The Roots - Illadelph Halflife

In 1993 while I was in New York shopping for audio cassettes, the colors black and white struck me with regards to the group.

I had never seen or heard anything about The Roots until I walked into that New York record store. In league with AC/DC, Prince and Metallica, I saw the Organix audio cassette. I was curious about it but didn’t press the issue.

Everyone around me was going nuts over Distortion to Static and I just wasn't on board. We'd watch the video and I wasn't moved as much as them. Some of my friends went looking for the 12" single and I again didn't feel it as strong. They'd have to do better than that.  

All that went out the window after I heard Illadelph Halflife. Once I got slapped in the face with Respond/React, What They Do, Clones and Concerto of a Desperado, I made sure I got a copy of Do You Want More. They got the answer in reverse. 

I guess what concerned me is the direction The Roots has gone over the last few albums. From Game Theory to Rising Down, they have gotten darker and barely recognizable as hip hop. Yet, I still want to hear whatever they put out.

Illadelph Halflife is one of those albums that take you back in time and you remember the glory days of hip hop. Thank goodness I learned my lesson before Dynamite on Things Fall Apart!

The Suite Delight new time slot is Tuesday morning 2-3am EST on www.ckut.ca & 90.3 FM.

If you haven't already, please make yourself familiar with the link below for more of your favorite show and mine.

Below are some podcasts to bring you up to speed.  Click here to download them and more.

The Suite Delight - March 11, 2014 Playlist:

1. The Roots - Proceed III feat. Bahamadia
2. Maestro - Stick To Your Vision
3. Classified - Quit While You're Ahead
4. Marco Polo - Back to Work feat. Artifacts
5. Moka Only - The Taste
6. DJ Format - The Place feat. Chali 2Na & Akil
7. Miles Jones - Coast to Coast feat. Kae Sun
8. Poor Righteous Teachers - Easy Star
9. Das Efx - Kaught In Da AK (Remix)
10. Zion I - We Got It
11. Dujeous - All M.C.'s
12. Substantial - That Damn Good
13. DL Incognito - The Masses

A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory

The Low End Theory is still my favorite of A Tribe Called Quest's discography.

For years I wondered what rating the album got from The Source magazine and I found out almost a decade later they ranked it one of hip hop's best.  



The album came at the end of the Afrocentric phase and presented the direction East Coast hip hop was going. 

The album contains Scenario, hip hop's greatest posse cut. Check the Rhime, Butter, Show Business and Jazz (We Got) are all waiting for you once you place the cassette, CD or vinyl in your sound system.

Speaking of those soon to be or already extinct media, I discovered that the track listing for each media changed from one to another. The tape order is different from the vinyl, the vinyl is different from the CD and the CD is different from the tape and vinyl. This once again is characteristic of the legendary and mysterious A Tribe Called Quest. They would repeat that element of surprise on Midnight Marauders where the photo order is different from one media to another.

The video for Jazz (We Got)/Buggin' Out is dangerously close to being my favorite hip hop video of all-time. 

A Tribe Called Quest was a pivotal crew that molded my musical knowledge and expectations of hip hop for years to come.

A Tribe Called Quest molded my musical knowledge and expectations of hip hop.

The group managed to distinguish themselves from De La Soul by being monumental to hip hop on their own terms.



The Low End Theory is still my favorite of A Tribe Called Quest’s discography.

I forget which of Tribe's albums got classic status in The Source Magazine, but I give it to The Low End Theory.

This album came at the end of the Afrocentric phase and presented the direction East Coast hip hop was going.



Scenario is hip hop's greatest posse cut.

I discovered that the track listing for each format varied from one to the other. The audio cassette order is different from the vinyl, the vinyl is different from the CD and the CD is different from the tape and vinyl. This once again is characteristic of the legendary and mysterious A Tribe Called Quest.



They would repeat that element of surprise on Midnight Marauders where the photo order is different from one format to another.

The Jazz (We Got)/Buggin' Out video is possibly still my favorite hip hop video of all time.

 

Charles Bradley

I missed Bradley’s Osheaga performance but good fortune found me in February 2012 when and I got to catch Charles Bradley & The Extraordinaires at the Corona Theatre.

