Stetsasonic Call Into Awesome 2 Show // Awesome 2 Sign Off - February 1987

Great spontaneous moment here. The whole Stetsasonic crew call into The Awesome 2 show to let them know they're listening.

Stetsasonic Call into Awesome 2 Show // Awesome 2 Sign Off - Feb '87 -

- Hello you're live, the Awesome 2

- Yo this is Daddy-O from the Stet, yo we got the whole Stet posse in the place to be man (the rest chime in)

- Brooklyn in effect, huh?

- What's happenin' fellas, big things is happening with y'all

- We're getting ready to go out on tour with LL, Whodini, Public Enemy, Eric B, Doug Fresh, the whole posse man, we're going RAMBO man, taking the Brooklyn show on the road.

- Now didn't we say things was gonna be kicking live?

- Oh yeah, most definitely man, we know you were always in our corner, that's why we in y'alls

- Believe that

- Word Up

...

- Stet posse wants to say peace to everybody in the world. We out here man, and we're always pushing for the Awesome 2. Stamping out all gay people in radio!

Yowsah. The conversation is followed by a little Ultra Magnetic M.C.'s Mentally Mad blend as the 2 sign off. The girl you here is Tara, who was shouted out earlier in the show for helping handle the phone lines. Apparently somebody called in trying to say they were LL Cool J, looking to shout out E Love.

- To the kid who called and told me he was LL Cool J and wanted to say hello to E Love... have a better imitation next time.

- Believe that!

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MC Shan - Beat Biter! World Premiere on the Rap Attack

(Above: MC Shan performing at Lee School, Boston, 1987)

As mentioned yesterday, here's a classic Mr. Magic moment. On a tape labeled March 28, 1986, we find the Rap Attack debuting MC Shan's Beat Biter! I absolutely consider this to be a legendary night in rap radio. It begins with Marley Marl going back and forth on the turntables between LL Cool J's original Rock The Bells and Marley / MC Shan's Marley Marl Scratch, drawing attention to the all too similar drum programming... Marley Marl Scratch having predated Rock The Bells. While Marley Marl speaks with his hands, Mr. Magic speaks with his booming voice in his infamously outspoken manner.

Mr. Magic: "LL Cool J is doing the wild thing, but uh, MC Shan has something to say about the Marley Scratch if you know what I mean."

(8:40 in) "Let the battle begin!!! It's brand new, it's called Beat Biter! Dedication to LL Cool J from MC Shan."

I love the way Magic announces the title of the brand new MC Shan track. "BEAT BITER!" I gotta dedicate this post to Jawn P of Top Choice Clique. I know Beat Biter is one of his all time favorite rap songs.

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Yo, Get My Posse... Get... My...

Had to post this! Look at Magic making sure he gets his camera time! Classic!

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Rapping With The Stars

It's been a hectic weekend. This is definitely still sinking in.

I finally had the proper surroundings to check out the Mister Cee and DJ Premier Magic tributes today, and they were both wonderful. Yo for real though, I almost crashed my car when I heard Premo give me a shout out at the beginning. Then when he played some of my mixes from Down The Dial, I was completely blown away. I think in my last post it was clear just how much respect I have for Premier, a respect I'm sure we all have, so to hear him send a shout out to me is a BIG DEAL. I felt a rush when Down The Dial came on the radio, the same rush Magic gave countless acts in the past by doing the same thing.

DJ Premier Mr. Magic Tribute

One more time: thank you Premier, thank you Magic.

Now, check this out-

These are two of my favorite hip hop personalities right here chopping it up. We have a young LL Cool J in 1985, fresh off of making a cameo appearance in Krush Groove. Full of charisma, LL discusses the world of movie making, how he got started as a rapper, and his new album Radio, among other things.

LL Cool J- Rapping With The Stars- Rap Attack 1985 (1 of 2)-

The two laugh when Cool J slips up with the language a couple times (once above, once below). Note Magic saying, "Good thing this is a black owned radio station."

Below is the second half of the interview, which includes a live rhyme by LL... but the best quote of the interview comes when the young emcee states,

"Most of the time, I sit in my house at like 3 or 4 in the morning... that's when I write all my rhymes, 'cause I feel like God ain't got that many people to pay attention at 3 in the morning so he pays more attention to me, and I can write better rhymes."

One of the hungriest and charismatic rappers of all time doing his thing here, kicking it with Sir Juice. Enjoy.

LL Cool J- Rapping With The Stars- Rap Attack 1985 (2 of 2)-

Aside from LL's well known "Box!" performance in Krush Groove, Magic also made a cameo in the movie during a Disco Fever scene, announcing the winner of the talent show. Check it out below...

Anybody got the tribute Marley did? How about Scratch?

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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

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