REVIEW FROM SMOOV - VINYLADDICTS - THANKS..... DC http://www.vinyladdicts.net/va/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=187&Itemid=46 Kay LC & DCREAL67 - Upset With Da Threat 12" Written by Smoov on Jul 15, 2011 at 09:33 PM ARTIST: Kay LC & DCREAL67 TITLE: Upset With Da Threat FORMAT: 12" YEAR: 2010 LABEL: Rhythmic Combat Records “Where were you when you first heard…?” Now I’m pretty sure many of you do remember where you were the first time you heard well-known tracks like “Don’t Believe The Hype”, “The Bridge Is Over”, “Eric B. Is President”, “T.R.O.Y.”, “Protect Ya Neck” or “Halftime” (just to name a few classic tracks). I’ve heard and read many remarkable and funny stories from people who went back into time to bring back memories of their whereabouts around the time they first heard this or that record on the radio. When I heard somewhere last year that Dutch emcee Kay LC was about to release a ‘comeback’ 12” it felt as if some time-machine took me back a decade or two to the exact moment that I first heard his single “Leavin” on the radio. It’s definitely no remarkable or funny story, but I remember it so vividly that it’s almost scary. Back in the early 90s I had this ill Panasonic boombox (from the RX series) which I used to record the very few hip-hop and R&B orientated radio shows that I knew off. Now there was this radio station from The Hague which had a hip-hop/R&B/dance/little bit of everything show every Saturday afternoon from 3 to 5 if I recall correctly. So every Saturday afternoon it was me sitting on my bed with my boombox within armreach, making pause tapes with the latest hip-hop and R&B tracks. This particular show didn’t have much to offer but some lame house tracks (stuff like L.A. Style’s “James Brown Is Dead” was popular at the time), some swingbeat hits and some mediocre hip-hop joints, that is until I heard the smooth vibes of “Leavin” coming out of the speakers. Damn! “I gotta make a decision / The lady in my life is missing / Certain things a man can’t do out with / I wanna break-up / But telling her ain’t an easy trip” Now I don’t know how it is with you guys, but there have been quite a few times in my life where I could really relate to these lyrics, especially on that particular Saturday afternoon in ‘91. It was as if I heard myself talking. I will spare you all the personal details because I’m positive you don’t care anyway, but from that moment on Kay LC was on my radar. I managed to find the cd-single of “Leavin” (was it ever released on 12”?) a few weeks after I heard the track on the radio and I remember having it on repeat for hours. The “Hard 2 Handle” LP – which in my opinion is one of the best Dutch hip-hop releases of all time – proved to be a tough one to find, even in the Netherlands. Thanks go out to the founding father of eBay – Pierre Omidyar – because if it wasn’t for the world’s largest auction site it’s quite possible that I still wouldn’t have a copy of the album. I eventually got one off eBay Germany for four Euro plus shipping. A bargain. Between ’91 and the late 2010 announcement of his new single Kay LC only sporadically appeared on the scene and to my knowledge the “Upset With Da Threat” 12” is his first vinyl release since the “Hard 2 Handle” LP. Yes, there’s the dope “One Flow” track from ’97 (as Kay L) that was featured on the “This Is What You Want” compilation, but that was a cd-only release. And I know he recorded some tracks in Dutch, but I doubt these ever got the vinyl treatment. So after nearly two decades this is the man’s official comeback single… As you probably noticed though this single right here is not a Kay LC solo project. As a matter of fact he teamed up with a guy I ‘sort of know’, Jan-Willem van de Wal a.k.a. DJ/producer DCREAL67. Now I say sort of know because I’ve never met the guy in person. He bought some records from me a few times, so we had a little bit of contact via e-mail, but that’s about it. The strange thing about it all is that we were born in the same city, just a few years apart. As you can assume by looking at the name DCREAL67 the man was born in 1967, which I guess means that he’s old enough to be Redkhat’s dad (heh heh). He came into contact with breakdancing, graffiti, emceeing, deejaying and beatboxing in the early 80s and has been involved with hip-hop ever since. From listening to the monthly Bumrush Radio shows him and his partner Midnight (what’s up, Dennis?) are hosting (feel free to download the latest show here) I found out about DC’s deejaying skills. And with the beats on this single he proves that his skills don’t stop just there. With combined forces one of Holland’s best emcees ever and a producer that I’m sure will make a name for himself in the very near future offer two stand-out tracks that should appeal to all true hip-hop fans worldwide. “Upset With Da Threat” is my favorite of the two. Over a dark and sinister creation from DCREAL with some heavy ass bass and a cool vocal sample from Black