Records

Rip It Up, Issue 144, 1 July 1989, Page 28

Records

MCHAMMER Let’'s Get It Started (Capitol) ‘ Great name, it inspires confidence, like Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine, the WWF's master of the figure-four. Like the name suggests, this MC likes to slam

his rhymes, with lots of vocal : accompaniment with the Posse yelling “Go MCHammer” at every chance. Very Sugarhill party time aggression. Like “a nuclear shower,” MC Hammer tells usin ‘Feel My Power’. It begins well with the intro using Parliament’s Tear The Roof Off The Sucker’ chant, and then Hammer stressing his teacher credentials in ‘Let’s

traditionalist, | like this brag style of rap, what's the point in notsaying how much better you are than every other rapper, you have to affack firstand then ask the questions. So l like his aggressive stance, but I'm not sure he can sustain it. 'Sowe have the ballads of ‘lt's Gone’ using BB King’s ‘Thrill Is Gone’ and the religious ode of ‘Son Of AKing'. In a way this is mainstream hip-hop, the beats get hot but don't catch fire,

DJs Lone Mixer and Redeemed stay in the background, so there’s no real

scratch fever or brutal cuts, everything flows like FM radio. Eventhe turntable sounds like Prince, a bad move for the hardcore audience, but maybe justthe thing for wider support which, going by US chart positions, they’ve found. like this new-found popular

acceptance of hip-hop, even on ads for fried chicken (as the Colonel noted about about black people, “Well, they eat chicken don'tthey!”) because it gives the hip-hop form the prominence it deserves. Things like MC Hammer may notfind favour with the hardcore PE / Eric B crowd, but itflies the flag, it allows people to get into the art form, and they discover all its other aspects. More power to the Hammer for spreading the word. KERRY BUEHANAN

WHITE ZOMBIE Make Them Die Slowly (Virgin) Apparently Iggy is into this band so that must be good enough reason to find out whatthey're like, especially

since Bill Laswell has gone to the trouble of producing them. Their name is appropriate because if you imagine what a zombie must sound like growling aboutin the dark then Rob Straker s it. Definitely thrashy stuff so don't expect any high calibre musicianship but one - canimagine they would be alive act worth catching. The seven tracks are quite long and with titles like : ‘Demonspeed’, ‘Acid Flesh’ and ‘Godslayer’, they are raw stuffindeed. GEOFFDUNN FUNKWRITERWANTED RipltUpislooking for a young funk / dance music writer o contribute to our record reviews section. lf interested send a typed 200 word (or less) review of a new funk or soul or dance music LPto Rip/tUp Editor, PO Box 5689, Auckland 1.