It was my first time at the venue and it reminded me a lot of La Tulipe, where I saw Gilles Peterson & The Kills. The sound at Corona Theatre was fantastic and the sounds from the performers were even more so.

Backing band The Extraordinaires were tight and were warming up the audience as I walked in. The Corona crowd gave Bradley a welcome reception once he touched the stage. Bradley’s soul-soaked show kick started the weekend on all the right notes.

Bradley performed the majority of his album with a few extras, including covers of Clarence Carter’s Slip Away and Neil Young’s iconic Heart of Gold. The crowd was very appreciative of Bradley’s rendition of the song. The live version sounded not much different from the recorded one and that was a sign we were in the presence of seasoned, craftsmen musicians.

I was so thrilled to see and hear Bradley that I smiled throughout the show, especially when he screamed. I discovered recently Bradley is rightly dubbed The Screaming Eagle of Soul. Like James Brown and Wilson Pickett, Charles Bradley enters a prestigious list of soul men that I treasure to this day.

As I told a local record store staff member, Charles Bradley is best seen and heard live on stage.  The statement still stands now.

The Suite Delight new time slot is Tuesday morning 2-3am EST on www.ckut.ca & 90.3 FM.

If you haven't already, please make yourself familiar with the link below for more of your favorite show and mine.

Below is a podcast to bring you up to speed.  Click here to download it and more.

The Suite Delight - February 25, 2014 Playlist:

1. Ken Boothe - Moving Away
2. Aretha Franklin - Think
3. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - We Get Around
4. Quantic & Nickodemus - Mi Swing Es Tropical
5. DJ Center - In A Song (DJ Eleven Remix)
6. Second Sky - Under The Line
7. The Impressions - We're A Winner
8. Tall Black Guy - What's Good (James Brown I Feel Good Flip Up)
9. Resonators - Gold Dub
10. Sarah MK - Think Dat
11. Maylee Todd & Circle Research - Hooked
12. Charles Bradley - Heart of Gold
13. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Inspiration Information
14. Feist - Inside & Out
15. DJ Jazzy Jeff & Ayah - Make It Last
16. Lizz Wright - Old Man

I waited for Charles Bradley's No Time for Dreaming album since 2009 and have been playing it steadily upon its release.

The World (Is Going Up in Flames) proved to be one of the songs a live Charles Bradley crowd is eager to hear.

Wale

Wale represents a breed of new jack, modern lyricist that got me open when my ears and mind have been closed to hip hop for a while.



I wish he had less guest appearances on his debut but I don't fault him for who appeared on the album.

That also didn't take away from him being someone whose music I would check for.



Today. a young man I knew happened to have pulled up at the intersection of the street I was crossing.  He also happened to have had the new Wale album, The Gifted, in his hands.  
That was all the proof I needed to assure me I have a trip to my local record store in the very near future.



Attention Deficit showed promise for more to come and promised I'll be there for The Gifted.  I'm waiting for his third album all now.

The Suite Delight new time slot is Tuesday morning 2-3am EST on www.ckut.ca & 90.3 FM.

If you haven't already, please make yourself familiar with the link below for more of your favorite show and mine.

http://suitedelight.podomatic.com

Below is a podcast to bring you up to speed.  Click here to download it and more.

The Suite Delight - February 25, 2014 (2) Playlist:

1. Nas - It Ain't Hard To Tell (Large Professor Remix)
2. Diverse - Uprock
3. Jay Dee - Pause feat. Frank-N-Dank
4. Strong Arm Steady - Questions
5. Souls of Mischief - That's When Ya Lost (Remix)
6. Soul Khan - Knuckle Puck
7. Quasimoto - Rappcats, Pt. 3
8. Supastition - Yada Yada
9. Murs & 9th Wonder - Murs Day
10. Mobb Deep - Win or Lose
11. Wale - Um'Ricka feat. K'Naan
12. K-Solo - Letterman (Pete Rock Remix)
13. The Extremities - Cold Cheese
14. D-Sisive x Tone Mason – Maybe I Will feat. DJ Grouch

Traffic

When I was still a kid, I remembered some Rolling Stone compilation album showing vintage footage of a young Winwood singing Dear Mr. Fantasy but with no point of reference, I wouldn't understand the man singing about Mr. Fantasy and Higher Love were one and the same.



