sembler (à mes yeux du moins), Positive K n'a jamais sorti d'album durant toute la période où il collaborait avec First Priority. Il a écrit des textes pour Alliance, MC Lyte et Audio II, il s'est fait remarquer en étant le seul invité sur le premier album de Brand Nubian, et pourtant Nat Robinson n'a jamais daigné lui donner sa chance de faire un album. Son premier album (et seul à ce jour) est sorti chez Island en 1992, "The Skills Dat Pay Da Bills", mais il ne contenait bien sur aucun des titres enregistrés à l'époque First Priority. J'adorais ce disque, je l'ai joué des dizaines de fois à la radio, pourtant je ne peux m'empecher de fantasmer sur ce qu'aurait donné un album de Positive K avec des productions aux standard de 1988.

La première fois que j'ai entendu "A Good Combination" c'était sur la mixtape de DJ Babu, "Comprehension", dans une version remixée par Kan Kick. Le beat était pas mal, mais ça m'a surtout donné envie d'acheter le maxi. L'instru réduit à l'essence d'un breakbeat fait forcément penser à "Top Billin", mais "A Good Combination" est un classique de la même trempe. Le titre a été ré-utilisé plein de fois, récemment par DJ Eli, c'est devenu une expression officiellement hip hop.

Peu après la sortie de son premier album, Positive K a disparu. Il semble qu'il ait travaillé avec Puffy, mais l'histoire a mal tourné. On n'a plus entendu parler de lui depuis. J'espère qu'au moins il ghostwrite pour des mauvais rappeurs aujourd'hui.