JIMMY SPICER Vinilo y CD

Review: Before NWA, Wu-Tang, A Tribe Called Quest or Run DMC, there was James Bromley Spicer. Active during the late 1970s and early 80s, Spicer's best known hit was 'Money (Dollar Bill Y'all)', which fewer heads know is the referent source of Wu-Tang's latter-day touchstone record 'C.A.S.H.'. Both songs deal with the embittered centrality of money in the waking daily lives of just about everybody, sympathising with the grim reality of the situation whilst also insisting we get with it. Yet Spicer's original lacked the distinctively streetwise tang of 'Tang's later interpretation of the theme, going with a rather excitable and impish mood, which went with the melting-pot territory of hip-hop in the 80s. Spicer's flows are gnarly and rabid rather than affected and cool, revealing the roots of moneybagging hip-hop as fanatically on-beat. "It takes money to pay rent to eat, without which you're hungry and on the street..."