American Soul via Jamaica via The UK..An Historical Break
You'll recognize, The Champ from a raft (over 50) of Hip Hop artists that have sampled it, including, Eric B & Rakim, DJ Shadow, and KRS-One. That it was released in '68 by a group of studio musicians led by British library music legend Alan Hawkshaw, makes it all the weirder that it has become such a fixture in hip hop. Were talking pantheon here..one of the earliest break dancing tracks. A seminal Hip Hop record.
The Champ was released on Pama records, a British label ('68-'73) that was known for licensing American Soul records for release in the UK, creating homegrown knock off soul, and most famously as an early supporter of ska, blue beat, and rock steady records. They were doing it for the children..or at least for their money.
I guess it's possible that The Champ became known to break dancers in the Bronx because so much of early US DJ culture was driven by folks from the Caribbean. It's likely these ex-pats with relatives in England had a connection to get these British records, and so they probably got a hold of all the Pama releases. DJ's probably found The Champ as a hardly played single in their mom and pop's 45 collection..well that's my theory anyway.
If you'd like to develop your own theories without going broke searching for singles on ebay, a CD collection of Pama singles, Black Is Soul, came out in 2007 on Spain's Wah Wah label.
At any rate, the amount of cross cultural exchange going on in these records is a wonder to behold. Better still, as befitting a label that was aiming straight at British youth and their new musical obsessions:Soul/Ska, the singles collected here are the basis of a storming dance party.
Check out, The Champ, here. In comments see a soul burner from Betty LaVette, and a salacious Max Romeo tune.
Locating MOG account...
Comments (14)
Betty LaVette - Feel Good All Over
Max Romeo - Wet Dream
Max Romeo's "Wet Dream" was itself a remake of an older tune on the same riddim - Derrick Morgan's "Hold You Jack". Derrick remade it himself as " I Love You"
Dig...
Thanks, B., I'm so bad with riddims..glad you are here to point those tings out.
3 dots Callisto...Nice!
Cody - your music was on at our party all weekend. The last few weeks of posts have bee GREAT and this one is right in line.
Thanks for the tunes brother!
thanks sonic..I hope it RAWKED the house.
You guys must take it a such an obvious given that "The Champ" is a remake of "Tramp," that you don't need to mention it, tricking a naif like me into underestimating your musical erudition and announcing the link and then wondering why no one is excited to hear about it. Oh well. Betty LaVette's "Feel Good All Over" is killer, and new to me.
You know Spike..that kinda attitude will get you just about everywhere around here.
That's a good call on Tramp. I think it shows The Mohawks as knockout knockoff specialists...on the comp they also do a nice version of Mony,Mony (If you like roller rink B3 on steroids), and despite the song names, its pretty much all knock offs/covers for them..The do a good job though for B3 and conga lovers.
Perhaps this was the original Whitesploitation!
Nice to hear the full version of The Champ (or should I say, The Tramp?).
Shhh, lets not tell anyone..they are gonna get in trouble! Of course, by having their stolen version become a sampling staple there's a bit of irony,no?
Yeah, that's true! I was thinking that when Spike outed them above.
That Spike. All law and order..no turn unstoned for the vigilant protector of pop rights.
Outed, but I'm in, right?
In, Spike? Absolutely..I thought it was your club in the first place.