With Music This Good The Title Is Irrelevant

I made this mix a couple of months ago but hadn't got round to putting it up.
It's made live on turntables but with a likkle bit o' computer magic just to tidy up the loose ends.

17 minutes of Golden Age classics with that angle of ABU! spice that you know and love.
You want tracklistings, too? Don't ask for much, do ya?

With Music This Good The Title Is Irrelevant by DJ Sureshot

1.    Jewel T - I Like It Loud (Jewel Records 1988)

2.    Jungle Brothers - Because I Got It Like That (The Ultimatum Reconstruction) (Gee St 1988)

3.    Diamond And The Psychotic Neurotics - Sally Got A One Track Mind (Chemistry Records 1993)

4.    Beastie Boys - Shake Your Rump (Capitol Records 1989)

5.    Digital Underground - The Humpty Dance (Tommy Boy 1989)

6.    Souls Of Mischief - 93 'Til Infinity (Jive 1993)

7.    LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out (Def Jam 1990)

8.    Young Black Teenagers - Tap The Bottle (SOUL 1992)

9.    RUN DMC - Walk This Way (Profile 1986)

10.   Cypress Hill - Insane In The Brain (Ruffhouse 1993)

11.   Public Enemy - Fight The Power (Motown 1989)

12.   Uptown - Dope On Plastic (Tommy Boy 1989)

Or if you like to listen but with 'chapters' then visit this link.

More about → With Music This Good The Title Is Irrelevant

Superfly Productions Presents On The DL Vol 2

Superfly Productions Causing Eruptions......

Some more history.

Around 1996 after the dust had truly settled after JUICE (see here) I embarked on a new venture, Superfly Productions.
This would be a series of cassettes with mostly my own stuff and other classic and obscure hip hop, funk and comedy skits on them.
Let me think what else was on that label......

Eric B & Rakim - The Lost Interview - This was a phone interview, complete and unedited, between Eric and HHC journalist, Malu Halasa. Interspersed at random points (although random's the wrong word) were rare remixes of Eric & Ra's tracks.

Delirious - This was an audio of Eddie Murphy's masterpiece concert from 1982. I think I chucked some DJ Noize performances on the back of this.

Cheesy Beats - A rather lame title in retrospect but this was one of my favourite tapes I ever did. It was a collection of great funk tracks and breaks interweaved with some of my favourite film snippets.
I'll be putting this up soon for download.

DJ Slam & His Adventures In The Old Skool - Yes, I spelled it "skool". Oh dear. DJ Slam was yet another non-de-plume and I think was short-lived. Basically this tape was a collection of b-boy breaks cut and scratched by me, er, or rather DJ Slam.

As I remember there was a concerted effort to get things a bit more streamlined and soon I devised a regular newsletter entitled 'On & On Like Popcorn'. This would've been around 1998 when I got my first PC.
Jeez, then I used to mess around with E-Jay Hip Hop. I'm glad I haven't got any of THOSE efforts knocking around ;0)

Original Zephyr tag!

I was in touch with the legendary writer, ZEPHYR around this time and was all set to start selling some of his products such as Tee's and custom skateboard decks. Unfortunately this never transpired but I got some cool stickers off him as well as his tag.

Oh, and keep it under your Kangol but there never was a On The DL Volume 1. This was done in order to hype sales. I told everyone that due to demand all the copies of Volume 1 had been sold and weren't to be re-pressed, therefore it'd be in your own best interests to grab Volume 2 lest it goes the same way.
Didn't work, though. Ballbags.

I've split all tracks into separate MP3's and uploaded as one ZIP file. Go and get it NOW!

