All content found on this page is intended for DJs, and is for promo use only. So promote these artists and play them at your dances. Teach your crowd their tunes, and spread the word. Keep the music alive...
Jumper Definition: 1. (N.) Anyone or Anything that makes a situation jump off: "The party was a flop till the DJ threw that Jumper, and everyone started getting naked" or "I put Sara and her posse on the guest list, cuz those girls are some serious Jumpers"
I have been a Mantronix fan since the mid-80's. To me, Mantronix embodies the ruggedest form of Hip-Hop, in it's electro form. Electro handclaps matched with huge drums and old school raps. Thats all I need! Mantronix is also responsible for production for some of the roughest Hip-Hop artists known, including Just-Ice and T La Rock.
These tunes take me way back to learning how to breakdance, while bumping Mantronix's "The Cassette" in a rickety ghetto blaster. Break out the parachute pants, put the needle to the groove, and jump it!
Commonly known as the "Come Around Riddim" since the Bermudan artist Collie Buddz dropped the tune "Come Around". You should be well familiar with this tune by now, since it's an international crossover success has built the man wicked foundation to catapault his career.
Maybe I started too far forward.
BERES HAMMOND
Lets start with this tune, by international Reggae favorite Beres Hammond. The tune is called "Last War" and is a collaboration with Zap Pow. I don't know much else about the tune, besides it's a good tune with a wicked riddim.
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COLLIE BUDDZ
Of course, the next tune is the one that broke this riddim wide open, and motivated other artists to make versions. Collie Buddz "Come Around".
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CHIP FU
So after the smashing success of Come Around, the next version I stumbled across is from Original Fu-Schnickens frontman Chip-Fu. This threw me for a loop, but Chip really kills this riddim. Maybe we will see a reggae album in the works?
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Wicked right?
ALBOROSIE
Another to break through the reggae scene this year, is an Italian transplant to Jamaica known as Alborosie. He has been scoring big hits with tunes such as "Herbalist" and "Kingston Town". Here we have a Rasta tune over the original "Last War" riddim, instead of the harder hitting Collie Buddz rework. The tune is wicked!
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While there are a couple more newer versions, these are my personal favs. There are also a few remixes floating around out there of the Collie Buddz version featuring American rap artists. One features Tony Yayo and Young Buck, another featuring Busta Rhymes, and more. While it sounds like they would work, I tend to find their verses falling off the mark.
MAN! If this isn't the most decent breakdown of the effect of sample laws, and the effect of sampling in general! See what happens when you free up the music? An entire musical genre spread like a wildfire through the world.
You are not going to catch me posting Drum N Bass stuff, since I am not a big fan of the genre, but this is a very cool video and breakdown. If you ever wanted to make drum n bass, and didn't know where to start, here you go...
Those who are well versed in this song, will know this is not actually the original version of the tune. If you are familiar with the Ultimate Breaks and Beats collections, you already know that some of the breaks featured in these compilations have been re-edited to make them more functional for DJs. You will notice that the break seems to be slowed down. This break was actually originally played at 33rpm, when the record was a 45rpm.
A record like "Amen Brother" was one that DJ's overlooked. It was not functional, since the break is real fast, real short, and on a 45. Although the break was remarkable, it just didn't seem like it could be worked into a break set. See here in an excerpt taken from an interview between Troy L. Smith and OG NYC DJ Quick.
"What about those beats that you had to slow down or speed up to find something on it, is that possible?
Oh yeah the record is by The Winston’s “Amen Brother”. It was a little 45 rpm and it was way to fast. You would take it and tape it to an album and put it on 33 and now you had your break. The first time I heard it I said I can’t use this, it’s to fast. So I put it down for two years, until I heard D.J. Islam play it, but he played it on 33 and I said o.k. See I didn’t know what to do with it." For the Full interview featured on jayquan.comCLICK HERE. It's a cool little interview for those intersted in digging for Breaks.
I just got my hands on this 45 a couple of months ago, but my needles are missing as of right now, so you'll have to just be content with the UBB version for now.
Big Up to DJ Small Change's Blackcrack, Julie Covello, and Papa Wheelie for puttin me onto this clip, and a great discussion in general!
The Soul Vendors or The Soul Brothers or The Sound Dimension
The Soul Vendors were the Session band, and musical backbone of Sir Coxsone Dodd's Studio One, during a crucial phase of Reggae's evolution. These players have laid the foundation for all of Reggae music as we know it today. Just look at this list I lifted from www.soulvendors.com. The bulk of these tunes are historical tunes, many of which have version after version of them made to this day.
