Hip Hop's Most Funky Year - Revealed!!

I have a long, endearing love of breakbeats. And none more so than those found on the infamous Street Beat label, Ultimate Breaks And Beats. All 25 volumes*.

So I decided to have a look and just see which year, according to UB & B, was the most funkiest.

Well 1962 - 1965 have zipadeedoodah, but the earliest year is 1961 with The Monkees "Mary Mary" (which coincidentally was the first track on side A on the series' first volume).

The most recent track used was "Liquid, Liquid" by Cavern and this was 1983, believe it or not.

Suffice to say that if you wanted to make a funky piece of breakbeat coolness then you would be better off having gone in to a studio sometime around 1975 where you would have rubbed shoulders with some of the following:

UPP "Give It To You"
Dynamic Corvettes "Funky Music Is The Thing"
Johnny Hammond "Shifting Gears"
20th Century Steel Band "Heaven And Hell"
Banbarra "Shack Up"
Please "Sing A Simple Song"
Magic Disco Band "Scratchin'"
The Headhunters "God Make Me Funky"
Chicago Gangsters "Gangster Boogie"
Donald Byrd "Change"
Roy Ayers "Brother Green"
Grover Washington, Jr. "Mister Magic"
The Black Byrds "Rock Creek Park"
Lonnie Liston Smith "Expansions - Part 1"
Yes, 1975 is the funkiest year with no less than 22 breakbeats used on this series. In fact 1973 - 1976 were indeed the funkiest years altogether with the most breaks than any other years.
So if you are celebrating your 34th birthday this year then you may have a feeling that you possess the funk just that little bit more than anyone else. Me? I'm 4 years out, sheeeit.

*Yes, I know that a further volume, #26, has since come out but I'm discounting this one purely on the fact that it's too recent. And I STILL haven't got a copy yet. On ANY format!

And there are a few 'unofficial' ones out there too like 499, 500 and 508.

Anyway it's my game, my rules and my decision is final. So spin on it!

n.b. Since writing this I've noticed that Mary, Mary is incorrectly listed as 1961 when in fact it didn't come out until 1966.

Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force - Planet Rock The Album (1986)

Who's up for some original electro funk, then?

Bam's first (and arguably only decent) album compiled some of his best early work. And they're in 12" mixes as well. Well, all except Frantic Situation.

1 Planet Rock (Original Twelve Inch Version) 7:31

2 Looking for the Perfect Beat (Original Twelve Inch Version) 7:02

3 Renegades of Funk (Remix) 6:46

4 Frantic Situation (Frantic Mix) 3:49

5 Who You Funkin' With? 6:23

6 Go Go Pop 6:00

7 They Made a Mistake 5:31

Download Bam

Ska Mania - The Return Of The Rudeboy

A slight change of pace now. This one's especially for the old heads like me who were probably into Madness, Bad Manners or The Specials back in the early 80's

They seemed to be all over the place with the rapid rise of the 2-Tone label.

Who's seen This Is England from a couple of years ago? It's set in 1983 and I was about the same age as the kid in it. In fact it could've been me. Except I wasn't as chubby. Or had a skinhead. But I was living up North at the time.

This 2-cd album may bring back some memories for you...........

Download Ska Mania below

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Password - bancak

Update

Sorry to the regular readers of this blog as to the lack of posts for a month.

My wife and I recently had some devastating family news. So blogging hasn't been top of my priorities.

I'll try to post something soon but don't think that ABU! is over because it it's not.

Old School Dazzler Rips - Part 2

Some more fantastic rips from Bobby Dazzler.
I haven't had the chance to listen to them yet but going on Mr D's history then these should be some more corking stonkers.

http://rapidshare.com/files/212135527/Still_The_Joint_-_Sugar_Hill_Remixed__Disc_1_.zip
http://rapidshare.com/files/212164224/Still_The_Joint_-_Sugar_Hill_Remixed__Disc_2_.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/212135529/Heatstroke_Single.zip



And some leftfield funky stuff........

http://rapidshare.com/files/213135734/Galloping_Home.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/213135736/Close_Encounters_Of_The_Third_Kind_And_Other_Disco-Galactic_Themes.zip

Happy Birthday Patti Astor!

So who came first, Patti Astor or Debbie Harry? Well Debbie Harry actually by about 5 years. But they seem to be one and the same person in my mind as both were all over New York city in the late 70's, early 80's and both had a major influence in the formative years of hip hop.

Here's a great little video about the life of Patti (in 8 minutes!) and you'd be surprised at the unseen archival footage as well as bits and doodads of Fab 5 Freddy, Lee Quinones and Zephyr chatting about the great lady.

MS Word, yo.

A bit old but you may have missed it.

Rock, Rock, Electro Rock!

Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to visit the Hippodrome in London in 1985 to witness Mike Allen and his amazing technicolour Hawaiian shirt while he compered the legendary b-boy event that was Electro Rock.
Featuring some of the best-known UK artists at the time (spot a young Goldie credited under his real name of Clifford Price in The B-Boys crew) as well as a special appearance from the mighty Afrika Bambaataa, there are some great moments in this video.
I used to have this on vhs until someone skanked it, and my BBC doc A Hip Hop History and come to think of it my home-recorded, Westwood doc, Bad Meaning Good.
If you were in the crowd, shout out and let us know where where you are!
Highlights include (but not limited to)....

KC's flying headphones (22.14)
Bloke who used to be on Eastenders (28.10)
Mike's strange attire (5.38)
Junior Gee's mullet (8.01)
Strangely arousing legs akimbo action from Uprock (33.32)
Is it a girl, no it's Sipho (RIP) before they dropped although that doesn't explain the bizarre moves (35.40)
And my favourite, watchthecamera, watchthecamera, watchthecamera, watchthecamera...SHIT! (50.10)

N.b. According to Wikipedia, Mike Allen was born in 1942 which made him 43 years old when he appeared on Electro Rock. He's now 67.......!?

Master Ace chats about The Symphony

Master Ace* drops some science on the story behind the classic, The Symphony about how it all went down and who he actually replaced on the record.



True Hip-Hop Stories: Masta Ace from D-Nice on Vimeo.

* spelt correctly. ABU! doesn't play that Masta Ase shite.

Masquerade - One Nation!

Who remembers the UK crew Masquerade? They were on Morgan Khan's Streetwave label back in 1985 and had two relatively underground hits; (Solution To) The Problem and One Nation which was mixed by none other than Mike Allen.

The Dazzler has kindly furnished us with a quality rip of the One Nation and with no less than 5 mixes and scans all from a cassette EP.

My pick is the DEF mix with it's nice rap and Good Times bassline steal.

One Nation (Def Mix) (9:16)

One Nation (P.A Edit) (7:18)

One Nation (Street Mix) (7:12)

One Nation (Extended Groove) (7:30)

One Nation (Horny Alternative) (4:21)

Masquerade - One Nation!