Sly & The Family Stone ‎– There's A Riot Goin' On (1971)

Sly & The Family Stone may thank us for letting them be themselves again, but I thank them for the funky music they recorded.





 




When I started buying non hip-hop CDs in the late 90s, I sought a lot of the soul and funky music I heard when I was growing up.

 

One of the first two funk CDs I ever bought outside of a Motown artist was Anthology by Sly & The Family Stone. I paid what I consider to be a great deal for them at the time from Marche Du Disque.  However, this happened over 10 years ago. I was starting my trek for tunes and didn't know any better.  I've since forgiven the store.  

At the 48th Grammy Awards, Sly Stone, to the surprise of those that were performing with him and watching, left the stage before the song was over. 

I was not happy that he left the stage so abruptly but was happy to have seen and heard a little from him.




It might be unknown to many but Sly Stone was a disc jockey (notice what was just done there) in California prior to embarking on a recording career.



 I'm curious to hear what he and his radio show sounded like.  If the funk music he recorded was legendary, I would like to believe there are nuggets from the radio show for me to dig.

Africa - Music From Lil Brown (1968)

Labels like Harmless, Strut & BBE have been fantastic in putting together albums of mixed variety to further educate and entertain the listener.

 

I learned of a great cover of the Rolling Stones' Paint It Black by Africa through the Satisfaction compilation of cover songs.  The tempo is slower than the original but still moves you like the Stones' song.

The Africa album title bears a striking resemblance to an iconic album by The Band called Music From Big Pink.

The photo above is from the back of Africa's album so it is clear The Band had a heavy influence on these musicians.

Take a listen to one of the most organically funky Rolling Stones covers in existence.

Brand Nubian - Everything is Everything (1994)

The best thing that resulted from the Brand Nubian split was that there were numerous albums, remixes and guest appearances until the Foundation reunion.

Whether it was Sadat X adding flavor to a track or his own solo album, Grand Puba doing what he did best or discovering Lord Jamar’s productions, I was at least able to follow what the Brand Nubian members were doing post-breakup.

Brand Nubian lightened their tone a little on 1994’s Everything is Everything.

The duo are in especially fine form on Word is Bond.  The song made me wish I really was from New York when it was released.  Some things don't change even 20 years later.

The Suite Delight new time slot is Tuesday morning 1-2am EST on www.ckut.ca & 90.3 FM.

If you haven't already, please make yourself familiar with the links below for more of your favorite show and mine to bring you up to speed.

Feel free to request songs and artists below in the comments section below as well as on Twitter, Facebook.

Visit the Mixcloud page to listen and the Podomatic site to download them and more.

The Suite Delight - 2014-07-01 by Dj Solespin on Mixcloud

The Suite Delight - 2014-06-10 by Dj Solespin on Mixcloud

 

The Suite Delight - 2014-03-04 by Dj Solespin on Mixcloud

Daedelus

I've been waiting for a new Daedelus release for a good while.

His show at Montreal`s Le Belmont was one of my best concerts of that year.

I knew of Daedelus' name a few years ago but never heard the Love To Make Music To album. This was my night to know what he was about. Luckily I was able to photograph and capture the video footage you see.

What a night! That night was packed with a power line-up including Teebs, The Gaslamp Killer & Samiyam.

I was having a lot of fun watching Daedelus perform. The footage, meeting and eating with him and entourage at La Banquise afterwards will tide me over until my next chance to see him live.

What a perfect way to end a perfect night of DJing and live music.

Reflection Eternal (Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek) - Train of Thought

Talib Kweli & DJ Hi-Tek's debut is my personal favourite of his solo albums.

Train of Thought is epic excellence. 




In the same vein as Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth's full-length albums, it is rare to have a lengthy album with little to no weak cuts. 

I also noticed their choice of guest MCs is stellar.

Do Right Music

Everything I read or saw related to Do Right Music revolved around the label celebrating its 10th anniversary.

I couldn’t help but overhear some young woman on the bus talking about her upcoming Toronto trip to catch Gilles Peterson set. I managed to pick up on the fact she was talking about the Do Right Music party that I had just read about at that time. What she did not add in her conversation was that Peterson and Lefto were spinning in honor of Do Right Music’s decade celebration. My memories of Gilles Peterson’s last DJ set in Montreal are still vivid in my mind and I wished I could have been there in Toronto for the festivities.

