DJ BRAWNY

Hip Hop 100 #76 The Jungle Brothers- Straight Out the Jungle

The JB’s are hip hop in its purest form, and to be honest it took me some time to realize that.  With Tribe and De La pushing intellectual content and some tricky syllable flipping into their records, when I first heard the JB’s, of course expecting them to be like Tribe, I thought it was “simple.”  This is embarrassing to admit.  

The Kissing My Love breakbeat is so real, those kicks and snares rival Impeach the President for the hip hop nitty gritty.  Sammy B the DJ and soundsystem doesn’t just frown and nod his head behind the turntable baby scratching, leaving us to ask “what does that guy do, anyway?”  The JBs jams are typically bare bones affairs that could largely be recreated on two, maybe three turntables.  They rely not on effects and layers, rather they put all their chips on the power of a fresh beat getting juggled by a DJ with real skills, laced with dope scratching.  He’s a DJ in the mold of Theodore and Flash.  

And everything Afrika Baby Bam and Mike G say rides the beat with energy and panache. (make sure my rhyme goes along with the groove)  It’s not to say these guys aren’t topical, they very much carried the torch of the Zulu nation and rapped about positivity and keeping your head up through adversity.  Put Straight Out the Jungle in your walkman and you’ll be elevated, it’s straight joyful music.  These guys are old school MC’s though in that the first priority is to build energy with the sound, tone, and flow of the voice working with the beat.  

Afrika Baby Bam’s name of course is a direct tribute to the founder of the Universal Zulu Nation Afrika Bambaataa, Mike G is Dj Red Alert’s nephew, and the dudes went to high school with Q Tip.  They are the nexus connecting the old to the new school.  And this song is just dope.  Find some good speakers and the 12” and you’ll really hear what I’m talking about. 

Hip Hop 100 # 78 UMC’s- One To Grow On

At the count of three, let’s hear the UMC’s cheer.

One of these days I’m going to throw a dance party where this kills it at peak hour.  Then, I’ll pack up my TTs and call it a career and walk away satisfied.  This is 91- and if you’ve been following my narrative threads, you know what’s going on here- it’s based off one primary loop, a blue note jazz tune no less, with the kicks and snares enhanced and a really sweet bridge.  The lyrics are very native tongue, and looking at these elements on paper, I guess you could call it unremarkable compared to the similar stuff De La and the JBs were doing three years prior.  For me though it all comes together so perfectly in this single, and, again, that sweet bridge.  I just want to see a room jump to that.  

And I don’t know what to tell you about the vaguely science fiction half baked high concept video except it’s like the robert palmer girls heard that bridge and become inspired to imitate the fly girls.  It’s pretty fun.  

Hip Hop 100, #80 Digable Planets- 9th Wonder

Since Blowout Comb came out in ‘94, I’ve been hollerin to anyone who will listen that it is a massively under-appreciated classic album.  And while it certainly doesn’t hold the public esteem (or even acknowledgment) of albums like Hard To Earn and Midnight Marauders, I feel like by now the heads know that this record is the real damn deal.  It is an epic classic, not unlike those old Stevie records, with a innovative production that masters and builds off the techniques of the era (jazz and funk sampling, thoughtful, mission-oriented lyricism) and then builds past them for a record that I’ve been peeling back the layers on for well over a decade.  It’s like what Jazzmatazz always wanted to be, a seamless and thoroughly enjoyable update on classic jazz and soul aesthetics in a completely contemporary way that draws from references yet stands on it’s own two.  Considering Blowout Comb, the recently lauded crazy innovation of Shabazz Palaces should come as no surprise, as it serves as a second act for the DP’s mastermind Butterfly/Ish/Ishmael Butler.  

9th wonder is the lead single, and encapsulates all the shit I talked about.  Without getting too cerebral about it, it just knocks, and- full disclosure- is one of my favorite jams.  I sneak it into my dj sets on the regular.

Hip Hop 100, #81 East Flatbush Project featuring Des- Tried By 12

This one came out in 96, and was even at the time kind of a throwback to the early 90s Black Moon-type style.  If it had come out in 91 no doubt it would have been on Electra or another major label; with that style having passed as a money-maker it ended up self released and later re-released by British electronic label Ninja Tune.  Shoot I kind of wanted to ignore the fact that Eminem’s Slaughterhouse cypher at the BET awards last year rapped to this beat, but it does further prove the point.  This is a classic jam.  

The producer, Spencer Bellamy, used to wach Howie the Hitman Tee producing classics like Special Ed’s I Got It Made in his basement.  His inner circle hip hop credentials are all boiled down into this one cut- pretty much his only hit, but what a hit it is.  This beat is legendary, but I’m not going to say that the beat is the whole story, because the lines by featured rapper Des are killer also.  I mean if you’re familiar with this track you probably can rattle off most the lines.  They, like the beat, thrive in a tension between laid back and aggressive, utilizing a whole bunch of nursery rhymes and aphorisms in the process.  

Hip Hop 100, #82 2Pac- If My Homie Calls

If you listen to the 1969 soul 45 Let a Woman Be a Woman and a Man Be a Man by Dyke and the Blazers and you cough you might miss the two bars of funk that become the drum track for this classic 2Pac joint.  A nice Herbie Hancock bass line layered over the top and this is 1991 at its finest as far as production.  

2Pac is so narrative, so urgent and gripping with his vocal and delivery that on a beat like this he just can’t miss.  A great song, so much more than bragging and boasting (not that I got anything against bragging and boasting) 2Pac tells a story of loyalty and of growing apart.  But if you just wanna do the running man to it, you could do that too.  

Hip Hop 100, #83 Kanye West- Jesus Walks

I really ain’t gotta tell you about this one, since it’s been on every best of list since it dropped.  But for me, Kanye represents the bridge between the mainstream and the underground, and that College Dropout album, whew, is loaded with production that would make Dilla proud, lyrics that Kweli would approve of, and jams good enough for Hot 97 and Roc-A-Fella.

No one has ever made another song anything like this.  Not only the subject matter, but the emotional build up, so fresh and epic.  This countdown is definitely weighted towards the forefathers of the 70’s 80’s and 90’s, and for that reason I suppose this one finds itself towards the bottom, but for folks who’d put this near the top of a list, I wouldn’t disagree with you.

Video: Phonte-The Good Fight (prod. 9th Wonder)

Looks like ‘Te had a solid few grand for a video budget for this, one of my favorite songs of ‘011.  I mean the video honestly is on some undergrad shit, but this song, with lines like

“everybody pray for the day they see the light, but the light at the end of the tunnel is a train”

is the goddamn jam.