Just Ice : That Girl Is A Slut (from Latoya 12")

Just Ice : That Girl Is A Slut (Fresh, 1986)


Another member of the Boogie Down Crew, Just Ice made his first mark in the hiphop community with this single, especially the hit Latoya. When that record was released (twenty years ago...) I just started listening to hip hop and I didn’t hear anything from him until years later, probably 1989 or 1990, way past his prime. Don’t ask me why, but in my mind I thought of him as a harder version of Fresh Prince. My knowledge of hip hop was very limited then. Being young and stupid I dismissed anyone rhyming over some beatbox as being too soft (the Fat Boys didn’t really help to make beatboxing credible).

A rauchy version of Slick Rick would be a more approriate definition of his style. If you thought that Latoya was misogynistic, wait until you hear its b side ! I don’t know why so many beat box tracks are so sexually explicit, it has to do with the idea of a guy making strange noises and spitting saliva. On this track Just Ice is joined by the Original DMX (well not to be confused with Davy DMX aka Davy D who produced Kurtis Blow, Run MC, Spoonie G or Dr Jeckyll & Mister Hyde). Anyway, I'll have a beat box week, with a few other to share later this week.


Just Ice : That Girl Is A Slut (Fresh, 1986)

Membre du Boogie Down Crew, Just Ice s'est fait connaître de la communauté hip hop avec ce single, en particulier grace au tube Latoya. Quand ce disque est sorti il y a vingt ans je commencait juste à découvrir le rap, et il s'est passé plusieurs années avant que je découvre Just-Ice. Betement je m'étais imaginé Just-Ice comme un clone de Fresh Prince en moins inoffensif. Pour moi tous les rappeurs qui avait un beat boxer étaient assimilés aux Fat Boys et à Fresh Prince. Si je devais définir Just-Ice aujourd'hui je dirais qu'il est un mélange de Slick Rick et Schoolly D. Sur ce morceau il est accompagné de son beat boxer DMX, à ne pas confondre avec Davy DMX alias Davy D, producteur de Kurtis Blow, Run MC, Spoonie G ou Dr Jeckyll & Mr Hyde, et auteur d'un album sur Def Jam.

3rd Eye : 360° (from Reality 12")

3rd Eye : 360° (Sure Shot, 1997)
Jesse West : Renegade (Motown, 1989)
Heavy D, 3rd Eye, Notorious Big, Rob O, Guru & Busta Rhymes : A Buncha Niggas (Uptown, 1992)
3rd Eye : Ease Up (Uptown, 1993)
Trends Of Culture : Valley Of The Skins (Jes Wes remix) (Mad Sounds, 1993)

The post about Nine just made me think that his rhyming partner in 24/7 really deserved some shine. Jesse West, also known as Third Eye, is one of the most deserving unsung heroes in hip-hop. His sketchy career probably suffered from his constant name changes.

So Jesse West signed with Motown in 1989 for his first album No Prisoners, produced by Commissioner Gordon. Obviously the label didn't know how to promote a rap act at that time (not that they do now) so the record didn't go anywhere. Renegade was a favourite of mine at that time.

He kinda disappeared then for a couple of years and came back hard with a bunch of great tracks like, well, A Buncha Niggas , the posse cut from Heavy D's Blue Funk, with a young and hungry Biggie, INI's Rob O, Guru and Busta Rhymes. You gotta appreciate the credit on the sleeve : rap by Busta Rhymes. I guess the other guys are just singing opera or something.

While hangin around Puffy he also did a remix of Supercat's Dolly My Baby where, according to Jay Smooth, he dropped the very first occurence of the phrase bling bling (yeah, I just googled that one). Around the same time Puff gave him the opportunity to cut his own single on Who's The Man soundtrack, co produced by Lord Finesse. He pulled a Large Profesor on Ease Up with his last words, "you want some more flavor ? Go buy the album !". He didn't put out an album until years after that statement.

He kept producing, doing tracks for PMD, Xzibit, Raw Breed, Nine (of course) and most notably KRS One's antepenultimate Jive single "Step Into A World", and then dropped this dope single on the original Sure Shot Recordings in 1997.

This soulful 12" is one of the best thing that Jesse West has recorded. I'm the first to admit that his first album has not aged really well, but the Reality single is good from the first song to the last instrumental. You should know how this site works : I won't give you mp3 of all the songs from the 12", you wil have to dig the record yourself to hear the rest. Both Reality and Circles are on his second album though. With its Milt Jackson loop and 3rd Eye crooning an old Bobby Caldwell tune over it, 360° is smooth, but not in a sell-out way. As far as I know the album called Planets was only licensed to a french label Declic, and I don't think there is any other pressing.