One of many copies of the original cassette inlay - thanks to my local library's colour copy machine and bewildered old lady librarian

Link-a-rama

Download On The DL Volume 2 here

More about → Superfly Productions Presents On The DL Vol 2

Juice Fanzine

Around 1992 I began producing my own home-made hip hop magazine.
It was called Juice and the first issue was a few A4 sheets stapled together embarking on a more 'newsletter' territory.
This was before home PC's were big, and even before I had a word processor. In fact I did the early issues on an electric typewriter.
All the images were cut out of other magazines and some logos were created by friends - mainly those with a 'writing' bent. The  cut 'n' paste action was done literally with scissors and a Pritt Stick. And I went through stencil transfers like nobody's business.
I managed to speak to a few artists such as the Krispy 3 and Katch 22 - who I interviewed at the Kold Sweat studios - and met some good people in the process. Some would become life-long friends. One in particular who would introduce me to the ways of the spraycan and night time adventures along train tracks....

This was a great time to be doing this - and I think I subconsciously knew it was the right time - as it was hip hop's Golden Age and the music was pouring out at a tremendous rate. In fact there are some classic jams in this issue's Review section. Little did I know how they would come to be revered in years to come.
I remember that I was into the music so much with such an undying appetite because there was really so many well-produced tracks around that I could never do this at any other time. This fanzine was of it's time for me. Never again will I have the voraciousness for hip hop in it's current form. And the time it took to put it all together could only be painstakingly done with a passion.


The readership wasn't high and was probably in the heady heights of 100 sales. The promotion was low-profile yet I got mentions on local press and radio as well as a shout on Kiss FM's Max & Dave's rap show.
The magazine was bought either direct from me or from my local specialist record shop, Dance 2 Records in Guildford. I heard from someone a few years ago that one copy sold for a lot of money in Japan on ebay.

As well as the magazine, I produced a 90-minute cassette tape which consisted of remixes and dj mixes and whatever else I could find to put on it.
Some of these were my contributions under various guises while others were from the Juice readership.

It all lasted for 2 years until another interest came into my life and sadly the mag was put on the backburner.

I have digitized the last issue ('Numba') 6 and the tape that came along with it.
Quite a few people have requested me to do this so I hope you enjoy it. And if you were involved with it at any stage please get in touch, it'd be great to get in contact again (and find out if you still have your copy!)

Tracklisting:

Link-a-rama

Download The Mag
Download The Tape

More about → Juice Fanzine

Style Wars The Original Soundtrack - Mk II

I've rebooted my original version of the Style Wars Soundtrack which I made just over a year ago.
This version includes extra dialogue (as indeed, inspired from a thought by Mr Lovegrove), a remix of the intro piece as well as a brand spanking new cover (courtesy of P. Shop).
Respect to Waxer for reminding me about this, too.

Download freely as this is a must for all ageing b-boys and b-girls.


01  I'm Not An Art Critic   0:35   Bernie Jacobs

02  The Death Of Arthur (Götterdämmerung) (Style Wars Version)  6:36   Trevor Jones

03  They Call Themselves Writers  0:45

04  8th Wonder   7:25   Sugar Hill Gang

05  Seen's 6-Month Vacation   0:47 

06  The Wanderer   2:49   Dion & The Belmonts

07  Skeme Does Doodle On The Paper   0:36   Skeme

08  Jam Hot   7:20   Johnny Dynell

09  Iz The Wiz Has An Orgasm   0:26 

10  Pump Me Up   6:39   Trouble Funk

11  Kase2 - Extra Telest   0:45 

12  The Message   7:13   Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five

13  Trap's Gonna Be The Next Picasso   0:29 Dez & Trap

14  Beat Bop   10:11 Rammelzee Vs. K Rob

15  Skeme's Out To Destroy All Lines   0:39   Skeme

16  Sing, Sing   7:20   Gaz

17  I Call That Fairy-Flying   0:42   Rock Steady Crew

18  Give It Up or Turnit a Loose   6:12   James Brown

19  Live Third Rails & Crazy Cops   0:30   Dondi

20  Rockin It   6:39   Fearless Four

21  Writer's Bench   0:53   We Are All Graffiti Writers

22  Rocket In The Pocket 3:30   Cerrone

23  I'd Kill You Maaan   0:37   Crazy Lady

24  Feel The Heartbeat   5:35   Treacherous Three

25  Iz's Prophecy   0:19   Iz The Wiz



Ahh, I like that!

