PimpDifferent

El Chicano - Viva Tirado
One of Latin rock's most restless, dynamic groups, El Chicano recorded furious Latin jams and gorgeous pop ballads, covering everyone from Van Morrison to Les Baxter to Ray Barretto, and recording some solid original material as well. "Viva Tirado," their biggest hit (one that hit the jazz, pop and R&B charts), a groovy re-engineering of the boogaloo grooves of Willie Bobo and Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers with great interplay between organ and guitar. With none of the group's original albums available, random places in East Los Angeles might have them. Pick a CD up to investigate one of the best groups of the '70s Latin rock explosion.

Kid Frost - La Raza
Frost singlehandedly put "Lowriders" on the map with this hip-hop anthem that was so popular it even wound up in a beer commercial. But despite having since launched the careers of countless other hispanic rappers and blazed the trail artists such as Cypress Hill, Chino XL and Hurricane G have followed, Frost has been unfairly typecast as the "La Raza" rapper who only makes songs for his people and not for a hip-hop audience.

William Bell and Judy Clay - Private Number
A principal architect of the Stax-Volt sound, singer/composer William Bell remains best known for his classic "You Don't Miss Your Water," one of the quintessential soul records to emerge from the Memphis scene. Bell's next solo hit, 1968's "A Tribute to a King," was a poignant farewell to the late Otis Redding; the R&B Top Ten hit "I Forgot to Be Your Lover" soon followed, and a series of duets with Judy Clay, most notably "Private Number," also earned airplay.

Rappin' 4 Tay - Player's Club
After a strong debut on his own label, Rappin' 4-Tay's second record only increased the profile of the strongest rapper in the second wave of Bay Area hip-hop. Rappin' 4-Tay sounded equally smooth and confident on laid-back party jams (the rolling "Playaz Club," one of his best tracks), but really raised it up a notch with his tougher gangsta material ("I'll Be Around," "Keep One in the Chamba"). Franky J's productions contributed a lot as well, syrupy and flowing like most of the West Coast G-funk tracks, but much more dynamic than the usual.

David McCallum - The Edge
I hope the Good Doctor doesn't shoot me for this one. The multi-talented David McCallum has racked up many accomplishments over the years, including acting in movies, theater, and TV, plus issuing his own music albums (McCallum is proficient at several instruments). Born David Keith McCallum on September 19, 1933, in Glasgow, Scotland, McCallum was surrounded by music starting at an early age as his father was a violinist (who played for the London Philharmonic Orchestra) and his mother a cellist. After giving cello a try, McCallum became entranced by such classic writers as Chaucer, Kipling, Dickens, and Shakespeare, which inspired McCallum to give acting a try as a teenager. David Axlerod produced "The Edge" which was given life by the infusion of funky bass lines and a rapper named Calvin Broadus in....

Dr. Dre ft/ Snoop Dogg - The Next Episode
More than any other rapper, Dr. Dre was responsible for moving away from the avant-noise and political stance of Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions as well as the party vibes of old-school rap. Instead, Dre pioneered gangsta rap and his own variation of the sound, G-funk. Boogie Down Productions's early albums were hardcore but cautionary tales of the criminal mind, but Dre's records with N.W.A celebrated the hedonistic, amoralistic side of gang life. Dre was never much of a rapper -- his rhymes were simple and his delivery was slow and clumsy -- but as a producer, he was extraordinary. 2001 proves it...this song proves it. I remember driving around with Jonathan as he twisted some bubble gum inside a swisher and when this song came on, we both didn't speak for 4 minutes. I had to rewind the track and start it from the beginning to truly appreciate the production required to make this bangin' track.

Club Nouveau - Why You Treat Me So Bad
The funky, dance-oriented R&B act Club Nouveau stormed onto the musical scene in late 1986 with . Half the songs on this eight-title set received some form of airplay, but none matched the success of their lighthearted, eggae/hip-hop remake of the Bill Withers classic "Lean on Me," which topped the American pop charts for two weeks in 1987. The follow-up, "Why You Treat Me So Bad," only peaked at number 39 on the pop charts (but fared much better on the R&B charts), yet has enjoyed an equally long (if not longer) shelf life. By the end of the '90s, "Why You Treat Me So Bad" had already been sampled into two of the decade's biggest hip-hop hits.....

Luniz ft/ Nearly The Entire Damn Yay - I Got 5 On It (Reeeeeemix)
The Luniz' Operation Stackola is the group's most accomplished and best-selling LP to date. Featuring the Oakland-based duo's only major hit, "I Got Five on It," the album drew attention and admiration from other hip-hop artists, but never crossed over into the pop mainstream. The woofer-shaking bass line and eerie bell-like keyboards of "I Got Five on It" made it a hip-hop anthem of the mid-'90s.

