Is It Live?

This is one of those posts where I'm going to bring up something that I always wonder, and instead of my ideas provoking thought in the reader, it will most likely make you think I'm on some crazy nerd shit.  Here is "the question at hand..."

Are all Marley Marl and/or Cold Chillin' tracks that are said to be live actually 100% live? 

Stupid question to ask, and I don't care either way if they are, because they're all incredible, but I suppose when you listen to something so much, you start to dig deep for added entertainment value.  The first example that comes to mind is a straight up legen-DAIRY track. 

LL Cool J- Murdergram (Live at Rapmania)

I've never really had a conversation with anybody regarding how great I actually think "Murdergram" is.  I don't hear it talked about a lot, but I doubt I'm alone on this one, and it's not really a topic I feel would make for good conversation at any semi-normal get together anyways.  Honestly, I will probably enjoy any song using that special 1 bar loop from Earth Wind & Fire's "Moment of Truth," so that explains why I'm basically all for this too:

Anybody who listened to Commercial Rap knows I have no shame in thoroughly enjoying the good Kid 'N' Play songs.  But I'm kind of getting on a tangent here.  Was "Murdergram" even performed at "Rapmania?"  I mean, I obviously don't know the answer to that, but I do know that I have a 2 VHS set of the concert and the only LL Cool J performance on it is "Jinglin' Baby."  I promise next time I'm at my mom's house I'll grab the VHS and post Kurtis Blow's "Medley" performance, because it is something that needs to be seen, if only for the outfit (but also for the "Basketball" segment).  

So, anyways, I've established that there is no footage of Cool J performing "Murdergam" on my VHS.  Who gives a shit, right?  I simply like thinking about these things sometimes.  The crowd noise on the track also sounds like it's a loop too, which always creates a great sound (that is  absolutely NOT sarcasm, it's dope!).  Also, the beginning where Marley says "Yo, don't go near the speaker" just sounds too perfect to be an actual flawed live recording.  You know what, the more I type out my thoughts, the more I realize that this track was probably never actually meant to fool anybody into thinking it's a genuine live recording, so I'm feeling like a real geek fanboy right now.  Nice detective work, dickhead.

Anyways, aside from my rant about how it's probably not actually live, the song from front to back is just a complete banger. And I don't normally use the word banger, so you know I dug deep for that.  LL destroys it with the vocals, the beat is probably higher up on my list of personal favorite Marley productions than I even realize, and it's even got the classic Marley Marl vocal cameos ("Nah man just kick a litttttle more!").  Poi-fect!

Now, onto a couple Marley and/or Cold Chillin' tracks that are definitely live.  "Wrath Of Kane" on Big Daddy's second album is incredible.  The crowd gets LOUD when Kane comes out to perform the track at the Apollo. 

Big Daddy Kane- Wrath Of Kane (Live at the Apollo)

I also was always kind of taken aback on MC Shan's "Cocaine (Live)" when the crowd is attentive enough as a whole to go "OoOOOOOhhhhhHHH" at the end when Shan says "Don't you know by now that her name was cocaine?"  They get loud too.  

MC Shan- Cocaine (Live 12" Version- I believe performed at the Red Parrot...?)

I want to believe that none of this was ever any amount of added after-effect studio trickery, and there probably wasn't any, but it's not so much that I'm a skeptic as it is the fact that I spend way too much time in C's Section (studio) tinkering with ideas and things like this.  Here, I'll show you.

Somehow I weaseled my way into knowing the whereabout of this:

Since certain parts of the theatre/stage were mic'd separately, you can use the multi track tape to boost certain levels of things.

Biz Live @ Apollo (Clip)- Normal

Think about that, then think about this (key moment to compare is 23 seconds in on each) ...

Biz Live @ Apollo (Clip)- Crowd Boost

This paragraph here has come to an end.

aka... this rant is over

Tweet

Mr. Magic Week # 6 (Saturday)- "Butchy B Reppin' Hard"

Just like the Roxanne Wars, but not nearly to the same extent, there were a handful of "random" disses being thrown around during The Bridge Wars. Everyone's up on (and possibly even sick of hearing) BDP's "The Bridge Is Over" and Shan's "Kill That Noise." Some aren't random, you just don't hear them as much. A perfect example is Poet's "Beat You Down," which got many spins on the Rap Attack. Two standout tracks from this battle are MC Mitchski's "Brooklyn Blew Up The Bridge" on the BDP side, and Butchy B's "Go Magic" on the WBLS side.

I'd say Butchy B's "Go Magic" is the least mentioned out of the titles I just listed, so I decided to put a spotlight on it on this lazy Saturday. Check it out

Butchy B- "Go Magic (Radio)"

This is a pretty tough 12" to come by. It's actually more of an EP. Honestly, don't waste your time trying to get your hands on it though... "Go Magic" is the highlight. The only other track you might want to seek out is "Beatin Down KRS" on the B-side for curiosity's sake. When I showed Magic the record, he lit up... it had been so long since he heard it that he had forgot all about it. He said he used to play it all the time, but was NEVER aware it came out on record. I'm not sure what they were playing it off of though.

There was no way I was putting out "Down The Dial" without putting this Butchy B cut on there. I decided to do a couple blends with it. The "Down The Dial" version is below

"Go Magic" (From "Down The Dial")

I wish there was an instrumental to Ultramagnetic MCs' "Delta Force One." That's one of my all time favorite beats. I love how the beat even has Ced Gee's voice in the background basically the entire time saying "HELLO! Ced Gee, the champion!" It's the best.

Probably the most ironic thing I did on my re-edit of the track: I wanted to make sure the line "said it for the record, let the bullshit cease" was NOT edited. The 12" is the radio version, so it gets taken out. I had to pull it off an actual radio show. Shouldn't it have been edited on WBLS though? Haha so the record is the edited version, but the Rap Attack radio rip is balls out. Classic

Once again, if you like what you hear, you can cop "Down The Dial" here- Underground Hip Hop

or here- Will C. Myspace

Oh, and to keep the theme of my posts constantly going on tangents or off topic, here's a clip from the Rap Attack from September 4th, 1987, where Biz Markie and Roxanne Shante are stopping by...

September 4th, 1987- Biz and Shante at WBLS

Here's some classic clips from the 1986 Dutch VPRO Documentary "Big Fun In The Big Town." At 1:50 into the first one you can see some rare footage of Magic and Marley up at WBLS.

The second clip has Biz and Shante doing "Def Fresh Crew" at 4:20

Tweet