Friday 20 July 2012

Olympics London 2012


"Damn Spit. Writes his name on everything!"

Thursday 19 July 2012

R.I.P. Ms Melodie


Ms. Melodie
, ex-wife of KRS-ONE and a prominent member of the Boogie Down Productions crew, passed away yesterday according to numerous news sources. The cause of death hasn't been announced yet and details are still sketchy.
Ramona Parker - her real name - was only 43 which is just no age to go. Although I wasn't a big Melodie fan I know she could certainly kick a verse on the classic Stop The Violence Movement joint, 'Self-Destruction' back in 1989.

I'm Ms. Melodie and I'm a born again rebel
The violence in rap must cease and seckle
If we want to develop and grow to another level
We can't be guinea pigs for the devil
The enemy knows, they're no fools
Because everyone knows that hip-hop rules
So we gotta get a grip and grab what's wrong
The opposition is weak and rap is strong


Condolences to her two sons who she leaves behind.

What's going on with hip hop and death these past couple of years?

ABU! Guest Spot On The Hip Hop Sessions


Apologies first of all as I realise I was a bit of a tool the other day.
I very fortunately had a guest dj spot on The Hip Hop Sessions show with DJ Just-1 the other day playing live on Future Radio.
And like a pee-narse I only announced it via Facebook. Not here. On the blog. Like I should've done.
So a big, big sorry from me if you didn't manage to catch it live on the night.

Just-1 played a great selection of classics mixed up with some more obscure cuts for the first hour. I came on for the second half with my record bag bulging with a selection of tunes that Mike Allen might've played during his stay on Capital Radio.

The Hip Hop Sessions with DJ Just-1 on Future Radio - REPO136 Ageing B-Boys Unite! Guest DJ.
www.futureradio.co.uk every Tuesday 10pm - Midnight.
This session was broadcast on 17 July 2012.

JUST-1

01  T La Rock & Jazzy J - It's Yours
02  Eric B & Rakim - My Melody
03  Salt n Pepa - I Desire
04  Stetsasonic - Bust That Groove
05  Almighty LC - We Have Risen
06  Zee Rocks the Copy - Speed Up A Little Faster  

07  Above The Law - Murder Rap
08  Another One For You To Envy - Life Is Like A Night Commercial
09  Gang Starr - Code Of The Streets
10  Peanut Butter Wolf & Charizma - Red Light, Green Light
11  The Pharcyde - On The Downlow
12  The Beatnuts - Fluid
13  Lord Finesse - Hip To The Game



REPO

01  Malcolm X - No Sellout
02  Masterdon Committee - Get Off My Tip
03  Krush Groove AllStars - Krush Groovin'
04  Mantronix - Mega Mix 1
05  Rock Hill - Rock The Beat

06  Whirlwind D & Waxer - Strong (from the WD-40 EP)
07  The Russell Brothers - Party Scene
08  The Super Kids - The Tragedy (Don't Do It)
09  The Invasions - Roxanne's Man
10  NYC Cutter - DJ Cuttin
11  Kid Frost - Rough Cut




Friday 13 July 2012

Baby Love RSC

We all remember the female member of Rock Steady Crew - b-girl, Baby Love. Yes?
I found these pics some time back but neglected to post them and am relieved to report that she hasn't turned into a munter as some ladies from the scene have sadly become.
I'd hate to see what Sparky D looks like now *shudder*

L-R: Candy, Beta, Baby Love

Look out. Duck-face...INCOMING!
L-R: Vicky, Lady Champ, Baby Love




Baby Love (real name Daisy Castro) is now approximately 43 years old and has settled in Atlanta with two kids.
There was once a rumour that she broke her neck and died whilst performing a headspin. Hmmmm.
For those inclined among you, her Facebook page is here.
I don't care what you think, I still reckon 'Hey You (The Rock Steady Crew)' is DOPE. Yeah, it has singing in the verses by the other members of the group which most certainly contains a high level of cheese but that's what gives it it's charm!