More about → Style Wars The Original Soundtrack - Mk II

Reminder

THURSDAY....9PM....FREESTYLE FM....DISCO SCRATCH RADIO....

Don't forget that the interview with myself and Waxer of Disco Scratch is being broadcast tomorrow on the interwebs at 9pm.

1.  Click this link which will take you to the front page of Freestyle FM.

2.  Choose your preferred audio player.

3.  Join the chatroom - just hit enter - no password needed - change your username once you're in.

If you can't make it the link will be posted-up on this site afterward.

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Words of Wisdom

Blastmaster KRS-ONE.

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New Logo

I've had a bit of a creative attack this afternoon and redesigned the ABU! logo.


Big, big shout to FUZE as those are his own Shelltoes you can see.
And no, those aren't my slippers. They're the wrong colour for a start ;0)

More about → New Logo

My Side-Project Website

To the many fans of Ageing B-Boys Unite! This is a gentle, metaphorical poke in the ribs for you to visit my new website over at www.sonicity.co.uk

Sonicity is my recording name and this is where you'll find a bunch of my songs. From b-boy beats to audio soundscapes and much more in between.

Don't worry, the blog is far from over. I am busy with college work at present and by the beginning of summer I shall be back with a vengeance. Until then my input will be rather lame in comparison to the strength of previous months.
Fear not though, as if you want to drop me a line with suggestions, gifts, cash or just a big old rant then email me: benhammy@yahoo.co.uk.

But have a look at the website, too. Any feedback would be welcome. www.sonicity.co.uk

More about → My Side-Project Website

The B-Boys - "Girls - part 2" Repo's Remix

Here a little version of the classic Donald D track from 1985 that I've mooched around with. As usual a nice pair of speakers will bring out all the goodness or failing that a sturdy pair of headphones. Laptop speakers just won't do it!

More about → The B-Boys - "Girls - part 2" Repo's Remix

Short Kuts 2

Some more 4-track fun from my Juice mag again. This is Short Kuts 2 and is a faster tempo than the first one. Samples from Hijack, Michael Keaton, Uncle Jamm's Army and loads more.
If you can work out some of the more obscure ones then let me know but I garauntee that you won't!

More about → Short Kuts 2

Short Kuts 1 Mix from Juice #5

Back in the early 90's (92/93) I used to produce a hip hop mag called Juice. It was a very basic black & white photocopied 'zine but had an added bonus. And that was a free mix tape with every issue.

I invited bedroom jocks from anywhere in the world to send in their efforts and was constantly surprised by the sheer amount. I had stuff from a lot of UK guys as well as Sweden, USA, Africa, Russia and Australia.
The reason for this post is that I was going through some old tapes and came across some of my mixes I hadn't heard for a while.

This track below is Short Kuts 1 and is taken from Issue #5 with a front cover by the writer Scenes who now runs a great blog himself.
Very Steinski-inspired as was most of my early output, hell even my recent stuff still seems to be an ongoing homage to the man.
My mixes were all made on a Fostex X26 4 track recorder well back in the days before music editing was an affordable practice on a home pc. Countless over-dubs were done time and time again to achieve my personal level of perfection with many rewinds and flipping the tape over to get particular timing issues sorted.
And when it came to the mixdown there was no automation, it was done live, baby! Slight adjustments to volume at certain points during the track, manually panning a sample left or right....I miss those days!

Now listening back, there are a few pieces of audio I wish I could remember where I got the sample from. Such as "Hello, I'm June Whitfield" or "There was a man he went mad, he jumped into a paper bag". Where did I find them??!

More about → Short Kuts 1 Mix from Juice #5

Test - Meat Beating

Meatbeating by Me

More about → Test - Meat Beating