Tuesday, July 13, 2004  

Monie Love, "Monie in the Middle"
Monie Love, "It's a Shame (My Sister)"
Monie Love, "Swiney Swiney"
from Down to Earth (Warner Bros., 1990)
The Spinners, "It's a Shame"
from 2nd Time Around (Motown, 1970)

Sister Monie's been holding it down with Ed Lover on the Power 105.1 FM morning show in NYC, but she's ready to fire up the career again and start conversating to the folks that have no whatsoever clue. Monie's been putting together new material "due to her passion for the art of Hip-Hop," says AllHipHop.com. The passion! The art! So tru!!!

While she's best known for her debut on Queen Latifah's "Ladies First," Monie also crushed it on "Monie in the Middle" and "It's a Shame (My Sister)." Matter fact, the whole Down to Earth album is tite, too (her next album, In a Word or 2, not so tite). "Swiney Swiney"---only in the Daisy Age of rap could you have a song about how dirty pork is. Hiphopcologists, dig: While meat frying sounds in Daisy Age tunes have often been imitated, they've never been repeated. So tru!!!

I seem to remember that along with Cookie Crew's Born This Way and Loop's A Gilded Eternity, Monie Love's Down to Earth was one of the first promo LPs I received (buy it for one cent), so I blame all of them for the chaotic state of my basement today. I was a hard-hitting reporter for the Eastern Echo, writing in-depth pieces on bands like Slovenly and Die Kreuzen for the highly engaged student body. They just couldn't get enough of this music. Man, I was truly the voice of the people.

The Spinners were a 10th tier Motown band in 1970, and while they had a hit with "It's a Shame," Motown still gave 'em das boot after 2nd Time Around. This album is the last one to feature the lead vox of G.C. Cameron, who was replaced by Phillipe Wynne before the band signed with Atlantic and got the career-changing hookup with Thom Bell. Today you can book the Spinners for your next company picnic in two places: here or here.

The lobby of our Montreal hotel was like Grand Central Station for the jazz-fest musicians. While there were no Spinners, I did see the Four Tops and the Temptations, who were easily identifiable because of their satin-y tour coats, like the kind you get in Little League Baseball. I also peeped John Scofield, the Bad Plus, Eivind Aarset, Wibutee (wearing the same clothes from the night before), and more. I don't bother chatting up the artists, but I did run into a confused Burning Spear several hours after his concert. He was wandering around the lobby because he couldn't figure out how to get to the ground floor (it was tricky), so I led him to the elevator. May Jah's blessings recognize my directional abilities.

Posted by CP | Link |

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