Reviews by a Rapper: MC Sergio - Makin' A Killin'

I sat in a dark alley.


My car's engine idled and sputtered before finally coming to rest. I promised myself I'd get a tune up, but right now there were more pressing issues.

I waited in the alley...anxious.

A figure appeared behind a cloud of mist bursting from a cracked pipe by a fire escape. Could that be him? As the figure got closer I marked the ratty old hat and stained trench coat. I committed everything to memory that I could, but the most important thing was missing: a face. His collar seemed to conceal his entire face. At first glance one might think there was a black hole where his face should have been.

He sat a small package on the damp concrete and stepped back through the smoke before i had a chance to react. I got out of the vehicle...walking slowly toward the mysterious package. i reached down to pick it up- the sound of metal clanging to the side of me! I whipped around to see a rat scuttling away. The pest had knocked over a paint can and scared the hell out of me in the process. I grabbed the package without hesitation this time, turned around and hurried back to the car.

A wry smile crept onto my face as i opened the package...it contained a single cd: MC Sergio "Making A Killin'".



Okay so maybe it didn't happen that way, but still, I am peeping this MC Sergio album, and since you're here...lets talk about it.


The first thing Travis told me in prep for this album review was that it'd be an artist/album that I'd never heard. He was right...I ain't neeeever heard of MC Sergio. There's honestly not a lot of info on him so the music will had to speak for itself.

As far as the sound, it's about right for the time (late 80's). Drum breaks, funky loops, the prerequisite club song as well as the song about the lady-killing rapper vs. the man-eater that was almost too much (in the end the rapper always bones). There's also the "I'm the most dangerous emcee" song. Pretty much all of it is here, for what its worth.

Sergio himself sounds like a cross between a young L.L. Cool J (think "I Need Love" L.L.) and a young Chris Rock (Think I'm Gonna Git You Sucka). That's kinda worth a listen on it's own. The beats have a lot of the things that a hip hopper/crate digger would know right of the bat. This isn't a good or a bad thing. I guess that's the biggest problem with this album. Nothing really stands out. The skirt chasing antics of "Sarrona" are amusing, the club song "Here We Go Again" is entertaining for all the wrong reasons. Other high notes include "Nothing But The Money", a set of cautionary tales about being obsessed with money, "Your My Opponent" and "Self Destruct". However, the ideas and concepts on these songs have all been done somewhere else...and more effectively at that.


As we know though, everything isn't for everybody. If your looking for a straight classic you won't find it with MC Sergio, but if you're a hip-hopper that loves the late 80's sound you may just find something to love here.




http://rapidshare.com/files/258594703/mc_sergio_-_making_a_killin___1989_.rar

1. Sarrona
2. The Journalist
3. Wanted Dead Or Alive
4. Here We Go Again
5. Nothin' But The Money
6. Makin A Killin'
7. No Half Steppin
8. Your My Oppnent
9. In The Name Of Love
10. Self Destruct




I give it a 2 1/2 stars out of 4. Or...I would if i had a rating system, some star stickers or something. But you guys came this far with me...use your imaginations! Concentrate! You can see them can't you?? The staaaaaars-

*sigh*

Yea. Me neither.






-Lo

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Old School Appreciation Week: Day One

As the art form grows on, the perception of what is "old school" keeps moving up closer and closer. I hear a lot of younger cats saying that the early 90's are now "old school". Besides making me feel older, all that really shows me is that the art form is achieving longevity, which is a good thing. Hip Hop as a culture and art form has been going on thirty plus years now. Thirty loooong years that have seen so much change, some for the good, some for the not so good. I'm a firm believer in something Krs once said, "If you don't know the history of the author, then you don't know what you are reading." Now this can be applied to just about anything, but when applying it to hip hop, I believe it is even more true. If you don't know your history about HOW hip hop came to be and it's early days, then you can't really say you are "down" with the culture as a movement, as a art form and as the music that we all love so dearly.