Strangely this rapper who was kinda obsessed with the new millenium hasn't released much in the past 5 years. The aforementioned 24/7 material is the last decent record he did. There was also a yellow 12" with RZA floating around, but it's less than stellar. But who knows, he may be releasing stuff under another name I haven't heard yet.

REM featuring Q-Tip : The Outsiders (from Wanderlust 7")

REM & Q-Tip : The Outsiders (Warner, 2005)

I usually don’t post anything that recent. I try to avoid covering records that are still in print for the same reason that I rip in mono : I want you to buy records. The point of B Side Wins Again is not to put another nail in the coffin of the music industry. Seeing major firing people and indie labels folding is not a good sign. My point is to have people realize that there are dope stuff to be found on vinyl. The mp3 are here as teasers only. I don’t want people to go out and play the joint they download here on their Serato or Final Scratch. To quote Bobbito : If you own an iPod or Serato you are contributing to the death of hip-hop. So go buy some vinyl, godamn ! Don’t you think that those 350X350 pixels jpg would look better on 12 X 12 inches ? Buy new releases, or old shit, grab reissues or try to hunt original copies if you’re a fetichist like me, but it’s really not good for your karma to rely on mp3 to get musical knowledge.

So why do I post a song from last year now ? Well, I realize it’s contradictory, but I’m a KRS One fan, so what the hell ! Actually The Outsiders shouldn’t really be on B Side Wins Again because it’s not a B side exclusive, it has been released on CD before. I guess it’s already easy to find it if you use Soulseek, Kazaa, Emule, or any of those illegal programs. But I assume that most visitors to the site are hip-hop heads who don’t regularly check 35-and-over rock group albums. At least I don’t. I hope this post won’t hurt the sales of their album, or of the 7”.

It’s funny how they structure the song, leaving a blank before Tip’s part, so I don’t know if they added his part after the song was finished, or (more likely) they knew most of their fans would want to skip the last verse with the rap guy talking. I turns out that in my case I’m happy to be able to mix the song without having to put up with the old white guy singing for two and a half minute... Anyhow, it's really one for the Q-Tip completists.

Nine : Me, Myself & My Microphone (from Whutcha Want 12")

Nine : Me, Myself & My Microphone (Profile, 1994)
Run DMC & Living Color : Me, Myself & My Microphone(Immortal, 1993)
Jesse West, Top Quality, Nine, Lord Finesse & Zone 7 : Troopers Represent (Sure Shot, 1998)
24/7: 24/7 (Franchise, 1998)


Bronx native Nine Double M made his first appearance in 1993 on Funkmaster's first single for Nervous "Six Million Ways To Die", back when Flex was an up-and-coming DJ. Soon after he was signed to Priority and released the underground favourite "Whutcha Want" with the horrorcore inspired "Redrum" on the flipside. Two songs you can find on the Nine Livez album, but the 12" also contained a little known track called "Me, Myself & My Microphone" which borrowed a line from "Sucker MC's", by labelmate Run DMC (who also used that name for a song on the horrendous Judgement Night soundtrack). The funny thing is that Nine went on to throw subliminal diss at them on his second album, with the cut Lying King. At least that's what I understood, but may be he was talking about another Born Again christian group who called themselves kings.

When Profile went out of business, he went back to his old friend Funkmaster Flex, who by then was larger than life. Nine hook up with the legendary Jesse West, aka ICU, aka Third Eye (the first rapper to have an album on Motown) to form the group 24/7. Together they released a couple of records on Franchise, (Flex-owned label) including the eponymous track. They even had a song placed on The Final Chapter of the 60 Minutes Of Funk mix series, but the pair wasn't successful. After the new millenium no one really heard of Nine, nor Jesse West.

Encore : Defined By The Dollar (The Essence 12")

Encore : Defined By The Dollar (Stones Throw, 1997)
Encore : Think Twice (Southpaw, 1995)

It may be hard to believe it, but a few years ago Stones Throw was a good label, before they decide to rely 100% on a weed addicted producer. A long time ago, mind you.

For the first two years their catalog was flawless, it was at the end of the glorious indie takeover and they were releasing the cream of the north californian scene. The first wave of twelve inches was mindblowing but after STH 2013 they started focusing on Madlib and his kin, and they never looked back. I mean, I won't front, I kept buying all their records religiously until that terrible Jaylib album, but it was only out of respect for Jeff Jank, but now even that powerful esthetic is lost. Not only they stopped doing the 45, but their 12" are in semi-generic sleeves.

For some reason (contractual, I guess ?) they don't repress the best part of the back catalog. Rasco reissued his first records on his Pocket Linted label, and Rob Swift's Soulful Fruit has just been repressed by Fat Beats, but this gem by Encore is desesperately out of print.