Quincy Jones - Summer in the City
In a musical career that has spanned six decades, Quincy Jones has earned his reputation as a renaissance man of American music. Jones has distinguished himself as a bandleader, a solo artist, a sideman, a songwriter, a producer, an arranger, a film composer, and a record label executive, and outside of music, he's also written books, produced major motion pictures, and helped create television series. And a quick look at a few of the artists Jones has worked with suggests the remarkable diversity of his career -- Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, Lesley Gore, Michael Jackson, Peggy Lee, Ray Charles, Paul Simon, and Aretha Franklin. "Summer in the City" is one of my favorite tracks for obvious reasons...

Pharcyde - Passin' Me By
The cover shot of a Fat Albert-ized The Pharcyde roller coasting their way into a funhouse makes perfect sense, as the L.A.-based quartet introduced listeners to an uproarious vision of earthy hip-hop informed by P-Funk silliness and an everybody-on-the-mic street-corner atmosphere that highlights the incredible rapping skills of each member. With multiple voices freestyling over hilarious story-songs like "Oh Shit," "Soul Flower," the dozens contest "Ya Mama," and even a half-serious driving-while-black critique named "Officer," Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde proved Daisy Age philosophy akin to De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest wasn't purely an East Coast phenomenon. Skits and interludes with live backing (usually just drums and piano) only enhance the freeform nature of the proceedings, and the group even succeeds when not reliant on humor, as proved by the excellent heartbreak tale "Passing Me By."

Roy Ayers - Everybody Loves the Sunshine
Once one of the most visible and winning jazz vibraphonists of the 1960s, then an R&B bandleader in the 1970s and '80s, Roy Ayers' reputation s now that of one of the prophets of acid jazz, a man decades ahead of his time. A tune like 1972's "Move to Groove" by the Roy Ayers Ubiquity has a crackling backbeat that serves as the prototype for the shuffling hip-hop groove that became, shall we say, ubiquitous on acid jazz records; and his relaxed 1976 song "Everybody Loves the Sunshine" has been frequently sampled. Yet Ayers' own playing has always been rooted in hard bop: crisp, lyrical, rhythmically resilient. His own reaction to being canonized by the hip-hop crowd as the "Icon Man" is tempered with the detachment of a survivor in a rough business. "I'm having fun laughing with it," he has said. "I don't mind what they call me, that's what people do in this industry."

Common - Book of Life
Although Chicago is often praised for its Blues, jazz, and house music, the city has failed to be successful when it comes to hip hop. One of the few Chicago MCs who has enjoyed any type of national attention is Common Sense, whose complex style of rapping and jazz-flavored tracks inspire comparisons to De La Soul, Digable Planets, A Tribe Called Quest, and The Pharcyde. On his sophomore effort, Resurrection, the South Sider doesn't hesitate to let you know that he has considerable technique, and in fact, he sometimes displays too much of it for his own good. Nonetheless, his intelligence, wit, and originality make this CD impressive. The introspective "Book of Life," a commentary on trying to keep it together in a society that has lost all traces of sanity, is on the playlist this week.

The Isley Brothers - Living for the Love of You
First formed in the early '50s, the Isley Brothers enjoyed one of the longest, most influential, and most diverse careers in the pantheon of popular music -- over the course of nearly a half century of performing, the group's distinguished history spanned not only two generations of Isley siblings but also massive cultural shifts which heralded their music's transformation from gritty R&B to Motown soul to blistering funk. The first generation of Isley siblings was born and raised in Cincinnati, OH, where they were encouraged to begin a singing career by their father, himself a professional vocalist, and their mother, a church pianist who provided musical accompaniment at their early performances.

Masta Ace - The INC Ride
Although it suffers from the same lack of imagination and uneven songwriting that plagued SlaughtaHouse, Masta Ace's second album, Sittin' on Chrome, is a stronger effort than his debut. The best tracks show that Masta Ace Incorporated can turn out by-the-books gangsta rap with flair, but it's a little distressing that the best song, "Born to Roll," was initially featured as a bonus track on SlaughtaHouse. INC Ride is a good song too...

Jay Z - H.O.V.A
When Jay-Z dropped "The City Is Mine" in 1997 and claimed New York's hip-hop throne upon The Notorious B.I.G.'s demise, many smirked and some even snickered. Four years later in 2001, when he released The Blueprint, no one was smirking and no one dared snicker. At this point in time, nobody in New York could match Jay-Z rhyme for rhyme and nobody in New York had fresher beats -- and many would argue that Jigga's reign was not just confined to New York but was, in fact, national. Yes, Jay-Z had risen to the top of the ap game in the late '90s and solidified his position with gigantic hits like "Big Pimpin" and "I Just Wanna Love You (Give It 2 Me)." Furthermore, The Blueprint's leadoff single, "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)," dominated urban radio numerous weeks before the album hit the streets, generating so much demand that Def Jam had to push up the album's street date because it was being so heavily bootlegged.

