Old School Mondays:: Chill Rob G. vs. Snap!

My initial OSM for 2009 was a 20 year flashback to some of '89's top hip hop jams, one of which was from Chill Rob G. In that post, I made mention of the fact that I've always felt bad that Rob got jerked over by Snap - I mean, it's hard not to - Rob put out a couple solid albums, but is still largely unknown by the general public, while the shiesty Germans behind Snap! had a number 1 hit (in the UK!) and have a permanent place on the no-doubt lucrative one hit wonder circuit.

For those not up on their early 90's, rap vs. dance-rap controversies, Snap's The Power was originally created by sampling the lyrics from Chill Rob G.'s Let The Words Flow (and not to mention the drums from Mantronix). Well as one might imagine, Rob wasn't happy with someone taking his vocals, creating a new songs around them, and then releasing it under their name. Imagine that. Anyway, Rob and the Germans came to a compromise, and he recorded a version of his lyrics over their track. But the Germans shafted Rob again by recruiting Turbo B (aka the huge faced, scary dude with the poorly maintained high-top fade) to re-record the lyrics.

I mean, I can understand why they would've had to jack some vocals - it was Germany in 1990, where would they find someone who could rap (or even knew what it was?). But after Rob agreed to redo the lyrics for them, why would they then get some random US soldier stationed in Germany that used to be a drummer in a heavy metal band in Pitt to rap when the original article was on offer? I have no idea, but why do Germans do anything? They can be a wacky bunch of folks. So as I've said, I've always felt bad about this miscarriage of justice, mainly because I too was duped. Yes, I owned a cassingle of The Power, the Snap! version. But once i realized how the song was created, I don't think it left its protective cardboard sleeve from that point on.

So here you go, you can check out the original source, Let The Words Flow, which is a pretty cool song, and Rob's verses are very well-written - you can see why sticky-fingered German remixers might take a shine to them (I mean Turbo B even has the never to drop that "copy written lyrics so they can't be stolen" bit, that is just shameless). Then you can check the two version of The Power and decide for yourself who really has The Power. That said, if you side with the Snap! version, you are either still rocking parachute pants and doing the run, or you're kind of wack. Enjoy!