The playlist below represents the beginnings of my mixing mid-1960s to mid-1970s soul, rock, funk and pop music. The majority of the list were acts I was familiar with. The Bee Gees, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, George Clinton, David Bowie, Paul McCartney recorded music in the 80s when I learned of them but I had no point of reference for their material in the 1960s or 1970s.

Playlist for Sunday, December 17th 2006
1 Piece Of My Heart - Big Brother & Holding Company
2 Heart of Gold - Neil Young
3 Rock & Roll Crazies - Stephen Stills
4 Mambo Sun - T. Rex
5 I'll Bet You - The Jackson 5
6 Into My Own Thing - Sly & The Family Stone
7 To Love Somebody - The Chambers Brothers
8 Hyacinth House - The Doors
9 Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You - The Bee Gees
10 (I Know) I'm Losing You - Rare Earth
11 Reasons - John Mayall
12 Your Love's Been So Good To Me - Ruth Copeland
13 Politician - Cream
14 Hurdy Gurdy Man - Donovan
15 Funky Woman - Parliament
16 Lady Orange Peel - The Attack
17 My Way of Giving - Rod Stewart
18 They Say I'm Different - Betty Davis
19 I Got a Thing, You Got a Thing - Funkadelic
20 Black Country Rock - David Bowie
21 Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring - Traffic
22 Up on Cripple Creek - The Band
23 Your Time Is Gonna Come - Sandie Shaw
24 Gotta Get Away - The Flaming Ember
25 Don't Mess With Cupid - Buddy Miles Express
26 Jailhouse Rock - Jeff Beck Group
27 Mississippi Queen - Mountain
28 You Keep Me Hanging On - Vanilla Fudge
29 Shake, Shudder - Faces
30 Be Yourself - The Bar-Kays
31 Bluebird - Paul McCartney & Wings
32 I've Got To Get A Message To You - The Bee Gees
33 Hey Joe - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
34 Mother - John Lennon

I had not thought or heard of anything Winwood related prior to that December 2006 night.  I went into the record vault for vintage rock and soul records from the period mentioned prior and found the Traffic album from 1968. After a quick sampling of the songs, I chose Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring.

From the moment the song played until its end, I was stoked to find Traffic music and play more on my show.I naturally did both over the last 6 years. I quite possibly found The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, a grey covered John Barleycorn Must Die (Anniversary edition), Welcome To The Canteen, When The Eagle Flies, Shoot Out At The Fantasy Factory and Last Exit at a Plateau record store that is no longer.I picked up the 1968 album from one of my epic trips to WFMU Record Fair.The only Traffic album that seemed to have eluded me was their 1967 debut Mr. Fantasy.That issue finally got resolved in June.

If asked to choose a favorite I would have to choose the Traffic album from 1968.Ironically it is the best album with all four members, including Dave Mason. It makes me wonder what Mason’s input might have been if he recorded more music with the group.

I played a lot of Traffic music on my show to the point I retired them from my playlists.  If I continued to play off their catalog, their music would lose lustre for future listening and I didn't want to lose any of that magic. When Traffic songs re-appear on my show playlists, it would have meant I couldn't have gone any longer without hearing them.

I was really impressed with the Smiling Phases 2CD collection.

I played it non-stop for months until I retired it.

The first disc deals with the 1967-1969 Traffic I know well and love.

I barely to rarely touched the second disc because the songs were longer and did not move me as much.

Anyone that knows me knows I don’t like lengthy songs unless they are serving a particular purpose.



Their jam band direction after 1970 loses me but Empty Pages and the live Gimme Some Lovin’ from Canteen are standouts.

Freda Payne - Contact

I once had the chance to buy Freda Payne's Contact album on vinyl for about a month.

I was not happy to see its accompanying price tag. 

All of the winning conditions are there for me.  It is a rare soul record by a beautiful vocalist that I would love to spin on the show whenever I can do so. 

 

The Contact album on vinyl costed nearly double than what I paid to have the 2CD compilation of all her music recorded on the Invictus label.  
It showed a lot of restraint for me to have not bought the album when I could have. I guess I should be proud of myself for that. It was the NOT having bought it and lining it up on my shelf that got to me.

