Rapper's Delight (album)
| Rapper's Delight | |||
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| Studio album by Melbeatz | |||
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Publication |
June 7, 2004 |
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| Label (s) | Optik Records | ||
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Format (s) |
CD / vinyl |
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Title (number) |
22nd |
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running time |
60 min 45 s |
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Studio (s) |
Picture and sound workshop, Frankfurt |
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Rapper's Delight is the only album by the Berlin hip-hop producer Melbeatz that has been released under her own name to date . It was released on June 7, 2004 on the Optik Records label . The individual recordings for the 17 pieces of music and five skits took place in Frankfurt and Berlin as well as in New York. Rapper's Delight reached number 32 in the German album charts. Lyrically, most of the songs on Rapper's Delight can be assigned to battle rap . On April 26, 2004 the song OK! decoupled, on which Kool Savas and Samy Deluxe are represented.
background
Melbeatz has been a producer in the hip-hop music business since the end of 1996 . In 2002 she single-handedly produced the debut album The Best Day of My Life by Kool Savas . She had also produced music for the artists of the record company Optik Records , which she co-founded in the same year . Among other things, this was the König von Deutschland , Eko Fresh's debut single .
At the beginning of 1997 Melbeatz had the idea of producing his own album. However, there were different projects in between and the production of the album was delayed for several years. Since Melbeatz is so far the only female producer in the hip-hop genre in the German-speaking region, she is often given the attribute “Queen of Beats” in the hip-hop scene.
At the end of 2003 she was supposed to produce Valezka 's debut album , but this left the Optik Records label together with Eko Fresh . Melbeatz was then encouraged by her Artists and Repertoire to bring out her own album. After receiving a financial advance, she flew to New York to find suitable guests for the CD. She wanted to bring together as many people of different stripes as possible. From Germany she was able to convince almost all of the artists she wanted to feature on her album to participate.
According to their own information, the search for a suitable name for the CD was the most difficult. By her then-boyfriend Kool Savas the suggestion came What's really good to choose as the title, but it was this formulation not timeless enough. Melbeatz wanted to create a suitable title himself, especially since Savas was involved in the work on the album. In the meantime, she considered other titles, including Highway to Mel (a reference to the song Highway to Hell by AC / DC ).
When she came up with the title name Rapper's Delight , she found it very appropriate for her album, as it should make the guests happy to rap to their beats and it went well with the rest of the cover design. At the same time, it should also pay homage to Rapper's Delight from the Sugarhill Gang , who is considered the first hip-hop song of all time.
Track list
- J-Luv & Kool Savas : Intro - 1:45
- Check it out FM (Skit) - 0:26
- Kool Savas & Samy Deluxe : OK! - 3:46
- Kanye West : Oh Oh - 3:11
- Prodigy (of Mobb Depp) & Godfather Pt. III: Don't Do It - 3:09
- Xavier Naidoo : This time (summer of our lives) - 5:24
- Suburban Poets (Skit) - 1:49
- Afrob & Autodidakt: Real recognize Real - 3:00
- Havoc (of Mobb Deep), Chinky & Read: Hollow Tips - 3:11
- MEL (Skit) - 0:09
- Optik Army (Kool Savas, Amar , SD, Ercandize & Caput ): Killa - 4:23
- Mieze (from Mia) & Eizi Eiz (beginner): Mel + Eiz Air - 4:28
- Dirt McGirt aka Ol 'Dirty Bastard & Thirstin Howl : Dirty and Thirsty - 3:31
- Malakas (Skit) - 1:20
- Italo Reno, Germany & Olli Banjo : Not a word - 3:35
- Tha Liks & Kool Savas: Mind, Body & Soul - 3:36
- Tone & Xavier Naidoo: 2nd Education - 4:13
- R&B (Skit) - 0:10
- Cassandra Steen & Curse: More of you - 3:57
- Shells & Graph: Over the Top 2:37
- Illmat! C : Outro - 2:48
- U know! (Skit) - 0:11
Guest Posts
National guests
Kool Savas is with a total of four guest contributions - Intro , OK! , Killa and Mind, Body & Soul - most frequently represented by all musical guests. On Killa he raps together with Amar , SD, Ercandize and Caput under the name Optik Army . Occasionally, performers outside the hip-hop genre can also be heard, for example the MIA. -Singer Mieze Katz (electro-punk) as well as Xavier Naidoo , J-Luv and Cassandra Steen , who are active in soul .
The duet Mel & Eiz Air by Jan Delay and MIA.-singer Mieze came about because Delay wanted a collaboration with another artist. Jan Delay appears in the collaboration under his alternative name "Eizi Eiz", although he usually only uses this name in connection with his band Beginner and Mel & Eiz Air is more comparable to his solo activities in terms of music style.
Another duet is Mehr von dir with Curse and Cassandra Steen . It was recorded a few years earlier, but with a different singer. Since Melbeatz liked the piece and the rap parts by Curse, she decided to take it on the album. The vocal parts were replaced by Cassandra Steen. The originally planned remix , which will be released as the second single after OK! should appear, could not be realized.
