RhoDeo 1131 Grooves

Hello, todays artist released 3 albums, his success was growing and then....nothing he disappeared and hasn't been on the scene for 17 years, maybe he saw the light, maybe he's one of those many thousands that disappear in the USA every year. A real pity as his beat poetry could have given us many hours more of serious entertainment, hard to fathom why someone who was starting to make serious inroads would denounce himself and disappear.
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Taking the name MC 900 Ft. Jesus from an Oral Roberts'* sermon, the Dallas native Mark Griffin began recording in the late ' 80s. MC 900 Ft. Jesus' first records were bracing fusions of hip-hop, industrial, and spoken word, with hints of jazz. He became a favorite on college radio with his 1990 debut, Hell With the Lid Off, and 1991's Welcome to My Dream. Griffin seems to be able to get inside the American psyche and write these wonderful, incredibly well-observed lyrics; and then marries them to old-skool beats and layers of synth. At first listen you might believe that you're listening to hip-pop; but then you rapidly realise that everything he does is a little bit tongue-in-cheek.

Welcome To My Dream, the follow-up to Hell With the Lid Off is darker, less cartoonish, and far more influenced by funk and jazz than before (if it weren't for the slightly whiny vocals over top of the opening cut, you might mistake the backing track for something from Miles Davis' fusion period). In a lot of ways, Welcome to My Dream was a precursor to trip-hop, layering hip-hop beats over jazzy breaks and dream-like instrumentation. Tracks like "Killer Inside Me" and "Adventures in Failure" as backing tracks are killer and the delivery of the rhymes are top-notch, alas textually a bit silly, in the sense that jokes ware off after repeated listening. That's a shame because there are some great tracks here, like the arsonists confessional "The City Sleeps'" and the paranoiac nightdrive "Falling Elevators." As before on Hell With the Lid Off , DJ Zero scratches with aplomb.

After laying low for a couple years, MC 900 Ft. Jesus returned with his most popular record to date in 1994, One Step Ahead of the Spider. Featuring the hit single "If I Only Had a Brain," the record was calmer than his earlier work, incorporating more elements of jazz and funk; it was a hit on both alternative radio and MTV, nevertheless he never established much more than a cult following, and has completely disappeared from the radar since.

*Oral Roberts became a traveling faith healer after dropping out of college, he made a name for himself with a mobile big tent that sat 3,000 on metal folding chairs, and where he shouted at petitioners who did not respond to his healing. In 1977 Roberts claimed to have a vision from a 900-foot-tall Jesus who told him to build City of Faith Medical and Research Center and the hospital would be a success. He founded Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1963, stating he was obeying a command from God. The university was chartered in 1963 and received its first students in 1965. Students were required to sign an honor code pledging not to drink, smoke, dance, party, or engage in premarital sex. Oral Roberts is retired now after a very succesful career as a televangelist. Btw the Rio Christ The Redeemer statue which made it into the seven wonders of the world list is just 130 ft, merely a seventh what the faith healer saw, well visions can be deceptive in the ' out there' .


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"This offering of frenzied rap, industrial rhythms and hip hop beats will send the masses to the temples of dance. The selection of hymns for this Chapter confront middle-class America driven by his fascination with the psychotic urban jungle where the streets are inhabited with the so called 'freaks' of society. It's a highly compelling recording, if only for its brash flirtation with so many styles -- techno, funk, cool jazz, house -- With it you will find reality, the kind of reality that mankind suppresses and hides in the halls of institutions. MC 900 Ft Jesus along with DJ Zero take the disciplines of funk, rap and industrial hip hop transforming them into an entirely new beast."

MC 900 Ft Jesus With DJ Zero – Hell With The Lid Off (89 flac  337mb)

01 A Greater God 2:53
02 Real Black Angel 4:22
03 Truth Is Out Of Style 5:44
04 UFO's Are Real 5:22
05 Shut Up 5:42
06 I'm Going Straight To Heaven 4:03
07 Spaceman 6:56
08 Talking To The Spirits 6:32
09 Too Bad 5:34
10 A Place Of Loneliness 0:38
11 Born With Monkey Asses 5:44
12 Straight To Heaven (Inst) 4:04

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The emphasis on One Step Ahead of the Spider is most definitely the groove and, with drummer Earl Harvin, Jr. assisted by Mike Dillon and Nikhil Pandya (on congas and tablas, respectively), the vibe is somewhere in between Bitches Brew and a neo-hippie drum circle, with a little '70s funk thrown into the mix for good measure.

MC 900 Ft Jesus – One Step Ahead Of The Spider (94 flac 327mb)

01 New Moon 11:41
02 But If You Go 5:38
03 If I Only Had A Brain 3:47
04 Stare And Stare 6:59
05 Buried At Sea 4:46
06 Tiptoe Through The Inferno 4:50
07 Gracías Pepé 3:44
08 New Year's Eve 3:43
09 Bill's Dream 8:15
10 Rhubarb 3:10

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elsewhere on this blog (Alphabet soup 13) also updated

MC 900 Ft Jesus - Welcome To My Dream (91 flac 268mb)

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