Days after writing this, I found a copy of Freda Payne's Contact album on vinyl at another store for half of the price of the one that inspired this post. It seems I did in fact find the happy medium after all.

Tiga

I like the music I've heard of Tiga.





I liked his cover of Hot In Herre and was blown away by Beep Beep Beep.





Beep Beep Beep is one of the craziest, busiest and probably best dance songs to come out of Montreal.





Just when you think the song can't get any wilder, there's a part of the song that sounds like steel pan drums bursting through.  You can't ignore the song when it's played. You have to take notice.

Respect the Classics

There has been a wave of hip hop nostalgia sweeping social media. 

It started as early as we celebrated hip hop culture’s 50^th anniversary. 

In November 2013, people are remembering hearing A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders  masterpiece as well as Snoop Doggy Dogg & Wu-Tang Clan’s 1993 debut albums.

The wave of hip hop nostalgia has not bypassed me.  I ride that wave quite often because the current climate of hip hop can be considered low tide. 

Discovering that the Respect the Classics series would reissue classic hip hop albums was easily one of the best pieces of news I could hear. 

As my playlists can attest, I’ve always reached for hip hop classics throughout the years. 

Respect the Classics give me more ideas and options where revisiting hip hop classics is concerned. 

I’ll also get a second chance at owning some of these masterpiece classics on vinyl because they hardly ever to never show up in crate digging excursions. 

If I had the means or came up with the idea myself, I would have started a movement similar to Respect the Classics myself.  Thankfully the wheels are already in motion. 

It goes without saying that The Haul of Records blog will always respect the classics by making time for them on DJ setlists, playlists and here in text. 

Thank you once again to Respect the Classics, Giant Step and hip hop for making this post possible.

Please make yourself familiar with the link below for more.

http://suitedelight.podomatic.com

Below is a playlist to bring you up to speed.  Click here to download.

The Suite Delight 2014-02-04 Playlist:

1.       Onyx - Throw Ya Gunz

2.       LL Cool J - Rock The Bells

3.       Ludacris - Southern Hospitality

4.       EPMD - Brothers From Brentwood, Long Island

5.       Anonymous Twist feat. Roc 'C' – Suckas Still Trying To Front

6.       Eternia & MoSS ft. Joell Ortiz - Its Funny

7.       DMX - Ruff Ryders' Anthem

8.       Big Daddy Kane - Get Down

9.       King Jus & Fresh Kils - Cold World

10.   Ghettosocks - I Invented Everything feat. Jabba the Cutt

11.   Relic - Loud Enuff Ft. Moka Only

12.   Hezekiah - Fired Up ft. Talib Kweli & Bahamadia

13.   Master Ace - Music Man (Mic Master Mix)

14.   Mos Def - Revelations

15.   Cee & Dr. MaD - Another Day ft. Notion & Nox

Shindig

If your memory of The Flintstones is good, you remember that they somewhat spoofed Shindig. 1960s rock group The Beau Brummels performed their song Laugh Laugh.
Hanna Barbera's animation of the band and Shindig host Jimmy is uncanny and incredibly accurate.
The 1960s was indeed a great decade for music and television.
There were many programs a great combination were. For the longest time I thought American Bandstand was the only one of its kind
that I knew of until I learned otherwise.
A Montreal video store had a number of Shindig volumes for rent.
In retrospect, Shindig must not have lasted long if they were able to compile the performances on a few volumes.
Regardless of how long it was on the air, the program provided plenty of classic 1960s performances to peruse.
The soul music related volumes were of immediate inters test to me and thanks to YouTube I can catch up on the performances I may have missed.

Nipsey Russell

I have the rapper Nipsey Hustle to thank for this post. I should check out his music one of these days.

After the seeing the rapper’s name somewhere, it got me to think about the comedian.

I am old enough to say that my earliest knowledge of Nipsey Russell was from seeing him play The Tin Man in The Wiz with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. As a child, I thought that Nipsey Russell must have been around a long time for them to cast him in the movie. He was older than Michael Jackson and possibly Diana Ross. That was as far as I went with regards to Nipsey Russell.