I personally look at the old school as anything pre-Run DMC, which would be roughly before 1982. I'm sure some cats older than myself would say anything pre-Sugar Hill Gang and the 1979 mark. I'm old enough to be able to say I've been into hip hop since 1986. While I wasn't in New York City during those days, I can proudly say I know what it was like to pick up Boogie Down Productions "By All Means Necessary" or Public Enemy's "It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back" when they originally dropped. I'm not saying I'm any better than anyone else for my ability to be able to proclaim that, I'm just older is all. But when it comes to the "old school" material such as Treacherous Three, Crash Crew, Funky 4+1 and others, I've had to do my homework just like anyone else.

When I originally got into hip hop in a hardcore frenzied state, which would have been around 1988, I started tracking down anything I could. It would be during this time that I got my hands on one of those K-Tel old school releases. It mainly had Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five material on it, such as "The Message", "White Lines (Don't Do It)", and other classics. Admittedly, I wasn't quite sure what to make of the sound of Flash and the Furious Five. It sounded so much different than what I was hearing (only a mere six to eight years earlier) at the present day so I didn't really appreciate what I was hearing. I suppose today, kids would say stuff that came out in '88 sounds mad dated, but if you really look at it, the sound hasn't progressed much in the last 15 years or so since. That alone is a testament of just how much things were changing and evolving back then.

This week, I'd like to go over some of the old school mp3's I have stashed away. Most of these, no check that, ALL of these have come off the internet since I haven't had a way to convert the tapes I used to buy from the back of the Source in the early 90's. Most of them come from one original source, Wu-Tang Corp message boards, which I found out about from Rafi on OhWord.com about a year ago (big ups to "MemoryMan", whoever you may be). While I was doing some research on some of these, I realized that I'm not the only who has dropped these on a blog or a forum, but I figure the more people that know about these, the better. It's about not forgetting the history, the originators of the hip hop music. Once the beginnings are forgot, then the culture and the music is left without a proper knowledge of what it is.

L. Brothers vs. The Herculoids at Bronx River Center 1978

Any true hip hop head should know who the Herculoids were and their standing within the culture. Known as the originator of this whole hip hop culture we repersent, DJ Kool Herc is the reason you are reading this right now, he is the reason for any of this. Herc was known for his monster sound system back in the 70's. He started off by playing in the parks, at the house party's and later up in the rec centers around the Bronx. His influence would spread through out the projects and soon there would be others. By 1978, others were stepping up to challenge Herc and his Herculoids, made up of Coke La Rock and Clark Kent (not that one). In in his own right, Herc had already started to falter some with Afrika Bambaataa and Flash already starting their own rise. This battle takes place in the legendary Bronx River Rec Center as the L Brothers step up in Herc's own stomping grounds (Herc played man a party at that Rec center back in the day) and basically shit all over Herc and his crew. The L Brothers aren't quite as well known in the grand scale of hip hop lore. They were made up DJ's Cordio, Grand Wizard Theodore, and Mean Jean along with MC's Kevie Kev, Robby Rob aka Master Rob, and the one and only Busy Bee Star Ski. Kevie Kev basically straight up disrespects Herc and his crew. At one point there is a female MC that grabs the mic and spits some venom as well.

This tape is a piece of history. The site that is the old school authority on the web, Jayquan.com ranks it #7 in the top 10 old school tapes.

"This is a very popular tape because it is the L. Brothers. During this time no one really did routines just yet. Funky 4 was about the first along with the Furious. The Herculoids never get on, on this tape.But much reference is made to the Herculoids by the L. Brothers in fact Kevie Kev or Busy Bee show absolutely no respect to The Herculoids. Saying often that they were no competition. Can you believe today a ticket for a show might cost 25 to 50 dollars. The night after this show at a place called Rock city on 169 and prospect the tickets cost $2 before 12midnite. Female M.C. Smiley even puts here mack down. J.D.L. is called Jerry Lewis at this time. The flip side has Theodore rocking the record “Super Sperm” like no one else. Busy Bee and Master Rob rock real well and this is at the T-Connection in 1979. Zulu and Sundance come on next and he rocks the Echo chamber along with Jazzy Jay."

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