Shaya Bekele was friend with Charizma and Peanut Butter Wolf, his first appearance was on Wolf's Step On Our Egos EP with the incredibly beautiful "Think Twice". This song is one of my all time favourites, that's one of the 5 or ten records I will keep when I sell my whole record collection. Besides I had a radio show named after this track (even though I think that Bachir found the name). With "Think Twice" Encore was showing his story telling skills, describing a tragic high school graduation party that end up with the death of Demond Striplan (a friend of him and Charizma).

That's around the same time that Encore and Grand (Homeliss Derilex) went and recorded demos at the Glue Factory in San Francisco. The owner and engineer, Dan, liked his style so much that he asked him to rhyme on his beats. Encore thought the beats were weak and declined. Instead, it's Kool Keith who went on to record with that Automator guy the "Dr Octagon" album.

But that's another story. So later Encore with his partner G-Luv (also from Homeliss Derilex) released this incredible 12" on Stones Throw. The main song, "The Essence" is a strong but unexceptionnal battle oriented track, but as often B side wins again ! The track which stands out is the concept song about the root of all evils, "Defined By The Dollar". The beat is a pretty straight forward piano and upright bass loop, without too much variation, except for the weird panning during the last bars, but Encore vocal presence is what makes it compelling.

After these great songs, to which I could add "The Undercover", the expectation was high for the album. I mean at least for me. But when his album dropped in 2000, I was not impressed. It was OK to be, but quite disappointing compared to the excellence of his previous output. I know that some people consider themselves fans of Encore, but don't know these songs. I guess it means that I'm a bit too harsh with rappers I like.

Jungle Brothers & Q-Tip : Promo N°2 (Mind Review '89) (from Beyond This World 12")

Jungle Brothers & Q-Tip : Promo N°2 (Mind Review '89) (Warner, 1989)
Heavy D, Kool G Rap, Grand Puba, CL Smooth, Big Daddy Kane, Pete Rock & Q Tip : Don't Curse (Uptown, 1992)
Cold Chillin Juice Crew : Cold Chillin Christmas (Warner, 1988)
Mix-Her-Hug (homemade edit)

Sorry for the lack of post lately, my internet conncetion was down. I won't be home for the next two weeks so don't expect too many updates this month.

Anyhow I finally managed to find my copy of Beyond This World. It was misplaced in my Expedit, as always. I was talking about this track in my post about If The Papes Come, when I was discussing the different songs Q-Tip did with The Jungle Brother. But honestly Promo N°2 (Mind Review '89) deserved it's own post, just so I can disgress and talk about anything but this song.

This record was probably the first song where I heard Q-Tip, or at least it was the first where I really noticed him. I remember hearing that for the first time on a tape of the Dee Nasty show, it was the week when they had my cousin's friend who rhymed in "chinese" (i guess it was in mandarin, but they simply said Chinese). Dee Nasty opened the show with this record and that's when my obsession with Q-Tip started.

Between the first Promo (see below) and the second one Hip Hop had went through a lot of changes as stated in Tip's rhyme : "Promo No. 1, Q-Tip had a fade, Promo No. 2, Q-Tip rocks braids". yeah back in those days MCs where really innovative in their haircuts. Nowadays it seems everybody is bald, but in 89 between the jheri curl, the afro, the dreadlocks, the cornrow... Hip hop hair were so versatile in those days, I really miss that.

The JB's and Q-Tip were rhyming over a famous Booker T loop, and Tip rhymed over it again a few years later on the Pete Rock-produced posse cut Don't Curse along side Heavy D, Kool G Rap, Puba, CL Smooth and Big Daddy Kane. A few years ago I wrote that bitter-sweet article on Kane for my Strictly Hatred column in Real, where I considered that he jump the shark when he did the video for this song, with the infamous purple silk shirt. It's a shame because his verses where still nice then.

Coincidentially Big Daddy Kane as well had rhymed on a song with the same sample before, the little known Cold Chillin Christmas with MC Shan and Roxanne Shante, from the Winter Warnerland compilation. Now that I think of it, I really should have make fun of this one too. As if having a christmas song wasn't corny enough, someone thought it would be a good idea to have Cold Chillin CEO Fly Ty to drop a verse. Bad executive decision ! Well once you agreed to do a christmas song on a compilation, between Pee Wee Herman and Los Lobos, you can't really expect people to take it seriously, so it's all good I guess.

Oh yeah, and since I had too much time on my hands I just did a little mix with the three tracks.

Extra Prolific : Give It Up (from First Sermon 12")

Extra Prolific : Give It Up (Jive, 1994)
Souls Of Mischief : That's When You Lost (I Ain't Trippin Remix) (Jive, 1993) (fixed)

Even if they actually had an album out in 1994, Extra Prolific is the group that no one seem to remember when talking about the Hieroglyphics. And when they mention them, a lot of people don’t realize that Extra Prolific was a group. Since Snupe was the only MC of the duo and he also produce a lot of tracks, it’s easy to forget that some producer named Mike G was also in the group, but left shortly after the first album was released, probably to form a supergroup with Jarobi...

