Trouble Funk vs. Dj Richie Rich scratch mix
Richie Rich vs. Trouble Funk – Richie Rich In Trouble
So by now you’ve listened to Trouble Funk – Good To Go, and if you weren’t already a Trouble Funk fan, it’s safe to say you are probably hungry for more! Well here at Cold Crush we don’t hold out on the goods, so uhh…voila!
Trouble Funk are a RnB band from Washington DC, who helped to pioneer DC’s own funk sound called go go. While they weren’t the first go go band (we’ll tell you about them some other time), they are definitely one of the most well known outside of DC, with an array of hits like Pump Me Up, Drop The Bomb, Trouble Funk Express (a live funk cover of Kraftwerk’s Trans Europe Express), Hey Fellas and RETALI8′s personal favourite, Don’t Touch That Stereo.
Trouble Funk’s sound is super funky and very danceable. They made use of 2 drummers, combining funk drums with latin percussion rhythms backing a mix of horns and sax, guitar, bass, and funked synthesizer bass and sci-fi noises, with chanted vocals both sung and rapped, and they were well known for singing back and forth with the crowd — something that definitely caught on in hip hop.
With their super funky drums it’s no suprise that hip hop has sampled the shit out of Trouble Funk — right back from old school guys like Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mell and the Furious Five and T-La Rock to more new school rap, The Liks, Dr. Dre, Public Enemy, 2 Live Crew, and er…Will Smith. Their song Pump Me Up was famously sampled for Dimples D – Sucker Dj, which was a number 1 hit in Australia, and graffiti lovers take note; it also appeared on the Style Wars DVD!
Trouble Funk were also infamous for some of the bands that used to open for their shows — hardcore DC punk bands like Black Flag, Minor Threat and The Big Boys. Pretty safe to say they were the only funk band to be touring with cats like that.
Trouble Funk’s original keyboard player Robert “Syke Dyke” Reed died of cancer in 2008, but in spite of this the boys are still doing shows and rocking crowds to this day. Alas I doubt we will see them out on this end of the world anytime soon, but you can still catch them live in DC!
This epic scratch mix is by UK hip hop and acid house DJ Richie Rich — best known for 1998 scratch jam My Dj (Pump It Up Some), who has also remixed De La Soul and Erik B & Rakim amongst others. It was released in 1998 on a 7″ given away with UK music magazine Record Mirror. Not to be confused with Jamaican born DJ Richie Rich who played with 3rd Bass and 3 The Hard Way, and appeared in in hip hop movie Juice (which he also provided cuts for). Cheers to our homie Jagger from the UK for pointing that out!
Richie Rich vs. Trouble Funk – Richie Rich In Trouble
Ps, minimal wave fans go over and check out Xeno & Oaklander – Blue Flower live at Wierd in New York, over at the new RETALI8 site. Martial Canterel of X&O mentioned recently in an interview that he loves go go music, although the influence is probably not so obvious in his own sound!
Shit yeah! Man I gotta get over to the states to see these dudes drop the bomb live…too damn funky!
great mix but you posted the wrong info about the d.j.
its not rich from 3rd bass, its richie rich from the u.k.
(he did that jam ‘my dj pump it up some’)
this mix was featured on a free 7 inch single distributed with u.k. music magazine ‘record mirror’.
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Cool-Cuts-1/release/732620
good to hear it again! nice site.
rock on.