Saturday, January 22nd, 2011
Hot Peas & Butta Present
Eight Wonder – The James Brown Tribute Party
Featuring the mighty three
Cosmo Baker
Amir
& Skeme Richards
Playing noting but James Brown & Family joints all night. We’re gonna have a funky good time…
@ Le Poisson Rouge – 158 Bleecker St. – New York, NY
Today marks the second installment of Breakbeat Tuesday with a special guest and I’m extremely privilege to have this person come through and drop some heat. You could say that the very term “Breakbeat” was solidified into our lexicon by the release of the Ultimate Breaks & Beats compilation series from 1986 to 1991 by Street Beat Records. This collection was compiled by two legends – Lenny Roberts and Breakbeat Lou. So it is my sincere honor today to present Breakbeat Tuesday, brought to you by the one and only Breakbeat Lou…
WOW, I’M ACTUALLY WRITING FOR COSMO BAKER’S BREAKBEAT TUESDAY! After a couple weeks of obstacles, I’m finally here. It is so awesome that he created this forum for the genre of BreakBeat.
Well before the featured Breakbeat cut, here’s a brief 411. For me, record collecting started back in 1973 when I purchased my first record – Willie Colon’s track “Che Che Cole” Featuring Hector Lavoe on 45 (FANIA 515). This was the beginning of my addiction to vinyl (which at last count was approximately over 20,000, that includes the likes of Benny More, The Four Seasons, Run-DMC, Luciano Pavarotti and everything in between.) My DJ career started in late 1974 with jams and house parties (yes and hooky parties too lol…) My breakbeat diggin’ days started in 1977 when I bought “Space Funk” by Manzel at Crazy Eddie’s on Fordham Road in the Bronx. Even though I was cutting beats since ’75, all those beats I rocked then belong to my crew. After DJing for several years I started getting more into the elements of music which led me to production in 1981 and subsequently the birth of the original break beat series. Now for the featured Breakbeat!
It started back in the mid to late ’70 when I first heard it, but what I remembered most about this track is; I’m walking into the P.A.L . (Police Athletic League) on Webster & 183rd Street in The Bronx, the words coming out the speakers were “Hey Fellas I’m talking to you, you and you…..” for about 6 times then he cuts straight into the break we all know “Woo Yea” followed by the horns riff and lyrics ‘It Take Two To Make A Thing Go Right” the he goes back to the “Woo Yea” and the horns as he spins back faster and caught it 4 to five times and then he gets faster catches at the “Woo Yea” for about 6 or 7 times. The D.J. was Grandmaster Flash and of course the Breakbeat is “Think (About It)” by Lyn Collins (the LP Version).
This beat kept lingering in the back of my mind. The funky, uncanny production of James Brown with the J.B.’s., those signature drums with tambourines, along with the awesome horn section on a bed of organ riffs and rhythm guitar topped off with Lyn’s vocals at a 113BPM guarantee bop your head funk! This experience let us to dig for a mint copy and add it the Ultimate Breaks and Beats compilation. When it came to actually record the record, I had discussed with Lenny what I heard @ the P.A.L. and because every DJ at the time was not as fast as Flash we decided to create the infamous “WOO YEA” edit, which is synonymous with the Rob Base hit and many others. Since we reintroduced it in 1987 it has been sampled hundreds of times and from numerous sections of the song!
In conclusion, it is without a shadow of a doubt that Lyn Collins’ “Think (About It)” has played a pivotal part in the music! (Especially the UBB edit shameless plug… lol). Until Next Time If There Is A Next Time!!!!!!
Lyn Collins “Think (About It)” (taken from Ultimate Breaks & Beats Vol. 516 – Street Beat Records)
Okay yo so how bad is that? Like I’m in awe, straight up. Thanks so much for blessing my page with your knowledge, Lou. And for all you people out there don’t forget to check out Lou and the great site and resource of knowledge at www.ultimatebreaksandbeats.com
It was a fun weekend at The Rub at Southpaw as well as doing The Rub in Philly. What sucks is that someone crashed into my poor car, totalling it. So my car is now dead, a hunk of metal, and that is my Sobb Story…
Looking on the bright side, today is the born day of The Minister Of New New Super Heavy Funk, James Brown. The world of music would not be the same were it not for him of course, and my DJing wouldn’t be what it is today without question. But all that is a given and I don’t even need to speak on it. But for real I figured this would be a good time to re-up my James Brown mix that I did for the Mad Decent Podcast a few years ago. Basically it was something that I put together really quick, comprised solely of joints that I loved that fall under The Godfather’s umbrella. It’s real short, clocking in under 30 minutes, but I could have gone on for weeks making this mix. The homie Diplo asked me to do this for his podcast, but I’ll let him put it in his words:
“James Brown died on Christmas, and I couldn’t do any more podcasts til we did it about him. Cause James Brown gave birth to this podcast and he gave birth to everything in modern music – nothing is the same after he was here and now he’s gone and I feel bad for people in heaven that have to rewind through his life cause it must be pretty damn nuts. This mix of JB songs and production credits is under 30 minutes and I thought I was listenin’ to it for 3 days before it ended. Mix was done by Cosmo Baker… he’s a true hero to me. I used to go to Fluid on Monday nights to check Cosmo at his party called Remedy… It was on fuckin’ Monday nights and it was packed thick and Cosmo would drop his signature style of hip hop and classics and weird stuff no one would expect but would turn it out… I recognized Cosmo as that dude from the On The Go video that was in 9th St. Records and bought Funk INC. and McCoy Tyner LPs for like a dollar (that was crazy staged cause I know that dude behind the counter was mad cheap!)… At The Remedy I saw everyone from Phill The Soulman to Cash Money to MF Doom to DJ Drama up in there playing… I even slipped Pharrell a copy of Newsflash on 12” on a Monday. So JB gave birth to everything in modern music then Cosmo was a dude that gave birth to DJs like me. I had to ask him to do this mix cause he was a more then a mentor… his James Brown science is like Mr. Wizard… As you can listen these days Cosmo is killing it as a member The Rub in BK and doing loads of parties from Calgary to Tel Aviv on the weekends so I suggest you go to see him play or you will lose a little bit of your soul…” – Diplo, 2007
01 The Land Of Milk And Honey With James Brown by cosmobaker
Dante’s Hifi – Miami – April 20 