Extra Prolific didn’t left an unforgettable mark in the history of the crew. Their track record, besides the four-mics album “Like It Should Be” consist of a remix of That’s When You Lost, two guest spots on Casual’s album, one song on the Low Down Dirty Shame soundtrack and the beat of You’re In Shamble.


Snupe was suddenly kicked out of the crew, the Hiero issued a press release on christmas eve 1996 at 9:40PM (who has time to send a press release on december 24th ?) to officially annouce his departure “due to musical differences” What does that mean ? Did it take two years for them to actually listen to his album ? His music was obviously very different from the rest of them since the beggining. This texas transplant had a west coast feel that made him different from the Oakland natives, as you can hear on the B side of his first single, Give It Up.

But the persistent rumour was that he was fired because he had an affair with Casual’s sister ! He thought the Hieroglyphics was like a big family ! It’s probably not true, but at least it’s funny, like that other rumour about Del shopping his demo around LA claiming to be Ice Cube cousin’s, even thought they didn’t know each other ! From what I heard, Cube had to ask his mom if that kid was really his cousin. Hey, I don’t know if it’s totally bogus or if it actually happened, so don’t be dumb like me and don’t repeate anything you’re told.

Del, Q Tip & Pep Love : The Undisputed Champs (from Wrong Place Wrong Time 12")

Del, Pep Love & Q-Tip : The Undisputed Champs (Elektra, 1994)
Pep Love & Jay Biz : Days Of Blueness (demo, 1992~3)
Lucien : From A Town Called Paris (Virgin, 1993)(fixed)

Here is another nice Q-Tip guest verse that only appeared on a B side. Hearing Tip sharing the mic with the Hiero is only logical since they share the same love for battle rhymes and soul-jazz infused beats . People don't sweat this song too much, probably because it was on the b side of Wrong Place Wrong Time, which is not really Del's strongest cut, but in my opinon, every song out of "No Need For Alarm" was good enough to be a single.

Also on the song is Pep Love of Pep Love & Jay-Biz also known as The Shamen, also known as The Prose, the only group out of the Hieroglyphics who didn't have the oportunity to release an album. Well they did, but way too late, not when people cared. I mean, I know they have a huge cult following, but seriously who was still checking for their records in 2001 ? Well, too bad for you if you didn't, because the compilation of their demos circa 1992-1993 is mindblowing. Some songs from this album can still be heard from the lost Hiero Sound Vault page : http://www.hieroglyphics.com/sounds/the_prose

Oh ! and the song that flip the sample used later by Del on "No Need For Alarm" is by Q-Tip's old friend Lucien, and to the best of my knowledge it's the only full length song he ever released on his own.


Del, Pep Love & Q-Tip : The Undisputed Champs (Elektra, 1994)
Pep Love & Jay Biz : Days Of Blueness (demo, 1992~3)
Lucien : From A Town Called Paris (Virgin, 1993) (réparé)

Encore un couplet de Q-Tip qui n'est apparu que sur face B. Ce n'est pas très etonnant de retrouver Tip aux cotés des Hieroglyphics puisqu'ils partage la même passion pour les battle rhymes et les samples soul jazz. Bizarrement ce morceau n'est pas très connu, contrairement aux autres faces B de Del (Burnt, Eye Examination). Certes Wrong Place Wrong Time n'est pas son morceau le plus populaire, mais si vous voulez mon avis n'importe quel morceau de "No Need For Alarm" méritait de sortir en single.

Sur le morceau on entend également Pep Love de Pep Love & Jay-Biz alias The Shamen, alias The Prose, le seul groupe du crew qui n'a pas eu la chance de sortir un album. Plus précisément qui a sorti un album bien après la bataille. Les Hieroglyphics sont cultes, ils ont des petits groupes de fans dans le monde entier, mais qui s'intéressait encore à eux en 2001 ? Pas vous ? Eh bien vous auriez du car la compil de leur démos enregistrées vers 1992-93 est fabuleuse. Quand on pense à toutes les perles qui sont passées entre les oreilles des directeurs artistiques de l'époque, on se dit que les places en maisons de disque sont parfois attribuées n'importe comment. Quelques morceaux de l'album ainsi que d'autres vieux titres de Pep Love & Jay Biz sont toujours en écoute sur le site des Hiero : http://www.hieroglyphics.com/sounds/the_prose

Enfin le dernier morceau avec le même sample que Del utilisait sur No Need For Alarm est From A Town Called Paris de Lucien, vieil ami de Q-Tip.