As some of you know I saw Mos Def live in London a couple of weeks ago and I was incredibly disappointed; he was late on stage, did barely an hour, did none of the tracks I wanted to hear, he did a mediocre drum solo (you are not Questlove) and bad Michael Jackson covers. I came away asking myself was I the only one there who thought he sucked ? but after speaking to some friends I came to the conclusion That the real hip hop heads were let down by this poor concert. Even the people who thought it was good could said the best thing about it was that Definition was fantastic and so were couple of other tunes. These guys seemed happy that he did three great songs, in all honesty I have to say three songs don't make a concert. So I went home and vowed not pay to see Mos Def again and that I would content myself by listening to some good old Mos Def before he became the pretentious artists that he now appears to be.
So I dug into my record collection and found one of my favourite indie joints of the late nineties; Mike Zoot featuring Ms Def 'High Drama'. Mike Zoot was one of those Indie rappers who seemed to be everywhere for a few years but then kind of faded into memory along with people like Mr Complex, L-Fudge, Problemz, Defari and Shabam Sadeeq all of whom were dope but I for one cannot remember the last time I heard them on a new track. It seemed at the time when this 12" dropped that every visit to shops like Deal real and Mr Bongo who lead to me buying a 12" by one of the above artists or someone similar one Rawkus, Guesswhyld, Stones Throw, Fondle 'Em or another one of the prolific labels of the time.
Getting back to this 12" 'High Drama' was an anti gangster rap track with a humorous tone to it. Instead of being preachy like the Jeru's of this world Mos and Mike decide to make fun of the gangster rappers. The beat is provided by Hi-Tek and is suitably bouncy with a nice strings sample over a mid tempo break simple enough but effective enough not to draw your attention away from the raps.
The B side (if it is indeed the B side as theres no indication on the label) features two tracks; Service produced by QB cohort EZ Elpee and Turn produced by Sha Self (aka Sha Money XL). The main track of the two is service and a clean, dirty and instrumental version are on the 12". 'Service' is a decent enough track nothing major compared to High drama but Mike Zoot's comic delivery place it a little higher than the usual Indie track. 'Turn' is cool enough and features a nice piano loop over a mid tempo beat. Theres a couple of skips on this 12" but their not too bad so hopefully they wont detract from your enjoyment.
There was of course follow ups to 'High Drama' and I will try and get these up in the next week or so. Please check the link below for the 12" rip.
Everybody love a good fight
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