Crucial 4

    Monster Beat has appeared on 2 'electro' albums already and now a 3rd?? Its a great track, I love it, but why a 3rd inclusion??

    ELECTROFUNK is a subsidiary of HIP HOP MUSIC AND CULTURE, don't you forget it suckaz...

    i dont know if this release is needed. definitly top old school classics, but a bit stale..and all stuff (expect the monster beat) ist easy to get still on original wax for a low price.

    I was thinking of buying this until i saw the track list all classics i agree but i have them all on
    12s was hoping for a bit of obscurity , nice retro cover though.

    It's a funny one isn't it. Back in the day the release of a new Electro album was really exciting, as you were bound to hear new tracks you had never heard before. Even the Crucial Electro's included tracks that were not on previous eelctro albums so new sounds were on offer. But in this day and age, most of us will own most if not all the tracks already on the original vinyls, so no suprises.


    Is the album to be mixed? I suppose if a really good mix is put together it adds something interesting, but even then many of us are DJs who could just mix the tracks ourselves.


    I don't know, fair play for putting this music back out there, there maybe people who will hear these sounds for the first time and discover how great they are. Remember these are great records that shouldn't be forgotten, however for those of us that were there first time around in the 1980's, I'm not sure this will be anywhere near as mind blowing as the orginal Crucials.


    Personally I would have gone for classics that didn't feature on the orginals, there are plenty of them, 'King Kut', 'Boogie Down Bronx', 'Beatronic', 'Thee Untold Story', 'New York Breakdown', 'Ya Dont Quit' etc etc. A proper Crucial Electro of classics that were missed by the original series, maybe it would be diffcult to get the rights to include them?

    Quote from Simmo;64462


    I don't know, fair play for putting this music back out there, there maybe people who will hear these sounds for the first time and discover how great they are. Remember these are great records that shouldn't be forgotten, however for those of us that were there first time around in the 1980's, I'm not sure this will be anywhere near as mind blowing as the orginal Crucials.



    I couldn't agree more. My biggest reservation is around the issue of mixing, and who they get to put the project together. The last 'original' mixed Electro disc sounded as if it had been mixed on CDJs by someone with no real sense or feeling for the music, which was shocking given the fact that the UK experience and development of mixing is inextricably linked to the original 'Streetsounds' series.


    All credit to Morgan for still promoting the music, I'm looking forward to hearing this.


    155 :)

    ...and the sleeve design is GREAT. Electro's 1-6 had the best template/design, and 7 and onwards were downhill in sleeve design terms imo, great to see a new Electro lp with that original design format sleeve, for that alone it's worth buying!

    ELECTROFUNK is a subsidiary of HIP HOP MUSIC AND CULTURE, don't you forget it suckaz...

    Quote from Simmo;64462

    Personally I would have gone for classics that didn't feature on the orginals, there are plenty of them, 'King Kut', 'Boogie Down Bronx', 'Beatronic', 'Thee Untold Story', 'New York Breakdown', 'Ya Dont Quit' etc etc. A proper Crucial Electro of classics that were missed by the original series, maybe it would be diffcult to get the rights to include them?


    Totally agree with Simmo............. now that would BE a good tracklisting rather than the poor effort so far listed, which we`ve all seen on previous Electro albums ................... a case of flogging a dead horse for nostalgias sake.

    Quote from kaos;64482

    Totally agree with Simmo............. now that would BE a good tracklisting rather than the poor effort so far listed, which we`ve all seen on previous Electro albums ................... a case of flogging a dead horse for nostalgias sake.


    You have to remember Kaos that the reason you cite nostalgia is because you heard them the first time around, you've played them countless times and mixed with them too. There are people out there who haven't heard this stuff, they have no idea about the complexity of Hip Hop and those are the people we should all be encouraging along, especially as we here are not going to be around forever.


    We can't just let this music die mate, it needs fresh ears and they are out there.


    155 :)

    Quote from 155;64519

    You have to remember Kaos that the reason you cite nostalgia is because you heard them the first time around, you've played them countless times and mixed with them too. There are people out there who haven't heard this stuff, they have no idea about the complexity of Hip Hop and those are the people we should all be encouraging along, especially as we here are not going to be around forever.


    We can't just let this music die mate, it needs fresh ears and they are out there.


    155 :)


    Yeah that`s a very fair point my friend, but i still think the vast majority of the Streetsounds target audience will be the likes of ourselves who were there the first time around, i personally believe the amount of `new fans` will be miniscule.


