If you're not familiar with Hollywood BASIC, lets take a moment to discuss this anomaly of the early nineties hip-hop scene. Generally recognized as the brainchild of Dave "Funken" Klein, a writer and purveyor of hip-hop culture, the label was home to Organized Konfusion, a young DJ Shadow, Digital Underground associates Raw Fusion, African hip-hop duo Zimbabwe Legit, rapper Charizma and his partner Peanut Butter Wolf, real-life convicts the Lifers Group and the South Central soundtrack.
Everyone should know who Organized Konfusion are, as well as DJ Shadow, and Raw Fusion, consisting of Money B and DJ Fuze, had a few moments in the spotlight, though it's understandable you might not be familiar with Lifers Group or Zimbabwe Legit. As for Charizma and Peanut Butter Wolf, their only releases via BASIC were a flexi-disc given away with an issue of Bomb Hip-Hop magazine and a promotional cassette, both featuring a single track, although those tracks and much more eventually gained official releases years later on Stones Throw Records.
Hollywood BASIC was a sister label to Hollywood Records which was distributed by Elektra in the early nineties, so their distribution was pretty good all things considered and a lot of their singles got played on Yo! MTV Raps, but video play never necessarily translates into record sales and a lot of the label's releases slipped into obscurity. Now, if you're wondering how an early nineties hip-hop powerhouse like Elektra, what with it's major label distribution via Warner Bros., could fail at selling artists with easy cred like Organized Konfusion and Raw Fusion, it should be noted who the Hollywood labels owners were, and that would be an entertainment entity that while amazingly successful rarely sold much of anything with an edge, and when they attempted to do generally failed miserably, and that wonderous entity would be...
Disney
The people that signed the Insane Clown Posse without realizing how stupid an idea that was from the start, the people that canceled the Insane Clown Posse album after it had been sent to retail, the people that would sign any group as detestable as the Insane Clown Posse and drop them without at least imagining the amount of money they could have made despite having a track record for doing things of that sort to begin with, that's Hollywood Records and they're owned by Disney. They also signed a lot of interesting acts that had plenty of credibility and talent like the Butthole Surfers, Danzig, Indigo Girls, Sparta, Big Kenny of Big & Rich, The Dead Milkmen, Fishbone and Fastball among many others, although I bet most people had no idea any of these groups and artists had anything to do with this label which seems to be cursed by its association with its parent entity. Their biggest act was arguably Queen, for which they purchased their catalog rights and proceeded to reissue their albums in the US, often with bizarre practices like including vaguely altered remixes of album tracks as bonuses and funding countless producers to create stylistically divergent remixes, most of which have never seen the light of day with only a handful having been issued via promotional releases.
Anyway, Hollywood BASIC, apart from suffering the Disney curse, was dealt a death blow when Dave "Funken" Klein lost his battle with cancer, and the label disappeared completely in the mid nineties with several unreleased records in its archives including the unreleased Queen remix compilation, the hip-hop themed BASIC Bootlegs. The label truly had it's heart in the right place though, as is evident from the amazing BASIC beats sampler. Alongside tracks from all of the artists on the label's roster, barring Charizma and Peanut Butter Wolf, you also get a cross section of bizarre interludes including angry messages from members of Lifers Group, Rick Rubin singing badly, someone getting really pissed off about Milli Vanilli and lots of other oddities. It reminds me of what is generally becoming a lost era of hip-hop, the crazy early nineties when bizarre interludes and general confusion was accepted and encouraged, making things very "interesting"!
If you love hip-hop, you'll love this. Seriously, just grab this and enjoy it, there isn't anything else that needs to be said!
Hollywood BASIC: BASIC beats sampler
01 You've Reached BASIC
02 Organized Konfusion - The Rough Side Of Town (South Side)
03 Niz-Nuts
04 Lifers Group - The Real Deal (Shadow Remix)
05 Women's Bathroom
06 Raw Fusion - Rockin' To The P.M. (Oaktown Homies Remix)
07 Rick Sings
08 Queen - We Will Rock You (Ruined by Rick Rubin)
09 Zimbabwe's In The House
10 Zimbabwe Legit - Rhymin' Wit The African Symphony
11 Bomba Fleur
12 Last Acustic Remains - untitled
13 Hank Love
14 Hello
15 Raw Fusion - Throw Your Hands In The Air
16 Ass Out The Bed
17 Lifers Group - Belly Of The Beast
18 Report The BASICs
19 Queen - Another One Bites The Dust (Long Dusted B-Boy Version)
20 Rockbarry
21 Organized Konfusion - Open Your Eyes
22 Money Back
23 Shadow - BASIC Mega-Mix
So, now that you've got this, anyone got a copy of that Queen BASIC Bootlegs album? From what I understand, it is circulating among Queen fans but is generally looked at as heresy since there are a lot of rappers making guest appearances. It's got production from DJ Muggs, Dave "Rave" Ogilvie, Trent Reznor, Rick Rubin, Mr. Mixx and appearances from Ice Cube and Money B. Apparently a David Cohen and Femi Jiya remix of The Miracle was also made for it but wouldn't have made the cut. You can see a little more about it here. So, anyone wanna have pity on me so I can share it with everyone else?
On a final note, there was yet another short-lived sister label of Hollywood Records, Hollywood METAL, their rock and, uh, metal label. Apart from promotional appearances by a few of that label's artists, there were no releases by the METAL label. Once again, how are you supposed to do business as a respectable label when the mouse is clearly holding the reigns?
