Long time readers will remember this post as a re-run. Not that I'm running out of ideas, but when I started this, I wasn't planning on almost working 60 hours this week, which is what I'm on target to do. Top that with doing taxes all night last night and a couple late nights earlier in the week and my ass is dragging. But this was a good post, so hey, if you haven't seen it before, pretend like you didn't read this and assume that it is new. -Trav
I'm no where near a bass "expert" by any stretch of the mind. I listened to it from '88 until about '91, then I got swept up in the new have of NYC material coming out during that time. None the less, I did have my favorite bass and bass related albums. It'd be easy to say any 2 Live Crew album (which were all good in those early years), but I seemed to gravitate to some of the more obscure things, which I have the habit of doing. So, without further rambling, I present WYDU's Top Five Favorite Bass Albums....
5 (TIE). MC Shy D - Commin' Correct in '88 http://rapidshare.com/files/172630816/MC_Shy_D_-_Comin__Correct_In_88.rar
I really can't remember who or what got me originally into MC Shy D. I want to say it was like a lot of cats in those days did it. Anytime I bought a new tape, I would pull out the liner notes and read the "Thanks To..." from whatever artist. This would usually list a bunch of other rap groups and artists. I can remember reading MC Shy D's name being mentioned in those quite often. Or it could have been for the fact he was signed to Luke Skyywalker Records for his first couple efforts and I picked up one of the tapes strictly based on that. Whatever the case, at one time, my next door neighbor neighbor and I had all of MC Shy D's albums. Shy D was out of Atlanta, which surprisingly had a few groups dropping material in the late 80's, such as Shy D and Success N Effect (another favorite Bass flavored album, at least their debut effort).
This particular album, my buddy bought and I ripped it off of him (another example of kids always pirating music). I remember I wore the tape out, but of course it was on one of those super cheap tape brands as well. While his first album, Got To Be Tough, and his third album, Don't Sweat Me, are both very good, it was Shy D's sophomore album, Commin' Correct in '88 that was my personal favorite. From the first track, "I Am Rough", with it's stripped down drum track with a nice funk guitar sample and 808 kick drum, it sounds like it might be a traditional 80's hip hop album. Lyrically, Shy D always reminded me of a southern Steady B, which is probably why I liked his material. "Just My Caddy" tackles the favorite car of most Miami Bass artists, the Cadillac. "I Don't Want To Treat You Wrong" jumped on the bandwagon of every rapper had to have a love song on his shit. This was Shy D's attempt, but what makes the track so important is that it's one of the first times I heard the Isley Brother's "In Between The Sheets" sample used. Biggie and numerous other cats made the sample famous over the years, but Shy D beat them to it. My two personal favorite songs from the album, "Shake It" and "I Don't Play" liberally use electric guitar riffs, ala Beasties and Run DMC, but I loved that shit. I guess it was the white boy in me. All together though, this is a great album that has gotten a lot of play over the years from me.
Poison Clan's "2 Low life Muthas" has long been a favorite "ig'nant" album of mine as well as a favorite bass themed album. They came along the lines of 2 Live Crew, which is obvious by the "Baby 2 Live Crew" moniker the album was blessed with on the cover. Debanior and JT Money were a cross between good ole fashion gangsta rap and the Miami Bass sound. The album was produced by 2 Live Crew's Mr. Mixx, and contains a lot of familiar breaks and sounds, but it was perfect for 16 year old high school kids back in the day such as myself. Classic album in the WYDU frame of mind.
The lead track, "2 Low Life Mutha F----s" is as dirty and hard hitting as they come. As I said, the 2 Live influence is all over the album, as they curse out bitches, punks and anyone frontin' on them over a hard as hell drum track. The only "safe" track, "Dance All Nite" is probably the most traditional when it comes to the Miami Bass genre. It's all there for a club banger. The rest of the album is pure ignorance, all over that Miami flavor that was mad popular in those days.
| 01 | Low Life Mutha Fuckas (4:32) | |
| 02 | Spoiled Rotten (4:40) | |
| 03 | Jeri Curl (4:19) | |
| 04 | The Bitch That I Hate (4:34) | |
| 05 | Dance All Nite (4:07) | |
| 06 | Poison Freestyle (5:16) | |
| Featuring - Brother Marquis , Tony M.F. Rock* | ||
| 07 | Flaugin' (4:39) | |
| 08 | Bad Influence (4:12) | |
| 09 | You Gets Nothin' (4:49) | |
| 10 | The Neighborhood Haps (2:51) | |
| 11 | Juveniles (7:02) | |
2. DJ Magic Mike & MC Madness - Ain't No Doubt About It
I going through the blog looking to see if I had written anything about this album before, and surprisingly enough I didn't see anything. If I haven't, that's a shame, because when it comes to the bass genre, DJ Magic Mike & MC Madness' "Ain't No Doubt About It" is a great album for many different reasons. First of all, it's got bass, and a lot of it. This is probably the first "true" Miami bass album on the list, simply because this album will blow up any car system not properly installed. It can rattle dishes in a house from a mile away. Tracks like "Do You Like Bass" and "Feel The Bass III" concentrates on that ultra low bass that will make you pee yourself if not careful.
Also for a bass album, it was wide on variety and MC Madness, who will never be confused for Rakim, could hold his own on the mic. Tracks like "Dynamic Duo" contained the best of both worlds, adrenaline producing music and bone jarring bass. It got your blood pumping and I probably would consider it one of my bass influenced jams of all time. Magic Mike had a string of albums that went gold, with very little airplay and no videos from what I remember. He did that with a cult following and making quality bass joints, and this is the pennacle of it all.
