Public Enemy "He Got Game"

Stick with me, MVY listeners . . .

I was following a Facebook thread last night from a friend whose musical tastes run shockingly similar to mine.  The post was based around late 80s/early 90s rap music, starting with The Beastie Boys amazing back-to-back records "Paul's Boutique" and "Check Your Head."  Further comments cited De La Soul, Black Sheep, Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy, among others, as producing great albums in that era.

Then the thread host mentioned Public Enemy's "He Got Game" soundtrack, and wham! I was hit with a little bolt of lightning.

I am certain that I have not thought about that song since it played on WABN, some 15 years ago.

How certain am I that it was erased from my memory?  When the song came on I thought, "Oh yeah, the song where they sample 'For What It's Worth' a little too heavily."  While completely forgetting that STEPHEN STILLS IS IN THIS VIDEO!!!  They didn't just sample, Stephen Fucking Stills performed with Public Enemy?!?!

This isn't the kind of thing that slips your mind for a second.  Either it's there, or it's not there.

For me, it was definitely not there.  Until now.


Hey mvyradio listeners, I know many of your aren't interested in Public Enemy, but you gotta at least skip ahead to 2:20, when Stills shows up.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Soul Coughing "Uh, Zoom Zip"

When people talk about the Landmark sample-based records that middle America latched on to, where is Soul Coughing in that discussion?

The Beastie Boys "Paul's Boutique," the first 3 Public Enemy albums and De La Soul's "Three Feet High And Rising" are all seminal, in terms of ridding the prejudice against samples and beats. They met with varying levels of commercial success, but they are all records that people returned to years later for ideas and examples.

"Ruby Vroom" should be part of that canon, and I can't figure out why it isn't. It's such a smart record and it one-ups the others mentioned above, with lots of live playing---real drumming, a heavy bottom stand-up bass groove, and dense, imaginative lyrics that you could spend hours and hours parsing out.

It's an under-appreciated classic, to my mind.

Hear "Uh Zoom Zip"