Olas un Bekons

Drawn From Obscurity (Vol. 3) - BIG MAN ON CAMPUS or also known as B.M.O.C.

Added 2021-01-18 18:41:41 +0000 UTC

Cheers everyone,

This is me back again with some rare hip-hop backstories. Got this one fairly recently as a supplement to my discogs order for other more notable vinyl records. I rarely order 1 vinyl separately in order to save on combined shipping. So this time I added what I needed to my order and started to fill those ''package gaps'' with 2-3 other records. And that cover caught my eye. Well, not a rare sight but the album cover resembled Beastie Boys stylistically and a bit by the physical appearance. So I said to myself: ''WHY NOT'' and took this one. Without even listening their tracks or checking on an artist background (I rarely do so but I think it was late that evening and I didn't want to do additional checking).

So the vinyl arrived, I put it aside and played what I ordered in that parcel as primaries. A bit later I simply remembered this and took it for a spin. Well, what does it sound like? For starters, if the sleeve visually tells you that there's some Beastie Boys influence, the same can be said about the vocal delivery as well. The record is from 1988 and resembles what Def Jam, Rick Rubin and Beastie Boys were producing during their Licensed To Ill era.

The record consists of 6 tracks. Side A has 3 versions of ''Play The Funk'' which tirelessly samples the sh!t out of Wild Cherry's eternal funk-rock classic. B side has 3 versions of ''Guaranteed to Rock'' - a track I personally enjoyed a bit more than the other tune. However, both tracks did not offer anything new to the rap audiences of '88, and merely reproduce the same formulae that made the rock-rap mash-up likes of Beastie Boys and RUN-DMC so popular few years prior. In highly evolving genre and musical culture, such records get a hard time and sooner or later slip into the musical oblivion. I asked few guys if they have heard about these cats or the record. Out of these 5 guys with (I can say) solid knowledge about the culture, no one knew about them.

But despite that and the fact of B.M.O.C. releasing only one record, the persons involved get mentioned because of their later accomplishments after the duo went separate ways. So who are they then?

B.M.O.C. dudes on the 12'' cover are Jonathan "Shecky Green" Shecter (in 12'' as M.C. Sultan) and his high-school friend Kevin Krakower, also known as "Kevi-Kev". Both were teenagers and students (Kev at Vermont college, Sultan at Harvard). A record label was solid (Sire Records, a Warner Records sub-label) and had some serious help - it featured a guitar work by Nile Rodgers (no introduction needed. If needed - check his Wiki at least). Drum programming was done by the Philly legend MC Breeze who has done some recording, writing, producing (there's even a documentary on him on youtube) and (as Joey B. Ellis) even was on Rocky movie series soundtrack 5th installment. Dude was a producer for MC Hammer and is allegedly the owner of another non-standard rap music accolade - his track ''Discombobulatorbubalator'' is said to be the first rap track to be banned from radio. And lastly, B.M.O.C. credits list some production assistance from Boogie Down Productions (no introductions needed I guess).

Duo's producer was Brett Ratner who is now known as a movie and TV producer/director. Back in '88 (in Shecky Green's words) "he was a guy trying to get into the music biz. He had some family connections and he played a large role in BMOC. He put the deal together, got Glen E. Friedman to take our picture, he did a lot of things that opened doors for us back then." Few years later Ratner went into music video production, but directed his first movie (comedy called Money Talks) in 1997. Later he directed such movies and shows such as the Rush Hour film series, The Family Man, Red Dragon, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Tower Heist. Among his moth notable productions are Horrible Bosses series, The Revenant and War Dogs. In total, his movies have earned over $2 billion at the global box office.

Kevi-Kev (kinda unique nickname for a rap artist of the 1980's, haha) surfaced back in the rap game a decade later as the member of pop-rap group 1000 Clowns. Based in LA, the group released one album and few singles. Their 1998 track (Not the) Greatest Rapper even made the UK Singles chart. Overall, the track perfectly catches that pop-rap fad of the time with some abstract additives. I liked Kev's '88 raps more than his '98. Maybe it's just me...

M.C. Sultan, on the other hand, did not seek to continue his rap career, but continued to manage his radio station. By the way, many good hip-hop radio shows and programmes have started from student enthusiasm (ask Stretch & Bobbito). This time the radio show (WHRB @ Harvard Radio) that Shecky and his friends were maintaining actually started something bigger - a hip-hop magazine. Initially this magazine was a newsletter for the radio station but later elevated into one of the most loved and known world hip-hops reading materials - THE SOURCE. So yeah, Shecky Green was among founders of it when the mag was launched the same year he had released his 12'' and toured a bit. THE SOURCE, it's articles, sections (such as Unsigned Hype, Rap Bandit, reviews and additional comps) have thus changed hip-hop landscape and how we perceive rap magazines these days - as something analytic/non-trivial, but at the same a bit funny and entertaining. [Here's the unkut interview with Shecky].

Rarely it happens when you can take out one random record and drag so many background stories out of it that are actually in the forefront if we talk about few college boys from the East Coast tryin' to make it in the rap game. None of them did it with the B.M.O.C., but later found their success in different ways. Therefore, if their later careers are not in the need to be drawn out of the obscurity (as the title suggests) - their modest '88 teenage debut does, because it links to them years later.

Shout out to Shecky Green, Kevi-Kev and Brett Ratner.