ABU Podcast DS Takeover Show March 2014 #40

If you forgot.....it was the ABU Podcast yesterday (Thursday), number 40.
And here it is....or was.

http://www.sonicity.co.uk/Resources/40_Ageing_B-Boys_Unite!_Podcast_-_ABU!_DS_Takeover_Show_Mar_2014.mp3


And if you're the sort of person that likes to sneak a peak or open their Xmas presents a day early then here is the tracklisting. Just for you.

ABU #40 March 2014

01  Sammy Burdson - New Background A
02  Ice T - 6 'N The Morning (are his vocals REALLY that low in the mix??)
03  Big Daddy Kane - Wrath Of Kane
04  Bomb The Bass ft Merlin - Megablast (Original Rap Mix)
05  Jazzy Jay - Cold Chillin' In The Spot 
06  LL Cool J - That's A Lie
07  Phill Most Chill & Mr Fantastic - Superfunk Inc
08  Most Wanted - Calm Down (for Duncan McDonald)
09  Alan Hawkshaw - It's All About the Co-Op Now
10  People Under The Stairs - The Next Step II
11  Original Flavor - Can I Get Open
12  Eric B. & Rakim - Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em (for illinspired)
13  Beattrix - Fun Times
14  'Music Machine' with Lord Onslow (Radio 4 documentary)
15  2 Live Crew/Richard Cheese - Me So Horny
16  89 Skratch Gangstaz - Lesson 3 (Rework)
17  A Tribe Called Quest - Buggin' Out
18  Rich & Martin Throwdown Mix
19  Whirlwind D - Heroes  (from the album Nomansland)

The Funk Trunk
20  Manzel - Space Funk
21  James Brown - Popcorn with Feeling 

22  Jeru The Damaja - You Can't Stop The Prophet

Roots Of The Roots
23  Gary Numan - Music For Chameleons
24  Ultravox - All Stood Still

25  LOTUG - Funky Child
26  Masta Ace - Jeep Ass Niguh
27  Organized Konfusion - Fudge Pudge
28  Synthesonic Sounds -House Of The Rising Sun

P.s. A question to the downloaders...do you listen to the link as it streams or do you 'Save As..'?

P.s.s. I haven't been around much this past week. Apologies, family stuff..... I hope to be back on top of it all soon.

Lovebug Reepski

ABU Movie Night: NY77 - The Coolest Year In Hell

NY77 - The Coolest Year In Hell 

A very recommended documentary about the infamous years of New York City.

New York City, 1977 - It was a time when the city had fallen into decay, with too few jobs, money, police, schools, and social services. There was a city wide blackout with major looting, a serial killer on the loose, and the Bronx was burning. And yet out of the chaos emerged one of the most creative times any city has ever encountered.

Executive Produced by Academy Award Nominee Nanette Burstein ("The Kid Stays in the Picture"), "NY77: The Coolest Year In Hell" is a two-hour documentary that tells the story of one astonishing year in New York City history. The documentary is told chronologically and weaves together the stories of the emergence of hip hop, punk and disco, graffiti art, and sexual liberation. In the background are the major political events and social issues of the day -- crime, urban decay, financial woes, the infamous blackout, drugs, Son of Sam, the bitter mayoral election and the overall poverty that gripped the city.

Out of chaos came creation. From the South Bronx came hip hop. From the Lower East Side, the thrashing guitars of punk. And all over the city, a disco revolution was underway. Elaborate, finely crafted graffiti art decorated the subway cars and break-dancers shimmied in the streets. The sexual revolution was in full swing. In January 1977, most of this activity existed in its own underground bubble. Yet by the end of the year this artistic expression was on its way to mainstream America, and would be with us for generations to come.

The documentary uses groundbreaking animation to help tell the story, and features interviews with those who lived it, including Ed Koch, Geraldo Rivera, Jimmy Breslin, Gloria Gaynor, Afrika Bambaataa, Chris Stein (Blondie), Richard Hell, KRS-One, Grandmaster Caz, DJ Disco Wiz, Legs McNeil, Annie Sprinkle, Al Goldstein, Tommy Ramone, Jellybean Benitez, Lee Quinones, and many more.

ABU Movie Night: Henry Chalfant's All City

I have this on an old VHS tape which has been dubbed numerous times which means a horrible quality and fading sound. That never stopped me watching it over and over again back in the early 90's.
Here though is a pristine version with director (and author of Subway Art) Henry Chalfant introducing his All City film.

Director Henry Chalfant introduces his film All City (1983), which grew out of an idea to do a youth TV program about Hip Hop and other cultural phenomena of interest to young urbanites. The program was never realized, but the trailer grew into a portrait of the different elements of Hip Hop in the mid-80s.
The venue is Fashion Moda, a popular art gallery on Third Avenue in the Bronx. There is a demonstration of Bboying, and Rap, followed by a discussion, hosted by Spank TC5, about art and culture with important graffiti artists of the time including Dondi, Butch, Mare and Brim.

