SOUL DIMENSION – “Trash-An-Ready” (aka PopNose2): I have been able to find out almost nothing about this track! Search parties came back empty-handed save for an offhand reference by the all-knowing Woebot to early hip-hop/dancehall hybrids. What else do I know? It’s from 1987 – I think – and it’s on B-Boy Records, which also put out the early BDP and KRS-One singles. This last is the one fact I’m sure of because the CD it’s from is called The Best Of B-Boy Records, a 2CD set on Landspeed, also it turns out recommended by Woebot and I have to give a hearty nod to that – it’s excellent, vibrant mid-80s hip-hop which puts its most famous tracks (“Strong Island”; “South Bronx”) at the end and you don’t even find yourself looking forward to them. “Trash-An-Ready” is completely atypical of the comp, which is mostly enormous dry drums and splashes of electro. The other amazing thing about the set is that you can buy it for THREE POUNDS in the Fopp Records beg pile: if you live near a Fopp go there NOW and clean them out of it. You can still get it on Amazon too but it’ll cost four times as much.
Anyway, this track. Mike Daddino and I had a chat about it – he thought it was a British MC, I wasn’t sure. I think now it might be, though I’m not sure what such a beast would be doing on an East Coast hip-hop label; maybe Brit-rap hadn’t got its bad rep at this point. Whatever the case the MCing isn’t the most fluent, and the stitching together of the rap bits and the ragga bits is very basic: in fact the ragga bits themselves are pretty obvious, riding a bassline so well known (“Sleng Teng”) that even I recognised it. But it works! It has a rough eagerness about it that I find very charming, and in context it’s both primitive and prescient.
Peace I am Rony B of Soul dimension and the first voice you hear on Trash n Ready. Our crew SD was from Spring Valley NY and we started together at age 13 in 76 and kept rockin’ until 82. We were doing dubs and disco until we were inspired by the famous DJ Breakout and the Funky 4 MCs (which included Raheem who later went to the Furious 5)when they played in a neighboring town. After college we got back together and got signed to B-Boys with the infamous Bill Camara and Ray Etc, KRS had just left. Our backgrounds are Haiti, Trinidad, Jamaica, American. Bill asked us to do Hip Hop reggae like KRS so we put it together with TK, our producer, in a day. Steel (Wayne) the lead vocalist is Jamaican. He’s there now running a studio. In 92, TK had a studio / hip hop museum on 125th St in Harlem. theres more but I’ll get at you next time.
Peace, I am Rony B the singer on Trash & Ready of The mighty SD. Our crew was from Spring Valley NY (lyrics: “special request to the Spring Valley Posse & the Nyack Posse”) and we had been together since 1978. Our backgrounds are “Haitian,Trinidadian,Yankee (American)and Yard (Jamaican)” as per the lyrics. We used to DJ Dubs and Disco until the famous DJ Breakout and the Funky 4 MCs played at Reginas sweet 16 party. We were Rockland Countys #1 until we went to college. In 87 we got back together and managed to get signed at B-Boy records with the infamous Bill & Ray, before they started “slippin” (KRS).TK was a young dominican american producer from Central Park West and we put Trash and Ready (hip hop reggae) together in a day or two so it has a fun and free early hip hop party feel. until latr peace.
TK produced Trash & Ready with the SP12. we chose that baseline because it was hot and it actually was still fresh at the time.we walked into the studio with only the basic lyrics and the rest was improvised.I dont think it was primitive at the time it was strait forward and fun. Marley Marl, BLS and Red Alert, 98.7 rocked it every weekend. TK was really a great producer. In the 90s he had a studio slash hiphop museum called “the shack” on 125th st in harlem. Steel the lead on Trash & Ready is in Jamaica runnin a studio and a label. It’s unfortunate that the B-Boy records basically was mismanaged.