Strictly Butter | 04

"Jazzy Sensation (Manhattan Remix)" - The Kryptic Krew

"Monster Jam (Instrumental)" - West Street Mob

"Rapture (Supreme La Rock Mix)" - Anita Baker -vs- Clyde Stubblefield

"Youre A Winner (Kon Flip)" - Cameo

"All Night Long (Maker 8 Bit Dub Edit)" - Mary Jane Girls

"This Party's Jam Packed" - Dwayne Omarr

"Rappers Delight" - Gang Do Tagarella

"The Bottom Line Pt. 2" - South Bronx

"The Hip Hop Band Interlude" - Stetsasonic

"Can I Get A Soul Clap (Del Gazeebo Remix)" - LL Smooth K

"Brooklyn-Queens (2nd Bass Mix)" - 3rd Bass

"Get Up and Dance" - West Street Mob

"Got to Be Large (Del Gazeebo Remix)" - Ultramagnetic MC’s

"Jazzy Sensation (Manhattan Version)" - The Kryptic Krew feat. Tina B

Prior to launching Tommy Boy Records, Tom Silverman was publishing a disco tip sheet called Dance Music Report and Arthur Baker, who reviewed records for it, was the only producer he knew. They cut Jazzy Sensation in 1981 with Andre Booth's rhythm section playing live, passing on producing a "Genius of Love" rap because that field was already crowded so they decided to rebuild Gwen McCrae's "Funky Sensation" instead. The A-side handed the groove to Tina B, Baker's wife at the time, for a Manhattan disco vocal with a rap of her own; the flip belongs to Bambaataa's Jazzy 5, the record that opened the Tommy Boy partnership. Baker heard Shep Pettibone's Kiss-FM edit of the McCrae original and called him in, one of Pettibone's first credits anywhere. A year later the team produced "Planet Rock." 

"Monster Jam (Instrumental)" - Spoonie Gee Meets The Sequence

A Sugar Hill cut from 1980. Sylvia Robinson had been a star since "Love Is Strange" topped the R&B chart in 1957; she wrote "Pillow Talk" with Al Green in mind, cut it herself after he turned it down, then took it to number one. The Sequence were three South Carolina cheerleaders who talked their way backstage at a Sugarhill Gang show and rapped for a stranger who happened to own the label. Angie B, out front, grew up to be known as Angie Stone. Spoonie Gee answered to the other Robinson dynasty, raised in Harlem by his uncle Bobby of Enjoy Records, no relation to Sylvia. The Sequence wrote Monster Jam themselves, Sylvia produced it with Jiggs Chase, the Funk Box Band played it live, and the instrumental rode again on West Street Mob's "Let's Dance" 12". 

"Rapture (Supreme La Rock Mix)" - Anita Baker

Quiet storm meets the funkiest twenty seconds of drumming ever recorded. Clyde Stubblefield toured behind Otis Redding, was James Brown's drummer from 1965 to 1971, and improvised the break on "Funky Drummer" that became the backbone of more than a thousand records, almost none of which paid royalties. Prince covered his cancer treatment bills in secret; Stubblefield revealed this only after Prince died. Riding the beat is Anita Baker's Rapture, the 1986 album that outran a lawsuit from her old label Beverly Glen; a court ruled for Baker on March 19 and Elektra shipped the record the next day. The remix was produced by Supreme La Rock, the Seattle cratedigger and radio DJ whose Wheedle's Groove funk and soul compilation was released by Light in the Attic.

"You're a Winner (Kon Flip)" - Cameo

Larry Blackmon started Cameo as the New York City Players, a funk outfit more than a dozen strong; by 1983 he had trimmed the band to four players and released Style, the first release on their own Atlanta Artists imprint. The twist (for a group led by a drummer) was that the album's liner notes list that every drum on it is electronic. "You're a Winner" is the cut the diggers loved, three years before "Word Up!" became a Cameo pop hit. The flip belongs to Kon, the Boston digger who met Amir at Biscuithead Records in 1996 and built the On Track mix series as a BBE institution.

"All Night Long (8 Bit Dub Edit)" - Mary Jane Girls

Rick James walked into Motown pitching a solo deal for JoJo McDuffie, the ace of his backup corps. But the label wanted a girl group, so James created one with four costumed personas on stage but one voice on tape. McDuffie's vocals are wrapped in harmonies from the Waters sisters of 20 Feet from Stardom fame. Rick James wrote and produced "All Night Long" for the group’s 1983 debut, playing guitar, bass, synths, drums, sitar and timpani himself. It became an essential track and sampling source for Golden Era producers: Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J, Redman, Mary J. Blige. DJs hear Keni Burke's "Risin' to the Top" using the original bassline, which James lifted without permission. The 8-bit dub treatment comes from Maker of Chicago's Motown on Mondays crew.

"This Party's Jam Packed" - Dwayne Omarr

Dwayne Omarr wrote, produced and released This Party's Jam Packed in 1982 on the tiny Survivor imprint with Maurice Starr, co-producing between rounds of the Hollywood Talent Night showcases he ran at the Strand Theatre. One of those nights had just handed Starr a second-place kids' act called New Edition; their "Candy Girl" would come out on Arthur Baker's Streetwise. Starr's brother Michael Jonzun was simultaneously creating the Jonzun Crew, which makes this 12" a dispatch from Boston's distinct electro-funk scene. Originals are highly coveted, so Dave Lee pulled it back into print on Z Records' Electro compilation, filed among the revered party anthems of the era. 

