Mr Lee found huge success in the rap / hip-house scene with songs like Get Busy when he signed with Jive Records in 1989. But I think I prefer some of his Trax output better – less vocals, more interesting keyboards and samples. Songs like ‘Come To House’ and ‘House This House’ and I really love when he went towards a slightly more experimental angle on tracks like ‘Art Of Acid’. So I pronouce this Mr Lee week!

Mr. Lee
I Can’t Forget (Club)

Trax Records TX137
Produced by Mr Lee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amcyb1GFd8I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvuIu7YWjcY

Now I don’t want to get all ass-kissy on Bad Boy Bill, but between 1988 and 1990, it seemed that anything he touched was instantly amazing house music. It took him some time to get there. Some of his first few singles – ‘Can You Jack’ and ‘Jack It All Night Long’ were decent enough tracks but pretty thin especially compared to his later work. It seems that every one of my favorite songs from 1988 on has his name either right at the top or in small print somewhere down below.
House Gang – Hittrax II
Bad Boy Bill – 1st Revelation
The Bass Boyz – Lost In The Bass
Criminal House – Rhythm Talk
and on and on.

So when I walked into Gramaphone one day and they had a new release on the wall – a blank white test pressing with a sticker underneath that said ‘New Bad Boy Bill record’ – I didn’t even need to listen to it first. I never even knew what the actual artist and title name was until recently when I finally looked it up. I took the info from the Discogs listing so blame them if any of the info is wrong.

Enjoy this amazing hip-house track. This was in 1990, just before the whole Chicago house scene basically imploded on itself. This was the last single from Bill’s International House Records label from that golden house era until the label started up again in 1995.

Mix N Tel
Feel The Beat

International House Records IHR-009
Mixes by Bad Boy Bill, DJ Pierre, Bob Mixmaster McMahon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAE6sHtLheM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q_MU6K8sKw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyi1nLbIpUk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xJT9FdQcXk

I don’t know what the story is with Maurice Joshua’s huge hit “This Is Acid”. It originally appeared on Trax Records as this droning, dark acid track with distorted vocals. Then it was remixed until almost nothing was left of the original (including the acid) for the smash hit on Vendetta Records. Was Maurice involved in that remix? Or did Vendetta license the track and then remix it until it sounded nothing like the original? Very strange.

Either way, it seemed like Maurice tried to replicate that Vendetta remix sound for Get Into The Dance and Opening Melody by using some similar samples.

I really like Get Into The Dance. Opening Melody is ok. What really stands out on Opening Melody is the absolutely atrocious lyrics. It’s like the rap was freestyled and the only words he could think of that rhymed are “back” and “track”.

I wonder if some people new to the 80s Chicago house scene think some people overexaggerate the low quality of Trax Records. Believe me, it’s no joke. When you would open up a new sealed copy of a Trax Record – the record would be intact, but there would be little bits and pieces of broken records in the record sleeve. Supposedly, they would take old records and print new ones on top of them (which I didn’t know was possible). So sometimes the record quality was good – other times it was crap. This is a crap quality record. I edited out a few pops but completely cleaning up these tracks would take hours.

And as a final insult to the artist, they spelled his name wrong on the record! Under the song title is listed “M. Joshiwa” when his name is listed as Maurice Joshua on every other record he released.

Maurice
Get Into The Dance / Opening Melody

Trax Records TX184
Produced by B.D.
Written by Maurice Joshua and Lamar ‘Hot Hands’ Hula Mahone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i9ueJFEcSM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2Rm-uzQLFk