Hello everyone, and welcome to the inagural edition of "You've Probably Never Heard This Before But...", the blog that endeavours to provide you with ear-opening experiences of music that you most likely have never come across. Now that's not to say that you haven't heard of SOME of the titles that will be discussed here, but chances are pretty damn good that you haven't heard ALL of them. Please note that this is not a blog intended to promote one artist/song over another, nor is it an attempt to stand on a soapbox shouting out my favourite music to the world. Rather I am attempting to expunge the wealth of music/song knowledge that is currently trapped in my brain, and I figure this is the best way to do it!!
Just to explain how things are going to work here, everyday I will post a new song, with a link to some form of audio/video and a brief rundown of why I deem this song significant enough to be archived here. The genres of music that we will be covering here are extremely diverse, ranging from Hip Hop to Metal, New Wave to Country, African Folk to American Bluegrass, etc. No style will be left untouched in our search for musical excellence.
So let's get on with it shall we......
Number One With A Bullet by Kool G Rap & DJ Polo
Release Date : 1992
Album : Live and Let Die
Although maybe not as popular a track as a couple of others on this album (Ill Street Blues or On The Run come to mind), this blazing piece of poetry kicks it harder than any other on this LP. Kool G Rap (the G is for Genius) fires through the first verse with a reckless, take-no-prisoners attitude. Kool G is on point here with his multisyllabic delivery and rapid-fire lyrical assault. Guest star Big Daddy Kane handles the second verse with his usual smooth bravado. Kane compliments Kool G's style extremely well as he is also capable of delivering a whirlwind lyric line albeit with a much smoother tone. The production from DJ Polo and Sir Jinx is a great piece of underground sampling with a very lo-fi, garage-like quality to it.
This was the third and final album released by this seminal group whose members were part of the legendary "Juice Crew", which also featured Marley Marl, Biz Markie, Mr. Magic and MC Shan. They along with KRS-One's Boogie Down Productions fought what is now known as "The Bridge War", one of the hip-hop scenes first "battles". Thankfully for all involved there were no casualties. "Live and Let Die" stands as a watershed album in the hip-hop genre and has been called quite possibly the "crowning achievement" of the group in an article from allmusic. The same article goes on to state...
"If you were to take this duo's best five songs away from them, they'd still be one of the top duos rap music has ever seen."
The following is a link to that very article....
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:6gqag4kbtv6z
While I stated above that this was not a single from the album nor is it the most well known track, I believe this to be the track most indicative of this group and this style of hip-hop as well as an excellent snapshot of the time that it was released in. That is why I have selected this track for inclusion in this blog. Oh, I almost neglected to mention the highly controversial cover which shows two white men in nooses looking very much like a meal for the two Rottweilers in front of them. This created quite the buzz in the media back in 1992 and led to the album being pulled from many shelves. Out of print for many years, it was not until 2008 that the album was re-released.
Well that's about it for Day One from here. I apologize if it wasn't a little longer but it's always tough the first go around. As we get more used to the format here I promise to come back and explore these early attempts whenever possible. Until tomorrow then.....
Kevin Fever
For Further Reading on Kool G Rap & DJ Polo please check the following links....
http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,454581,00.html
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