WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOU NAKED

 

“They did a hell of a lot of drugs back in the 60’s / 70’s.” That’s what I remember my dude Big Stacks saying when we were talking about the rock band America‘s AM Gold hit “Tin Man” over on my play sister Venereum’s favorite message board Soulstrut.com. Well, if America was on that good, I think Juarez was on something a little bit worse than good. Man, I don’t know WHAT the hell Juarez was on.

Juarez was an obscure rock band who put out a self titled LP on Decca back in 1970 (and it’s pretty cheap if you want that vinyl– MP3s are even cheaper, but the choice is yours like a Dres and Mr. Lawnge song). There may be some info about them somewhere online but I couldn’t find any (I googled them and searched vigorously for about 20 seconds… nada), so you’ll have to find that info on your own. But I had this album sitting on my shelves since the mid 90’s and I always liked this one song, “St. Mary’s Railroad”. Partially because there was a little breakdown I thought might make for decent MPC fodder but mainly because it’s just a sick song. Sick as in ill, dope, fresh, totally awesome but also sick as in this sh*t is kinda weird. So when I started grabbing records and throwing them on the platter while making my Soulman “The Truth Is Forever” rock record mix back in 2009 I came across the Juarez album and said “oh, HELL yeah” and set it aside to save it for the closer.

Somebody waaay deeper ( and waaay more shroomed out) than me could probably tell you exactly what Juarez is talking about on this song- I really don’t know, and don’t care to psychoanalyze it that intently to decipher the madness. But I love lines like “put your husband on the shelf / give your wife to someone else / and ask them if they really know the difference” and “we would love to see you naked / while your angels laugh behind their crucifix”. And the chorus- “I am not what reason tells you / I am different / you’re a fool and I will laugh at you forever”… man, i want that written on my tombstone. Like I said, I don’t know what it’s all about but I know genius material when I hear it.

That “Truth Is Forever” mix was very well received, albeit a little controversial because I knowingly went off of my well beaten break mix path and played some outside-that-box-y’all-wanna-put-me-in stuff. A number of songs garnered more than a few “Soulman, what’s that song you played…?” questions- “St. Mary’s Railroad” definitely was among the most asked about tunes. So if you didn’t know before, now you know.

 

AS A SHORTY DOIN’ FLYERS FOR THE COLLINS BROS. SHOW

That’s a line from a Fabreeze Brothers song that didn’t make the album (the rhymes will be resurrected elsewhere, trust me on that)… but yeah, when I was a youngster in the earrrrrly days of Hip Hop I drew up some party flyers for Mount Vernon’s legendary Collins Bros. crew. For those who weren’t around or in the NYC area in those days, the Collins Bros. rocked with all the Hip Hop pioneers- see the other names on the flyer- and definitely paved the way for the next generation coming out of the Money Earnin’ / Now Rule area (Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Heavy D & The Boys, Brand Nubian etc.). My dude Mark Collins aka DJ Mark C recently posted a pic of this flyer from 1980 on Facebook and I bugged out! Haven’t seen this in 34 years. So it’s nice to see my own direct link to the original days of Hip Hop- I wasn’t rhyming or deejaying yet, but I was soaking it all in at the jams way back then and putting in work with the pen and ink even as a youngin’ (I love the creativity of writing lyrics, spinning records for mixes, making beats etc. but my natural god given talent is drawing pictures above everything else). This is my history right here- thanks to Mark C. for letting me revisit a time that helped shape who I am today.

ROAST MARSHMALLOWS OVER YOUR SPEAKERS TO THIS ONE

The new summer 2014 installment of Jorun Bombay‘s Funkbox Reload has arrived and geez, it’s pretty much off the meatracks. So much ill stuff from start to finish but I’m still scraping the contents of my cranium off of the floor just from hearing the Joeski Love / Steady B remix mashup that sets the whole mix off. Yes, you read that correctly- my head exploded. So please listen to this with caution, but whatever you do- listen. Nobody who loves Hip Hop wants to miss this, mainly because nobody else that I know of is doing it like this anymore. Dope on a rope, certified… that pretty much sums it up. Oh yeah, that new Rampagers 45 gets debuted in the mix too, so don’t miss out.

BACK IN EFFECT

First time back posting on the blog since late last year… that’s pretty much how it’s gonna be from here on out I guess. Sporadic real schitt sitings whenever I have a new project to push or whenever i have the time to sprinkle some other stuff of interest on you (probably won’t be a lot of that, though). If you’re still checking out the happenings over here it’s appreciated, most def.

You may notice that we’re no longer down with Blogger / Google… they put THAT REAL SCHITT through some reeeeeeal bullsh*t when all I was trying to do was renew my domain name. They tried to suck me into some crap where I was gonna have to pay additional fees to Google Apps for basically nothing and tried to make it damn near impossible for me NOT to pay them if I wanted to keep the site on Blogger. Some real shady tricknology, kids. Long story short I relocated the business over to WordPress– so far so good but I peeped some tricky unnecessary money grabbing tactics out of them, too (thanks to GoDaddy for smoothing the transition out for me- they wanted money as well but I guess you gotta pay somebody if you’re not the most computer literate dude on earth and can’t work this sh*t out on your own).

So here we are, back again and reloaded- note the new overly cluttered header i haphazardly threw together. That’s how I do this, son! A quick rundown on upcoming PMC business- the Phill Most Chill Remix E.P. on Nobody Buys Records produced by my dudes The Bankrupt Europeans should be dropping in a matter of days; the Rampagers 7″ on DWG produced by Jorun Bombay featuring Emskee, Oxygen and me should also be dropping very very soon; and the long awaited Fabreeze Brothers album by myself and Paul Nice is DONE and will be released on AE Productions, hopefully by the end of the summer (SO hyped over this album… if people like it half as much as I do it’ll be one of their favorite Hip Hop albums in a looooong time, possibly EVER- yeah, I said it). Plus I have a few features here and there… what can I say, been gettin’ busy in my old age.

Also, for those of y’all who could care less about the PMC rappin’ stuff and want to hear more Soulman mixes, I got a few of those on deck too. Would love to do more- I have TONS of great music I’d like to share- but I’m low on time and usually too damn worn out with everything else I’m doing to put together a mix that I’m 100% happy with. I have two right now that have been sitting for over a year that I just haven’t been able to finish up. But I’ll get on it, have no fear.

Anyway, spread the word that THAT REAL SCHITT is up and running again- it ain’t over yet.