Raw I'ma give it to ya, with some trivia:  About four years back, I download a track from somewhere (can't remember where I found it) - it was El Michels Affair, "Glaciers of Ice".  I thought I had found the sample Raekwon used on what I would call the one of the best songs off the Cuban Linx album.  It took me a couple of years before I came to the realization who El Michels Affair is. 

Turns out that El Michels Affair is a backing band that performs for the Wu-Tang (or, really, for Ghost and Raekwon).  Leon Michels is the head of the group, and the co-founder of a record label called Truth & Soul, which specializes in nu-funk/soul music.  El Michels Affair has a sound that could be from the 70's, but that's not where they come from.  Instead, the band is mostly seen playing live for Raek & Ghost, or releasing "instrumental" versions of Wu classics. Peep the video below to see some footage of El Michels Affair and the Wu doing C.R.E.A.M. live:

Why stop there?  Raek & the EMA performing Ice Cream live (apparently minus Cab-badonna, who was no doubt making pickups in Baltimore, which he loves like he love his d*ck size):

And here's a soulful instrumental version of C.R.E.A.M. recorded by El Michels Affair (not to be mistaken with the actual song The Rza sampled for C.R.E.A.M., which is "As Long As I Got You" by The Charmels):

Rap styles vary:  In case you are wondering how EMA got that sweet 70's sound down - one of the first cats they signed to the label was an old-timer who goes by the name of Tyron Ashley, from Plainview, NJ.  When he was a young man playing in bands in the 70's, Plainview was the spot for funk/soul music.  It's the hometown of Parliment (yes, George Clinton grew up there), and there was lots of black musicians in the city back in those days - gospel, R&B, soul, funk, doo wop - you name it.  And the studio that everyone supposedly passed through belong to none other than... Tyrone Ashley.  This is a man who might have heard some good music in his time, you dig?

The Saga Continues:  Truth & Soul operates out of a studio in Brooklyn, on North 10th Street in Williamsburg.  That's really Williamsburg, not Bushwick a.k.a. "East Williamsburg" as the realty stars have been known to sell it.  That kinda kills me, actually.  It's funny how Bushwick, Flatbush, Crown Heights, and even Bed-Stuy have all sort of disappeared or shrunk over the past ten to fifteen years, to be replaced with new names.  Sh*t, from now on I'm no longer telling people I live in Queens, but in "East Manhattan".  But I'm digressing.

Enter the Wu-Tang Zone: Truth & Soul recently did a remix for Amy Winehouse of "Love Is A Losing Game".  This is not Amy Winehouse's (or her music producers) first foray into North Brooklyn.  Not less than a mile away from Truth & Soul's studio is the Mehanan Street Studio, home of Daptones Records and Amy's backing band of choice, The Daptones. We wrote about that connection when we did this post earlier this year about Jay-Z , Sharon Jones, the Daptones, and Amy Winehouse.

Rappening is what's happening: That British cokehead sure does know where to go to find some retro-sounding bands, doesn't she?  And the answer is North Brooklyn.  The day of Brooklyn as the center of hip-hop may have passed (thank Rudy Guiliani and gentrification for that), but even if D&D studios isn't as influential it once was, Brooklyn is still churning out hits in a new form.  For the record, here's my favorite Brooklyn track from that era, if only because it still cracks me up to hear Chubb Rock getting angry political on a track.

In '95 we take back Ebbets' Field: Completely unrelated piece of trivia to share - Charles Ebbets's (the sports executive for whom Ebbets' Field was named after) nephew (Charles C. Ebbets) was a photographer during 20's and 30's, and took one of the most famous and iconoclastic photos of NYC ever - "Lunch Atop A Skyscraper":

Some more stuff to check out: The El Michels Affair's cover of "Walk On By" (sounds like the Isaac Hayes soul version, not so much the DIonne Warrick + Burt Bucharach original version):
http://www.ubiquityrecords.com/mpeg/ur195_01.mp3


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