Mr. Wendal by The Argyle Pimps

Check it out, a cover of "Mr. Wendal" by the group The Argyle Pimps. They definitely add their own spin to it and give it a respectful turn. Always fun to see groups covering AD material!

The Subjective Perspective Interview

Here's a little clip from the Subjective Perspective Show and an interview they did with Speech, with Speech giving his thoughts on God. I am far from a religious person but this may be of value to you. The quality is pretty choppy for a moment, but I still thought I would share! For the full interview, click here.

AD Honored in Tennessee

The Hip Hop Gods site has the details, but a pretty cool little story here. Arrested Development was honored by the state of Tennessee in honor of their song of the same name. Now my home state of Nebraska can work on honoring Bruce Springsteen for his album Nebraska. . .

New AD Album SPLASH

Not many details yet, but Speech recently took to Twitter to announce a new AD album title Splash, available "when it's ready" according to the man itself. The only details so far are that it will be produced by Khao, Speech, Randy Walker, JJ Boogie, and the Lounge Lizards (who have been working with the group off and on for some time. Needless to say I can't wait!

Prince Harry Spotted At Arrested Development Show

Prince Harry waiting patiently for AD to take the stage.

After welcoming my son into the world on the same day that Prince William's son was born - true story - I was about "royal family-ed" out. But this is pretty cool, I guess - Prince Harry was spotted at an outdoor show in the UK that featured Arrested Development! Here's a link to the article here. Anyway, cool to see AD get some coverage out of this!

The Todd of Dracula

As the blog says, I like to cover everything and anything Arrested Development, so this definitely fits. Good friend of the blog Christian recently did a comic filled with in-jokes for his wife for a birthday present called Todd of Dracula. Due to popular demand, he recently posted the entire thing online.

Like I said, it's filled with in-jokes meant for his wife and for fans of the Dark Shadows TV show (and fans of hating the Dark Shadows movie starring Johnny Depp, which I think fits most of the world), but thanks to his annotations, it can be enjoyed by the rest of us. I know I had quite a few laugh out loud moments. To the left lies one pertinent series of panels from the book that will make it so that you never look at "Mr. Wendal" the same way again.

Anyway, take a look at it if you get a chance. Christian has a lot of talent and it'd be fun to see him work at something for wider audiences. In the meantime, we can enjoy what he has already done.

Also, the ten minutes I spent ordering a massage gift certificate on the internet for my wife's birthday this year looks doubly lame after seeing the effort he put into this! On the other hand, I did dedicate my book to her, so that counts for something, right?

AD Live at the Kennedy Center (Full Concert)

Pretty cool - here's a link to the full show that Arrested Development performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Can't think of a better way to spend an hour of a summer afternoon than watching and listening to this. ;)

http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/artists/?entity_id=94552&source_type=B

Beats From Speechs Vault Request

I had a request for a repost of Beats From Speech's Vault, a very rare project from Speech. So here it is! And here are some details from a previous writeup of it:

For those not aware, this is a project that Speech talked about briefly on his debut album and is extremely hard to find- Mike from Vagabond Records was nice enough to send this my way for the site.

New AD Album "This Moment"

I was working on some other things when I clicked over to Facebook and saw that Speech had announced a new AD album only seconds earlier. Exciting news! Can't wait to hear it. Here is his post:

Speech Thomas

The title for the new Arrested Development album... "This Moment" featuring: Toya, @KhaoMusic, Nana Binghi + more! #HipHop

 

20th Anniversary Tour Diary

Somehow I missed this - a little video put together by AD as a diary for their shows in Australia from last year. Check it out!

People Everyday Sampled by J. Cole

Hasn't been too much to report in AD-land, but here's something: "People Everyday" was sampled by J. Cole for the opening of his new album Born Sinner on a song called "Villuminati" along with songs by the Notorious B.I.G. ("Juicy") and R. Kelly ("I Wish Remix"). That said, I don't hear the sample - what am I missing? I'm slipping.

Every now and again I like to give new rappers a shot even though I'm firmly in that "old music is better than today's music" stage of my life, where I will likely remain until I pass. I've heard this album is pretty good but I haven't had a good chance to listen, just happened to notice the sample in the liner notes, of which J. Cole was generous enough to provide unlike Kanye West....

Kings of the Mic Show Review

On Saturday, June 1^st, 2013 I found myself in a funk, and I couldn’t understand it.

I couldn’t understand it because the night before, at Stir Cove in Council Bluffs, Iowa, I had been lucky enough to witness the incredible Kings of the Mic tour featuring some of my favorite artists of all time: LL Cool J, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, and De La Soul.

In some ways, scratch that, in every way, it was a dream lineup. In fact, the night before this tour was announced, I was talking to my wife about the concerts we had seen, and I specifically mentioned that I would really like to see LL and Cube someday. But never in a million years did I think that the two of them would go on tour together, with the added bonus of Public Enemy, who I had seen last fall, and De La Soul, another classic group.

