MEGAKUT RADIO #1

Here’s a non-progressive, retroactive, radio-style mix from our friends over at Megakut. What’s impressive is that it captures the vintage sound quality that was signature for the time period. When people, not directly involved in the scene that created it, first experienced this “electro-megamix-style-rap” music back in the late-80’s it was usually via some radio station that you could barely tune in or off a seventh-generation cassette of the same radio show. This is getting closer and closer to how it was. You just turned it up loud and listened to the bass! Sound like a weak excuse for having fucked up records? You may be right, Fletch. If you were born after ’79, it probably can’t help but sound fucked up. Not my problem, you need to obey the Mistress of Boom and just "Let It Go".

MEGAKUT RADIO #1: “PLAY LOUD IN A RESIDENTIAL AREA”

THE UNKNOWN DJ—“808 BEATS (club mix)”—Techno Hop—Produced by Andre Manuel

MCS OF RAP—“THIS IS THE JAM”—Rap Records—Produced by DJ Cox and Cool CP

YOLE BOYS—“SPREAD THOSE CHEEKS”—Megakut—Produced by Fatees

KYNA ANTEE (AKA THE MISTRESS)—“LET IT GO”—Techno Kut—Produced by Unknown DJ and Arabian Prince

DJ BATTERY BRAIN—“808 VOLT MIX”—Techno Hop—Produced by Unknown

DJ SLICE & KOOL ROCK JAY—“SLICE IT UP”—Dunk Yer Funk—Produced by L. Ramsey & M. Brown

SNAFU!: RANDOM BAG CHECK - CHARLOTTE, COMPTON

I found this one while digging in San Diego with the Funeral Shock guys. The store (the name escapes right now) had a bunch of hip hop 12"s priced at .50 and dude was saying all hip hop was half price. Shit. For .25 I couldn't pass up a private press looking joint from Compton with a song called "Blunt Smokers". What I heard when the needle hit the wax had me bugged though. Rugged East Coast hip hop with mad cuts and samples. The stoned as fuck horn in "Blunt Smokers" is on the same vibe JVC Force was when they chopped Freda Payne till she sounded like a psych-fuzz guitar guru straight whylin'. PLUS you get a remixed version that's basically whole different track and no clean versions! This is programmed for the late night, incense and weed radio show crowd. The B side "Light It Up" continues down a hazy path of 8 bit chops. "Light it up and drink a brew with Snafu!" AND they hit you with a remix of this one too, damn. Why waste the space with radio edits? These guys knew their shit was in that piffed out, late night college radio zone.

Since I couldn't find it on Discogs (or anywhere really), I took to googling everyone listed on the label. First thing I found was I found was rapper S.C. Miles giving producer Ron B. a shout out on a page on his website. Well, I started this post about a year ago and I just checked the bookmark for S.C. Miles' website and the site no longer exists! Eventually I found Ron B.'s Myspace page and sent him a message to see if he would be down to enlighten me on the creation of this 12". In spite of not having logged into that page for months, I eventually did receive a response:

Sorry to just get back to you but I have been really busy workin and trying to make beats and be a dad but, YEAH!! thas sounds good to me!!! hit me with the questions and we can go from there....SNAFU is not together anymore but we still talk on the regular...just hit me up!!

Ron B: Ghost in the Machine

I sent some questions and to this day have not received a reply. This was in January so I'm assuming Ron either forgot or is just too damn busy. He did up some new tracks on his page since I last checked it so at least he's still making beats. My main question was how did a rap group from NC drop a 12" on a Compton, CA label in 1995, on the cusp the full blown East vs. West era.

Further searching revealed the Compton connection: co-executive producer Scotty Spencer (aka Scotty D) is a LA hip hop LEGEND who apparently was the first person ever to play a young King Tee tracks by the likes of Mixmaster Spade and Uncle Jamm's Army. Damn, shit is all coming together! King Tee would later give Scotty a shout out on his Mixmaster Spade collab "Ya Better Bring a Gun". Scotty says he was the equivalent of Dapper Dan on the West Coast making custom sweatsuits for OG LA hip hop crews. Unfortunately there isn't a whole lot of info on the web regarding Scotty D, however that may all be changing with the release of the forthcoming documentary (put together by Lemonlime from the OG West Coast Crew) "How the West Was 1". Check the trailer:



So how did LA's Scotty D link up with North Cackalack's Snafu? Apparently that is a story for another time and place. It's good to know Ron B. is still making beats and Scotty D is still out there reppin' real hip hop.

