Fish, Which Is My Favourite Dish

At the risk of sounding like an old git, although probably the term is quite correct, I never got gangster rap or gansta if you prefer. It never appealed, probably because I'm not from da hood. On the other hand this genre of hip-hop sells shit loads and a considerable amount over here in the UK so it must connect with a lot of people not just American inner city Afro-Americans.

I liked the occasional track by Tupac, Biggie Smalls and further back N.W.A but not in the way that I absorbed the hip-hop of the late 80's and early nineties. I bought everything by Public Enemy, loved a lot of it. The anti-semitism I abhorred. I could understand why Chuck D and crew were angry but the military fatigues and Uzis concerned me. I never went to the show in the Barrowlands but I can't imagine that there were many in the audience who fit the bill to join the S1W (Security Of The First World)

Even more than Public Enemy I loved the sound of Eric B & Rakim.  Eric B's beats were always sparse and Rakim has got to be the most laid back rapper ever. The first time I heard Paid In Full was Coldcut's seminal remix of Paid In Full and I was blown away and decided that I had to own it. I went into Glasgow the following weekend and bought the 12" single from Fopp.

When I got it home, I played the remix 2 or 3 times back to back. I eventually flipped over the record and was more than pleasantly surprised by the original album mix which if anything, is better than the Coldcut's mix. Everything from the Dennis Edwards sample used as the bass line to the non flashy but amazingly effective scratching just fits together perfectly. Plus we also get to find out Rakim's favourite food as a bonus.

The other great thing about Eric B & Rakim records were the great remixes to be found on the vinyl,  with the hippest of mixers all adding something to the duo's already class tracks. I think it is due to the sparseness of the originals that leaves a lot of space for remixers to put their stamp on it. Whether that be The Wild Bunch's take on Move The Crowd or Double Trouble's sample tastic I Know You Got Soul.

Included here is the late Derek B's much over looked but none too shabby interpretation of Paid In Full which will always be in the shadow of Coldcut's groundbreaking mix,  which at the time Eric B was rather disparaging about until the "dead presidents" started rolling in.

Eric B & Rakim - Paid In Full

Eric B & Rakim - Paid In Full (Derek B's Urban Respray)

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

I don't know why but I've been listening to a lot of stuff from 1987 recently, probably nostalgia. I have came to the conclusion that it was a very good year for House and Hip Hop.

Today's posting is by Eric B and Rakim, the duo who released my favorite hip-hop album Paid In Full.

I Know You Got Soul was the second single from the album and was originally released in 1987. The track features so many couplets which would be sampled or repeated in future hip-hop and dance tracks from the opening line "it's bin a long time/I shouldna left you" to the final words "Rakim a say Peace" but possibly the best known and most sampled is "pump up the volume". The orignal tune is an updating of Bobby Byrd's 'I Know You Got Soul' with Rakim's unmistakable rapping over Eric B's beats.

The version posted is the 1988 remix, which I think was released on the back of the success of the seminal Coldcut remix of Paid in Full. Instead of Coldcut, the remixers here were Double Trouble alias Danny D and one Norman Cook on his first foray into dance music after the Housemartins split up. The remix was done without the knowledge of Eric B and Rakim and was basically put together by Cook using the a capella from the b-side of the original single over the top of a rather famous break and piling on the samples, as he didn't have access to the masters of the original. I don't think that they would get away with that these days, definitely not on a dance off shoot of a major as a bootleg white label maybe.

Eric B & Rakim - I Know You Got Soul (Six Minutes of Soul, Double Trouble remix)

Paid In Full

It's pay day today, thank god. I haven't a clue what I've wasted my money on this month.

Eric B and Rakim - Paid In Full