"Melô do Tagarela (Rapper's Delight)" - Miele & Gang do Tagarela

Rio's answer to "Rapper's Delight" arrived in 1980, hot on the original's heels, delivered by the least likely rapper on the mix, Luiz Carlos Miele, a tuxedoed showman who spent decades staging nightclub revues and television spectacles. "Tagarela" translates roughly as chatterbox. DJ Nuts calls Melô do Tagarela the first rap record from Brazil, and the roster underneath is notable: Lincoln Olivetti, the arranger who went on to define the Rio boogie sound, built the band track credited to Gang do Tagarela on the flip. Original RCA copies are rare, but Mr Bongo increased access by pairing the instrumental with Banda Black Rio's "Miss Cheryl" on Brazil 45 number 55, still in print. The hip-hop party era went global fast.

"The Bottom Line 2 (Instrumental)" - South Bronx

A private-press boogie grail. South Bronx was writer Bill Moore and rapper Mike Serrette, whose 1980 debut "The Big Throwdown" rapped about oil dependence and vanishing jobs a full two years before "The Message" made message rap official. The Bottom Line, the 1982 follow-up on their own Rissa Chrissa imprint, kept the politics and doubled the groove. But it’s the instrumental on the flip that heads covet. Dave Lee and Sean P comped it onto Supafunkanova Vol. 1, the second Z Records rescue on the mix after Dwayne Omarr. 

"The Hip Hop Band (Interlude)" - Stetsasonic

Prince Paul joined Stetsasonic as a teenage DJ out of Amityville and used the band as his proving ground before rewiring hip-hop with 3 Feet High and Rising. This opening track of Blood, Sweat & No Tears, landed on the Brooklyn crew's third and final album. Stetsasonic billed themselves as the original hip-hop band and meant it literally, Daddy-O, Delite, and Fruitkwan on the mics with DBC and Wise playing against Prince Paul's turntables, live drums and keys. This interlude rides a Kool & The Gang "Chocolate Buttermilk" groove. Tommy Boy shipped this in July 1991, a decade after "Jazzy Sensation" opened the label and this mix. 

"Can I Get A Soul Clap (Del Gazeebo Remix)" - LL Smooth K

Side B of Studio 45 #1 pits the The Emotions against Grand Wizzard Theodore, the Bronx twelve-year-old who invented the scratch in 1975 when his mother burst into his bedroom mid-practice and his hand inadvertently created the scratch sound. He debuted the technique at the Sparkle in 1977 and cut "Can I Get a Soul Clap" with the Fantastic Five in the early eighties, the crew's lone cult-classic single before Wild Style immortalized them. As for LL Smooth K, nobody has claimed the name; Monkeyboxing suspects Gazeebo under an alias, or possibly Smoove traveling incognito. 

"Brooklyn-Queens (2nd Bass Mix)" - 3rd Bass

Def Jam's first move after the Beastie Boys left was signing another white duo who could rhyme. Serch repped Queens. Pete Nice repped Brooklyn by way of the Columbia English department, where he workshopped rhymes against the Greek classics, hosted WKCR's first rap show, and asked his academic adviser for a semester off to tour Europe with Run-DMC. He graduated magna cum laude days before the first single dropped, and today he's a baseball historian in Cooperstown. "Brooklyn-Queens," off The Cactus Album, continues to ride the Emotions' "Best of My Love" groove of the previous track. This 2nd Bass Mix arrived on a 1990 12" produced by Nice with Prince Paul, with remix hands from C.J. Mackintosh and Dave Dorrell of M/A/R/R/S fame. 

"Get Up and Dance" - West Street Mob

West Street Mob was led by Joey Robinson Jr., son of Sugar Hill label founders Sylvia and Joe Robinson, with Bill McGhee and Sabrina Gillison rounding out the trio, and their 1981 debut single is a re-ride of Freedom's  "Get Up and Dance," the 1978 Malaco side from Farther Than Imagination that had been fueling Bronx park jams for years. Post-Chic boogie with talk-box asides, produced by Robinson Jr. himself. Flash and the Furious Five rode it for "Freedom" in 1980; SWV carried it to the Above the Rim soundtrack a generation later. 

"Got to Be Large" - Del Gazeebo

The other side of Studio 45 #1: Cheryl Lynn's "Got to Be Real" carrying Kool Keith's "Poppa Large" verses from Ultramagnetic's 1992 album Funk Your Head Up. "Got to Be Real" is the 1978 Columbia debut single Lynn landed after a winning Gong Show appearance. Written with David Paich and David Foster, the source was cut live with James Gadson on drums and Ray Parker Jr. on guitar, a number one R&B record that later became underground club culture's anthem. "Poppa Large" was Ultramagnetic MC’s standout track from 1992. Del Gazeebo, the Soul Flip boss, stitched the cuts for our party mix closer.

Listen to: Strictly Butter | 01