The Class of '94

Ever since I was a kid listening to the drum core at Howard University from our old row house on Gresham Place in DC I had always had a love for music. I grew up overhearing my fathers dub and reggae collection, my mothers soul and R&B music and my grandfathers voice as he practiced for his choirs yearly presentation of Handels Messiah. Around 9 or 10 I began to listen to the hip-hop mix shows that ran late night on the radio stations betweeen DC and Baltimore and began to immerse myself in the culture or rhymes, beats, b-boying and graff (in appreciation if not execution). I made tapes by the dozen, collecting mixes, editing out the commercials putting in other tracks together and so forth. I would collect old cassets that my brother or friends would throw away, put scotch tape over the square holes on the top, and copy over them with my own mixes. I guess I was kind of obsessive.

But one day just about every thing changed.

I was maybe 13 and my brother tossed me a tape to record over that came with a copy of URB magazine. I thought it was just some house mix (I had a rabid hatred of house at that time) but gave it a listen anyway. It opened up with some one talking about "Original Dancehall Jungle is there" and the "junglist massive". That person was General Levy on M-Beat's "Incredible" the first Jungle song I ever heard (peep a cut of the video). The beat was unlike anything I had ever heard, dense, bass heavy, mix of dancehall and something mildly futristic.

however it was the next track that made my jaw drop and my mind turn in on itself trying to process what I was hearing. It was Shy FX with UK Apachi's Original Nuttah. take a listen.


the fact that I can hear this song almost 14 years later and it still gives me a chill is a testament to how ground breaking the track is. It was as if everything that I loved about all of the different genera of music that I listened to was distilled in to a single moment of, well, ecstasy. There was the heavy bass lines that was reminiscent of the dub that I would hear echoing thru the house, the multi layered percussion that sounded like a drum core on speed, the rapid fire patois of UK Apachi bridging the lyrical gap between hip-hop, reggae, and street preacher. The speed of the track was the answer to what I felt was killing hip hop, slow tempo and predictable beats.

If that was not enough, on the other side was Goldies "Inner City Life" an unapologetically beautiful team up between the vision of Goldie and the engineering skill of Moving Shadow founder Rob Playford. I could write for hours on this song but I think I will let it speak for itself.





And thus my journey through the Jungle began.

Friday mini Update with Burning Spear (for those not at the WMC)

Ok so I was all et to hit up some events this weekend in NYC, and went over to the Break Beat Science board to see what was going on, little did I know that most of the djs that I was hoping to catch are out of town for the Winter Music Conference in Miami. I don't blame em, especially after seeing some of the line ups in Vice City.

So I'm in a sun soaked mood even though its gray out here in New York. To get all of us through thi Friday night here is a bit of Burning Spear. The song is Walk from the 2005 album Our Music

you can get the album at Amazon.com

Ok so seems that the technical difficulties at the Kitchen Sink are mounting but that does not mean that I'm going to give up. So I'm going to hit you off with some classics, some unheard of sounds and something that might require a bit of translation.


First up is the legendary Hip Hop crew Boogie Down Productions. I was first introduced to BDP and the master MC KRS 1 via their Edutainment album which contained the classic "Loves Gonna Get Ya" and rather epic for its time "7 Dee Jays". That album combined with the 1992 release Sex and Violence provided the sonic foundation to the three years I spent in Columbia, MD. I am pretty sure that this video clip of "My Philosophy" and "I'm Still #1" was from the performance recorded for BDP's 1990 Live Hardcore Worldwide album, which is as far as I can tell the first live Hip Hop album ever. (If I'm wrong enlighten me in the comments section). By the way, the "I'm still #1" section is all freestyle. Sickness. And check the reaction of the crowd, the call and response. Thats real hip hop.



Ok to be honest I don't know much about this next MC, The Last Emperor. I came across this video of "Secret Wars" by chance a few months ago.Marvel vs. Hip Hop with the Earth as the prize! He has also done a track with KRS-1 and Zack De La Rocha from Rage Agains the Machine called "CIA" that is bangin'.


And now time for something a little different. When I was in Miami last October on vaction that timed itself between a pair of hurricanes, my girl and I were in a south beach chinese restaurant that had MTV Latino blasting on a pair of flat screen sets. Now I was bracing my self for a bunch of reggaton but was surprised when the first video we saw while waiting for our order was "Pal Norte"by Calle 13. Calle 13 is the brainchild of two Puerto Rican half brothers Residente and Visitante. They have been thrown in to the general reggaton category but simply consider there music urban, drawing from a variety of influences from traditional Puerto Rican roots to contemporary hip hop. "Pal Norte" is one of those few songs that has a banging track and beautiful lyrics. For those whose Spanish is as bad as mine here is a link to an English translation.