Fu-Schnickens - F.U. - Don't Take It Personal LP

Music On Vinyl (2017, Reissue)

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.

I had a hell of a time tracking this record down at a reasonable price.  It did come out a few years ago and I just wasn't paying as much attention.  By the time I decided it was time to addd this one to the collection, it was out of print and commanding high prices on Discogs.  Eventually I found a seller in Japan that was selling it at a good price and listed it as being brand new and mint.

When I got the record, it was complete trash.  Every single song had insane static and surface noise to the point where it actually overpowered the music.  I alerted the seller and he was a complete dick about it.  Wouldn't a returtn and just kept arguing with me that it was new and sealed, so it's not his responsibility.  Problem is that it wasn't sealed, it was in a resealable sleeve.  Anyway, I had to force the issue with PayPal, send it back to Japan and about 3 months later I finally got my money back.  Giant pain, but I found another one a few weeks later and this one is perfect.

Fu-Schnickens is one of those hip hop artists that really could have only in the early 90s.  They are a fun upbeat crew and dipped their toe into kung fu references a year before Wu-Tang Clan burst onto the scene.  Of the 3 MCs in this crew, Chip Fu was the one that always took the headlines with his micro machine man rapid fire delivery.  It tends to completely overshadow the other two, even though you can definitely make the argument that their contributions have aged much better that Chip's.

It's really the beats that keep this record sounding good nearly thirty years later.  It's just that perfect golden era production with rich, full beats that are total head nodders.  Aside from one truly awful song that closes out side A in "Heavenly Father," the other nine are a really good time and while they were never one of my favorite groups as a kid, I've always thought this record was a solid listen.

Fu-Schnickens - F.U. - Don't Take It Personal:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lV0mYjmcBT6vXnPo0GNciyfnSwrE7cYUI