This, Bud, 's For You. Mom Is Pissed!

I saw some people talking recently about the coolest / weirdest things they've found in their record jackets and sleeves (8x10s, for example), so I figured I'd put together this post. When I picked up a copy of Rock Master Scott and The Dynamic Three's "The Roof Is On Fire" 12", I was surprised to see this message written in pencil on the sleeve:

"10/21/86 - 5:41 PM

Bud,

under any condition you can not use our system again.

Today was the last straw.

Mom"

Perhaps our friend Bud was playing his new Rock Master Scott 12" and gave his parents a coronary when they heard the famous chant:

"The roof is on fire. We don't need no water let the motherfucker burn! Burn motherfucker, burn!"

Maybe, some crazy person with an overactive imagination wrote this on the sleeve much later for fun.  I do think it's kind of weird the the year is dated in pencil too ('86).  

Whatever the case may be, I thought this was hilarious.

Way back when I was a youngster up in Maine, my go-to spot to get any used hip hop vinyl was Portsmouth, New Hampshire's Bull Moose Records. They still have a good used vinyl section in general, but in the Nineties it was actually very impressive and reasonably priced. I would grab whatever I could get my hands on for the most part. One of my first vinyl purchases ever was this Priority Records compilation uniquely titled "Rap's Greatest Hits." It was the first time I heard "The Show" and "Pee Wee's Dance," so it was an important record for me.

"The Roof Is On Fire" was the last song on side B, and it was also the first time I had heard that track as well. It's funny because just by the title, "The Roof Is On Fire," I knew it must have the call-and-response routine that everyone knows at the end of it, but to my surprise, it was nowhere to be found on the song. Thoroughly confused, I just figured that the Rock Master Scott song didn't have that chant at all, probably because they either weren't able to put it on their cut in an attempt to keep the track clean... or maybe it was just a coincidence that the song was named "The Roof Is On Fire." Hey, I was alone up in Maine thinking about this stuff, and the internet hadn't developed into a tool where I could do a search to get a quick answer or anything... cut me some slack.

Little did I know that the version on my compilation was simply fading out and eliminating the final minute of the classic tune. I didn't figure this out until years later when I heard the full version. Below is a snippet of both, illustrating the difference.

The Roof Is On Fire (Lame "Rap's Greatest Hits" Version)-

The Roof Is On Fire (12" Vocal Version)-



When I was younger, I thought the line "If you're not a square from Delaware and you got on clean underwear" was the coolest.

Special shout out to Bud and Bud's mom.

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