Mr. Magic: I can't wait to see that battle. I guess The Real Roxanne is not even included in this battle. I guess as they say, that's show biz. Meanwhile, that about raps things up for yours truly, Super Rockin' Mr. Magic, until I return to burn this coming Saturday night... starts at 2 o'clock in the AM. Anyone driving in their car please proceed with a little extra safety and care. Super listeners, whenever you do your homework, always do it as Fly Girl Shante does it, do it to the best of your ability and also remember that persistence ALWAYS overcomes resistance, and any fool can learn from his own mistakes, but it takes a wise man... a wise guy like you to learn from the mistakes made by others. Quick reminder, be yourself or you might find yourself by yourself, and... that's what happened to the Real Roxanne... so sorry.
(laughter in the studio)
For the entire Juice Crew, I am of course Mr. Magic. Special thank you to my engineer all star Marley Marl and Fly Ty Will on the vibe line.
Poetry right there.
Mr. Magic 01.23.1985 Sign Off with Real Roxanne dis -
Alright, so a couple early demos of Marley Marl Scratch dropped in recent years. That was something I had a hand in. To broaden the canvas and illustrate the context in which the first early version dropped, I wanted to share this excellent segment from early '85 on the Rap Attack. This demo has been noted as airing January 23rd, 1985, but upon closer examination, I'd have to say this was either that date or in the vicinity. The tape I have labeled January 23rd actually has audio from at least three Rap Attack shows, so sometimes it's impossible to decipher. This clip begins with Magic and Marley shifting out of Grandmaster Flash's Larry's Dance Theme and into the Shan demo. Immediately afterward, Roxanne Shante stops by the studio and lets the world know where she's been, where she's headed, and shares her thoughts on the up-and-coming rappers out there.
I hope they're good.
Magic and Roxanne rap about her newfound fame, her upcoming Soul Train appearance, and more, as the clock ticks toward four in the morning. Below is the full segment together, as well as the Roxanne segment by itself. Enjoy it...
Marley Marl Scratch - Early Demo Expanded - Roxanne Shante Rap Attack Interview - Jan or Feb '85 -
Roxanne Shante Rap Attack Interview - Jan or Feb '85 -
I'm happy to announce that the coming months will see the release of two more Cold Chillin' deluxe reissues. First up, Roxanne Shante's Bad Sister, followed by MC Shan's sophomore release, Born To Be Wild. As always, each disc will include bonus audio, never-before-seen artwork, and more.
There's so many incredible tracks between these two expanded releases... I Pioneered This, Have A Nice Day, Juice Crew Law, Brothers Ain't Shit, Words of a Freestyle, both title tracks, Skeezer, Live On Stage, and the list goes on. I've had a great time talking with both Shante and MC Shan about their respective releases. Here's an excerpt from the Bad Sister liner notes:
Today, Shante recalls her time as a Cold Chillin’ artist with honesty and clarity. “Overall, my recording career with Cold Chillin’ was definitely a prerequisite for life in general. I was able to deal with so many different personalities. With the fellas who sometimes wrote lyrics for me, like Kane and Biz and Shan, I love the fact that we kept it very close-knit to the extent that they could actually write songs for me, and it would sound like something Shante would say. We actually came up with the phrase, ‘Now that sounds Shante-ish,’ meaning it was sassy enough, contained enough profanity, was quick-witted, and had a very fast delivery to match Shante’s personality. So with Bad Sister, I would say that I was very happy with the outcome of the album. Just the fact that I was able to sit back, hear it and say ‘Wow, I’m really feeling like that today.’ I would say the title track describes the type of life I wanted to have, or the type of life we felt the public thought I had. They thought I had this big bed and this bath that you step into with men washing you up. They didn’t know that I was still in the hood barely surviving, but it gave me a chance to mentally go to a whole different place and I think it even reflected what my Cold Chillin’ brothers wanted me to have. They would rhyme about all of these elaborate things and I’d be like, ‘*Pshh*, wouldn’t it be good if I had all that!’ I know that when Cold Chillin’ decided to band with Warner Brothers, we thought we were
going to get Bugs Bunny money. I was lucky if I got a carrot.”
And here's a clip of DJ Pete Rock having a little fun with the Juice Crew Law 12" on the In Control Show:
MC Shan- Juice Crew Law (12" Version) on In Control Show, 107.5 WBLS - April 29, 1989 -
Werner Von Wallenrod recently had a thorough post on Shan's Juice Crew Law 12". Hands down the 12" version is much heavier, from bass line to drums. You can bet it will be on the reissue.
Be sure to keep an eye out for both of these this summer! Speaking of summer, we just had a beautiful weekend up here in Boston. Pretty soon I'll be dressing like this dude:
Yesterday morning I was surprised to see there was a copy of the Winter Warnerland compilation CD on my chair. This is the holiday disc that contains the elusive Cold Chillin' Christmas posse cut featuring Big Daddy Kane, Roxanne Shante, M.C. Shan and Fly Ty. I think I read somewhere that this is the only posse cut that features M.C. Shan and Big Daddy Kane together.
