Funky Friday is my continuing effort to start the weekend on “the good foot” for myself and anyone else bored enough to read this blog. Even though 75% of the vids from the last go-round being pulled less than one week after making the post, I’m going to take another stab at this.
Souls of Mischief – ’93 til infinity: A lot of people seem to dismiss the West Coast as nothing but brain-dead gangsta rap, but real music fans know better than that. You’d have to ignore people like the Coup, Erule, the Pharcyde, Del and the cats in this video. This brings back memories of hanging outside with my friends like Steve Skinner (R.I.P.), Terry Tyler and anybody else that was around when Steve brought that giant tape deck of his. This joint was always good Chill Tape material.
Gangstarr- Mass Appeal: Quite possibly one of my favorite Hip-Hop songs of all time from what’s definitely one of my favorite groups. It’s hard to choose a favorite from GangStarr, but this one seems to be in most fans’ Top Ten lists. For one, listen to that beat. At a time when lazy producers were looping things that people had heard boozillion times or ripping off classic Marley Marl beats, DJ Premiere pulled less than eight non-repeating seconds from an obscure jazz song’s keyboard solo and made a classic. When I say non-repeating, I mean that part only happens once in the entire song WAS NOT meant to be looped. Stuff like that is why so many Hip-Hop heads love Primo. Meanwhile, Guru threw down some lyrics about what had started getting on the true fans’ nerves. Mainstream Hip-Hop’s zombification had already begun where weak, idiotic lyrical content and those lazy beats I mentioned were taking over the radio. To add insult to injury, a lot of radio stations that wouldn’t play “Mass Appeal” would play it’s instrumental as they told you what pop song was coming up next. Just one of the many reasons that I still hate “Urban Radio” stations.
Method Man – Bring The Pain: I remember already still having my mind blown by Wu Tang’s first album when I first saw this video and how I damn near broke my neck nodding to the beat. That beat is just as “insane/crazy” as the lyrics. Listen to that “Mmm-mmmmmmmmmmm” vocal and the instruments that just lounge in the back. That’s the RZA being a mad scientist again. As usual, Method’s lyrics and delivery are perfect, but a reply on the YouTube.com page reminded me of something. After this video came hit, A lot of other rappers started moving just like that. Such is the power of Tical.
Main Source – Fakin’ the funk: So let’s close this Funkky Friday out with another song with “Funky” in the title. Another favorite group of mine with another prophetic song about commercialized rappers that still rings true. A lot of Main Source fans bought the “White Men Can’t Jump” soundtrack just for this hint at Main Source 2nd album. Unfortunately, the group broke up a while after this. Large Professor still went on to do good solo work and produce cuts for other artists including Nas, who debuted as a guest star on Main Source’s “Live at the BBQ” posse cut.
That’s it for today. Stay funky, party people!