rfg #36 - "That boy needs therapy"

Based on a substantial internet outage at home and an imminent flight out tomorrow, I'll make this write-up brief.

This show was mostly hip hop, something that initially was going to a small segment in the usual random episode but grew organically into a full-fledged show as I took bits and bites from my collection, then rounded it out with a few classics (well, to me) in the station archives.

Naturally, this week had to start with a song from Paul Newman, who passed away the Friday before. I had hoped to find a few vintage clips from his films to play, but time was tight as usual, more so as the guys in the show before me were running late, playing Clint Black's vilely misguided Iraq and Roll with vested irony. (The podcast will ideally have it surgically removed.)

After a wonderful RJD2 cut, it was the new Q-Tip single, which features a lovely sample from Black Ivory's You & I and struck me dumb when I first heard it. A pleasant surprise arose when it came time for Hugh Le Caine, who I stumbled by accident, finding out during research that not only was he Canadian but from Port Arthur, the northern half of what eventually became my hometown of Thunder Bay.

Originally, Masta Ace was supposed to follow Edan, mostly since the former track invoked Masta Ace's old Juice Crew in the lyrics. However, I need to throw Ugly Duckling into the mix and had very little option otherwise. Of course, screwing up the song title with the album title didn't help matters, but such is the case with the quick replacement.

Finding the Wayne & Shuster sketch Frontier Psychiatrist via WFMU's blog was an utter godsend, exposing the genius that the Avalanches deployed when sampling it into their song Frontier Psychiatrist and bringing the joy of connecting another link to the comedy duo with the Australian DJ act (and just when is the next Avalanches' album due???) after the obvious W&S sample in Radio.

Rounding most things up was the soundtrack to the lost film Brotherman. I hadn't wanted to do another blaxploitation album after the recent wave I've profiled, but the story behind what happened to Brotherman, along with the general urban theme, made it a nice fit. I definitely have to step back from another one for a while, despite my professed love to the genre, but there are a few genres I have to explore and I've set up my future playlist a bit more devotedly in hopes for a quicker turnaround.

All right, this note wasn't brief at all. Let's hit the playlist.