Eric B. & Rakim‘s 1987 debut album Paid In Full had two big hits, “Eric B. is President” and “I Know You Got Soul”, big in hip-hop standards for the day (back in the day etc etc) and they sampled James Brown!!!! Anyway, they are definitely worth a listen even if you name isn’t Ivana. I was thinking of posting the Souls Of Mischief, which I may do next week, and the difference between the East Coast and the West Coast sound couldn’t be more obvious. Love the tacky cover.

1. I Ain’t No Joke
2. Eric B. Is On The Cut
3. My Melody
4. I Know You Got Soul
5. Move the Crowd
6. Paid in Full
7. As the Rhyme Goes On
8. Chinese Arithmetic
9. Eric B. Is President
10. Extended Beat

Listen: I Know You Got Soul
Listen: Eric B. Is President

Buy: Opens in iTunes

Also: attention Sydney readers: tune in tomorrow (Monday) evening 10pm 89.7fm for the best damn psychedelic funk, soul, jazz and reggae on Eastside Radio from the heart of Paddington (which means you may not be able to get it if you live very far away – read: Liverpool.)

The Last Poets are a proto-hip-hop group from New York City. They came out of Harlem in 1968 with a mix of spoken word poetry and stripped down jazz almost like Shirley Horn. The lyrics are quite militant, but they are all intelligent, so they aren’t Wu-Tang by a mile. Chastisement is the third album from the group, which I found by complete accident at Red Eye Records in Pitt Street (the better one) for $10. The two tracks I put up today are the most interesting on the album. The most intelligent is Bird’s Words, which tells the history of blues and jazz, and it’s definitely worth a listen.

1. Tribute to Obabi (Ogun)
2. Jazzoetry
3. Black Soldier
4. E Pluribus Unum
5. Hands Off
6. The Lone Ranger
7. Before The White Man Came
8. Bird’s Words

Listen: Jazzoetry
Listen: Bird’s Words

Buy: Open in iTunes

I hope you’re enjoying the music. If you are, leave a comment. I can see how many people download the tracks, the brilliant of WordPress tells me all. Leave a comment so I can reply to something other than abuse by Ivana (check out her blog though yo!)

I found this album with a friend in some horrible record store down the dirty end of Pitt Street, Sydney. It was a complete accident we bought it, we didn’t even listen to it before we did, but I do own some other Dr. John CD’s from the early 1970′s. This beats them all. If you’re going to listen to ONE thing I post then never come back because you hate me as I am a bastard and a horrible person who deserves to be taken into the yard and shot repeatedly in the back, then this is the one. Some of it is slightly frightening, but not in a Holy Modal Rounders kind of way

P.S. Listen to the album whilst medicated. YES.

1. Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya
2. Danse Kalinda Ba Doom
3. Mama Roux
4. Danse Fambeaux
5. Croker Courtbullion
6. Jump Sturdy
7. I Walk On Guilded Splinters 

Listen: Danse Kalinda Ba Doom
Listen: I Walk On Guilded Splinters

Buy: Opens in iTunes

The Holy Modal Rounders were a band from the 1960′s and early 1970′s. They were from New York, and were a duo of folk-music revivalists and psychadelic music lovers. They came up with their name when they were stoned on pot and ‘something else’. 

ESP Disk, the worlds most fantastic record label has just re-released two of their albums; one live recording from 1965, and Indian War Whoop from 1966. That is by the far their most psychedelic album, and ESP describes it as a “notorious street-freako rockabilly classic!” They also list it as being released in 1967, so take your pick.

1. Jimmy and Crash Survey the Universe
2. Indian War Whoop
3. Sweet Apple Cider
4. Solidier’s Joy
5. Cocaine Blues
6. Sky Divers
7. The Second-Hand Watch
8. Radar Blues
9. The I.W.W. Song
10. Football blues
11. Bay Rum Blues
12. Morning Glory

*A note on the tracks – the first is very bizarre, and definately not background music. I’d suggest substance abuse before listening to it, or at the very least, don’t be put off by it before you listen to the second track, which is far more listenable in a regular sense. The second track really starts about 37 seconds in, so fast-forward to that if you don’t want to listen to some speech and fiddle (but you should).

Listen: Indian War Whoop
Listen: Cocaine Blues

Buy: Opens in iTunes

Please comment, otherwise – turn on, tune in, drop out!!!