Del The Funky Homosapien >> Then I bury the hatchet

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #58:

Del The Funky Homosapien - "No Need For Alarm"

(Elektra Records, 1993)

Here's another major-label rap classic, which I have made non-downloadable (streamable only).

I bought this CD in October '94 as part of my first order from Columbia House or BMG music club; you know, that mythical first order where you select 10 or 12 CDs for 99 cents.  I also got Liz Phair's Exile In Guyville, Black Sabbath's Paranoid, Nirvana's In Utero, Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle, and probably some other noteworthy stuff.  And Green Day's Dookie.  No comment on that one...  Today I was trying to think about why I bought this CD, and I realized that it was because I was enthralled by the Del + Dinosaur Jr. collabo song "Missing Link" on the Judgment Night soundtrack, which I had bought a year earlier right after it came out.  And I had read that he was related to Ice Cube.  Anyway, "No Need For Alarm" is the title track from Del's second album, and puts most rap from the last two decades to shame.  It has too much bragging for my tastes, but oh well.  AllMusic Guide accurately said "Without a strong sense of direction, No Need for Alarm is frustratingly uneven, rich and transcendent one moment and aimless and repetitive the next. Still, it's a challenging, unique, and uncompromising follow-up, one well worth picking up for anyone interested in either the evolution of West Coast hip-hop or just the evolution of one of its most talented, eccentric, and gifted artists."

Del also co-founded the underground supergroup Heiroglyphics, and even drew their cool logo.  (You can see it on the little boombox he is holding on the cover of No Need For Alarm.)  I bought their album 3rd Eye Vision in about 2000 or 2001, and it's pretty good, but I haven't given it a second listen for some reason.  I also just remembered that Del has done some rapping for Gorillaz, but I've only heard like, two Gorillaz songs.

Today I assembled my new 6-by-8 foot greenhouse for the first time, and then checked out mini camcorders at Sears.  Currently watching the Saints shred the Giants to the tune of about 350 first-half yards; we pretty much never lose on Monday nights in the Brees-Payton era.

Planets with similar climates: Poor Righteous Teachers - "Can I Start This?" (1990), Aceyalone - "The Greatest Show On Earth" (1995), Above The Law - "Freedom Of Speech" (1990), Justin Warfield - "Teenage Caligula" (1993).

Above The Law >> Please don't misdefine it

California Month continued, tremor #32:

Above The Law - "Freedom Of Speech"

(Ruthless Records / Epic Records, 1989)

The reason why I'm offering this major-label-affiliated song is that I recently learned how to post a song without making it downloadable.  So you can only stream this one.  (Normally when you click "share" on the player module, it gives you an option to download the song, but I've turned that off for this one.  I guess I should go do this for that Catherine Wheel song too.)  This was a huge discovery, because it means I don't have to stick to indie songs any more.  But I will anyway, at least 98% of the time, because I wanna stick to this site's original mission.  I just had to post this song because I can't think of California music without thinking of it.  Its poppiness makes it atypical of ATL's overall sound, though it is actually quite comparable to their single "Untouchable."  Overall, this is one of the few non-annoying songs about censorship that I've ever heard.

Most of the music in this song is by James Brown, a famous song he wrote for Vicki Anderson called "Message From The Soul Sisters".  (The Geto Boys also built their 1990 song "City Under Seige" on that song.)  Hey, if you're gonna steal something, steal something good.  Cold 187um's vocal delivery is one of the best I've ever heard in the rap game, though he modeled himself blatantly on KRS-One.  I love the line "Those that want to sell out, need to get the fuck out the business," because your mind expects him to rhyme the word "sell" with "hell."  The sprightly ska-esque beat is something that's almost unheard-of in rap music.  I bought this album, Livin' Like Hustlers, on cassette in June or July 1991 at a mall in or near Hilton Head, South Carolina, because I had seen the video for the gangsta rap classic "Murder Rap" many times.  And when you're the age that I was (13 or 14), it's pretty much the coolest thing ever, with squelchy synth notes imitating a police siren:

I also got a pack or two of Yo! MTV Raps trading cards that week, and had the Flavor Flav one taped to my wall for over a decade after that.

