Del The Funky Homosapien - Catch A Bad One 12"

Elektra (1993)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

 If you've been reading any of my Wednesday posts, you've definitely read mention of Del The Funky Homosapien. He & his Hieroglyphics crew are responsible for my favorite releases in the history of hip hop. I had decided that I needed to get my hands on the various golden era singles from those groups as the B sides and remixes were sorely missing from my collection on vinyl.

We've finally arrived at the first single from Del's second album, No Need For Alarm.  I've mentioned before that No Need For Alarm is my favorite hip hop record of all time, but I'm not sure I've also pointed out that "Catch a Bad One" is my favorite song from that album.  The very first time I heard that crazy cello loop I was instantly hooked.  I couldn't say for sure if I heard this song before the album itself was released.  I don't remember seeing it played on Yo MTV Raps, and I have no real memory of buying the album or how I knew it had been released.  I usually have a pretty solid memory for that sort of thing, but these details have sadly been lost to time.

I never had this single back in the 90s, and it didn't seem like a big deal.  It's mostly album tracks with "Catch a Bad One," "No More Worries" and "Wack M.C.'s."  All great songs for sure, but I already had them on the album.  The only exclusive track was a remix of "Catch A Bad One," so never splurged on the cassingle.  It wasn't until many years later that I realized that this remix really wasn't much of a remix at all.  It's essentially an entirely new song.  New beats, new lyrics, pretty much new everything.  Sure, Del does reuse four of the words from the original hook, but aside from that it's pretty much all new.  It's great and I'm really pleased to finally have it on vinyl.

Del The Funky Homosapien - "Catch A Bad One":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpP_DslgZvY&ab_channel=DelThaFunkeeHomosapien-Topic

Del The Funky Homosapien - "Catch A Bad One" (Remix):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mC1bVAh_iY&ab_channel=DelThaFunkeeHomosapien-Topic