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Lost in the (mega) mix · by Sach O
Unrelated yet appropriate image found when googling the song title
A Year and a Day
I spoke on this in comments and talkbacks, but I’m not a proponent of random rap and the hunt for the world’s most obscure Hip Hop tracks. Yes, some great material got slept on the first time around, but the internet’s glorification of teh raer has turned the search for hot shit into pointless props for mediocre filler. I want all of those lost De La Soul, Pete and CL and Rakim gems but the obscure white label from Scoob-Lover’s friend’s cousin coming out of Kansas? You can keep it. Sure there are always exceptional crews that got slept on and a few dedicated blogs put in work to document that, but the amount of crap crate diggers support based on rarity instead of quality is depressing.
Besides, there’s plenty of material to forget about and rediscover in the average listener’s crates mp3 folder. A Year and a Day for example is the quintessential ignored jam. Buried in the middle of The Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique ending megamix, it’s probably the weirdest thing they’ve (successfully) put to wax and honestly it’s a miracle that it didn’t come off as corny or sound plain awful. An abstract, free-spirited solo track from MCA predating his Buddhism, A Day and year is pretty much the antithesis to everything the Beasties were on “Licensed to Ill”. Thick, funky, druggy, spiritual, positive and devoid of the frat boy humor that then defined them; on paper the track looks like a Divine Styler b-side but in practice it’s one of the illest tracks on the album. Barely comprehensible thanks to a purposefully muddy mix and layers of distortion, the track is a white-boy answer to the street spirituality preached by The 5% Nation, Afrika Bambaataa and the emerging Native Tongues movement. Finding spirituality in the hectic New York life and the counter-culture tradition of his newly adopted LA, MCA discusses everything from his ultimate destiny to peaking off drugs to snowboarding, but it’s the crazy Led-Zep-as-fast-rap drums, thick background scratching and pre-Biggie Isley jack that give the track its combined sense of mindless fun and deeper meaning. In an indirect way, this could even be seen as a funkier blueprint for Stones Throw’s whole essence: finding soul and the divine in dusty crates full of old records. Kind of ironic that the Beasties buried it at the end of their creative peak (and commercial flop) to be discovered ain’t it?
Edit: Here’s The Crash Crew track the Dust Brothers scratch up as inquired about.
Comments for "Lost in the (mega) mix"
nice. Takes me back to ‘89. still sounds great. thanks. But who is “Disco Dave”?
— triplikit Feb 19, 03:46 PM
Disco Dave is actually a reference to Disco Dave & The Force Of The Five MCs, better known today as the Crash Crew who’ve since been jacked/borrowed from by everyone from Jurassic 5 to Jay-Z. The quote is scratched from their classic “High Power Rap”. I added it a bonus Mp3 to the post but it’s definitely fresh enough for its own write up.
As far as I know, there’s no particularly deep meaning to MCA’s tip of the hat to legendary crew.
— Sach Feb 19, 04:26 PM
Very nice beat.
— eauhellzgnaw Feb 19, 04:31 PM
You’re absolutely right about the rarity/quality point in random rap digging. Still, without this hype I would have never ever gotten aware of tracks like Raw Dope Posse’s “Listen To My Turbo” or 360 Degrees’ “Pelon”. So I guess the whole thing is a double-edged sword.
— chillus3000 Feb 19, 06:54 PM
to add to the disco dave discussion I feel obliged to point out that in the liner notes on the casette version of Paul’s (I wore out 3 copies, had the orange, the white and the reissue black tapes).. on those liner notes the lyrics for ‘a year and a day’ are shortened down to the simple: “he goes by the name of disco dave”....
— concerned hater Feb 19, 08:36 PM
Good looks on isolating this from the rest of ‘B-Boy Bouillabaisse.’
— g Feb 19, 10:26 PM
just for clarification – disco dave was not a member of the crash crew. he was the promoter/manager who put out their first record (the dave of “mike and dave records)
— noz Feb 19, 11:25 PM
I gotta agree with Chillus3000. A wack record is a wack record, no matter how rare it is. However, there almost seems to be an unending supply of great unknown rap records. DJ Ivory’s Hear No Evil mixes and Sloppy White mixes are proof of what’s out there waiting to be discovered.
— Bace Feb 20, 03:41 AM
a hearty dash o’ hotsauce in the bouillabaisse.
— midnightheory Feb 20, 12:04 PM
definitely one of my favorite tracks. it’s good to be reminded of it again. i have to say, Paul’s Boutique lands somewhere in my favorite albums of all time.
— uh huh Feb 21, 05:27 PM
The Crash Crew track already got pulled.
— DJ Flash Feb 22, 05:21 AM
You can also find that Crash Crew track in last week’s list of 50 incredible rap songs.
See here
— rafi Feb 22, 09:41 AM
We upload so many ill songs that I lose track.
— Sach Feb 22, 12:35 PM
Year and a Day is easily my favorite goodie in the bouillabaisse.
Remixed the whole soup and almost left that bit as is.
It’s just dope.
B-Boy Bouillabaisse remix.mp3
— Spike Feb 27, 02:32 PM
sorry broken link above…
posting diced the ampersand.
the correct url:
http://beastiemixes.com/download.php?id=1164&chk=zsmr
— Spike Feb 27, 02:43 PM