Required Listening 2 was my first Do Right Music product. It ironically introduced me to The Souljazz Orchestra, the group I would see perform twice in 2012. I knew of a store that was selling Required Listening before I would require Required Listening. I saw it while browsing their CDs but with most compilations you are unaware of its material, you keep on moving.

It took my visiting the Do Right Music website to see what Required Listening looked like to realize that it was the CD I browsed past for months. I naturally bought the CD at my earliest convenience to the dismay of another local DJ/digger friend of mine. We shop at the same store.

My only Do Right Music vinyl to date is the Ivana Santilli Breathe Inn 12” single with the Moonstarr remix. I was very happy to have found that one.

I did a mini-tribute to John Kong on The Suite Delight by featuring some of his production and remixes of his work.

Congratulations to Do Right Music on achieving this milestone.
 

Chico Mann

Three is a magic number. They say never two without three. I wanted to catch Chico Mann's last CMJ set but couldn't. Believe me when I say I wasn't happy to hear that night was hot and I missed a great performance from him. I had a sense they'd put on a great show. I would have to wait for the next chance to catch a live Chico show.



I learned he had two Montreal shows not too long ago and was en route to see him. I arrived at La Sala Rosa after his set had finished. It was disappointing to learn I missed his performance. I was introduced to him near the end of the night and bought a vinyl copy of Analog Drift before heading home.



My last chance to see him was the Saturday night show at Café Campus. I finished my radio show and headed to the venue. I walked in to find him and the band onstage. The crowd was there to party and party they did. The peak of the night was when Chico Mann allowed the people on the dance floor to join them onstage. Even I accepted the gracious offer.



At the end of the night, I congratulated and thanked Chico Mann for a great show. Thankfully I didn't strike out three times where Chico Mann shows are concerned.

Word reaching me that Chico Mann will make another visit to Montreal will make me as happy as I was when I heard of his last album Magical Thinking release.

Artifacts

Artifacts were on my mind. The sun will still shine. Artifacts were on my mind.

You should already know, or will know, that I write about hip hop with a nostalgic, analytical and critical tone. Around 1996-2001, I became disillusioned about my precious hip hop. I wasn't impressed with some albums, directions artists were taking and a few other things got to me. I was sad to hear Artifacts broke up after their second album. That news came about at what I thought was the worst time.

I knew about Artifacts as early as 1993 when I saw their name on a Nubian Crackers - Do You Wanna Hear It 12". I liked the song even though I knew nothing about the artists. I've heard it said that MCs are hungriest, literally in some cases and figuratively, just until the release of their first album. Not to downplay their work after 1993 but Artifacts were their most lyrically raw on that track.



As much as I hold their first album near and dear to me, That's Them didn't move me as much. I understood the production was varied but the imprint of Between a Rock and a Hard Place was firmly planted in my psyche and it took me years to remove from my CD want list! However, I will say that The Ultimate is exactly that for me.



A friend of mine told me that Artifacts reunited at either a recent Rock the Bells or Rock Steady Reunion. I wished I was there to have seen that and to be part of the crowd`s reaction. I probably would've lost my voice yelling in joy.



I won't raise my voice in telling you that Artifacts were one of my most respected groups. These paragraphs of praise did that for me. With them broken up and the state of hip hop nowadays, I definitely feel caught between a rock and a hard place. Luckily we have a great piece of recorded hip hop from a great group to help us get by.



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

D-Shade

D-Shade was an opening act for Under Pressure special guests Smif-N-Wessun at Les Foufounes Electriques.

D-Shade’s debut CD, The Water Principle, was one of the best hip hop albums I heard for that year and I was looking forward to seeing him perform live on Under Pressure night.

Years ago, he would have been an opening act as part of Montreal’s hip hop supergroup Shades of Culture.

Just as The Water Principle was placed on my year-end Best of Albums list, Roll With Us has a slot reserved for itself on my Hip Hop Singles of the year list when the time is right.

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 the CKUT Funding Drive playlist to bring you up to speed.  Click here to download other archived episodes.
 

Playlist:

1. Salt-N-Pepa – Get Up Everybody
2. DJ Kayslay – Untouchables feat. Prodigy & Raekwon
3. D-Shade - The World We're In 2 (Simahlak Mix) feat. Buckshot And Blurum 13
4. Kanye West - Classic (DJ Premier Remix)featuring Nas, KRS-One and Rakim
5. EPMD – The Big Payback
6. Diamond & The Psychotic Neurotics - A Day In The Life featuring Sadat X & Lord Jamar 
7. Masta Ace and Edo G - Good Music featuring Posdnuos & Light
8. The Beatnuts – Se A Cabo (Remix) featuring Method Man
9. Shad + Skratch Bastid – Homie featuring Cadence Weapon

Artifacts - Between a Rock and a Hard Place

When nearly everything released in 1994 was hot, Artifacts released Between a Rock and a Hard Place and things were right with the hip hop world.

What more can I say about Wrong Side of the Tracks, C'Mon Wit Da Come On, Lower Da Boom or Dynamite Soul that hasn't been said before?

I was East Coast hip hop all the way and these Jersey Boys got my attention big time.

I respected their graffiti background because it was one of the hip hop elements I barely to never fully explored.



The production of their first album was varied. The imprint of Between a Rock and a Hard Place was firmly planted in my psyche and it took me years to remove from my CD want list!

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 playlists of 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

The Mighty Pope

Like the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, Donna Summer’s Bad Girls, and Kool & The Gang’s As One, The Mighty Pope’s album was one I remember seeing the most as a child.

I didn’t care much about the contents of the album at the time because I had not yet been aware or cared about popular music. 

I believe I browsed passed that Mighty Pope album many times while digging in the crates but again gave it little thought because I knew none of the songs.

George Strombolopolous had a Christmas special and The Mighty Pope was among the performing guests.  His backing band was The Sadies.  During the brief interview, The Mighty Pope spoke a little about his early days in Canada.

By the time I inherited the record collection containing that same Mighty Pope album, I was ready to use the contents of the album to its optimum use.  With tracks produced by Gino Soccio and backing vocals by members of Toulouse, I knew the album would come in handy on my radio show.

The Mighty Pope’s album represents some of the finest disco music the country has produced.  Sway is a personal favorite and I faintly remember hearing that song at parties when I was a child.  The Patti Smith cover of Because The Night is a surprise.  Lastly, the disco-driven cover of Iron Butterfly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is also interesting.

The Jamaica To Toronto compilation has an early 1970s funk song called Mr. Fortune on it by The Hitch-Hikers featuring The Mighty Pope.  I practically bought the CD for that song alone.



I recently learned The Mighty Pope is a featured collaborator on the debut album of Sureshot Symphony Solution.  I look forward to hearing that song and possibly playing it on The Suite Delight show.

Black Moon

Who Got The Props is one of the most definitive early 90s East Coast hip hop tracks. It has set off or capped off a party in its day and will continue to do so for decades to come. However, there isn't much partying to be done on the rest of Enta Da Stage.

As I was walking home one night thinking about Black Moon, the darkness of the night clued me in on the album's vibe. 



Released in 1993, Enta Da Stage is not only one of New York's underground hip hop classics but possibly the pre-cursor to the Horrorcore phase endured from 1993-1994. Wu-Tang Clan's 36 Chambers may have been the most visible but Black Moon's Stage may have been set beforehand.

Nearly everything about the album is dark. The group name had no optimistic, Afrocentric inclinations of 1989-1991 hip hop. 

The sound quality of Enta Da Stage, and even Da Shinin' (1994-1995), was unlike any hip hop album as well. There was nothing crisp or shiny in its sound. The samples and production were so raw that the singles had to be remixed to be marketed as singles.

A few years ago, it was easier to scoop up classic, or soon-to-be classic, hip hop CDs in Montreal stores. The Black Moon debut is one of those CDs any self-respecting hip hop fan must have in their collection. I'm grateful to the Bootcamp Clik for the classics they recorded. One listen of Enta Da Stage and you will be too.

