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In 1982, Musical Youth released their debut album, The Youth of Today which featured the hit single "Pass the Dutchie".  The song was basically a revamped cover of The Mighty Diamond's "Pass the Kutchie" (an obvious pro-herb song).  "Dutchie", however, was about food and hunger (dutchie being slang for a cooking pot).  And the band was British, not Jamacian as most suspected (although half of the band were Jamacian decendents).   Dig the video then check out the original.

I took Syd to see the University of Illinois Alumni basketball game this weekend.  The game featured members of the '89 Flying Illini (Kendall Gill, Kenny Battle, Steven Bardo) as well as the stellar '05 season (Deron Williams, Dee Brown).  An exhibition game usually has a certain amount of sloppiness - it's just for fun after all.  We saw our share of airballs and missed dunks along with the dazzling highlights.  But that's just how it goes.

Run DMC were true pioneers.  The foundation of three decades of hip-hop.  

• The first rap act to have a #1 R&B charting rap album
• The first rap act to have a Top 10 pop charting rap album 
• The first rap act to earn RIAA gold, platinum, and multi-platinum albums
• The first rap act to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine
• The first rap act to receive a Grammy Award nomination 
• The first rap act to have a video added to MTV 
• The first rap act to appear on Saturday Night Live and American Bandstand 
• The first rap act to win crossover appeal with rock and hip-hop fans
• The only rap act to perform at Live Aid in 1985
• AND the first rap act signed to an athletic product endorsement deal

The first time I heard them was the cut "Sucker MCs" in 1983.  Still a favorite.  Watch them rippin it on Graffiti Rock.  R.I.P. Jam Master Jay.

I'd spend a lot more time on the can if this were my family.  Talk about support.

In 1999 Company Flow dropped the cut "Patriotism" for the Rawkus Records compilation Soundbombing II (which remains my favorite hip-hop comp of ALL TIME).  Twelve years later it still stands as the most ruthless, backhand-to-the-government track I've ever heard.  Peep the lyrics and peep El-P ripping it live at the Co Flow reunion show (you can also stream the album version below).  I also included this track on my heavy-handed 2008 mix, Politricks.  So if you're really pissed off about this janky debt ceiling deal - rave on.  

I'm the ugliest version of passed down toxic capitalist
rapid emcee perversion -- I'm America!
Your bleeding-heart liberal drivel gets squashed
Wash em with sterilized rhyme patriot-guided weaponry bomb
from the makers of the devious hearts -- I'm America!
You bitchy little dogs don't even faze my basic policy
The bomb's smarter, my Ronald Reagan's crush Carter
With Bay of Pig tactics makin young men into martyrs
(Come on down!) Come to my happy promised land
Smiley faced opportunity cipher
and jump on the CoFlow pension plan
A proletariat, crushing State of the Union
between serpentine words and mass confusion
of media controlled blurb advertising disillusionment
Your family will love my low-rent, low-life
no-brain, reality-dagger, MOVEMENT
Hop over the border for amusement; try to test the waters 
that the other slaughter crews pay all they dues in
You up against -- Jesus Freak, formin corporations in Young Republicans
Indelible NATO force hidden agenda, puppet governments
I'm lovin it! Keep the people guessin who I'm runnin with
Control the population and hide behind sacred covenants
Fuckin with me?!?! Means liberal wildlife burnin, gasoline seized
and an automagnetic third world printed with metal plates in they knees
Can't you hear the disenchanted, hide the scream of
Gabriel's reflected new wind instrument, a judgment played in flat C
I replace humans like robots in a GM factory (warning! warning!)
Then export metaphors to sweat shops, cause the price is satisfactory
Your pious little cries of injustice get met with apathy
(Awww, SHUT UP!!) Soak, cloak, hormone injected dairy product
and conservative right-wing anti-eroticism; the poisonous 
resevoirs and power lines in your neighborhood cause botulism
SENSELESS! Join the census, censorship sentences sentence
Triple-felon citizen paid penance!
Dissension against C-F ends in, penitentiary residence
Lock em up first, then ask questions
Omniscient presence, my CHARM is the weapon
with cameras mics and satellites that leave privacy breathless
You don't even know the chemicals you've ingested
Urine tested -- BEAT INNOCENT MAN 'TIL HE CONFESSES

Politricks ~ DJ LEGTWO