(From "Stone Cold Huslter Pt. 1")What's good ladies and gentlemen? First off for the introduction, some of y'all might now me and some of you might not. I go by Trav, nothing fancy, straight up "Trav". That should be easy enough to remember, even after a fifth of Henny. Some of you might know me from the long running WYDU blog (Wake Your Daughter Up for those not in the know, after the infamous No Face album). I decided to join the TROY squad on a part time basis when I feel like dropping some old school goodness. My love for the "old school" hip hop runs deep. I'm an old cat who has been jamming hip hop tapes, CDs, and vinyl since the mid 80's. I haven't lived in any hip hop hotbeds during those times, no New York or LA, or even Philly or Chi-Town. I was out in the boonies of the Northwest. Meaning I wet my hip hop thirst mainly through The Source magazine, when it was the bible of hip hop, and through Yo! MTV Raps. It was a lesson.
Enough of the biographical bullshit, that's not why you are reading this. Every now and then, there is a track that comes along from your past and you remember it being the jam back in the day. Maybe they were just personal favorites, but they just got lost in your subconscious to never be heard from again...or are they?
I have several tracks that fit this description, stuff I never thought I'd ever think of or hear again. I have several, Euro K's "She's A....", Blackmale's "Body Talk", stuff that might sound kinda booty now, but you loved the shit when it first dropped. I figured I'd cover a few of those every now and then. The first is from a DC artist by the name of DC Scorpio. Scorpio was mainly a Go-Go artist, a genre that is to DC as is House to Chicago. I'm sure there are Chocolate City natives out there that could shed more light on the career of DC Scropio since I know very little about his career and finding much about it on the net isn't very easy neither. He dropped the single, "Stone Cold Hustler" sometime between '87 and '90. My experience with him is through catching the video ONCE on Yo! MTV Raps sometime in 1989. Luckily enough I was either recording videos as I was watching, as I often did, or I recorded the entire episode.
As you can tell, the video is a little dated. The fashion is kinda humorous and of course, who the hell uses dancers in their videos now? Regardless, I jammed this video for about six months straight as part of my "get ready for school" routine. I never did get the track on any audio source. No tapes, records or CDs, and no MP3's, yeah, we was living in the stone age. As times went on though, I forgot about it...kinda. Once the internet started to take grip around '05, it was my mission to find this track again.
In what you think would be a somewhat easy undertaking turned into a royal bitch. It wasn't until last year that someone finally came through and ripped their vinyl for me that I had "Stone Cold Hustler Pt. 2". That's right, there is an more go-go sounding part one that is floating around out there. I actually found that first, before realizing it wasn't what I was looking for.
We have the whole 12 inch vinyl single up for grabs today. It contains the original "Stone Cold Hustler Pt.2" version. What's so great about this song? It sounds dated, and I'm sure for the cats that don't like that late 80's sound with plastic sounding keys and hollow bass lines over the snares of the day will probably not be digging this. For me, it was a combination of the beat and Scorpio's rhymes. Not that he was the most lyrical cat, but he made it sound intense and real. His delivery is raw, his vocal tone is somewhat high pitched, but very memorable. Then of course the stories of the hustler tales also was something that hooked me in.
The vinyl also contains a couple other mixes, one being the "Jeep Mix". While not as good as an original, and still dated in it's sound, but it's a decent listen. It's got the cheesy keys and is a little more go-go influenced, but the bass kicks make up for that. The "Jazz Mix" is absolutely horrible, with some new jack swing shit going on in it and horrible keys littering the whole thing. Overall, not a lost classic in a general consensus, but a lost personal classic most definitely. --Trav
DC Scorpio - Stone Cold Hustler II (Washington Hitmakers, 1989?)
http://usershare.net/3yhsxm0wnjb5
A1 Stone Cold Hustler II 4:15
A2 Stone Cold Hustler II (Jazz Mix) 4:59
B1 Stone Cold Hustler II (Jeep Mix) 3:52
B2 Stone Cold Hustler II (Instrumental) 3:44
Maybe it's his insistent use of the word "huster" and the term "Scott" for crack dealer, but something about this song reminds me very much of Dis Masters "Small Time Hustler," especially his intense delivery.
ReplyDeleteThis version really doesn't do justice to the original. I don't think I ever remember hearing this version on the radio. IMHO it's a watered down attempt to make the original more accessible to the rest of the country.
ReplyDeleteWhat's good Trav! Good to see you here....I caught this video back in the day, coped the vinyl and thought I was the only one who liked it. Nothing amazing here, but very memorable for some reason. Makes me remember when Hip Hop didn't have to be "classic" to get props.
ReplyDeleteGoMack
Thun, now that you mention it, it DOES remind me a lot of "Small Time Hustler".
ReplyDeleteWhistler, I guess it's because I heard the second version first that it's my favorite and I never really got into the original. The original is definitely more region oriented. It was a lot more go-go while this one is more the "east coast" sound that was starting to become popular in hip hop in the late 80's. To each their own.
BMH it's definitely not some lost classic. It's more the history of me trying to track down this damn song more than it being a great song, although I still do like the song quite a bit
Gotta love the journey of finding those lost gems from our youth! PROPS.
ReplyDeleteDamn thought I would never see this shit again. Think it was 89 I use to see it more on Rap City than Yo maybe cuz BET was outta DC then....
ReplyDelete