Jackson 5 - I Want You Back
This Gary, IN, family ensemble exploded onto the national scene with immediate and long-lasting impact in 1970. This album's combination of youthful exuberance and innocence, coupled with Motown production magic, yielded quick results, as "I Want You Back" topped both R&B and pop charts. Michael Jackson, the nine-year-old lead singer, became a national darling. Then we know what happens next.

Leon Haywood - I Wanna Do Something Freaky WIth You
Soul/funk journeyman Leon Haywood periodically dented the charts in the 1970s with hits that tapped into the grooves and musical hooks of the day's trends. An accomplished songwriter and arranger, Haywood never pretended to be an innovator, and his hits are cheerful derivations of '70s midtempo funk and romantic ballads, usually embellished by smooth string charts. His best material recalled the late-'60s/early-'70s Motown sound; on the slower material in particular, his vocals bore a resemblance to those of Marvin Gaye.
He didn't come into his own as a solo artist until the mid-'70s, when he had big R&B hits with "Strokin'," "Come and Get Yourself Some," and "Keep It in the Family." His biggest single, "I Want'A Do Something Freaky to You" (with orgasmic female gasps and moans that made it pretty clear what "freaky" really meant), crossed over to the Top Twenty pop listings.

Dr Dre ft/ Snoop Dogg - Nuttin But A G Thang
With its stylish, sonically detailed production, Dr. Dre's 1992 solo debut The Chronic transformed the entire sound of West Coast rap. Here Dr. Dre established his patented G-funk sound: fat, blunted Parliament-Funkadelic beats, soulful backing vocals, and live instruments in the rolling bass lines and whiny synths. What's impressive is that Dr. Dre crafts tighter singles than his inspiration George Clinton -- he's just as effortlessly funky, and he has a better feel for a hook, a knack that improbably landed gangsta rap on the pop charts. But none of The Chronic's legions of imitators were as rich in personality, and that's due in large part to Dr. Dre's monumental discovery, Snoop Doggy Dogg.

The Staples Singers - I'll Take You There
Released in 1979, Chronicle remains a near-definitive overview of the The Staple Singers time at Stax Records, containing 12 tracks including such classic soul singles as "Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom-Boom)," "You've Got to Earn It," "Touch a Hand (Make a Friend)," "If You're Ready (Come Go with Me)," "Be What You Are," "Respect Yourself" and "I'll Take You There."

Naughty By Nature - Ghetto Bastard
There was not a bigger, more contagious crossover radio smash in the autumn of 1991 than 's "O.P.P.," a song that somehow managed the trick of being both audaciously catchy and subversively coy at the same time. Its irrepressible appeal--the Jackson 5 sample, the saucy subject matter, the huge anthemic chorus, Treach's phat rat-a-tat flow--was so widespread, in fact, that it played just as well to the hardcore heads in the hood as it did to the hip-hop dabblers in the suburbs. The beauty of the trio's self-titled full-length debut is that it is every bit as musically accomplished, and every bit as ghetto-fabulous, in its entirety as that watershed first single. is both a pop and a rap classic that chews up stylistic real estate by the block, easily shifting from an old-school rhyme-off between Treach and Vinnie ("Pin the Tail on the Donkey"), the unflappable "Louie Louie" Vega-produced posse cut "1, 2, 3" (with verses from Flavor Unit compadres Lakim Shabazz and Apache), and the teeth-clinching combative dirge "Guard Your Grill," all of which very much come out swinging from the streets, to the more measured, emotionally developed "Ghetto Bastard," which brings an upbeat but nail-tough point of view to a grim tale of parental and societal deprivation without ever asking for an ounce of sympathy.

Donny Hathaway - The Ghetto
Already a respected arranger and pianist who'd contributed to dozens of records (by artists ranging from The Impressions to Carla Thomas to Woody Herman), with this debut LP Donny Hathaway revealed yet another facet of his genius -- his smoky, pleading voice, one of the best to ever grace a soul record. The most familiar track here, a swinging jam known as "The Ghetto," places listeners right in the middle of urban America

Too Short - The Ghetto
With Short Dog's in the House, Oakland's most sexually explicit MC gave his followers more of what he was known for -- X-rated lyrics, a relaxed style of rapping and addictive, melodic tracks recalling the spelendor of '70s funk. R&B fans who complained that rap on the whole wasn't sufficiently melodic couldn't make that complaint about the distinctive Too Short. When his raunchy lyrics continued to come under fire, he maintained that he was simply portraying a character -- and that he wasn't really the ghetto pimp he portrayed. As entertaining as his albums are, Too Short inspired interpretation of Donny Hathaway "The Ghetto" makes it crystal clear that he would do well to be more lyrically challenging more often.