International guests
The collaboration with American guest rappers came about through Melbeatz's stay in New York City , because there she met people who were able to establish contact with the individual artists. These include Kanye West , Ol 'Dirty Bastard and Mobb Deep , among others . Ol 'Dirty Bastard died in 2004 and is featured on the album Rapper's Delight as "Dirt McGirt aka Ol' Dirty Bastard". The members of the duo Mobb Deep are not represented together, but only separately on the CD: Prodigy on Don't Do It and Havoc on Hollow Tips .
style
music
On her debut album, Melbeatz relies on samples that are reminiscent of the synth sound of the 1980s, for example in the song Intro . On the same piece, Kool Savas raps a text that is strongly beatboxing .
Often several records were sampled per song in order to create their own sound. On Oh Oh was violin from Miri Ben-Ari recorded. Style breaks are committed on Real recognize Real and Mel + Eiz Air by using a different beat after the first verse.
The beats of individual tracks, such as Mel + Eiz Air , Summer of Our Life , Mehr von dir and Kein Wort, were originally intended to be used for pieces for Valezka's debut album, which was planned for the end of 2003 , before it surprisingly left Optics Records with Eko . The album was never released.
With Check it out FM , Vorstadtpoeten , MEL , Malakas and R&B, a total of five skits are represented on Rapper's Delight , as they are typical for albums from the hip-hop genre. Check it out FM is an excerpt from a radio show in which Melbeatz was a guest and in which the single OK! was announced. An argument between Olli Banjo and DJ Katch can be heard at suburban poets .
Texts
Most of the pieces can be assigned to battle rap in terms of both text and genre . A kind of “red thread” of many song texts can be seen in the fact that Melbeatz is presented by the respective artists as the “greatest of all”. Examples of this can be found in the intro (“Optik Records presents: Germany's Queen Melbeatz! […] The first German female producer! […] From her MELBEATZ OPTI-K's first lady, ok you know, this is the shit you buy that you pump, that you love, that you need, Germany is going crazy, ticking off, turning off to this LP with Beatz from a woman ”, OK !;“ Dude, you can't afford to feature us both, you you don't get a discount like Mel, with your cheap beats man "and outro " Melbeatz, the Queen of Beats, unites Emcees and Gees on this shit. Listen to them all until you cause crises [...] The unbelievable, unstoppable Melbeatz! ")
In No word and more of you are about love. While shyness and a lack of courage to confess one's love to the flame are discussed in the former, the latter is about a relationship crisis. In “This Time (Summer of Our Life)”, Xavier Naidoo sings about young people who have gotten off the rails. In Mel + Eiz Air , the first stanza sung by Mieze is about longing, then a fictional airline is the subject of the song.
illustration
The cover photo is from Katja Kuhl. Melbeatz appears lying on his stomach on a bed, the sheets of which look like their music production center . She rests her head on her left hand and bends her legs. She wears white sneakers with open laces. The background is completely black. In the upper left corner is Melbeatz in large black letters with a white border , and below it the album title Rapper's Delight in smaller, white letters . Both lettering appear a bit "pixelated".
The booklet is also completely black, the font is white and, like on the cover, slightly pixelated. On the back of the booklet you can see a poster that is similar to the cover, but on which the artist can be seen in a different pose.
reception
success
The album entered the German charts on June 21, 2004 at number 32, where it could stay for two weeks. The single OK! On May 10th of the same year it was number 25 in the singles charts and stayed there for six weeks.
criticism
The album received mostly good reviews. LA Reid , managing director of the record company Island Def Jam Records , was particularly fond of the track Killa and gave the CD to the label's hip-hop department, which also received it well. They were amazed after being informed that the CD was being produced by a female person.
The record review was also positive on laut.de. There Rapper's Delight achieved four out of five points in both the reader and the editorial rating. Only the piece Mel + Eiz Air was criticized because of the stylistic inconsistency and Killa , which is described as "lame and listless".
“ Savas' girlfriend delivers hits and beats on the assembly line that couldn't be more different. OK! , the bouncing bongo collab by Samy Deluxe and Kool Savas, already has classic status, the Kanye West feature in Oh Oh is on its way there. [...] In any case, only the Illmatic mentioned at the beginning and his outro remain in memory from Savas' farce . Moses Pelham's favorite rapper blooms noticeably at the side of his sun friend Kool Savas and makes you want more. When will the new album finally come, Terence Ill? At Melbeatz, the patience was definitely worth it. "
backspin.de also rated the album positively:
“It was already clear in advance that this album would be a sensation. [...] In general, there are no failures on Rappers Delight - even if at least the number with Ol 'Dirty Bastard doesn't really convince me. The only question that remains is whether the album will also be a hit here in terms of sales, as producer albums and compilations have always had a hard time in this country. "
Footnotes
- ↑ https://www.offiziellecharts.de/album-details-24982
- ↑ a b hiphop.de ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ hiphop.de ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ HH Noise Magazine, June 2010
- ↑ “First of all, the tracks with Valezka are too badly recorded, it's been a long time, you would have to record them cleanly again anyway. but this question does not even arise, because a valezka or eko-optik reunion is impossible after they have snitched so badly. so say goodbye to all of you from the thought ... we would never do something like that as a pure business move because we are unfortunately too real for that. but the beatz from back then are for example. eizi eiz "mel + eiz air", lil flip "give me a beat", optics army "in your eyes", xavier naidoo "summer of our life", curse / cassandra "more of you" italoreno / ollibanjo / germany "no word "etc. become ..." optikrecords.de/forum
- ↑ chartsurfer.de
