8.23.2008

Female Rap Battle

Yes yes yes! If you thought my post about Def Dames was good...
sheeeeit, you ain't heard anything yet:
Come on and Get Some!

(Download "Come on and Get Some".mp3 by the Cookie Crew here!)

This is the first in an ostensible series
called:

___x___ BATTLE!!!

('x' is a variable, so it changes, but the battling aspect remains. Next time, I swear that I am shitting you not, is 'French pseudo-New Wave' Battle! EEEEP! Get excited OH WAIT you ALREADY totally are!)

Since I've already given you a taste of some Def Dames, and I just got this other record recently, the scene is set for an EPIC Battle between.....

Cookie Crew !!!! ((Some Very Bad Girls!))
Bad Girls (Rock the Spot).mp3 - Cookie Crew

and Def Dames !!!! ((They're 'bout to Set it Off!))
Set It Off.mp3 - Def Dames

Another well-sniffed out piece of vinyl!
The hints this time were:

A) it's on the ffrr label
(which I recalled put out LTJ Bukem's classic: Logical Progressions)




----- 1) And then I learned that ffrr was founded by none other than Pete Tong?!?! Hey Koob!!
----- 2)and also learned that ffrr stands for "full frequency range recordings"
----- 3) and that both the label's logo and it's name were both bitten from Decca!
:Stealing is fun!)

B) has a track called "black is the word"

C) has a track called "Dazzle's Theme"
(which you can download on mediafire

or stream from this little fella:



----- 1) which, as a "theme", must be the DJ's own special little jam. DJ's are one of the OFFICIAL pillars of hiphop (which broader than rap- rap itself is 'just' a pillar ), and so a Crew that is paying homage to their DJ understands the roots of hiphop. They get that you can't just spit rhymes, however good, over stupid beats.
Over STOOPID beats, yes, sure. That would be good, to do that.



Watch Cookie Crew on Youtube, that is, if you want to see some more of the above circa '90 "fashion":



D) had the same tracks on both sides (sort of...*), which means that it is a record meant for DJs. Lots of rap records have the same tracklisting on both sides. When you see duplicated tracklistings, you should assume that the vinyl is either
----- 1) a party jam (so that you can throw it on right-quick without looking for the right side) -OR-
----- 2) vocal tracks on one side, and the same tracks as instrumentals on the other (or, one side is Radio-edit [no cursing!] and the other is the LP version [shit-tons of cursing!])
----- ----- a) which demonstrates that you are holding some SERIOUS DJ shit in your hands...

*Sort of... it turns out that they just glued the same label on both sides!... which, since this was released on VINYL and CASSETTE only

(at least Stateside- did I mention that Cookie Crew is BRITISH?!? which makes their rapping skills that much more impressive. As I've said before, the British, despite speaking the very same language as Americans, could not figure out how to rap for the longest time! Go ahead and name 3 British rappers: see?)

means that I almost could not find out what the first side's tracks were. BUT someone commenting on amazon listed the tracks, and although they were for the British CD, and thus were still not exactly right, I made do. YOU ARE SO LUCKY that I put in that effort, huh?

Aw, you're welcome, you old so-and-so.

Now, Def Dames respect the DJ too. They gave him his own track too, wherein they query, "Do You Wanna Battle Tomkat????"


----- 1) the answer would be no, you do not want to Battle Tomkat ("Don't be a fool!"). He'll take your title, you sucka DJ!



Born this Way - Cookie Crew

There, now you tell me:
who won this here Battle?

3 comments:

Doctor J said...

Good stuff here.

Btw, you may want to weigh in on this: Most Important Hip-Hop Albums in History?

Anonymous said...

FFRR was not really founded by Pete Tong, in fact I'm not sure how it came to be a mostly Dance etc. label. I know this because my Mum had the soundtrack to the film "Kismet" on FFRR (same logo, same tagline, part of London Records) when I was a kid. The film was made in 1955, so the soundtrack was probably released the same year.

christophresh said...

You know, I just took that info straight offa Wikipedia- I should have known better.
My understanding NOW, after doing a little more research, is this:
Decca used to have a sub-label called FFRR. They don't anymore.
Tong's FFRR is a sub-label of London Records.
London Records used to be the American arm of Decca- that is, Decca records were released here under the "London" imprint.
BUT!-
London and Decca are now separate companies- Decca owned by Universal; London owned by Warner.
Confusing, yeah?

So I think that Tong just took the name and logo of a then-defunct old label and revitalized it.
You see a lot of that in rave culture- you know, these kids today, they have no respect for other people's property.
Or, we can say that have creative appropriation in their digitalized DNA.