...Before there was 311, there was "*24-7 Spyz*":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24-7_Spyz who are another "black rock" band that should get a lot more dap than they do but don't...they picked up the hard rock baton from Fishbone and funked it up NYC style...the cut below is the first track from the Harder Than You album which came out in my senior year in high school and holds signature cuts like "Jungle Boogie", a cover of Black Uhuru's Sponji Reggae" and "Spyz Dope" (which is funkier than anything the Red Hot Chilis were cutting at the time-- "we're 24-7 Spyz, who the fuck are you?"...other albums to check for are Gumbo Millennium ("*my personal fave*":http://mog.com/CrashPryor/blog_post/37538) which came later and ranks as their second best LP in my mind's eye and later still Strength in Numbers (the latter features Jeff Brodnax who used to play in a funk rock outfit from my home state VA called Egypt-- me and the Full Stop posse were tight with them back in the day)...there were soo many great acts coming out of Virginia in my day: Gibb Droll, Egypt, Everything, The Good Guys, Tweed Sneakers, us-- even Gwar was still making some noise...Dave Matthews was the only group that the suits helped really blow up though)...the shite that one goes through to get his/ her art out there can be a sordid tale: during my last week in NYC, before I decided to come back to LA, I ran into Jeff Brodnax outside a bar down around First and 1st in the Village, he looked rough and I hope that he'll get his due for not faking the funk...go back and cop some of this shite (look for Spyz, Egypt and the Good Guys- which my second bass player Kevin Vines was in until he joined me in the ranks of Full Stop, VA had a rockin' music scene before Seattle's sound swooped in and flipped the script...damn those suits!!!)...All of this stated, here's one more contribution to the Hip Hop Thursday mix ,the opening cut on 24-7 Spyz' Harder Than You called "Grandma Dynamite" where P-Fluid (the original lead singer) drops a couple of rhymes about how his granny made him stick with music...check some of the refrain: "I bought you that guitar, boy you better play it. (it will) get you out the ghetto...do the best that you can...get off the streets right now!" ...yeah, I had a "grandma dynamite" of my very own too at one time..
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