Charity Shoppin' #1: Spoonie Is Back

Photo from The Foundation

Hip hop names are great. Mine is Royal Joint. Gabriel Jacskon has a pretty cool name already, but he becomes Spoonie G. I'd kind of rather he didn't have a real name, I like Spoonie G. As a way to finish off a record of Grandmaster Flash's, Kool Moe Dee's and Duke Bootee's, this isn't a bad finale. Pleasingly, it's also a decent song, and funky as.

Aka Spoonie Gee, this guy was one of the founders of the Treacherous Three and featured on New Rap Language. He was known as the 'Love Rapper', a fairly unexciting name based on the fact that he employed far more traditional pop themes of love and romance than his party styling, pimp-daddying peers. Like all the artists, he graduated through Sugar Hill Records, albeit after releasing his earlier material on his uncle's Enjoy label. Spoonie Is Back was released in 1981 on Sugar Hill and is genuinely regarded as a classic, just as Gee is regarded as a Godfather and a survivor these days. However, he didn't go without his hard times, and between quitting Sugar Hill and signing with Tuff City, he went through some really tough times.
The track itself is irresistably funky, with the percussive, wah-ed electric guitar prominent in the sparse mix. Also a favourite of mine is the excellent drum machine arrangements, with their rolls and rat-at-ats. The rapping's great too. Well worth a listen.

Spoonie G - Spoonie Is Back

Buy Spoonie G/Treacherous Three

Tags: hip hop; rap; Spoonie G; Treacherous Three; Sugar Hill; Love Rap; Spoonie Is Back