The video includes a montage of murals by Henry Chalfant and a Pop and Lock lesson by Mr. Wiggles. It features the young Bboy crew, VTB, The Very Tough Breakers. Co-Produced by Kenneth Collado, Mura Dehn, Katherine Hazard, Linda Habib and Tony Silver. Directed by Henry Chalfant. Cinematography by Martin Moore, Burleigh Wartes, and John Patten. Computer graphic animation by Colin Turner. Edited by Bruce Tovsky and Henry Chalfant. Appearances by Dondi, Butch, Mare139, Brim, James Top,The Magnificent Force, Mr. Wiggles & Rakeem. Art work or performance by San Two, T-Kid, Cem, EZG, Guy Jones, Kel, Vulcan, Rek, Bil Blast, Star, TPA, Tracy 168, LEE, Flite, Deal, Porn, Con, Depak, shame, Daze, Noc, Crash, Pase, Fome, Caz, Skeme, Case, Paris, Kilo, Prince, The VTB Dancers

No Half-Steppin - March 2014

I'll be joining Just-1 & Chrome to play some rekkids this Saturday @ The Rumsey Wells in Norwich.
Big chunky 12" vinyl from me while the lads will no doubt be proudly dropping their latest 7" purchases!

Come along. Free entry and proper hip hop all night.

Engine, Engine #9, On The New York Transit Line

This is a wonderful trip down memory lane with a super 70's flavour of New York's beautifully dirty and grimy city streets and subways.
It's a 6-minute slideshow of some rare photos of subway trains (some are even clean!) in the 1970's adorned with great old school graffiti tags and pieces.

Love it! Enjoy!

Breakin' - 30 Years Later

Can you really believe it's been 30 years since the film Breakin' (or Breakdance as we called it in the UK) came out?
Here's a photo of the main characters; Lucinda Dickey aka Kelly / Special K, Adolfo 'Shabba-Doo' Quinones aka Ozone and Michael 'Boogaloo Shrimp' Chambers as Turbo as they are today.

I'm not going to go into a long-winded speech about how I felt about seeing Kelly in her leotard/tights when I was a kid but it made a big impression on my young mind at the time. And I bet I'm not the only one, right?

Also it's worth mentioning that Beat Street is celebrating 30 years too, being that they were released only a few months apart in the same year.


n.b. More of Special K, I mean Lucinda, here in Ninja III: The Domination on Youtube. And a very nice blog post about her career over here, mmmm.

Ultimate Breaks & Beats COMPLETE Listing

One of the cornerstones of hip hop is the 'break', right? I'm hoping that the majority of you will have heard of the Ultimate Breaks And Beat series of funk breakbeats that were realised towards the mid/late 80's to early 90's.
For those that are uninitiated these albums were compilations of the original breaks that were used right back from the block parties with all the classic songs such as Apache, Champ, Funky Drummer, Big Beat, It's Just Begun and so many others. However what the album covers didn't do was state who the artist and but instead just credited the songwriters.
These albums were the bible in a time when many producers and dj's couldn't get hold of the original recordings and were also plundered by many hip hop artists whenever they were released.

The following screenshots were taken from a now defunct website that I used to visit. Unfortunately it was hosted on Yahoo Geocities which sadly became inoperable a few years back. Luckily I managed to grab these before it went.
If you were responsible for all the work that went into this site then I truly salute you as I learned a lot from it. As well as the UBB series there were also listings for Dusty Fingers and Strictly Breaks and others which I didn't manage to cop.

If you liked this have you seen this post which reveals which year had the most breaks, according to UBB.

ABU Movie Night: Planet Rock The Story Of Hip Hop And The Crack Generation

It's a new feature today. The ABU Movie Night.
There's a bumload of televisual feasts available over on Youtube and we at ABU aim to give you the best of it all when it comes to hip hop films, tv and documentaries. We start off with this documentary from 2011, Planet Rock: The Story Of Hip Hop And The Crack Generation.

Ever wondered what exactly crack did for hip hop back in the mid-1980's? It was talked about in songs from BDP to Princess Ivori to K-Solo but just what was it, really?
This is an eye-opening and at times, harrowing documentary (narrated by ICE T) featuring input from Chuck D, B-Real, RZA, Raekwon, Melle Mel, ?uestlove, Too Short and many others about what they saw and what they may have recreationally taken themselves.


Or watch it in a separate tab here.
I'm aiming to do this once a week depending on time, choice and my general apathy.
Enjoy!

Reepy Reeps

One For The Electro Heads

Just had to post this. Two guys from the ABU FB Group got together after both appearing on the recent ABU Album and have collaborated on a 10-minute booming Electro-era mix.
Big respect to RJ Scratch & Bullispace.

Rich and martin ,,throw down by Richard Flynn on Mixcloud

Run DMC - The Funhouse Investigation Begins

 Okay, so long-term follower Ramses mentioned something in the Comments recently referring to when I dropped Run DMC's live track Here We Go (which was recorded live at the Funhouse, August 5th 1983) on the January ABU show.
He was wondering if there were any more tracks recorded rather than just this one. Also were there any more acts that night? There must be more to this.
This had been running through my mind all week and today I mentioned it on the ABU Facebook page. Patti A saw this and mentioned it on her Facebook page and so far there have been many responses to it so you never know, we may get a definitive answer.
She also posted this link here about the track which I found interesting as I've always noticed Jay's little slip-up whenever I hear it and marvel at how the crew keep things on time regardless.

If Patti is on your Friends list then click here to read the post.

And thanks again Ramses for such a great head-scratcher.