Record This! aka Friday Funk Pt. 3

Funky Piano - EPMD
Times Up - O.C.
My Philosophy - Boogie Down Productions
Satisfied - J Live
Disco Inferno - 50 Cent
Pump It Up - Joe Budden

For my third guest post here, and first during this week’s “back in the day” theme week, I won’t bog you down with my words. Let’s take a look at the words behind a few timeless classics.

Writing something timeless is probably a greater accomplishment than selling 150,000 the first week, but it certain doesn’t get recognized with the same fervor -- except here at The Funk.

Take BDP’s My Philosophy (and follow along with the lyrics at ohhla.com if you have to). KRS-One spits this in his second verse:

“some mc's be talkin' and talkin'
tryin' to show how black people are walkin
but I don't walk this way to portray
or reinforce stereotypes of today
like all my brothas eat chicken and watermelon
talk broken english and drug sellin'
See I'm tellin, and teaching real facts
The way some act in rap is kind of wack
and it lacks creativity and intelligence
but they don't care cause the company is sellin' it”

Sounds like it could have come out yesterday, and been talking about the rap game in 2005? Most heads probably know My Philosophy was the first song on 1988’s By All Means Necessary.

How about O.C’s 1994 sure shot Time’s up? Also in the second verse, he says:

“Speakin in tongues, about what you did but you never done it
Admit you bit it cause the next man gained platinum behind it
I find it ironic, so I researched and analyzed
Most write about stuff they fantasized
I'm fed up with the bull, on this focus of weed and clips
and glocks gettin cocked, and wax not bein flipped
It's the same old same old just strain it from the anal”

and

“Instead of puttin brain cells to work they abuse it
Non-conceptual, non-exceptional
Everybody's either crime-related or sexual”

Damn. That sounds like it could be written about the rap game right now too. Of course, those are just a couple of examples based on similar themes, but as those of us who don’t care too much for pop rap dig into our old school collections to listen to the classics, it’s amazing how far ahead of their time some of these MCs were.

A personal pick for a song that will be just as dope 10 years from now as it was when it came out is J-Live’s Satisfied, which mixes a musical smorgasboard with a message about post-2001 America, and how a lot of people seemed to be letting the other problems in the country go after terrorism hit hard on U.S. soil.

“It ain't right them cops and them firemen died
The shit is real tragic, but it damn sure ain't magic
It won't make the brutality disappear
It won't pull equality from behind your ear
It won't make a difference in a two-party country
If the president cheats to win another four years
Now don't get me wrong, there's no place I'd rather be
The grass ain't greener on the other genocide …”

We don’t really get too political here at The Funk, but J-Live summed up in a few verses what a lot of people may have been thinking.

Check out the lyrics of those full songs if you’ve never heard them. Still very relevant today.

Feeling old

If you came up in the late 80s and early 90s like I did, hip-hop was something that most parents just couldn’t get with. Which makes sense, after all, since a lot of their favorite hits were the backdrops for a lot of ours. (Check out www.the-breaks.com and the forum at www.vinylvulture.co.uk for info and discussion on such matters … after you’re done here, of course)

It’s a sign that the hip-hop generation (ours, not the current kids) is growing up when they’re sampling our classics for the backdrops of today’s radio hits. (Or maybe they’re re-using the same samples, but of course it seems more authentic when done by artists I like).

I got caught up in 50 Cent’s new Disco Inferno because I recognize that piano background from somewhere. It took me a whole car ride to figure it out -- had to shut off the radio and play the loop over and over in my head, but it finally came to me. Listen to EPMD’s Funky Piano side by side with Disco Inferno, and tell me what you hear.

Joe Budden swiping the Scenario (Remix) beat is much more obvious, because there isn’t much different from when Quest, L.O.N.S and Kid Hood killed it the first time.

The game

Me and my man Jamar once came up with a non-scientific test to settle an Eric B. and Rakim argument. I said their two best songs are “I ain’t no joke” and “I know you got soul.” He preferred “Follow the leader” and “Know the ledge.”

So we took a random sampling in the college cafeteria. What we found is that some people preferred “Microphone Fiend” and “Don’t sweat the technique,” and still others were enamored by “Paid in Full” and “Eric B. is President.”

No one we asked, white or black, young or old, gave us the same two songs. Some people agreed with one of Jamar’s songs and one of mine.

That, my friends, is a legacy. I’m sure you can play the Two Best Songs game at home with Run DMC (You Be Illin’ and Run’s House), EPMD (Rampage, So Watcha Sayin), Big Daddy Kane (Ain’t No Halfsteppin, Wrath of Kane) or BDP (Jack of Spades, Ya Slippin). You’ll find that people appreciate some of the same songs, but their favorites aren’t always the ones that had Yo! MTV Raps videos or 12-inches released.

P.S. Be careful when playing at home with L.L. Cool J (Bad, Jingling Baby?). Selecting any song he made after 1998 -- 1994 in some people’s opinions -- could be dangerous.

Late add

My man The Fool from Rotogods.com just put me up on this NWA Quiz from ThePhat Phree.com:

RotoGods!

That’s what’s up

I promised I’d mention each week what I’m listening to.

Right now, I’m mesmerized by MF Doom’s Mm Food album, especially Kookies, Beef Rapp, Potholderz and Deep Fried Frenz. It’s weird, but good. Among the spaced-out samples are bits taken from Sesame Street, J.J. Fad and Whodini. Opposite ends of the spectrum if I ever saw them.

K-Boogie, a.k.a. TiVo, also dorks out about fantasy sports and life at Rotogods.com.