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Click to Buy it From Amazon.Com
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Label: Tuff City
Song Listing
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1. Live in Connecticut
2. It’s Like That Ya’ll 3. It’s Us (The Cold Crush) 4. Freestylin’ 5. Are You Ready? 6. Yvette (and More) |
Reviews
This is an interesting recording for several reasons. First of all, any live recording of an old school artist is a must have in my book. Secondly, and perhaps unfortunately, this disc does not appear to have been put together by the artists themselves.
The overall sound quality is about what you would expect- meaning, not all that great. The microphones come across audibly, but often times the music makes you wish it was a studio recording.
The tracks are named oddly as well. For instance track 5 has a bit of “The Weekend” in it but there is no mention of it in the title. I think they may have been randomly named by the label.
The songs also fade in at the beginning and out at the end. In other words many songs are not complete. It is not a complete concert. It is recorded in several locations including Connecticut and the Danceteria in NY.
The intro of the members is handled by Grandmaster Caz in a very matter of fact fashion. But as soon as Charlie Chase drops the beat in, the “tough ass four MC’s” really go to work. Caz mentions that they are using Afrika Bambaataa’s sound system.
Throughout the disc they use classic call and responses, but not as often as you might think. They say their own and each other’s names quite often.
They utilize sing song type choruses on some tracks that were typical of the time and demonstrates the idea of actually putting on a show as opposed to merely strutting around the stage as many of today’s artists do.
They maintain simple beats, but most are funky and stack up well. During the third track, you can hear actual voices in the music from “The New Rap Language” by The Treacherous Three.
There are moments on this disc that are similar to performances on “Live MC Battles from Harlem World 1981.” If you own that one, don’t let it discourage you from checking this one out.
The final track features the priceless old school line: “Ya’ll gotta excuse us, we can’t bounce as much as we want to cause if we bounce too much the record’ll jump.”
In the end if you are not initiated into the world of the Cold Crush Brothers, this would be a good way to do it. Don’t let the sparse nature of this recording fool you. Just like any other hip hop disc, to truly appreciate it, you have to sit down and listen to it. One listen won’t cut it. Grandmaster Caz is one of hip hop’s great MC’s. The rest of the crew all stack up as well with no weak link among them.
While this is in no way a perfect recording, it is what it is- a live old school recording.
There aren’t many around, and most of the ones that do exist are home recordings or bootlegs that certainly are not ready available to the average hip hop fan.
The other reason to own this disc is that it is, after all, the Cold Crush Brothers. They never released a true full length album while in their heyday. Anything by them is a classic- including this one.-JohnG
