Marley Marl’s In Control Volume 1 was such an iconic release, introducing the talents of the Juice Crew members like Big Daddy Kane, Masta Ace & Kool G Rap amongst others to a world of new listeners. But when Volume 2 was released in 1991, there was something amiss. I remember hearing it in my mates car for the 1st time that year, and thinking back to the Tim Westwood plays on the Capital Rap Show in London, from 2 years previous. Where was the cut with Marley rhyming over the ‘Im Your Puppet’ break? What had happened to this track and that track? It seems that a few things had been omitted from the finished 1991 Cold Chillin alblum, things that I knew I’d heard, things that we knew we had on a D90 in the glove compartment.
The track No Bullshit is a true gem cos Marley rhymes throughout the entire track, somethin he didnt do that often. And the odd thing about No Bullshit is that, in comparison to the version that ended up on the alblum, the original unreleased mix murders the finished version. As Marlon says himself, the ‘beat thats smooth’ makes it an entirely different song, and even if some of the lyrics are mostly the same, some of them are kinda malicious, and didnt appear on the finished LP, and possibly for good reason.
Marley, intriguingly cusses Mr Magic, the same person that put him on in the industry and made him his right hand man on the Rap Attack. Maybe guilt was the motivation for the switch up and thats why this version never made it #justsayin Maybe the hyped up sound on the finished No BS was just more appropriate in 91. Have a close listen to what Marley says about ‘Business & pleasure’ and how Magic mighta got the two mixed up, its the only segment of the 2 versions that feature alternate lyrics. The flow on this version is controlled, smooth and confident, compared to faster needier rhyming on the Vol2 version, where he almost sounds like he’s gettin his flare on.
There were 10 cuts on Vol1, and 20 cuts on Vol2 [including a few skit bits]. Maybe there was an issue with the ‘Im Your Puppet’ sample from the 1966 James & Bobby Purify classic, who knows. On the 1991 version made available to the public, Marley even teases us with a shard of that track before switching up the pace to around 115 bpm, cos it’d been ‘jacked already’.
The 2 other bangers by the self-appointed Super-Producer are by a little known Rapper by the name of Rapataire, called They Cant Get With Me, who incidentally had another unreleased cut called Hip-Hop Science. The other is an uptempo track also from 1989, recorded off a Clark Kent In Control broadcast [with bonus De La Soul], by a group referring to themselves as Unit3. Very little is known about them.
The questions remain, how many more of these gems are gathering dust on reels, in shoe-boxes or behind radiators ?
Marley, just bless us with some more Hot Chillin already !
RANDOM RAP RADIO 