PLAYLIST: Posse Cuts
Timeless, so age don't count in the booth, when your flow stays submerged in the fountain of youth
We all love a party. That’s what makes the posse cut great. A bunch of people on a track that might not know or even like each other. A lot of these are 90’s and 2000’s tracks because I am old.
A Tribe Called Quest & Leaders of the New School “Scenario”
"Scenario" is one of my favorite songs. Off of ‘92’s The Low End Theory album, Q-Tip and Phife from A Tribe Called Quest, are joined by Leaders of the New School’s Busta Rhymes, Charlie Brown, and Dinco D bounce off of each other with the enthusiasm of a schoolyard rap battle and no chorus aside from the refrain at the beginning and end. Seriously, this is just show-off My Fair Lady shit:
Scores for the s'mores that smother dance floors,
Now I go for mine, shades of sea shore
Ship-shape, crushed grapes, apes that play tapes
Papes make drakes baked for the wakes
While the video is fun (and full of Native Tongues cameos), I love this version because it is manifest destiny in action. In the song, they literally go “from the radio, to the video, to Arsenio” and they’re doing it on Arsenio and Arsenio is LOVING it.
The most notable part of the track and video is when Busta begins his verse, with a dramatic reversal of his goofy stovepipe hat to a GOOFIER stovepipe hat as he kicks into his legendary lines, "Raow! Raow! Like a dungeon dragon!"
I attended an S&L taping (the “Hallelujah” episode if you recall) where ATCQ was the musical guest. While I didn’t get to be on the floor for the performance, I attended the after-after party where there was a live band, and they broke into this song. I think Q-Tip had gone home by then, but Busta Rhymes suddenly took the stage and performed this verse and I lost my mind. (I did take a 4am Uber pool with Q-Tip’s niece after which was funny.)
Honorable mention: this all-star Arsenio tribute on his final episode featured ATCQ, MC Lyte, KRS-One, Guru, Mad Lion, Naughty By Nature, Yo-Yo, Das EFX, Fu-Schnickens, CL Smooth and Wu-Tang. Some rap about Arsenio, some just do verses like my guy from Fu-Schnickens doing my favorite verse of all time. It shows how much Arsenio impacted the culture when he wasn’t interviewing Macho Man.
Special Ed, Masta Ace & Buckshot “Crooklyn”
This group is also known as Crooklyn Dodgers, which like a baseball team has an ever-changing lineup. This Q-Tip-produced track was made for the Crooklyn soundtrack. There was another “95” iteration of the group made for the Clockers soundtrack featuring Chubb Rock, O.C. & Jeru the Damaja who made “The Return Of…” which is also pretty good. The third and last version of the group consisted of Mos Def, Memphis Bleek & Jean Grae for a 9th Wonder track called “Crooklyn in My Mind” in 2007.
Did you know Jean Grae was on The Special Without Brett Davis? I did MC Steinberg at her. Intentionally not linking the video but I’m happy it happened.
Also one time Mos Def bumped into me in a crowd and he smelled great.
Craig Mack, The Notorious BIG, LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes & Rampage “Flava in Ya Ear (Remix)”
I can’t recall the name of the wiggly gentleman in the beginning but this remix of Craig Mack’s hit song brought out the future legends (and Busta’s cousin Rampage from Flipmode Squad), including Biggie who steals the show.
“You're mad 'cause my style you're admiring / Don't be mad, UPS is hiring"
Sway, King Tech, DJ Revolution, RZA, Tech N9ne, Eminem, Xzibit, Pharoahe Monch, Kool G Rap, Jayo Felony, Chino XL & KRS-One “The Anthem”
Sway, best known as the MTV News guy with the hat, hosted a hugely influential radio show called The Wake Up show with King Tech. When it came time to put out an album, they didn’t just call in a favor, they called in every favor.
“What’s Goin On” 2001, but just the Fred Durst part
RIP Marvin Mother Fuckin Gaye [middle finger]
Rakim, Nas, KRS-One & Kanye West “Classic”
Lol whoever uploaded this cut Kanye out.
This song was originally orchestrated by Nike to promote the anniversary of the Air Force Ones. The original version of the song only had Kanye & Nas on it, but when they reached out to KRS-One to hop on a remix of it, he phoned Gang Starr’s DJ Premier:
“KRS-One called me and said, ‘Yo, we need a Premier version of this song,'” he remembered. “I had no ties to it, but when KRS calls, what do you say, no? No. You’re like, ‘Alright, what do you need me to do?’ He said, ‘The original is done; we even performed it already on MTV. But we still need one to do a video too, and we really want to get it a little more — not even uptempo, just more of a different type of energy.’ I said, ‘Alright.'”