Also check this page for a great read of a reprinted magazine article about the RSC in 1984. I liked the quote from the disgruntled, classically-trained traditional dancer, Alexis, who says

"Breakers are taking jobs away form professional dancers. The trade journals Variety and Show Business, advertise for breakers to act in commercials, films, plays. We can't wait until the whole thing passes over.
I went to audition for a movie the other day, where there was a call for dancers. They (the breakers) took some of the spots away from us. I don' really resent it, though, because I know it's just a passing fad."

She was almost right. Commercially at least.


Saturday 7 July 2012

Mike Allen T-Shirts Now Available



  
As I mentioned during the recent ABU! show, LG of Style Warrior Designs has now got some Mike Allen t-shirts available.
You may have seen this design in a picture on Simmo's homage to Mike website (see right). It was apparently a badge probably given away to promote the radio show.

As always, LG's tees are only ever available for a limited time so you will need to get in there by 22nd July to secure your order.
Not only do you select your shirt size when ordering with Style Warrior but you can also choose the weight of the garment as well. Oooo, la-di-da! This is how the big boys roll!

Style Warrior will be making a donation to the Alzhiemers’ Society from the sale of the shirts, too.

For more details and to pre-order yours, get over to this link below and grab one now.





*Don't forget to ask about free shippin'

Friday 6 July 2012

ABU Disco Scratch Takeover Show - June 2012

It was one week late but I hope it was worth the wait.

Thanks to Waxer's bombardment of Facebook promo-plastering, there was a good amount of heads in the chat this week. Remember, tell a friend to tell a friend!

This month I introduced another new section showcasing the DJ in hip hop. This will be a monthly feature as it's important that we NEVER forget this integral part of the music. To paraphrase one of the kids from the BBC doc, The Lowdown, the dj is "the cassette, he is the backing track.....he's almost the real thing - but he's portable".

One of the best tracks for me was the Jorun Bombay remix of T LA Rock & Jazzy Jay's 'It's Yours". Jorun is heavy with the DWG crew and although living in Canada, still rocks - big shout to NOE ;-)

I also gave out news of an upcoming ABU! show - a retro special - however I think I may have been a bit over keen if I want to provide that for the next show which is in just 3 short weeks. Hey ho, we'll see. Stranger things have happened.

The Album Spotlight this month was sent in by Ian. He requested a couple of tunes from Def Defiance which are both barnstormers, believe! Word around the campfire is that the album may be getting a vinyl release this year as prior to now it was only available on cassette tape.

Thanks again for everyone who caught the show live on Disco Scratch Radio. The link to listen from here is available below. To save to your electronic listening device you must right-click and save on the link.

Tracklisting in the comments.

Goody gum drops.

REEPS


Wednesday 4 July 2012

The ABU! June Podcast.... It's Finally Here!



Tomorrow evening. One week later than scheduled.... ABU! is back in the house!
Yes, it's the 'Better Late Than Never, Norman-Free' Edition.

Be there @ 9pm (GMT) sharp!



Monday 2 July 2012

Back To Cause Mayhem

Well, what a strange turn of events.

Last Sunday my (external) hard drive crashed and dumped a ton of important files - mostly music-related. Regular visitors to ABU! will know this already so I won't bore you with the details.
After a week of slowly realising what I had actually lost and coming to terms with having to start again from scratch, I had some unbelievable help from you lot.

Logic Pro - from last month's Beastie Boys Tribute show
RUSEONE was quick off the mark and sent me a program to try and recover the lost files.  Sadly it was unsuccessful. However what it did do is recover the titles of each missing file so that I could see what exactly was missing. This could be misconstrued as a way of torturing myself - so near, but yet so far - but this was actually very helpful.

The reason being is that I had the finished June ABU Podcast done and pretty much dusted and although not accessible any longer, thanks to RUSE I could now see the bare bones of the songs used.

Quick lesson in the production of an ABU podcast:
I produce the ABU radio shows in Logic Pro which is a music program that allows me to paste mp3's in a linear fashion - I use mp3 files and also record stuff from vinyl - I then overdub my vocals at the end and tweak if needed.
Logic Pro keeps a folder of everything I use from songs to any movie dialogue or my drops all included in the project and RUSE's help enabled me to start the show again from scratch with the track names to guide me.