"These are some of the many hits the Soul Vendors recorded at Studio One during this time. WAILING WAILERS: Mellow Mood, Nice time, Soul Rebel, Rudie gone a jail, Put it on, Treat me good, Let him go, Bend down low, Sinner Man (Down-presser Man), Let the Lord be seen in you and White Christmas (Gospels), I'm the toughest (Peter on lead vocals)
HEPTONES: Fatty fatty, Baby be true, Party time, Only sixteen (entire "On Top" album) CLARENDONIANS: Sho-be-do-be-do, Rudie gaan a jail, You can't keep a good man down, You can't be happy until you love someone, You won't see me, Rudie bam bam, when I call you up STRANGER COLE: Rough & tough (entire album). HAROLD MEIKLE: Beat down Babylon (later popularized by Junior Byles) BOB ANDY: I've got to go back home GAYLETTS (Judy Mowatt & company): Silent River runs deep MELODIANS: Last train to Expo, You don't care for me, Get along without you, Swing and dine, Come on little girl, Little nut tree, You have caught me baby HOPETON LEWIS: Take it easy, Cool cool collie, Right track, Keep on coming in KEN BOOTH: Train is coming baby, Say you, Puppet on a string, Moving away, Starlight, Rock Steady, Just another girl, Silver word, Home, My heart is gone. GAYLADS: Lady with the red dress on, Abc, Stop making love beside me, No good girl, You bring me joy in the morning, Hard to confess. TENNORS: Pressure and slide, Woo Doctor, Ride you donkey (entire album) KINGSTONIANS: Winey winey. LESTER STERLING: Pupa lick. DELROY WILSON: Dancing mood, I'm not a king, Conquer me, Riding for a fall, Rain from the sky, Can't stand it, Once upon a time. ETHIOPIANS: Train to Skaville, Everything crash (entire album). LARRY MARSHALL: Nanny goat. MARCIA GRIFFITHS: Feel like jumping, We will be together, Truly, I shall sing, Dream land, Melody life ALTON ELLIS: I'm still in love with you girl, Sunday coming, Can I change my mind, Big it up, I'm just a guy, Girl I've got a date, Let him try, Breaking up is hard to do. WILLIE WILLIAMS: Armageddon time (re-recorded by the Clash in 1979) SLIM SMITH: Conversation. FREDDY MCKAY: Picture on the wall CORNEL CAMPBELL: Queen of the minstrel JOHNNY CLARKE: Move out a Babylon SOUL VENDORS: Mr. Flint, Soul serenade, Soho, El bang bang, You trouble me, Carib soul (LP) and Hot shot (Ska LP). More than one dozen full-length instrumental albums were recorded during this time."
These dudes are some real OGs!
Real Rock Riddim
Quite possibly the MOST versioned riddim in Jamaican Music History. Of course it finds it's creation in the laboratory of Sir Coxsone Dodd. The riddim has been flipped by so many different producers, through two and a half decades. Every year a new handful of versions are recorded. The tune is credited to Sound Dimension.
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Swing Easy Riddim
Another well-versioned classic riddim. The melody takes a cue from "Fiddler On The Roof", blown through horns with fierce fluidity. "Nothing in this world like the high grade in my chalice, high grade in my chalice..."-Richie Spice-High Grade In My Chalice. link deleted
Since I'm in the mood for horns...
Sugar Belly
Although Sugar Belly wasn't in the regular line-up, Sugar Belly is an OG! His roots are planted firmly in the roots of Mento, and recorded a few albums worth of reggae tunes with Sir Coxsone. He created his own horn out of bamboo and cardboard. Sugar Belly is an OG.
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Vin Gordon
Vin Gordon started to play Trombone with the Skatalites in the Mid 60s. They called him Don Drummond Jr, since his style so closely resembled Don D. He played on various Studio One sides, including Real Rock.
James Brown's right hand man died yesterday. Any B-Boy should already know Bobby Byrd's voice from the anthem "I Know You Got Soul". I first heard his voice through Eric B. & Rakim's version of the song. This song is still in heavy rotation, from city to city. Big Up Bobby Byrd!
A good friend of mine lost his pops in the World Trade Center Massacre. He always gets furious with me when we talk about 9-11, because of my thoughts on the subject. I always cut myself short, because my opinion becomes salt in an already aching wound. I try to see his side of it, but how can I? If someone killed my pops, I would be rooting for vengeance.
It's hard to try and swallow the "Official" facts we have been fed. I cannot in good conscience just accept things for truth that don't hold any weight. "How's it feel to treated like a sucker? How's it feel to get treated like a bitch?" (see ZEITGEIST for more info)
With that said, I can still be a Patriot. I can still be a proud American. I may not be proud of what a SMALL group of Evil Americans are doing to Human Kind, but I am damn proud of other Americans:
Yeah, I'm proud to be American! Jimi Hendrix made me that way...
I was on a couch tour in Ocean Beach that day. I was woken up by my friend's answering machine (remember those?) screaming "Turn on the news. They're attacking New York! They blew up the World Trade Center. Turn on the TV..."
My thoughts go out to all who lost someone that day.