Moon’s “Shit Iz Real” Kay LC tells about this time he got into a stupid fight at a party: “I’m a cool type of brother always mindin’ my biz / Now let me break it down like this / See trouble’s not me I don’t mean to cause / But trouble sometimes wanna test of course / Friday night, and I’m hooking up with my man Swift / There’s a party goin’ on not too far from where we lives / Chillin’, real mellow as we up in the place / A few drinks and a smoke just to set the pace / Ladies well fixed so we out to mingle / No strings attached cause I’m free and single / Conversating with this honey, checking what she’s wearing / Trouble comes interfering / All up in my grill like he’s something-something / This drunk yella motherfucker comes out frontin’ / Try to play me out like a punk / Guess he wasn’t in the place to enjoy the funk / Anyway, I’m cool, at ease / Trouble runs me questions like he was police / That he’s out of jail and he’s from the streets / My belief was to take his ass to Beat Street / He really got deep into his gangster wannabe / He got so deep he even threatened to shoot me / You read about violence in the papers again / How people lose their lives over dumb ass shit / I’m upset with the threat cause he could have pull it / This motherfucker want to make me eat bullets / Adrenaline pumpin’ my cool got mean / My man Swift came between / It could have been double trouble on the set / Told him “next time you better show respect” / See trouble’s not me I don’t mean to cause / But this type of brutality got me off course” In verse two Kay LC addresses the decay of Dutch society, but if you watch the news on a daily basis I’d say that Kay LC’s spot-on analyzation describes the situation in pretty much every modern Western society. Fucked up. “See nowadays it’s almost a formality / Motherfuckers with a so-called gangster mentality / Music and video is gettin’ bling but proof / Is that society is changed take a look at our youth / Parents busy making money ain’t got time to see / Their kids lack a lot of R-E-S-P-E-C-T / While the government is fighting terrorism with Wilders / Stigmatizing Muslims steady pointing their finger / Holland still rocks the house but I see / From under the rock a nation dealing with poverty / Blowing through the drama of the eurocent / So families are struggling hard to pay rent / We’re turning to an unkind, aggressive system / To kill or attack with violence or racism / Some are like “fuck it”, others just can’t bare / The vibe so they wanna be the fuck outta here / For better or worse and days to come / Just remember the children / No, I’m not a negative or a angry one / But these days man I feel like I gotta have some / There’s a lot of sick motherfuckers walking around / Who got the nerve to step up and test your ground / Some of them are grind like big shot / And some of them are grind like hot shot / My cousin tellin’ me that his daughter got trapped / By the charms of a loverboy dealing with threats / Sayin’ trouble’s not me I don’t mean to cause / But this type of brutality got me off course” The b-side cut “Love Bandit” is on a completely different vibe. DCREAL67’s recipe this time consists of a funky beat with a lot of bounce plus vocal samples from LL Cool J and (I think) Richard Pryor. Very nice. Kay LC this time shows another side of him as he brags about all his sexual escapades. “Reminiscing ‘bout the bandit, cause he was first choice!”. I personally could have done without the chick saying “love bandit” a few dozen times, but it fits the track so who I am to judge? In my opinion this is one of the dopest and most important Dutch hip-hop releases of the past decade or so and I really hope that this release will be the overture for more quality material, not only from Kay LC and DCREAL67 (how ‘bout a full length LP, fellas?) but also from Dutch hip-hop artists in general. That about wraps up what turned out to be my longest article on Vinyl Addicts to date. All I can say is, support this single and buy a copy before it’s too late (only 200 copies were pressed!). Get it directly from the artists or order it together with some other goodies at HHV or King Underground. Peace.

Twenty years after the re...lease of his album Hard To Handle - with the single Leavin' - Dutch mc Kay LC has dropped the 12'' single Upset With Da Threat on Rhythmic Combat Records, a new indie Hip Hop-label. Kay analyses the decay of Dutch society over a sinister beat, produced by DCREAL67 - a Hip Hop deejay who started spinnin' and composing beats in the eighties. 'A killer Black Moon-sample', according to NYC's indie Hip Hop-connaisseur Ed Catto, forms a hook that sticks in your brain. On the B-side, Love Bandit Kay brags 'n' boasts a little over his sexual adventures during a chopped breakbeat by DCREAL67. A deep bassline, funky samples, some subtile rhythmscratching and the nice delivery of Kay LC completes a groovy, humorous B-side that will please true B-Boyz. And, as the tracks learns, girls as well.