Monday, August 24, 2009

Old School Mondays:: (DJ) Hurricane Edition

This is an OSM I've been meaning to do for a while, but how I ended up posting it today is a little odd (but which of my little OSM theories isn't?). Anyway, as you may or may not know, this past weekend here in Halifax was all about one thing: Hurricane Bill. This big, fat underpowered storm had been on track to skirt right by the coast of our fair province, and perhaps bring with it some hectic weather. So we all got in prep/hype mode, only to receive what was essentially a very rainy day. Yes, the wind was rather strong, and for perhaps a 20 minute period, things were almost hurricane-like, but we were expecting something a little more grandiose.

So, sitting down last night to come up with an OSM idea found me trying to come up with something hurricane related. Turns out this isn't the easiest task, but there's one man I kept coming back to: Hurricane. I suppose most folks know Hurricane as the Beasties former DJ, but he's also a fairly successful MC in his own right, both as a member of the cult-famous The Afros and as a solo artist.

The Afros are easily in the gimmick rap hall of fame, as rapping in afro wigs is both ridiculous and awesome to the max. Of course, because acronyms were all the rage back in the day, Afros stood for "A Funky Rhythmic Organization Of Sounds", but it seems pretty obvious to me that Hurra, Kool Tee & co. just put the wigs on one day, thought it was hilarious and created a whole thing around it. Nothing wrong with that, as Kickin' Afrolistics was a pretty solid album and my cassette copy got plenty of run. The were on JMJ records, and I think Jam Master Jay (R.I.P.) produced some/all of the tracks on the album. As one might expect from a group called The Afros, this isn't the most serious album going, but it does some pretty awesome party rap tracks, like Coolin' With The Fros, and Feel It. And then of course, there's the jam they are remembered for: Kickin' Afrolistics. So for those of you out there who are close to my age, these songs will likely make you smile.

As for Hurricane's so work, I actually don't know much about it. His '94 solo record, The Hurra, was put out by Grand Royal I think, and the Beasties are featured on Four Fly Guys, so I have to think the Ack owned this album at some point. I think the B-Boys and Mario Caldato were involved in producing this record, so the tracks certainly feel a lot like the "hip hop" tracks on Check Your Head and Ill Communication - heavy bottom grinders that would pulverize eardrums if they would played through Milk Dee "big as your girl" type speakers. But they don't feel too 90's dated, so here's Elbow Room and Four Fly Guys, enjoy.