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 the 2013 CKUT Funding Drive podcast to bring you up to speed.  Click here to download it and more.

The Suite Delight - April 8 2014 Playlist:

1. Big L - Put It On feat. Kid Capri
2. Common - Resurrection
3. O.C. - Time's Up
4. Big Pun - Super Lyrical feat. Black Thought
5. 2Pac - Ambitionz of a Ridah
6. Jay-Z - This Can't Be Life feat. Scarface
7. Gang Starr - Just To Get A Rep
8. Nice & Smooth - Early To Rise
9. The Beatnuts - Off The Books
10. Cypress Hill - Hits From The Bong
11. Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - Mecca & The Soul Brother
12. Black Moon - I Got Cha Opin
13. Smif-N-Wessun - Bucktown
14. Nas - The World Is Yours (Remix)

Playlist:

1. Salt-N-Pepa – Get Up Everybody
2. DJ Kayslay – Untouchables feat. Prodigy & Raekwon
3. D-Shade - The World We're In 2(Simahlak Mix) feat. Buckshot And Blurum 13
4. Kanye West - Classic (DJ Premier Remix)featuring Nas, KRS-One and Rakim
5. EPMD – The Big Payback
6. Diamond & The Psychotic Neurotics - A Day In The Life featuring Sadat X & Lord Jamar 
7. Masta Ace and Edo G - Good Music featuring Posdnuos & Light
8. The Beatnuts – Se A Cabo (Remix) featuring Method Man
9. Shad + Skratch Bastid – Homie featuring Cadence Weapon

DJ Format

This is an ideal time to write about DJ Format.

Surprisingly, I had not blogged about DJ Format before now but have surely mentioned him within the last six years.

Similar to DJ Andy Smith's The Document, I would say DJ Format is partly responsible for rejuvenating my interest in hip hop music.

A purchase of A Right Earful (Volume 1) from a Plateau record store that was going out of business would be the origin. Most of the artists on the track listing were familiar to me, as were the songs, and I believed the CD would be a great listening experience in the same vein as The Document. 



I would later learn more about Abdominal and D-Sisive through their work with DJ Format. Both MCs feature heavily on Music for the Mature B-Boy & If You Can't Join 'Em... Beat 'Em. Their tracks together quickly made their way onto my show playlists.



At the rate I was going, I was well on my way to playing every DJ Format track I had on my show. My two-year, CMJ award-nominated and winning stint as RPM Director for the station forced me to stop blazing DJ Format beats and start exploring electronic music which was new to me at the time. Imagine my surprise when I learned who The Simonsound were! History was going to repeat itself.



The more things change, the more they stay the same. Rest assured that DJ Format tracks, unplayed from the two previous albums as well as from the new release, will find themselves on The Suite Delight playlists shortly.

Like Andy Smith and Gilles Peterson, DJ Format represents what I want to do and be as far as DJing is concerned. I may never make a beat but I will play DJ Format's music at any chance. I learned about him after his releases but the way I've been playing him on my show puts me right on time.

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.

Click here to download the podcast and more.

The Suite Delight - March 18 Playlist:

1.       aKido –  I'm Beggin' (aKido's When I was King Remix)

2.       Thievery Corporation - Until the Morning (Rewound By Thievery Corporation)

3.       Seed Organization – Bam Bam (Riddim) feat. Sister Nancy

4.       Elaquent  - Aurora feat. Esta

5.       DJ Format – Black Cloud (Nostalgia 77 Remix)

6.       Si*Sé  – Go (Second Sky & Thomas Blondet Remix)

7.       DJ Cosm – No Reason feat. Ghettosocks & Prince Po

8.       Prince Po – Bump Bump feat. Raekwon

9.       Redman – Time 4 Sum Aksion (Remix)

10.   Percee P – No Time For Jokes feat. Chali 2na

11.   DJ Muggs vs. GZA – General Principles

12.   DJ Muggs & Planet Asia – Thriple Threat feat. GZA & Chace Infinite

13.   DJ Vadim – Raise Your Glass

14.   D-Nice – Time To Flow feat. Naughty By Nature

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