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HUB CITY ROCK!

My favorite handdrawn 12" cover evar! Currently searching for more artwork by Earl M. Duffy... searching... searching... sear--

This record came out on Dunk Yer Funk (a label that has recently peaked the fuck out of our interest here at ROBME as of late) in nineteen eighty crack (1988). Apparently, Dunk Yer Funk (with the sick ass donut being dipped in a cup of coffee logo) was manufactured and distributed by a company out of San Pedro, CA called JDC, a dance label that distributed, among other dance shit from 1976-1990, a 12" by Cerrone called "Trippin on the Moon." Two other logos adorn the back cover: Hub City Records and 9MM Took Over, both with simple but ill graphics, but I think all that is a part of the JDC sub-label for rap, Dunk Yer Funk.

Engineered by longtime Dr. Dre cohort Donovan Smith, Drums programmed by Dre himself, mixed by DJ Pooh, scratched by Joe Cooley, and crooned by the precursor to Nate Dogg: the one and only Mixmaster Spade.

The briggety breakdown of Toddy Tee and Mixmaster Spade's ode to Olde English 800--"Do You Wanna Go To The Liquor Store (And Get An Eightball)":

Helium-ish "I've smoked too much crack" vocal effect-- Check.

Roland 808 or 909 (which one is it? who gives a fuck? hell, I don't even know if it's a Roland, an early model drum machine with a righteous cowbell sound anyway)-- Check.

Three or four records from your uncle's funk collection-- Check.

Which three or four?

1. Ronnie Hudson and the Street People's "West Coast Poplock" (12" single/Birdie/1982)-- used for the vocal cut: "City Of Compton" which would go on to grace various Dr. Dre productions most famously when Dre and Roger Troutman got together and re-made Ronnie Hudson's song into Tupac's "California Love." It's worth noting that Roger didn't bite shit, Eons pointed out to me that him and his brother were apparently two of the Street People and probably wrote the whole original tune for Ronnie Hudson or some shit.

2. Funkadelic's "Knot Just (Knee Deep)-- Prince Paul could've learned a thing or two about using a sample sparingly from the conservative method that DJ Joe Cooley (or is it Dance-O-Lot Kid???) applies here, just the hits, kid! Or could Joe not get it to mix with the drum machine so he just stabs out the last part of it to finish out the bar instead? However it went down, it works like a charm.

3. Brick's "We Don't Wanna Sit Down" (self-titled album/Bang/1977)-- used for the vocal: "Do you wanna sit down? Or do you wanna get down?" I like the way the drums on this loop clash/coincide with the programmed drum machine, to me that's like a signature sound of LA swap meet hip hop.

4. Who the fuck knows???-- what record's that funky wah-like guitar loop they bring in after the Brick one goes off and then plays till the jam fades out? I just don't know, son. To be fair, there were probably also three other auxilary records in the studio that day for scratching a vocal snippet, a stab for the bridge, and the comic book record sounding "Oh Lord! What's that!"

Downest white cat mentioned in the back liner notes: Funken-Klein

Lamest white cat mentioned in the back liner notes: Vanilla Ice

Right above the Dunk Yer Funk logo, it says: "Also available on CASSETTE at the Hub City Base in Long Beach 591-2349"

I wonder what else one could pick up at the HUB city BASE? Hubs and base I assume. I also love the phone number with no area code, back when all LA county was 213. Call that number right now and ask for a copy of "Under Fire" (The Toddy Tee album this 12" promised was forthcoming) and a "double up of ready rocks" and see what the person who answers has to say. You never know you might just get hooked up.

The other two tracks on this 12" were "Gangster Boogie," where Toddy Tee encourages dancing in front of the police station and "This Beat Be Smooth." Also enjoy Eons rip of Ronnie Hudson's classic.

Didn't King Tee use "Do You Wanna Go..." for a St. Ides commercial or as a skit on the Triflin album (was that the orange and white striped one?) or someshit?

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