also known as “Fonky Expedition”
Sometimes when it’s pissing down here in the L, ie, all the time,
my mind wanders back to the yay area, not that it doesn’t piss down there too but I get a yearning to cruise the highway with the top down and bust out some fonkiness. here TCD let us guys know that girls can do G-funk too, even if they do sound like men.
i ain’t gonna front and say i was a big fan of the black keys in the past,i liked the band and the production, but i always thought the singer was a bit wick, wick wack(sorry).it appears i wasn’t the only one thinking that, cos dame dash( he has no idea how camp that sounds),the man behind jay-z, has dragged them to new york to work with some of his peoples in the “field of hip-hop” and let’s just say i’m hyped about the results…some sort of super-trendy version of the judgment night soundtrack: BLACKROC.
now for the cool part. video from the studio sessions..
lovely old analogue gear and cool white dudes seem to have the rappers sprung, ,and they rise to challenge, and come with it.
in this clip, mos def, who i’m liking more as i become less of hater, vibes with the band, and make a song.he can’t sing..but.
jim jones, rap’s pauly from rocky passes through, and “feels it out”, whilst puffing the magic dragon, and actually spits some poetry.
rza smokes out, grabs the guitar, i cringe, then stands up and directs a masterpiece.you can see the abbot’s brain working.awesomes.
nikki wray and jim jones come, through, dash accafools, and the magic is in the air.no phil collins.
“As he wax and tracks. all the DJs play, with a dick in your mouth all day, a little dick in your mouth all day, a big dick in your mouth all day”.
These words and samples closed the 1988 Run DMC classic Beats to the Rhyme, but have you ever wondered from whence that yelpy screech about dicks in mouths originated? Its one of the finest in your face, take no shit from no man, comics ever !
Proving that no matter what the origins of a record or sample are, even the most slender, tenuous slivers of soundbites can make a huge amount of difference to a track
going back to 86, alarm radios must of been real pricey cos, for the first few bars of erick sermon’s verse on “jane”,he not only brags about having one, but borderline schools you on what an alarm clock radio IS.deep.this, for me, is the kinda random shit that i love epmd for.in the early days, they were not even very good rappers, on par with duece poppi, or some shit, but they had good chemistry as a duo, and of course the “jane” saga, a five-deep, not very well thought out, multi-song story about a girl that they fuck/like/dislike/like again/kill..on every epmd lp there was a jane song, and even redman makes mention about meeting her..
alarm clocks aside, they tell a strange story, as they both rap from ericks perspective at first, then take individual roles, then switch up again as erick takes jane to bed…
also, listen again, because for the love of god, it doesnt make any sense!, even to rap thinkers extrawdinare, like myself..
let us count the ways..
erick sets his fancy alarm clock radio, but makes no mention of having two females at his house, or the fact that he has pre arranged with pmd, the microphone doctor, to be his wingman, and take up the slack on this other girl, we assume the ugly/fat friend, who’s hair is the only thing of note about her.
so, from the jump i’m confused.it’s also so old school, nowadays the story would be about banging both of them in the ass, whilst smoking a blunt the size of amsterdam.but i digress.
next morning he (the e double) wakes to a note where jane kinda disses his lovemaking ability, the cow, by saying she wants him to be better, bigger, stronger and much faster(huh?)..although he has kinda admitted he was a shit lay already, with lines like “she showed pain but inside she felt joy” and telling us that he was” tired of busting her” by 3am, all classic denial behaviour, added to fact he mentions the alarm clock radio more than her in the first place(must put a girl off),so, overall, he’s not really selling the encounter to me..why would you write a song about being shit in bed?, i mean he already has a lisp!
THE QUESTIONS REMAIN:
what happened to p’s girl?why does erick wonder who is at his door, when he knows p is coming over..?jane appears to try and chat p up at first, so whats happing with the friend? sherlock holmes could not riddle me this.
musically, dope mary” jane” flips, nicely scratched up by dj k la boss, but why are they triggering what sounds like parrish saying “swamp thing”?,is it to distance erick from the j to the a to the n to the e?, or just for pure randomness?.that beat made it as far as a texas single at one point, i believe.
this song raises more questions than it answers, the main one being why didn’t they think it through a bit better?.iv’e listened to it five times in the course of writing this, and i will damned if i can work it out.
notice how mos def emphasises that he’s black dante, next to Black thought, and, errr…eminem.
they all drop more gems than those dudes in bond street a few months back…
mos is very precise, almost scientific, but definitely the best and most engaged i’ve seen him.
black thought is a nice surprise on the b.e.t awards, but i always forgot just how big the roots were, and he’s got better too, the lower tone is dope.
the opening lines are just redankulous.kane is back.
eminem gets the wow factor with the crowd, with a spomtaneous response you only really get from live rap.
it’s a good format, nice to hear which emcees can actually hold up 32 bars, without breathlessnes or the need for treach style punch-ins.
osama, dahmer, obama and the dali lama.say it with me.