Once again we’re back on the Old School Tuesday plan, making it back-to-back weeks that our blast of Old School hip hop goodness has been a day delayed, but I’m afraid it couldn’t be helped. We had a softball playoff tournament this weekend, and it turns out that when you combine being kind of old with playing 8 softball games in 2 days, you end up kind of sore and pretty much coma-tired.
So in honour of that softball overload, and because of the fact that the MLB playoffs are looming (although, as a now only mildly interested Jays fan, the playoffs don’t interest me too much), I tried to come up with some baseball-related songs for OSM. I came up with 3 pretty solid ones on my own, and then Kelly Googler came through with a face-first chin busting slide and reminded me of a rather obvious gem. So then, on to our starting lineup.
Leading off, we have perhaps the crown jewel of baseball-as-metaphor-for-life rap songs, Main Source’s Just A Friendly Game Of Baseball, which is really just a great song. Large Pro is completely in his element on this one “What’s the call? FOUL BALL”. Next up we have one that might be a little more obscure, but any hip hop merd worth his salt has certainly heard it. Saga Of Dandy The Devil & Day by the legendary Ultramagnetic MC’s finds Ced Gee and Kool Keith telling Negro League tales over a funky, horn-laced track. In the valuable 3-hole, we have one that might actually be obscure: Hittin’ Hard Balls from old school Philly crew Tuff Crew. I know very little about these guys, other than they were kind of a Philly rap supergroup formed around DJ Too Tuff, who is kind of an underground legend amongst certain DJ’s. I had a compilation called Pride – One Voice that I bought somewhere back in the day, and this was easily my favorite song on the tape – it’s classic late 80′s hip hop at its best.
Hitting cleanup we have Return Of The Crooklyn Dodgers from Chubb Rock, Jeru & O.C. off of the Clockers soundtrack. Truth be told, the original Crooklyn Dodgers track Crooklyn (with Masta Ace, Buckshot & Special Ed) from the movie of the same name was more my jam – I played the heck out of that song, but this one here is no slouch either. Well that, and I can’t find the original song anywhere, so we’ll have to go with this one. I doubt anyone will complain much, in fact complaining about anything Chubb Rock-related will get you a banning from the hill, so you’d be wise to zip it. Plus look at the jorts & tucked in shirt combo the Chubbster is sporting in the video, it’s worth the price of admission alone. Enjoy.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
MP3:: Main Source – Just A Friendly Game Of Baseball
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
MP3:: Ultramagnetic MC’s – Saga Of Dandy The Devil & Day
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
MP3:: Tuff Crew – Hittin’ Hard Balls
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
MP3:: Chubb Rock, Jeru & O.C. – Return Of The Crooklyn Dodgers
VIDEO:: Crooklyn Dodgers 95 – Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers