TEN G'S TO THE GRAVEYARD

Once a year the Record Man in Redwood City, CA holds his parking lot sale. They set up a bunch of tents and tables and pile boxes filled with tens of thousands of lp's and twelve inches on em. Obviously, shit is a total feeding frenzy and is not for beginners or the faint of heart. It starts at 8, but real junkies are pacing around out front hours before. The only notification for the date of the sale is an email. I sign up for this fucking email every year and I NEVER get it. This year I ended up calling the store to find out the date and wouldn't you fucking know it, I'd already committed to working the night before which meant getting home the day of the sale. FUCK! I tried to get out of it but the best I could do was wake up as early as possible, finish work and get the fuck out! By the time I'd arrived there was a huge group of dudes in crisp New Era's sitting around sorting through all the shit they'd just dug. I went straight for the jazz lp's and all the boxes were half full. Damn. Sometimes you gotta give someone else a chance, right? I did end up scoring some nice stuff after digging for a few hours. My pops showed up and was digging around for awhile.

At one point Jake came up to me with this 12" by DJ Swift & the Mob Boss asked if I knew about it. 93? San Jose, CA? "If you ain't gonna get it I will." Unfortunately for me, I had just sold him on it. What we discovered later over a couple beers and a couple spins is that this self released 12" was like a lost In-A-Minute Records demo. Instantly we were transported back to the days of Totally Insane, R.B.L. Posse, Chunk and the like. The A side is a fast track that mixes Lyn Collins "Think (About It)" with John Carpenter's theme from Halloween that ends up sounding like "It Takes Two" on dust. I guess this was their attempt at a club track, but when Mob Boss says, "I move like a fly and hit hard as a brick" I picture him running into a packed nightclub, hockey mask strapped to the face with the machete swinging (I think I just made it sound better than it really is). But in the tradition of all great rap 12"s, the B side wins again. "What's Really Goin On?" is even more dusted with it's backward snare hits, 808 kicks and an almost megamix style arrangement that uses a grip of familiar samples like Average White Band, Bob Marley, ESG and I swear I can hear "Mardi Gras" being spun backwards underneath it all (could be the dust). DJ Swift sounds like he studied under T.C. around the time of RBL's "A Lesson To Be Learned" and I'm not mad at that. If anyone knows more about this 12" or whatever happened to these cats, leave a comment.

DJ Swift & The Mob Boss - What's Really Goin On?