Now, exactly one week later I was in the Disco Scratch chatroom checking out SCENES14's show (Sundays 8pm) and was chatting to RUSE and soon, WAXER.
WAXER sent over another program for me to try and this time I was able to retrieve each and every file back safely.

RUSE sketch
What I'm slowly getting to is that the June ABU show will be broadcast THIS Thursday in all it's version 2 glory.
I could not have done it without the help of the ABU! crew. Special mention to RUSE and WAXER for sorting me out and also to everyone else who either commented or sent me emails of support - it has been duly noted.

Thank you all.


Needless to say this has been a tough lesson to learn and I am now backing up everything - TWICE. I'm slowly getting there. I'm glad in a way that this happened because I'm now in the process of getting everything in order - I have 4 external HD's to sort through.
Let this be a lesson to YOU too!

ABU Crew - You da man!
Peace.

Love and hugs,
Reeps

Sunday 1 July 2012

Street Sounds 30th Anniversary Event / Crucial 4

Just been reading an email from Street Sounds about their forthcoming Anniversary event and I have to say that it does look good.


The proposed date is Saturday 17th November 2012 however the venue is not yet confirmed. As much as I enjoyed The Scala at last year's Reunion I would say that the sound system left much to be desired. Being primarily a music event this would certainly have to be high on the list of priorities to get right.

The acts confirmed so far are actually pretty on the money as far as you'd expect from the Street Sounds label. Fatback Band, Leroy Burgess, Shannon, Davy DMX, DJ Cheese and Chad Jackson are on the bill at the time of writing with many more to follow.
I would personally love to see Davy DMX performing The DMX Will Rock being that it is one of my favourite songs of the Mike Allen era. Also - and this is just between you and me - I've heard a rumour that Cheese and Chad will be attempting a recreation of the DJ battle from those series of albums (on Champion Records, I believe) that featured a top UK and a US dj on the B-sides. Remember them? I'm sure CJ Mackintosh and Jazzy Jeff were on one of them.


Also news of the frankly, quite exciting upcoming release of CRUCIAL 4. Check out the artwork and you could quite believe that this was actually a postponed release from the late 1980's. There's some superb choices on there, too. Check this out.

  • Awesome Foursome “Monster Beat”
  • Dynamic Duo feat. Shaquan “Knights Of The Turntable”
  • Disco Four “Get Busy”
  • The Egyptian Lover “My House On The Nile”
  • Divine Sounds “What People Do For Money”
  • Jamie Jupitor “Computer Power”
  • Papa Austin With The Great Peso “Wrong Girls To Play With”
  • Marley Marl feat. MC Shan “Marley Marl Scratch”
  • Shantelle “Love Attack”
  • The World Class Wreckin Cru “Surgery”



I wasn't that enthused with any of the recent Nu Electro albums and firmly believe that Electro should stay where it was. Sadly the music has evolved and the stylings of that genre cannot continue in this day and age. Ironic really when you think about how futuristic and space-age a lot of the songs were about.

Crucial 4 will be released at the end of this month on the 30th. It should be available on vinyl, too although as always with any current SS release it will be LIMITED EDITION. Please don't start me off with my feelings on Street Sounds' marketing as I am feeling quite calm and happy on this particular Sunday afternoon.
I will just say that I wish the company would just for once stick to their ethos of love for the fans and treat them like human beings by allowing them to buy the music as they wish without forcing them to purchase the goods for fear of - shock - missing out.



SCENES14 Is Rocking The Radio


Tonight @8pm on Disco Scratch Radio - where hip hop lives!

The Blogcast #3. Be there!

http://discoscratch.co.uk/radio/
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The links to MP3 files provided in these posts are to be used for previewing only. AGEING B-BOYS UNITE ™ does not keep the files here, this Blog is merely a gateway, an Information Desk if you will, to point you in the right direction. Once downloaded, all files should be destroyed within 7 days.