DJ Magic Mike & MC Madness - Ain't No Doubt About It (Cheetah Records, 1991)
| 01 | Speedy And Poncho | |
| 02 | Sgt. Fester | |
| 03 | Ain't No Doubt About It | |
| 04 | Dynamic Duo | |
| 05 | Do You Like Bass? | |
| 06 | Class Is In Session | |
| 07 | Slow Draggin | |
| 08 | Exile Via Freestyle | |
| 09 | Cellular Phone #1 | |
| 10 | Madness To The Brink Of Insanity | |
| 11 | Just Cruisin | |
| 12 | Suckers Frontin | |
| 13 | I'm Gonna Make It Real Funky For You | |
| 14 | Orlando's In The House | |
| 15 | Dance All Night | |
| 16 | The E And The Sea-Gull | |
| 17 | Give 'Em An Example How A DJ Works | |
| 18 | Abracadabra | |
| 19 | Feel The Bass. III | |
| 20 | Shake Your Booty Baby | |
| 21 | The Boo-Boo Of Rough J. Rough | |
| 22 | Murder In The 1st Degree | |
| 23 | Cellular Phone #2 |
The holy grail of all bass albums, MC ADE's How Much Can You Take. It is my favorite of the genre. Hard hitting bass, possibly the hardest I've ever ran across (I never listened to those car audio joints, so those might have more) that would just roll so hard, but would be so clear. Maybe it was the way I had my system set up or something, but this was the CD I'd use to test out any car stereo. "Hit Harder" was my shit, but "Control", "How Much Can You Take", and "Da' Train" all had crazy crazy bass. Some of the other tracks were traditional hip hop tracks, but still had that kick behind them.
I remember my best friend's cousin was visiting from Vegas and he played this for us. I fell in love with it. It was something that we couldn't find in my little ho-dunk town at the time, so I think I ended up trading him a 12 pack of beer (as seniors in high school, getting beer was a bit of a chore) for the CD itself. Somehow over the years I lost it, but it was pretty beat up anyway. I finally got the hook up from my man Tommy B over at Miscreant Productions. This is an ebay and amazon treasure with people paying around hundred bucks and more for the CD and wax versions.
MC A.D.E. - How Much Can You Take (4-Sight Records, 1989)01 Go A.D.E
02 How Much Can You Take
03 To The Fan's
04 Sex, Crime, Drugs
05 Hit Harder
06 Da 'Train
07 A.D.E. Got It Going On
08 Lyric Licking
09 Money Hounding Ho's
10 Physician
11 It's Crazy
12 Control
As for what the roots of Miami Bass are, my research suggests it's multi-pronged. The first element is simply the end of Miami's massive TK Records in 1981, yet, the continuation of Tone Distribution. Henry Stone (the man behind both) knew the dollars sold on Planet Rock in 1982 since he helped distribute it -- so he hired guns (Joe Galdo, Freddy Stonewall, Larry Dermer, et al) to recreate something similar for the next couple years to be released on his new label Sunnyview. The second element was when the never-released B-Boy film Cry of the City came to town in the Spring of 1984. They (former mob boss Michael Franzise and company) were the first to hire Amos Larkins as a record producer (rather than session man as Henry had been doing prior) for the MC Flex & The FBI Crew release (Rockin' It). Henry distributed that too, knew the numbers sold, and gave Amos an outlet at Sunnyview's sublabels in 1984 (leading to Double Duce, which was a string of singles, not an album). The third prong was the success of Rubin's sustained 808 jams that led to the *Top 40* success of LL's Rock the Bells in 1985. That hit inspired Amos & Henry, and subsequently MC A.D.E. (who denies the 16th b'day point now). ADE and his dad were selling tons of Amos records from their Royal Sounds store, so he hired Amos to produce a 4-Sight single (Bass Rock Express). That record caused a national trend for bass (Rodney O in LA, Original Concept in NY, T La Rock in NY, etc). Technically, that was the beginning of Miami Bass - but the elements as we know it today all came together as a result of South Florida park DJs in 1985/1986, who knew the crowd wanted the tempo of 1984 era Electro, and the sustained 808 kick of 1985 Amos/Rubin tracks -- so they played sets of both. Once 2 Live Crew was beginning to relocate to Florida in 1986, they brought the elements together in one song (Throw the D). Luke was just a DJ/promoter with Ghetto Style DJs at the time (and he invested in/managed 2 Live by then), and his success playing Throw the D at his Pac Jam club showed other producers what to do. By August of 1987, the SP1200 sampler came out changing Hip-Hop to sample based music, however, nowhere outside of NYC was part of the pedigree that produced and used Breakbeat Lenny's Ultimate Breaks and Beats series of samples -- so South Florida (and the West Coast) used the SP1200 differently, giving us "Give it All You Got" and the remainder of the 2nd wave bass (through 1991)[this means Lyn Collins' "Think" was not part of the Miami Bass palette as that was from UB&B initially]. Once 2 Live broke up, Mr. Mixx moved to Oakland leaving Luke Records without an inhouse producer (this is also when the MPC60II took hold to replace the SP1200). Without Mr. Mixx creating hits for Luke, and with Magic Mike having moved onto Hank Shocklee inspired Hip-Hop, the scene needed new inspiration in late 1991/early 1992. That was the reason for Devastator's extreme uptempo "booty shake" sound (think I Wanna Rock/Doo Doo Brown & Shake Watcha Mama Gave Ya). By 1992/1993, everyone copied Devastator's sound (and JT Money's vocal cadence) for the next so many years (or came from outside South Florida, such as Tag Team or Quad City DJs). Later, Luke alumni such as DJ Toomp and other ATL Bass producers such as DJ Smurf (now Mr. Collipark) went on to produce huge HUGE top 40 new school rap hits for T.I. and Ying Yang, which brings us up to date. Despite these clarifications, it's nice to see much of my sentiments coming back to haunt me though...