Cold Chillin Christmas-
Here's a paragraph from the CD liner notes:
"The rappers from Cold Chillin' got together at Marley's house to lay down this dope number featuring Big Daddy Kane, whose debut album Long Live the Kane has been Top Ten for months; M.C. Shan, who's back with I Pioneered This from his Born To Be Wild LP; and Roxanne Shante, 'Loosey' of Rick James' Loosey's Rap track. Cold Chillin' Christmas also includes the rappin' debut of Fly Ty (a.k.a. Tyrone Williams, chairman of Cold Chillin' Records."
On some real nerd stuff, I'm thinking Fly Ty's rapping debut was on Pumpkin's Here Comes that Beat! as part of the Profile All-Stars.
More importantly, Winter Warnerland contains various Pee-Wee Herman interludes:
Pee-Wee Herman- Christmas Medley-
Pee-Wee Herman- Don't Drink and Drive, Duh!-
Pee-Wee Herman- Pee-Wee Willbury ID-
It took me all day to finally find out that it was Papa D who left the CD on my chair. I should have known... he is the king of holiday hip hop. A week back he got me listening to his Profile Christmas Rap compilation cassette, something he breaks out every year in December and plays in his car all month. In the words of Main Flow on Street Pay, "What up, Papa Diesel?!"
I figured a lot of blogs will throw up the Cold Chillin' Christmas track if they haven't already, as a lot of people have been discovering it lately. So here's a little bonus audio of DJ Red Alert and Mr. Magic together on Hot 97 during a Christmas 1993 broadcast. Here, the two former radio rivals are giving each other much props:
Red: Y'all better tape this... this goes down in history!
Magic: Absolutely!
Red: Mr. Magic and Red Alert, together.
Magic: On the same radio station!
Red: At the same time!
Hot 97- Christmas 1993- Mr. Magic and Red Alert-
Red Alert also explains to Magic how they first met, which is a little fuzzy at first for Sir Juice. Awkarrrrd..? You be the judge!
Here's an Incredible video that I just recently caught on youtube. Looks like it was recently added, too. Thanks to Skratchworx for uploading this!
My personal highlight is the interview piece where Marley Marl is mentioning how Shante's Mom was making her do laundry during their attempts to record "Roxanne's Revenge."
Also we get some footage of a young Queen Latifah who is about to drop her debut record, "Princess of the Posse." What's up with 45 King's awkward hand gesture at 4:05? I can picture the people filming saying "act natural, like we're not even here."
Today I got a little inspired when I was checking out Fatlace Magazine and saw that once again they are killing it, scooping up all the Roxanne battle records known to mankind. It appears that they have almost completed their saga, which is extremely commendable when we're talking about vinyl and not MP3s. I figured now's the time for me to reach into my drawers... wait, that sounds a little questionable... reach into my archives and post up a couple goodies. To the Fatlace crew, you know I'll be hitting you up tonight, not on some "look what I got" shit, but more on some "let's hold hands and archive a saga" steeze. Scratch that, this miniscule contribution can't touch what they got. Here's the goods:
Roxanne Shante and Fly Ty Update From Studio 54- March 16, 1985
This one came off a Rap Attack (2nd WHBI era) tape dated March 16, 1985. Yeahhhh babay! I'm so happy this tape survived over the years. A young and (of course) confident Shante giving us the scoop on the evening alongside Fly Ty. Shante says "Studio 54, what a bore," but becomes a better sport when Ty asks her if she's having a good time.
"Yes I enjoyed it, you know they paid me to say that, right?"
Classic.
Starrlite- Watch Out Roxanne (Previously Unreleased... I think)-
I found this at the end of a Mr. Magic Rap Attack tape that came from Mr. Magic's personal collection, dated Wednesday, January 16, 1985. Starrlite used to run the Juice Crew fan club and taped a great deal of the tapes that Magic let me check out. If her voice sounds vaguely familiar, you are recognizing it from Force Desire's record, "Jazzy Keith," on which she rhymes. While the "Jazzy Keith" track was released as a Profile 12", it was also featured on the Street Sounds Hip Hop 18 compilation. "Watch Out Roxanne," however, I don't think ever saw the light of day.
So, check this out, as some added incentive to my Fatlace buddies, not that you need the added motivation, but you know.... when you complete the saga, I got a couple more very rare Shante goodies that I'll put up on the blog. Hopefully you'll appreciate them as much as I do, but I don't want to get you guys too amped for something that ain't worthy. Word.
One more thing- in regards to the Elease the Original Roxanne "The Real Deal" record up on Fatlace. While I'm not familiar with that record, here's Elease's story as I understand it. Forgive me if I'm stating the obvious here or am blatantly wrong. Elease Jack was the first The Real Roxanne. She is the female emcee rapping on the Select Records Roxanne with UTFO record "The Real Roxanne." At the age of 14 she met B-Fine of Full Force outside of The Funhouse which led to the creation of "The Real Roxanne" record. Since Jack was so young, I have been told that label relations with Select fell through quickly, and as a result, Full Force reached out to another female performer, Adelaida Martinez, to become The Real Roxanne.
UTFO, Full Force, and the Martinez would then film the video for “Roxanne Roxanne,” with Martinez appearing in the video as the object of the group’s affection. Martinez is the lady who went on to have future singles and albums as The Real Roxanne (Bang Zoom, self titled LP, Go Down But Don't Bite It, etc). Keep in mind some of my story is sparse and pieced together through myspace claims, so I could have just flexed false knowledge. Let's hope not! Fatlace, SchoOoOooOl me!
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
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