So when I thought it over, the reason for my depression became clear: it is doubtful that I will ever see a lineup or a show like that again. First world problems, I know. But I really was kind of bummed that it was all over.

So as to the show, and why I was so excited about it - let’s start from the beginning. With four acts like these, there is really not a moment to spare, and with that in mind, opening De La Soul came out five minutes early to open things up. I wasn’t complaining – we’ve all been kept waiting for upwards of two hours for an artist that we paid $20 in Ticketmaster fees plus an expensive ticket price to see. I can just imagine the artist waiting in their dressing room until all of the red M&Ms are removed from the candy dish and the bottled water chilled to exactly 37.3 degrees per their touring rider, while we suffer in silence, wondering how many drinks we’re going to have to buy before they bother to show up.

But not these guys. They get down to business. They got things started with a mix of new songs, rarer old ones, and some hits, including “Me, Myself, and I” to the delight of the crowd. They packed a lot in their thirty minutes.

My Book

It's been a long time... I shouldn't have left you....

Hello all. In the post below you will find a link to a recent interview with Speech if you are looking for AD stuff, but I wanted to take a second and point out one of the reasons why this blog has went to seed as of late. Basically, in December 2011 I began work on a novel and in the last four or five months, that work became overwhelming, leaving me little time to work on anything else during my free moments. To attempt to motivate myself, I decided to switch the scope of this site to all old-school rap. This was a stupid idea. If I didn't have time to write about AD and Speech during a down period, what made me think trying to churn out a post a day was a good idea? So yeah, that lasted about a week, and even that was a miracle.

So, with that in mind, while it is a long-shot that this would be something that would interest any stray readers that come across this site, I did want to share with you the efforts of my work: a novel title On the Backs of Dragons. As you can probably guess, it is a fantasy, though I would say it goes pretty light on many of the hallmarks of the genre. For example, there are no elves or wise wizards, and no prophecies about chosen ones nor are there any trinkets that need to be destroyed to save the world. At it's heart, it is an adventure story, and a very simple one. It is being published by me through CreateSpace. If you would be so kind to check into it, I would appreciate it. If not, thanks for reading Highway 85, and I promise it won't pop up again here!

Interview With Speech

Hello all, long time no see. There has been a dearth of Speech and AD stories as of late, but from what I understand, they are in the process of recording new stuff, which is always welcome. In the meantime, here is a little interview with Speech with Chuck D's website Hip Hop Gods, which is a great site to follow for us old-school fans.

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf

Man, I was 11 when this one hit - and I loved it. Now, it is just flat out weird. From some Mickey Mouse compilation - no, really - here is "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" by LL Cool J.  Weird!

Soundtrack Classics - Papa Luv It by LL Cool J

Continuing with the LL theme this week comes another one from The Show Soundtrack.  This was right before Mr. Smith hit and was in the same vein.  I liked it!

Bonus Track - Fo Sho - LL Cool J

Here's the second bonus from GOAT, "Fo Sho", which I like a lot more than "Mirror Mirror". Depending on where you bought this album, you might have had a bonus track of "Shut Em Down", the two I've posted, or "Ill Bomb."

Bonus Tracks - Mirror Mirror LL Cool J

Might as well continue on the LL Cool J rare songs journey.  Here is "Mirror Mirror" from the Japanese version of  GOAT, not to be confused with the song of the same name from 10.  Unfortunately, this one has some idiot DJ talking over it, but it beats paying some crazy amount for the actual import.  (Update:  I've replaced the video I had with the actual song from the CD, and no annoying DJ!)

Cassette Only Songs - LL Cool J "Crime Story"

The Walking with a Panther album is a strange one.  It was considered a flop and the wrong album for the times - and it is inferior to LL's first two releases, no question - yet it sold very well.  There are some real missteps on the record, but there was plenty of good stuff on it, too ("Big Ole Butt" still cracks me up and while it was released earlier on a soundtrack, "Going Back to Cali" is as good as it gets). But there was a reason he opened "Mama Said Knock You Out" with "Don't call it a comeback" and that reason was Walking With a Panther.  During the summer of PE, people didn't want to hear a guy talking about champagne and so forth (I tend to agree).  Oddly, the Bomb Squad did produce two cuts on the album, "Nitro" and "It Gets No Rougher".

One problem with the album is it was just too long. In fact, so long that two cuts made the tape version but didn't carry over to the CD (the tape ran over 84 minutes!).  One of these was "Jack the Ripper,"  a single aimed at Kool Moe Dee from the year before and not part of the Walking sessions. The other was a song called "Crime Story" which was never released on CD, and since Def Jam has no clue on how to promote their back catalog, it likely never will be (I mean, this is the label that cancelled special editions of Public Enemy albums and The Lost Tapes 2 by Nas). 

