Dance

Rip It Up, Issue 211, 1 March 1995, Page 36

Dance

( SCARFACE (WITH ICE CUBE) \ I Hand of the Dead Body J Ice Cube suceeds in giving his boy a leg up the gangsta charts by walking in halfway through and popping a verse (not the first time the two have worked together). The beat is phat g-funk, the lyrics all about the BS of rap censorship, but the video is of more interest to me. Till now rappers have avoided showing their colours, almost always appearing in basic black. Scarface seems to be wearing a bit of blue, all his homeys certainly are, and they’re throwing up Cripps gang signs all over the vid. When Ice Cube turns up, he’s not showing any colours, but one can guess he’s not a Blood by association. TECHNOTRONIC (FEATURING YA KID K) A I Move It To The Rhythm J Wow, it’s been a long time since she pumped up the jam, but Ya Kid K is back! This is pretty much the same sort of stuff Technotronic were doing before, just with the technology/production upgrade you’d expect after all this time. Ya Kid K is in excellent form, and her voice is now a lot more mature — obviously she’s older now! This is no better or worse than their original stuff — nice dancefloor pop with a strong driving beat.

/ PUBLIC ENEMY \ I What Kind Of Power We Got? J The song I picked as one of the highlights of the PE album Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age is now a single. Five minutes of jester Flavor Flav funking around in a party jam: “What kind of power we got? Soul power!” The chorus refrain is a simple anthem, but the lyrics go deeper. “What kind of power we got?,” is the question many black Americans are asking themselves. Flav’s response is that the power is there, you’ve just got to find it and tap into it. SEAL Newborn Friend You’ve probably heard this on the radio already. Seven foot tall, Seal has already established his credentials with the cross-over audience, but there’s no denying he’s got a great voice. A mid tempo slice of soft soul, the original Trevor Horn production is augmented with various remixes by Brothers in Rhythm and David Morales. ISDN FSOL High quality packaging, lots of full colour cyber graphics, shame about the music. Actually, there isn’t really any— just 20 minutes of ambient room noise, production noise,

and general synthesiser noise. I just didn’t get it. This is the sort of repitious beats nonsense that gets rave parties banned in the UK. KYLIE Put Yourself In My Place I was genuinely surprised this single didn’t stand alone well without the video. It’s a soft, brooding little number, but the video, of course, features Kyles floating through space and getting her gear off — kind of diverting. Three mixes here, plus an additional Morales remix of ‘Where Is The Feeling?’, which is very lame indeed. ( HOUSE OF PAIN Legend J A rather excellent single which, among other things, spits on the grave of Kurt Cobain — and that can’t be a bad thing! House of Pain address the nihilism of teen angst: “A hero

ain't nothing but a sandwhich / a legend ain’t nothing but a car.” The chorus refrain sums up the hoplessness of Generation X, and the society that revels in rock stars shooting themselves. JADE Mind, Body And Song More mid-tempo funk and slow jams from the female trio known as Jade. The album starts funky enough, but slows down by the end — the sort of thing you want to be playing in the car as you take your date home. By the time Jade sing ‘lt’s On’, you should be well in. Best tracks are the radio hit ‘5-4-3-2- Yo Time Is Up’ and ‘Every Day of the Week’. Jade have already established themselves with their first album and, if you’re a fan, you won’t be disappointed this time round. Very nice indeed. O’NEAL Shaq Fu: da Return This weak-ass punk rapper has only survived because those around him know his heart’s in the right place. By ‘those around him’ I mean the wealth of rap talent that hang around the Shaq mansion, telling him to record another rap album. People like Fu-Schnickens, Erick Sermon, Method Man, Redman, and Prince Rakeem. This album is okay enough, but, if Shaq wasn’t an NBA all-star, you’d all be laughing like you did when Hammer tried to buy in some talent for his last album. Best tracks are ‘My Dear’ (with Warren G) and ‘Biological Didn’t Bother’ — an ode to Shaq’s dad, who ran off, and his adoptive father. SLICK RICK Behind Bars This album was completed while Rick was on ‘work release’, because he was jailed a few years back for shooting his cousin. Although resident in the US, he is expected to be deported to his UK homeland once he's done his time. All of which makes this album very interesting indeed. Rick is old school, first emerging around the time of Dana Dane (also coming back), Fresh Prince, and Doug E Fresh (who appears here for a pairing on ‘Sittin’ In My Car’). Clearly prison has had a sobering effect on Rick. Some of his trademark sick humor is toned down this time — perhaps he wants early parole. The sound and lyrics are still very much classic Slick Rick, without sounding dated. Considering the problems of recording the album bit by bit, this is quite an achievement.

NICK D'ANGELO