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.
This is the last of my Del 12" singles. He had released others, but my main focus was tracking down everything trough the No Need For Alarm era. I have it in mind to gather some of the others eventually, but I'm still trying to fill some of the holes in my vinyl collection of his full length albums before I move to the singles. Even though I have been going through these single chronologically, I still managed to save the best one for last.
I did have the cassingle version of this when I was in high school. Specifically, I had the Maxi-Single version. This version had two extremely important non album tracks. One of them is the song "Undisputed Champs." It was a non album track that was exclusive to this single and it featured Del, Pep Love and Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest. In 1993, having Del and Q-Tip on the same track was a completely mind blowing thought as they were responsible for some of my favorite records of this era. The song does not disappoint wither as both are in top form for their verses. I feel like this could have been a "Scenario" level event if the song had been highlighted on an album or if it had ended up being made into a video, but instead it ends up being something of a lost classic.
As good as "Undisputed Champs" is, that wasn't even my favorite song on this single. The Casual remix of "Wrongplace" is unbelievable. I can't go so far as to say it's the version that should have been on the album as the original version fits into that record so flawlessly, but as a standalone track, you could make the argument that this is a superior version. It's not just the production that is different. This version has an alternate vocal take as well. The slow grooving bass provides a foundation for Del to essentially go a little crazier than usual. The structure of his rapping is more out there than the album version, with emphasis on different syllables and rhymes built out differently. I really love it.
These songs along with the non album tracks from the other singles I've written about over the past few weeks were eventually compiled onto an Elektra 'greatest hits' CD. But that one never came out on vinyl so I knew I had to hunt down these singles and I'm psyched I have them all now (Aside from version of "Mistadobolina" that just has different artwork, but yeah I'm still looking for that one too).
Del The Funky Homosapien - "Undisputed Champs":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErPZAfz9-Rc&ab_channel=DelThaFunkeeHomosapien-Topic
Del The Funky Homosapien - "Wrong Place" (Casual Remix):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsUsLPOVtHQ&ab_channel=DelThaFunkeeHomosapien-Topic
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