Spaced Invaders

I picked up this while browsing through the turntable lab website. I have to admit that this has been my guilty pleasure listen of 2008. I would sneak tracks of “The Bake Sale” into my sets and watch the crowd go nuts. Most of them didn’t know who it was, which made it even better! I have to admit that I did not hear a single radio station around the area drop a single track from this album, nor did any City Paper review. This album seems to me that it was one of the more over-looked albums of last year.

From day to day it gets more and more difficult to find real hip hop elements in today’s rap music. For the most part lyrics help. While there are plenty of artists that won’t rap about bitches, bling, guns, and violence many of them don’t have the means to. With bitches, bling, guns and violence off the list many of them rap about how they’re never going to rap about bitches, bling, guns and violence. As if they deserve some sort of metal for not killing anyone. The Cool Kids take a different approach to that and seemingly sum themselves up in the first few minutes of the album by stating, “Come check the noise, it’s the new black version of the Beastie Boys.”

Now hearing that lyric, and being a huge Beastie Boys fan, I guess I should be thinking. “How dare they have the gonads to say something like that.” Actually, that lyric got me to pay attention to the rest of the album. I am very happy that I did. These guys really are paying homage to the golden days of rap and do a good job at making the ideas of that time relevant with today’s music scene. Each tune is relatively catchy with good party rhymes. No lyrics about bling, no lyrics about Bentleys, none of that stuff. After listening to the intros to tracks on the album I feel like getting my white ass on the dance floor.

However, I do have to be a purist and say that there is very little funk and soul sampling in this album and that they have no DJs that they are rhyming for. Which stops this album from being a 10 for me. The reason for this is that they are paying homage to the golden age of rap in nearly every track on this album, but they excluded a main element of Hip Hop. So it’s almost like they are talking the talk but not walking the walk.

Don’t let that stop you from adding this album to your collection though. If you want a good party album, this is a good choice. DJs if you aren’t dropping tracks from this already, you need to be up on this level. The tracks are solid.

Track Listing:
1. What Up Man
2. One Two
3. Mikey Rocks
4. 88
5. What It Is
6. Black Mags
7. A Little Bit Cooler
8. Gold And A Pager
9. Bassment Party
10. Jingling

 

 Kool Kids - 88: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I was going through some old funk albums this weekend, looking for the perfect beat as usual, and I ran across this old gem that I semi-forgot how some of the tracks sounded. So, I loaded it up on the decks and took a listen. From what I understand Kool and the Gang’s self released album was an unexpected success. After listening to their first single on the album, also self titled, it’s not hard to understand why this album was a success. The single climbed both pop and R&B charts at the time, reaching #19 on the R&B and #59 on the pop. Subsequent singles “The Gang’s Back Again,” “Let the Music Take Your Mind,” and “Funky Man,” followed and moved steadily up the charts. However, there were still many notable tracks such as “Raw Hamburger,” and “Chocolate Buttermilk.” This record is a total ruckus to listen to and contains the trademark styles of the band before the late disco era: smooth melodies, brassy horns, and funky-as-all-hell drumming. This album has stood up to the test of time and has been sampled by many early rap artists and is considered a classic in the eyes of the stoic vinyl collector and breaks from this album still surface in b-boy competitions across the world. I have listed the artists that sampled from this album below:

Song: Give it Up
A Tribe Called Quest - “Scenario”
Beastie Boys - “Professor Booty”
Compton’s Most Wanted - “Compton 4 Life”
Cypress Hill - “The Phuncky Feel One”
Deee-Lite - “Deee-Lite Theme”
Eric B and Rakim - “Don’t Sweat the Technique”
GangStarr - “Take a Rest”
Greg Osby - “3-D Lifestyles”
Lionrock - “Morning Will Come When I’m Not Ready”
MC Brains - “Everybody’s Talkin’ about MC Brains”
NWA - “Real Niggaz”
Organized Konfusion - “Intro”
Uptown - “Dope on Plastic”
X-Clan - “Shaft’s Big Score”

Song: Chocolate Buttermilk
Chubb Rock - “The Night Scene”
Eric B and Rakim - “Keep ‘em Eager to Listen”
Eric B and Rakim - “No Omega”
Heavy D - “Let it Flow”
Marley Marl - “Simon Says”
Masta Ace - “Simon Says”
Pete Rock & CL Smooth - “Straighten it Out”
Special Ed - “Ready 2 Attack”
SL2 - “On A Ragga Tip”
Stetsasonic - “The Hip Hop Band”
Style - “Set the Mood”
YBT - “Proud to Be Black”

Song: Let the Music Take Your Mind
Beastie Boys - “Lay it on Me”
Boss - “Process of Elimination”
Ice Cube - “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted”
Ice T - “Freedom of Speech”
Jungle Brothers - “What’s Going On?”
Ultramagnetic MCs - “MC Champion”

Song: Breeze & Soul
Dr. Octagon - “Bear Witness”
Jimmy Jay - “Les Cool Session”

 

 Kool & the Gang - Chocolate Buttermilk: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download