Anyway, here is "Crime Story" by LL Cool J. And his new album Authentic Hip Hop drops February 12th, which I will be curious to hear. I actually liked his last one, Exit 13, after a string of two or three albums that did almost nothing for me.

Kris Kross Reunited

How cool is this?  They are reuniting for a So So Def 20th Anniversary show that includes other acts like Da Brat and XScape -click the link for details.  Guess Whodini wasn't invited....

Soundtrack Classics - Everyday Thang by Bone thugs

Since I talked about it yesterday it only seemed right to post this one today. A classic from Bone's peak, featuring all five members (Flesh had signed to Def Jam by this point), and showcasing the harmony they were known for.

Soundtrack Classics - 2Pac "My Block"

In the 90s, we didn't really have mixtapes the way we do now, at least not if you didn't live in New York.  But what we did have was soundtracks.  It seemed like every other week another hip hop based soundtrack would drop, and typically each one had at least 3 to 4 classics on it, although you typically had to dig through a lot of garbage and R&B songs to find them.

One of the better soundtracks was from The Show.  Method Man and Redman's first major compilation "How High" came from here, and there were tracks from artists such as Bone thugs, Notorious B.I.G., LL Cool J, Warren G, Onyx, and some solid cuts from Def Jam label B-teamers as well (The Dove Shack, Jayo Felony, and South Central Cartel).

And then there was "My Block," which to me was a classic.  This song was later remixed for the "Until the End of Time" release, and remixed rather well, but I still like the original.  If you've never heard it you've been missing out!

Pop Goes the Weasel

The irony of a group making fun of another rap artist* for "crossing over" only to come up with the biggest hit of their careers.....  Anyway, "Pop Goes the Weasel" is still catchy to this day, and I played it for my four-year old daughter the other day and she agrees, so I now have to play it over and over. Far be it for me to not share the joy!

*Since rap artist refers to Vanilla Ice, I'm using that term loosely....

The West Coast Rap All-Stars

Remember when a group of rappers made up of  Tone-Loc, Dr. Dre, MC Ren, Eazy-E, MC Hammer, Ice-T, Above the Law, Digital Underground, JJ Fad, Young MC, King-Tee and more banded together and ended the war between the Bloods and Crips?

Well, maybe not, but I guess they tried with the song "We're All in the Same Gang".  Anyway, the beat was produced by Dr. Dre and it's a fun song to see all these faces together - I love the beat switch when Humpty Hump jumps on.  I actually have the album with this on it somewhere - I don't remember it being very good but this song isn't bad.  It also sparked off a few other posse cuts similar to this throughout the 90s like "Where Ya At" from the One Million Strong album.

 

Soundtrack Classics - MC Ren - Who Wanna Be the Villain?

"Who's your top ten, is it MC Ren or MC Shan?"  - Nas, "Hip Hop Is Dead"

Nas posed the question and I'm guessing the answer from most fans was neither.  Nonetheless, I've always kind of liked MC Ren's solo stuff, even though he talks an awful lot about people getting pounded in the you-know-what.  Still, when you want a dark West coast album for the winter, you can't go wrong with Ren, especially his The Villain in Black album.

Here's a song from the soundtrack he did around the same time of that album - I'm guessing this was left off  though I don't know why, as it would have fit perfectly.  I also love how the guy that created this simple video for YouTube incorporated that cover.  This is "Who Wanna be the Villain" from the soundtrack for the film Original Gangstas, which I've never seen - but it sounds horrible!

Format Change

Well, for a few months now I've been mulling a bit of a format change.  For over two years, I've almost exclusively covered Arrested Development and Speech, and I've enjoyed it very much.  For me, it's been awesome.  I've actually met people I would consider friends through the site, I've had people mail me rarities for the site, and I was even able to meet the group.  Incredible.  But after two years, I've said about all I can say about Arrested Development and Speech's past.

That doesn't mean I won't cover the future of AD and Speech.  Definitely.  Of course!  But I've also decided that it's time to expand the site's horizons.  The bottom line is I love old school, classic hip hop, or rap, or whatever you want to call it.  So why not broaden the scope of this site?  Oh sure, I could just start another blog, but I like this one just fine as it is.  The name won't change and there's no reason for it to do so. 

As far as what format the site will take, I'm going to play it by ear.  Basically, if an artist was introduced to the world before 2000 (a VERY broad definition of classic rap I know), then they're fair game in my eyes.  What kind of posts will there be?  The same kind of stuff I've posted before, but just as an example, judging by page views it seems that my detailed breakdown of AD and Speech discographies seem to be among the favorites, so I would be game for breaking down discographies for everyone from LL Cool J to Public Enemy to Eazy-E to Slick Rick and all points in between.  So we shall see.

To get things started, and if you've stuck with this post this long, check out a recently released Rakim song from 1995 called "Bring It On", when he was between labels and lawyering up against MCA and Eric B.  Hard to believe this has been sitting in a vault for the last seventeen years!