    I may be wrong, i hope i`m wrong......... perhaps i`m just cynical nowadays ;D

    I think the amount of new fans will be miniscule, unfortunately. There's no context for these jams for a new audience. I strongly believe that of all music genres old school hip hop is the most cruelly ignored music form as far as radio and music tv are concerned, and this is driven mainly by the people who are supposed to champion the music, WESTWOOD, who love him or hate him, has a MASSIVE influence on what the youth think hip hop is... totally ignores the past and plays now, as he has always done I suppose. However his display of 'now' is the rubbish.


    Other leading dj's in their genres always play classix from the past and discuss their importance, then you have Planet Rock the radio station, imagine if there was a radio station dedicated to old school hip hop? Anyway, I'm ranting. There's a conspiracy against old school hip hop and I don't like it! :P :-X :D

    ELECTROFUNK is a subsidiary of HIP HOP MUSIC AND CULTURE, don't you forget it suckaz...

    I agree with the above, Old School Hip Hop is totally ignored by the media, well what I should say is the Old School Hip Hop we listen to is totally ignored.


    Unfortunately on the rare occasions that 80's Hip Hop does get some exposure it generally follows the same narrow minded formula, it's basically lazy research on the part of those involved, we always see Run DMC, maybe Grandmaster Flash, then the invention of gangsta rap and that's about it.


    It drives me mad when I see MTV Base have an Old School Hip Hop Top 100 video countdown, you will be lucky if you see 3 or 4 videos that we would even consider Old School Hip Hop, and they will always be the same culprits, a Run DMC vid, The Message, It Takes Two, Express Yourself. How can these channels not get hold of videos by the likes of Whodini, Juice Crew, Schoolly D, Jonzun Crew, UTFO, Fat Boys etc.


    As for Westwood, I don't think you will ever get him playing old stuff, he has always been about the future and what's gonna be hot next, that's his style. But surely there could be a regular Old School Hip Hop show on 1 Xtra put together by a DJ that knows the history, I would have thought their would be an audience for it. There must be people that are interested in the history of the culture and where it came from, the sounds of yesteryear.

    Quote from Simmo;64528

    ... But surely there could be a regular Old School Hip Hop show on 1 Xtra put together by a DJ that knows the history, I would have thought their would be an audience for it. There must be people that are interested in the history of the culture and where it came from, the sounds of yesteryear.


    The radio needs this! BBC6 music tries to cover this category but has ended up being night time radio 1 from the 80's rehashed for now, for the old Elvis Costello / NME types, the little hip hop they play is straight token, obvious, and the DJ's playing the trax have no emotion or chat about the trax they play, its so obvious they're just towing the line playing what they have too...


    BBC Radio 1 Extra is where the only hope lies... we need an old school HIP HOP show that plays old stuff, old hip hop charts, themed shows (early 90's hip hop, Golden Era, early 80's electro hip hop, whatever)... people are not able to make an informed decision about hip hop today being better as they don't know what they are missing from way back! If the old stuff was heard and the new order still claimed the new stuff was better than fair enough... but I suspect that the newskool generation like what they like as that is all they have been exposed too...

    ELECTROFUNK is a subsidiary of HIP HOP MUSIC AND CULTURE, don't you forget it suckaz...


    This is very true, but I'm afraid this has always been the case with Hip Hop generally. It was a subculture (in itself difficult to reconstruct accurately with supporting material) and this is reflected in the reasonably small amounts of primary imagery available. Maybe that is why the same videos get played from the early period, because there are not actually that many out there except for the tracks that achieved wider airplay? Maybe there are videos out there that have been lost, waiting to be rediscovered?


    As a culture, what is available has been explored and written about, but much of the material is contentious, reflecting the wide variety of opinions regarding the music and the different perspectives on what the culture is, was and will be. In American discourse the issue of 'Race' features in a way that isn't so in Europe (although of course it is still there).


    Simmo - do you remember MTV Raps! (Europe) with Sophie Soph? It was embarassing to watch - she had no idea about the music and just stuck to tired cliches!


    If there is scope for an Old School Show then I would imagine it will be stations such as GFR that push it, and Morgan Khan is pushing the music on Solar Radio with the Streetsounds, or even Colourful FM. Commercial radio is an entirely different proposition altogether.


    The definitive history of the music has yet to be written, but I'm sure eventually someone will finally get around to doing it.


    155 :)

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