Songs I've been jammin' this week

Mac Dre - Dipped When They See Me



If there's specific sub-genre of rap I'm all up on like a knat on a dog's dick (no Bodil Joensen), it's exotic Egyptian soundin' rap. 'Twas born back in the mid 80s with Egyptian Lover and tracks like Triple Threat by the Z3 MC's, and then disappeared until the noughties when it was revived by Mac Dre with tunes like So Hard and Dipped When They See Me, before Prodigy became the most effective exponent of it circa NHIC 2 with a lil' help from Sid Roams and Alchemist. I'm pushing for a full-scale trend in '010 and hoping Prodigy will emerge from jail to do a tune with Big Noyd over the music from the Amstrad CPC 464 version of Oh Mummy.

John Carpenter & Alan Howarth - Transient Hotel



The great thing about John Carpenter soundtracks on vinyl is that they sound great played at 33 or 45 RPM, but the great thing about Carpenter soundtracks in general is that, although the music would always be tailored to the movie in question (the They Live soundtrack soundtrack from which this comes contains nods towards Western incidental music and Ry Cooder), his whole trademark synthesizer steez would always be intact. Seriously, how can you go wrong with a John Carpenter soundtrack cut which was set to a magic sunglasses wearing Rowdy Roddy Piper roaming around town blasting undercover aliens and brawling with Keith David?

Michael Sembello - Maniac



Some people rewatch Flashdance for the Rock Steady Crew scene, but my reasons for any subsequent views have always been for the 'yatches in lyrca and the 2nd greatest UK number one by a US artist in the 80s after Easy Lover by Philip Bailey ft. Phil Collins, which is a considerable accomplishment given that it's up against the likes of Call Me by Blondie, Candy Girl by New Edition, Billie Jean, 19 by Paul Hardcastle, Into The Groove by Madonna, and Jack Your Body by Steve "Silk" Hurley. Thank fuck for 80s pop or I could never put anything on jukeboxes in 95% of northern pubs without getting jeered by the regulars for inflicting "monkey music" or "fucking sweat music" on the place.

Doug E. Fresh - Back In The Dayz



Man, Eard and I had been looking for this for years after hearing it on a Funk Flex radio show from 1993, but had all but given up ever finding it as we'd concluded it was some promo exclusive 1 copy only Doug hooked Flex up with until Step One came through with the info that it was the b. side of a 12" made during Doug's tenure with MC Hammer's Bust It Records imprint and a complimentary mp3, which will do just fine until the 12" of it I snagged off eBay on sunday morning arrives. Doug rhyming over classic breaks in 1992 is similar to Nas rhyming over a played-out sample like J.B's The Boss in 2002 : you want to hate it on principle alone because it's so lazy, but the result is just so dope that you can't help but get down to it like you're Teen Wolf at the prom.

The Freeze - Refridgerator Heaven



Okay, it's not quite the MrChiCity video which got us all open back in 2008, but it's as good as any of the Freeze songs on This Is Boston Not L.A or Violent Arrest, which is no mean feat as Violent Arrest features the best back-up vocals in the history of recorded music. How can you even describe them? The closest comparison I can come up with is HBK doing kareoke performances of Joe Denunzio from Infest.

B.G - I Want It



Simply because it's the best non-Mannie produced, post-classic-era single by a (former) Ca$h Money Records artist not based on a song from U.N.L.V's Uptown For Life album, or not featuring The Clipse and The Neptunes at their '02 - '03 peak.

Andre Williams - Jailbait



Motorhead - Jailbait



It's not dodgy to think that the hottest Jody Foster ever looked was as Iris in Taxi Driver if it's actual factz, is it? Just because Sport said she was 12 years old it doesn't mean it's actually true, because Sport was a lying junkie pimp who wore his kecks pulled up to his adam's apple. She could've been much older. Like 13. Anyhoo, long before the likes of Michael, Gary, Pete and Robert were getting busted for diddling pre-pubescents, 50s R&B singers like Andre Williams and and 70s/80s NWOBHM bands who ended up knockin' out wrestler entrance themes like Motorhead were waxing lyrical about the joys and perils of Lollitas without grass on their lady-gardens.

Curtains - Exodus



Even though he annoyingly spells his name out like my teenage nephew texts, I like Curtains because he sorta reminds me of Grand Puba, and his business modus operandi is kinda comparable some late 90s indie rapper, only he's replaced 12" singles with Youtube viral video singles. He leaked an mp3 of this around the same point he also leaked Genesis so I slept on this one until a video appeared for it last week and I awoke from my slumber to chalk this one up as another banger. Note to rappers : more songs with Doo-Wop samples plz.