The Mexican....wow BL,I can talk a half an hour about that one.haha,great and real peculiar break that had no form or structure.The entire record is more or less one continuous dope beat.It's the bassline that is the prevalence on that one.The part we broke dance to on that record was not percussive, it was guitar driven with that funky on going bassline.You have to rate it higher than Impeach because of the massive amount of street play that it got.DJ's back then would not repeat a break record that was not hittin' the crowd too often.The character of this record enabled break troops to design routines off of it.I'm not sure if there are many records that you could have done that off of back then.I personally have it about 17- 23 out of 100.
Here is the quick jest of what I'm getting around to,BL.The times were what they were.In order to put yourself there you have to virtually remove yourself from almost all that you know involving your love of Hip Hop.Remember,no internet,no cellphones,info still traveled by flyer and word of mouth,not alot of fanfare beside two turntables and a microphone.No turntable science (Thorens were used alot at first and then antideluvian belt driven Technic B-2's were standards.Which did not enable the DJ to do much with the breaks themselves besides run them into each other on the get down parts.You would get a dirt and chalk residue on your Lee's after you got up from dancing.The dirtier your knees, the more powerful the break.Therefore,dig it...the era i'm talking about is 1975 - 1979.So check it,investigate your crates and check out the years the records were made.This is very important for the simple fact of the DJ's could not play what did not exist.
I used to crack up at these interviews where these old school pioneers used to say Herc or Flowers played disco records.Not a whole helluva lot was available for them too play.Alot of the stuff that Flash and Bam got to play did not exist during Herc and Flowers.So the jest is that if you were lucky enough to catch a good break that everybody responded to,you ran that shit until the record got warped.Of the 170 or some odd breaks that Lou and them used for UBB's only about 50 of them kept regular rotation.The others were used time to time depending on what DJ you went to see.There was easily another 170 or so that didn't make it that left us scratchin our heads to
where is this at?
in reference to breakbeats that were played by the DJ's that didn't make it to UBB series.
In giving credit when credits due, Brothers Disco (Breakout & Baron) and them played alot of dope breaks that not alot cats knew about.Afrika Islam had tons of them also.So if a collective list was made of Top, I don't know maybe 100,200 or even 500 breaks or so.Records like The Mexican and Impeach were rotational standards,top flite 20s and 30s just outside of the dynamic heavy hitters that left you gaspin for air when they was finished like
Scorpio,Just Begun,Give it up Turn it loose,Nautilus,Funky Music is the thing,etc.These standards would be in the Top 20 easily.
A couple others that fall into this category would be like joints like
Indiscreet,Ego Trippin to where the breakability levels were off the charts.Whereas the breaks like Amen Brother,Breakthrough,Theme from the planets type joints got famous for other various reasons in lore and perception other than shit you can wear the knees on you jeans out to.
Also as a side note,BL...Janita "Jenny" Haan (The british lead singer of Babe Ruth)had some powerful vocals for the time Grace Slick like.Her vocals really drove that beat also.The group called The Bombers did a disco retake on this joint later on infused by the famous Jellybean Benitez that got alot of play too.No suprise because he was able to get Haan to do the vocals on that too.
Peace to ya!
