Love this track   Sounds so simple but amazing at the same time

absolutely legendary, thank you for sharing

been searching for this from day one on soundcloud. I remember the first time I heard this forever. I bought the Profile Rap compilation in 84. 

Dangles and I want to know how you know its the first experimental rap song? I'm sure others were doing the same thing like we are now. 

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Thought it was a shame this slice of fried gold couldn't be found on Souncloud. As the first experimental rap song ever made and with cover art by Jean-Micheal Basquiat, this is truly a historic record. 

Originally released in 1983 by record label Tartown. Initially distributed merely as a test pressing, it is notable for being featured in the hip-hop documentary film Style Wars and having a cover designed by famed New York graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The result of a disagreement between Rammellzee and Basquiat, the track has been cited as having an influence on artists such as Beastie Boys and many experimental hip hop artists due to its chaotic, abstract sound. Due to the rarity of its original pressing, it has been called the Holy Grail of rap records.

The track was initially intended as a battle rap between Rammellzee and Basquiat, following heated arguments between the two. Rammellzee, an influential graffiti artist himself, accused Basquiat of being a fraud. In turn, Basquiat claimed he could out-rap, out-dance, and out-paint anybody. The duo eventually settled on "Beat Bop" acting as an outlet for this tension. With links to Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat was the toast of the New York art world during that period. Rammellzee, on the other hand, describes himself as being an "up-and-coming con artist". Basquiat therefore agreed to pay for recording, pressing and eventual release. Despite this, both Rammellzee and K-Rob had the power to overrule Basquiat on the record's content:

"He wanted to say his own verses... me and K-Rob read them and started laughing, and we crushed up his paper with the words he had written down and we threw it back at him face first."

The result was a ten-minute track featuring Rammellzee and K-Rob on vocals, under the direction of Fab Five Freddy, its production credited to Basquiat only (despite Rammellzee insisting that Basquiat did nothing but foot the bill). Speaking in 2008, Rammellzee reflected on the relaxed nature of the recording session by saying "we were just having fun". The record was eventually released in 1983, limited to 500 copies with custom art by Basquiat. It has also been distributed by Profile Records, in 1983 and later in 2001.

Various instruments are brought in and out of the mix throughout, the majority of them played by Al Diaz, a friend of Basquiat. These include a violin, an electric guitar, and a varied range of percussion. The vocals are delivered in a relaxed, chaotic and almost stream of consciousness manner, often overlapping themselves, with both rappers occasionally adopting fake voices. A heavy amount of reverb is applied to the vocals in a seemingly random manner, sometimes during the middle of sentences. The track ends by fading out during the middle of a verse, offering the listener no definite conclusion. Each version of the single has featured the instrumental of the track on the B-side.

The lyrics take the form of improvised role playing, with Rammellzee playing a pimp and K-Rob in the character of a schoolboy. Rammellzee's vocal delivery has been cited by Allmusic as a clear example of his "flights of wordplay, fantasy, and street surrealism". The lyrical abstraction present on "Beat Bop" is often praised, with a writer for The Guardian commenting that "people have been trying to decipher it ever since". However, perhaps as part of the characters adopted by each rapper, there are many clear examples of socially conscious lyrics present throughout the track, discussing violence, theft, and illegal drug use: "New York City is a place of mysteries / Drug addicts, dope dealers taking over the streets”



Rammellzee & K-Rob -  Beat Bop 1983 (read the story of the song in description)

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Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Far Out Recordings proudly presents two albums of previously unheard Azymuth demo recordings from 1973-75

Since their debut album release in 1975, Azymuth have risen to rank alongside the world’s greatest jazz, funk and fusion artists. As young men in Rio de Janeiro, they stood out for both their exceptional talent as musicians, and their wild rock ‘n’ roll antics in the predominantly middle-class worlds of bossa nova and jazz. Their signature ‘Samba Doido’ (crazy samba) sound ruptured the tried and tested musical structures of the day, resulting in what can only be described as an electric, psychedelic, samba jazz-funk hybrid.
But before they became Azymuth, Jose Roberto Bertrami (keyboards), Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti (drums), Alex Malheiros (bass) and Ariovaldo Contesini (percussion) played backing band to just about every major artist in Brazil.

Bertrami was also contracted as an arranger and songwriter at some the biggest labels of the era: Polydor, Philips, Som Livre, and EMI being just a few. Azymuth’s name can be found on record sleeves by the likes of Jorge Ben, Elis Regina, Marcos Valle, Ana Mazzotti and countless others. But at the dawn of the seventies, fascinated by developments in improvisational music - from jazz in the US, to progressive rock in the UK and of course samba, bossa and tropicália on home turf - the energetic young group were inspired and ready to move forward.Any spare moment in which they weren’t in sessions and writing music for other artists, they would be carving out their own sound.

These previously unheard recordings took place between 1973-75 at Bertrami’s home studio in the Laranjeiras district of Rio de Janeiro. At the time of recording, there was nothing in Brazil, less the world that sounded anything like them, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that when Bertrami presented his demos to the record companies he had been working for, he was turned away, and told in effect that the music was ‘wrong’.

One of the demos ‘Manhã’ would be picked up by Som Livre and Azymuth released their seminal debut album in 1975. Throughout the late seventies and eighties, the group released a series of now classic albums for Milestone Records, before taking an indefinite hiatus to pursue their individual careers.
When English producers Joe Davis and Roc Hunter arrived in Brazil in 1994 to record the first Azymuth album in over a decade, Bertrami dug out the demos which had sat virtually untouched for over twenty years. Joe recalls how he was “blown away by the freedom and intensity of the music, as well as the genius of the ideas musically.” Beginning a long and fruitful relationship, ‘Prefacio’ would be the first track Azymuth recorded for Far Out Recordings and was released on the Carnival album (1996).

Along with ‘Manhã’ and ‘Prefacio’, only a handful of these demos were ever professionally recorded and released, making this the first opportunity to hear many of these early Azymuth compositions in their raw, original form.

On every track the frenetic energy in the studio is palpable, giving the recordings a beautifully personal feel and a sense of the phenomenally creative vision Bertrami, Malheiros and Conti were realising at the time. Fifty years on, Azymuth’s earliest recorded music retains an ineffable, futuristic quality, standing amongst their most captivating and moving work.

Rammellzee & K-Rob - Beat Bop 1983 (read the story of the song in description)

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