DJ Premier flipped a song by Carl Douglas (the “Kung Fu Fighting” guy, but a different “Kung Fu” song) and had a first time collaboration with one of the greatest MC’s ever, Rakim, who has arguably the best verse on this.
“I got Rakim’s [verse] separately on a CD of an a capella of his vocal, but the thing is, [the song is] 100 BPM, but his [verse] was between 97 and 98…I was like, ‘I don’t really wanna alter Rakim’s stuff.’ You don’t mess with Rakim! It’s a violation." This was before Ableton and all of these new devices … When I got Rakim’s [verse], I sped it up and kept pushing it and pushing it … Boom… Comes out flawless. You wouldn’t even know the difference.”
Hey speaking of commercials…
This Boost Mobile Commercial
Yes, this was a commercial. But the full version of this song gets stuck in my head on a near-monthly basis:
These were three rappers who were not aligned when this came out. This is actually in the heat of the Kanye and 50 Cent feud, so it was kinda funny to see Kanye in a commercial with some significant G-Unit branding.
Domo Genesis and Tyler The Creator used the beat on a mixtape years ago.
Chirp me!
Steven Van Zandt, DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Ruben Blades, Bob Dylan, Pat Benatar, Herbie Hancock, Ringo Starr, Lou Reed, Run–D.M.C., Peter Gabriel, Bob Geldof, Clarence Clemons, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Darlene Love, Bobby Womack, Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow, The Fat Boys, Jackson Browne, Daryl Hannah, Peter Wolf, Bono, George Clinton, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmy Cliff, Big Youth, Michael Monroe, Stiv Bators, Peter Garrett, Ron Carter, Ray Barretto, Gil Scott-Heron, Nona Hendryx, Kashif, Lotti Golden, L. Shankar, Joey Ramone, Hall & Oates “Sun City”
Look, this is an all-star list of 80’s rappers. They are the least interesting part of this thing. There is so much going on in this music video. I’m obsessed with Lou Reed paling around with Oates, Bono popping up like a Dracula and Joey Ramone falling out of a doorway. All tied together with the exuberant ever presence of the Fat Boys who definitely took advantage of the A-lister krafty.
Sun City was a luxury resort north of Johannesburg, which still stands to this day. It was located in Bophuthatswana, one of the nominally independent regions created by the South African government to enforce apartheid and perpetuate racial segregation. The success of Sun City was deeply entwined and exploited cheap labor of the residents of the region and led to a boycott which was supported by lots of huge names, but not everybody…
“In protest of apartheid, an international boycott by performers continued for years, although some, such as the Beach Boys,[3] Linda Ronstadt,[3] Cher,[3] Millie Jackson,[3] Liza Minnelli,[3] Frank Sinatra (1981),[4] Paul Anka,[4] Status Quo,[5] Rod Stewart (July 1983),[4][5] Elton John (October 1983),[4] and Queen, ignored it.”
I also want to add to the list Hulk Hogan.
Things got a bit better in the early 90’s when Bophuthatswana was re-incorporated into democratic South Africa there. Sun City made history again when it hosted the filming of the universally beloved Sandler / Barrymoore film, Blended.
Here’s a clip of the song being performed at Wembley (by Simple Minds of all bands) at a Nelson Mandela tribute concert.
This insane track is credited to United Artists Against Apartheid, which was created by Little Steven, equally of E-Street Band, Sopranos and Lillyhammer fame. In fact, the main reason that Little Steven branched out was because his “political” turn gave record companies cold feet.
“I literally disappeared for seven years after my contract ran out. Now, I call that my ‘walking my dog’ years.”
I met Little Steven backstage at a King Khan & The Shrines show, which was one of the wildest nights of my life. A while back he had a radio show that would showcase younger garage bands which is a kinda cool move for a boomer millionaire who “isn’t political” anymore.
This makes me wonder what this concept would have been like if he kept the act going. It would be like Southside Johnny, King Gizzard, Patti Scialfa, The Gories, Drea de Matteo, Amyl, The Max Weinberg 7, The Rolling Stones, and the remaining Fat Boy (Kool Rock-Ski), and like, Kendrick Lamar on the “Sun City” sequel. I wonder what it could be about…lemme see if he said anything about—OH NO.
Hey speaking of apartheid, you know it’s still happening in Palestine along with other much worse things and lots of children are dying every day? It’s all pretty hopeless and horrible, and it’s easy to feel helpless but you can click here to donate to help the ones you still can.