In the 1980s not too long after having seen The Wiz, Russell would appear on game shows with celebrities. I thought that Nipsey Russell must have been around for a long time for the show producers to feature him on their program.

While digging in the crates, I came across two of Nipsey Russell’s comedy albums. That was my proof indeed that Russell had been performing for a great while longer than I had imagined as a child.

I had never seen or heard any of Nipsey Rusell’s standup until 2012. YouTube provides many vintage clips of his performances and Dean Martin Celebrity Roast appearances.

I Used To Read Word Up Magazine

I stated in an earlier article that my formal and hip hop education were simultaneous. I went from Walk This Way to Walk like a Duck in about six years. Being an energetic, eccentric and excited teen about hip hop, I wanted to surround myself in it, literally. I was in an era where hip hop & R&B magazines were published and for the most part, they were reputable. I took them to be the highest form of journalism back then. Even the photos were National Geographic quality to me. Unlike others who had older siblings for them the learn about music or dances from, I learned the stuff on my own. Magazines, and to a lesser extent videos, helped me along the way.

I’m not sure if the kids of today are as excited as I was to get the newest issues of Right On!, Black Beat, Word Up!, Rap Masters and The Source. Black Beat & Right On! never seemed to cross my path as often as Word Up! or Rap Masters but I checked for them when I could.

Word Up! & Rap Masters were my Rolling Stone magazine. They were packed with posters, crazy with contests and bursting with info on the latest beats. The focus of Word Up! was the R&B artists and Rap Masters dealt with indeed with mid 80s to early 90s hip hop. They were published by Kate Ferguson and I was thankful to her for that.















As young as I was, I didn’t think about planning or coordinating a schedule to know when Word Up! or Rap Masters would be on the shelves. I’d just visit the local mall every week or two and peep for the words Word Up! or Rap Masters among the mags, buy it on the spot if I had the dough, ask the lady to put it aside for me until I had the dough, bring it home, undo the staples in the middle to extract the posters and then re-assemble the poster-less mag to read it. I won’t get into the poster procedure. Some things that go on in a teenager’s room are just private. I’ll say this though. Ever heard of wall to wall carpet? The way I covered my room in posters was literally off the wall at times.

The contests! I entered any and every contest I could. Back then, you had to mail the form from the magazine. I was so hungry to win stuff that I’d even enter contests after the deadline. I’ll never forget the day the postman arrived at my house with a large squared package. I think my love for receiving music in the mail was born that day. The package was addressed to me, of course, and I opened it to see The Alliance's We Could Get Used to This in my hands. I had forgotten it was one of the contests I entered. I play that record on my show up to this day. I’ve never seen that record anywhere. I also won Def Jef’s Poet with Soul audio cassette and 3 Rap Masters t-shirts. I’ve been lucky with contests in my life but I’m convinced they decided to send me some things because I was always entering their contests. Regardless of the case, Kate Ferguson was my lady luck.

As I got older, I wanted my hip hop magazines to have a bit more journalistic quality. Vibe and The Source did that for me for most of the 1990s. I had a Vibe Magazine subscription and remembered receiving the iconic issue with Notorious B.I.G. & Puff Daddy on the cover.

The Source, however, was the source. If an album got 3-4.5/5 mics, you took it. If you loved the artist or album, you burned inside because it didn’t get the full credit you felt it deserved. You still had to respect them for their decision though.

The covers and articles were spot on and even had credibility to spare. Within the last decade, my mentioning The Source, purchasing a Source Magazine or the intention to purchase a Source Magazine has met with ridicule from some of my peers. What a fall from grace. I’ve bought about three Source Magazine issues in that time. I got the one with LL Cool J holding 5 mics on the cover, another one talking about hip hop’s poor record sales of recent and some anniversary issue packed with pictures.

Thankfully, for record connoisseurs and collectors, there’s Waxpoetics Magazine. I look forward to it every two months and have a secret aim to collect all the issues I’m missing somehow someway. I don’t read many magazines but Waxpoetics is one I live by. You can learn more about the golden era hip hop artists & albums, learn about the music & artists sampled and even be up to date on the current music scene. It provides me so many ideas for my radio show and I can’t state enough how glad I am for it.

Before I sign out, I want to thank all the magazines past and present that shaped our lives.