I also went to UNC basketball camp that summer for a week or two, and was constantly lifting weights and running, in preparation for my first season of high school football.  I was able to dunk a volleyball by that fall, thanks in part to using Strength Shoes; I was only about 5'11" or 6' at the time.  I almost went as Flav for Halloween that fall, but I couldn't find a big clock to wear.  So it was a pretty hectic year, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  "Murder Rap," whose title of course has two meanings (it's about being falsely accused of murder), was pretty much a sister song to Public Enemy's "Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos," with a lot also borrowed from N.W.A's "Straight Outta Compton."  Livin' Like Hustlers has gone on to be rightfully considered one of the best rap albums ever, blending charismatic gangsta stylings with jazz instrumentation and interesting samples.  I was later surprised to find this song on the mostly college rock-based Pump Up The Volume soundtrack, which I bought in '96 just for its Sonic Youth song (the amazing "Titanium Exposé").

Overall, I'm glad I copped this album on that day in South Carolina rather than the one I had originally set out to buy on that day: Kool Moe Dee's new one... Ha.

Cool life-sized statue next to some Giant Crinums, at New Orleans Botanical Garden yesterday

Planets with similar climates: Gil Scott-Heron - "Free Will" (1972), Paris - "Escape From Babylon" (1990), N.W.A - "Express Yourself" (1987), A Tribe Called Quest - "Check The Rhime" (1991).

Antipop Consortium >> Haha you fell off

Antipop Consortium - "Your World Is Flat"
(75 Ark Records, 1999)

I got this CD in early '02 and immediately decided that Antipop would revolutionize and take over the hip hop scene... That of course never happened, since they soon signed to Warp Records and detoured into techno, but I think this song should go down as a classic.  It has a jazzy feel with staccato, Meters-esque drumming, congested Q-Tip-ish vocals and some nonchalantly clever lyrics, including a reference to Soundgarden's biggest hit.  This album was released on Dan The Automator's label, 75 Ark Records, which closed shop in 2001.  The idea of people falling will never not be amusing to me, especially when the thing off of which they are falling is the edge of the earth.  I was like, "You'd think they would at least put some railing around that."

Press photo; year unknown

So my garbage collectors took my mini trash can today, which had some pieces of broken wood in it.  No, not the big main can, but rather this smaller one that I sometimes use for random debris.  This thing cost about $10-12.  I'm cool to these dudes, always giving them free bottles of Gatorade a few times each summer, and pizza gift cards last winter.  All hoppers (the guys who ride on the backs of the trucks) are taught to never take anything remotely resembling a trash can, and in fact there are countless hilarious anecdotes about people trying desperately to figure out the best way to throw away an old trash can.  Even spray-painting "Throw me away" on a trash can will generally still not get it taken; the best way is to physically destroy or dismantle it in some way in order to get the hoppers' antennae to start tingling.  So Fortuna's wheel must've really been spinning my way today.  Also, the only noteworthy movie on cable tonight was Twins, so it was not the greatest day ever.  I think tomorrow I will go raid the Borders bookstore in Metairie on its last-ever day of business and hopefully snatch that Rainer Maria Rilke book, some David Lynch DVDs, and Repulsion by Polanski.  (Note to book/music/video stores trying not to go out of business: Trying to sell Criterion Collection DVDs for $50, and tiny poetry pamphlets for $15, is probably not the smartest way to move merchandise during an economic depression.  [And the recent mind-boggling addition of Chasing Amy to the Criterion Collection negates its existence.])

Planets with similar climates: A Tribe Called Quest - "Bonita Applebum" (1990), Das Racist - "Hahahaha JK?" (2010), Basehead - "2000 B.C." (1991), Special Ed - "Think About It" (1989), Del Tha Funkee Homosapien - "No Need For Alarm" (1993).