@BrooklynBigAl

4 years ago

Here's a roadmap to the rabbit hole that lead me here:

1) YouTube recommended, and I obediently watched, a video by Old School Rap icon DJ Premier. It was part of a new series by him called "So Wassup" where he salutes the use of the floppy disk in the early days of rap. I felt that learning about the use of what was then an emerging technology might be interesting. It was. Although the video was less about floppy disk technology and more about the actual track and the emerging art (crime?) of "sampling". The video focused on a song called "Come Clean" by Jeru the Damaja and I found it so interesting that I checked out another in the series.
2) In this second video, Premier talks about producing "MCs Act Like They Don't Know" by KRS One. At one point in this video he casually mentions "Take me to the Mardi Gras" being one of the most sacred records in Rap and shouts out a dude named "Bob James". I found it weird that growing up as a fan of Rap in 80s/90s NYC I had never heard of this rapper named Bob James or his seminal work "Take me to the Mardi Gras".
3) So I looked up Bob James: not a rapper.
4) I listened to "Take me to the Mardi Gras": not a Rap song.
5) Bob James, as it turns out, is a jazz-funk and jazz-fusion artist whose tracks contained many of the beats that were stolen--I mean, um, sampled--in early rap hits. You might say he was the Godfather of the Illest Beats.
6) I watched a few more videos on the topic of Bob James mostly with him talking about how he came after rappers in court throughout the decades to get some chedda' and how one of his greatest regrets was not being able to sue Run DMC because the Statute of Limitations had expired. I came to discover that one of the songs he is most famous for is called "Angela" which was used as the theme for the TV show Taxi. Funny thing is, even though Taxi was a hit when I was a little kid, I never watched because I could not get past the theme song which I found very depressing. But anyway, I watched a video with the song just for shits and giggles. Still found it to be depressing. But while watching that vid, there was a suggestion for the same song, sung A Capella, here in the "Brandon's Booth" channel. The thumbnail looked...less depressing?
7) Watched it. Loved it.
8) Watched another video in the channel, then another.
9) Eventually wound up here.

If you'll pardon my language, THIS CHANNEL NEEDS TO BLOW THE FUCK UP . Truly amazing stuff. Before reading the channel description, I could tell that this dude Brandon was a music teacher. He just has that enthusiastic vibe. Gotta' do the theme from Duck Tales next. Please. Great work, keep it coming.

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