mo better beats

Rip It Up, Issue 216, 1 August 1995, Page 27

mo better beats

NAUGHTY BY NATURE Feel Me Flow (Tommy Boy)

Back again, the incredible rhyme animals, Naughty By Nature, with the first cut off their new album Poverty’s Paradise. Not bad either, considering most crews don’t survive a second hit album, let alone a third. ‘We came back cos we heard hip-hop needed another anthem,’ raps Treach, but this ain’t anything like ‘OPP’ or ‘Hip Hop Hooray’. Sure, there's still a party flavor but the song is more sophisticated this time, perhaps reflecting the crews age. Smoove with more than a touch of ragga.

JODECI Freak N You (MCA)

Never had much time for this crew, their lovesick psuedo-porn croonings make me wanna puke. Still, they have a huge following, and if you prefer your Boyz II Men with a lot more sexx in the lyrics, then this is for you. Personally I’ll stick with Adina Howard.

BOBBY BROWN Two Can Play That Game (MCA)

Since Bobby Brown seems more interested in making movies than records, these days his record company have been forced into re-mix-ing his old material and releasing it. Still, when you’ve got top techno producers K-Klass on the

case, you know the results are going to be good. Well, not terrible, at least. Actually, KKlass are outgunned by 283 Productions who aren’t credited on the cover, but also provide two re-mixes. Together, they give a very ‘now’ sound to an old song, that should provide even greater appeal to the white dance audience.

DJ FUNKMASTER FLEX Hot 97 Mixmaster Weekend (Zed Music)

Imported from the New York mixmaster specialists, this is the guy who every hip hopper worth his or her salt knows — and now the rest of the plebs do too, courtesy of the recent profile in Face magazine. Flex catches much wreck on the turntables, and you have to remind yourself constantly that he’s doing it all live on the steel wheels, without the aid of DAT players or samplers. Side one is the latest stuff (Mary J Blige, Notorious BIG, Method Man, TLC), but my favourite came on the B-side, with the 30 minute old school hip-hop jam: Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Dougey Fresh, Run DMC et al — all cut the fuck up wild style.

LOVE TO INFINITY Keep Love Together (Mushroom)

Classy English Eurohouse from the Manchester three-piece. With five mixes to choose from, my pick is the elongated ‘Paradise Mix’, although most would perhaps

go for the ‘Aphrodisiac Mix’, which was remixed and remastered at The Hit Factory in New York.

GRANDMASTER FLASH & MELLE MEL Don’t Do It (D&S Remix) (Central Station)

Speaking of re-mixing for the white dance audience... after signing the song away into the hands of Duran Duran I suppose this was inevitable. Dominic Sas and Serge Ramaekers have stripped away the hip-hop and replaced it with a hi-energy techno beat. If you can forget the original, then it’s actually quite a cool groove... if you can’t, then you’re likely to shake your head and cry — they had to speed up the rap in order to make it fit the beat! I’ve found that drinking helps.

NIGHTCRAWLERS Surrender Your Love \ (BMG) J

Never much liked this band, too clever by half. The production is superb, but then, aren’t they all these days? The song itself doesn’t really grab me by the short ’n’ curlies.

GREED Pump Up The Volume (Crash Bang!)

Actually, make that a double, ‘cause here we go again. Well, almost. Rather than doing a technofied cover of the MARRS original, Greed have avoided the royalty problem by doing what

CJ Macintosh did in the first place: they’ve sampled the rap lyric ‘Pump Up the Volume’ from Eric B and Rakim’s ‘I Know You Got Soul’ (which in turn sampled James Brown's ‘I Know You Got Soul’), and come up with a Eurodisco rap song with a chorus hook everyone knows. Yuck.

TOTAL featuring NOTORIOUS BIG Can’t You See (Tommy Boy)

Ah, relief at last. Not as good as the similar pairing of Mary J Blige and Method Man, but this does nice enough thankyou. Produced by Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs, for the New Jersey Drive soundtrack, this is a fine slice of R&B rap. Total provide the girlie chorus, and fatman Notorious BIG gives it some streetwise ghetto credibility. Stick to the soundtrack album though, ‘cause this is just the ‘Clean’ and ‘No Rap’ mixes.

CHRISTINE ANU Party (Mushroom)

That funky chick from across the ditch gets the party started right with the aptly titled ‘Handbag Mix’. A decade ago, the Aussies were all into guitars and INXS. Now they’ve abandoned all that for their version of the black dance sound. While we may have the credibility, they have the hits — funny how things work out.

LOVE CITY GROOVE Love City Groove (Festival)

Having already had his fair share of hits, I reckon he’s going to have to take his turn on the bench for this one. Eurodisco, but nothing that matches other efforts released this month. Anyone pining for a slice of piano should try the ‘Development Corporation Mix’, however, the best mix is the entry-level, hard house ‘Hyper Space Mix’.

PAST TO PRESENT Crazy (UK Remixes) (Mushroom)

What was that I said about the Aussies having all the hits? Past To Present are four Polynesian brothers who have given themselves over to producers Dale and Deltito. Yeah, it's good, but Purest Form could run rings around them —so why don’t they? I’d be willing to chip in for the plane trip to get them

(Purest Form) out of our hair, uh, I mean the

country.

NICK D’ANGELO