Strictly Paul C

 
Hello, good evening & welcome once again to Strictly Business.

Now as regular readers will know, here at Strictly Business we have a quality over quantity philosophy, so although we've been quiet for a while, what we have for you will more than make up for it.

Now, ask yourself a question.............

Who was Paul C ?

Well if you know the answer then continue reading, you will like this.

If you don't know the answer then fuck off somewhere else.

We are deadly serious, go do your research, buy some records, live your life.
When the time is right & you have correctly educated yourself, then you may return.

Basically, if you call yourself a hip hop fan, but you don't know Paul C, then you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself.

(For fucks sake, just for channel panning the dude deserves legendary status, but that's just the tiniest piece of the pie..........)

But whoever you are, and whatever type of hip hop you like, down the line you probably owe it to Paul C. And if you don't recognise the pioneers who created the music that you claim to love, then Flair will make a personal visit to piss in your Corn Flakes.

(And you fucking idiots need to stop referring to everything as "old school" when you have no fucking idea. "Sucker MCs" started the "new school" & most of you suckers weren't even born then. "old school" is not any old shit you remember from your youth you twats, I started listening to hip hop in 1984, so even I can't legitimately claim to be "old school".
So i'm saying now, if you are one of these people who refer to 90s rip off indie shit as "old school", please stop now you fucking nitwits. Paul C himself is an absolute legend, but even his era was "new school", so you have been warned, stop talking shit or face the wrath of Flair. Honestly, ifyouenevfucking-RAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH...... e.t.c.).

Aaaannnnnnnnddddd breath.

Ahem,
My rant may offend our milder followers, but that's the way it is.
The culture, timeline & figures of hip hop are more important that that cunt Jay-Z's latest shit LP.
Know your fucking history people, school yourself or I may get properly angry.

OK, that's that out of the way, down to business.

Now, little has been written about the man known as Paul C, the only piece to speak of was the article by Dave Tompkins in Big Daddy magazine (which you can read an edited version of here) back at the start of the millennium.
There are mentions of Paul on the net, but just fragmented pieces of history. Obviously the Wikipedia page is shit, and even finding a picture is difficult (as you can see by the lo fi shots here).

(However, just as I write this somebody has linked me to this, which should be a must see, although I haven't had time to check it yet, gigantic props to Pritt Kalsi).

And those pictures (on the back of Rakim/Stezo LPs) were where most of us first heard of Paul, and even back then we had already lost him. It was only upon further reflection that we realised that the same dude was responsible for so many booming tracks. Even later we realised he was one of the most influential musicians in hip hop's history.

As much as I would love to say that you are about to read the definitive piece on Paul C, that's not gonna happen from a weed addled reclusive hermit from out in the deep dark sticks of the UK, hopefully somebody a little closer to Queens will one day write a book about Paul & Studio 1212, but that's not me.

But, what your boy Flair can do, is use that O.C.D. shit to his advantage, and bring you the next best thing.

The Big Daddy piece finished with a Paul C discography, compiled by Mr Tompkins & Ivory from the P Brothers.
Unfortunately though, it was far from complete.
All the well known stuff was there, but there was a lot of incredible tracks missing.

See, Paul was highly prolific, as soon as he started working with hip hop artists he became addicted, and worked on a huge amount of tracks until the day of his untimely death.
And Paul worked in many different roles in the studio, yeah he produced & engineered, but for some other joints Paul's role was more subtle, somehow creating a sound just by his presence. (Ask Ced G).

But like I said, i'm not the one to be telling stories of Paul, Flair's here for another reason.

That reason would be to compile the nearest there is to a complete Paul McKasty discography.

Now you would think that with the technology available in 2013 that this would be a fairly simple task,
So I started with the Big Daddy article, then went from there.

Discogs.com is sometimes helpful, but check out this list of names ->
"Paul C" McKasty, MCKasty, P.C. McKasty, Paul, Paul "C", Paul C., Paul C. 1212, Paul C. McKasty, Paul Cee, Paul McKastee, Paul McKasty, Paul-C, Paul-Cee..............

Confusing shit, plus sometimes his only credit would be "Paul", and then there's all the uncredited stuff............

So, after combining my own (herb dwindled) boom bap knowledge, referenced with whatever I could find online, what we have is the closest thing available to a complete Paul C discography.

But being Strictly Business we like to go one better.........

Now, i'm certainly not claiming that this is definitive, but it seems to be as close as anyone's got so far.
Look at this as a work in progress, anyone out there that can supply more info, please let me know & I will keep this post updated.

At the end of the day, what we have here is a selection of bonafide classics, obscure gems & curious oddities, all with one thing in common, the musical genius of Paul C McKasty.

Paul C Lives !

Strictly Paul C pt1

360° - Years To Build
Biz Markie - A Thing Named Kim
Biz Markie - Just A Friend
Black By Demand  - Can't Get Enough
Black By Demand - All Rappers Give Up
Black Rock & Ron - True Feelings (Paul C Hip Hop Remix)
Captain G Whiz - All The Way Live
Captain G Whiz - Go G Whiz
Captain G Whiz - It's Hyped
Casanova Fly - Casanova's Rap
Disco Twins & Starchild  - Do That Right
Disco Twins & Starchild - There It Is !
Doctor Freeze - I'm Too Much
Double Delight & DJ Slice Nice - Leave Me This Way
Double Delight & DJ Slice Nice - Party Jump
Eric B & Rakim - In The Ghetto
Eric B & Rakim - Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em
Eric B & Rakim - Run For Cover
Freak L - Line For Line
Freak L - When The Pen Hits The Paper
Freddy B & The Mighty Mic Masters - (Triple M Is In Effect) We're Back Y'all
Freddy B & The Mighty Mic Masters - Coolin' On The Ave


Strictly Paul C pt2

G-Dane - Coolest Of The Cool
G-Dane - Puerto Rican Girl
Kev-E-Kev & AK-B - Keep On Doin'
Kev-E-Kev & AK-B - Listen To The Man
Kid Flash - Mind Your Business
Live N' Effect Posse - I'm A Soulman
Live N' Effect Posse - I'm Getting Physical
Live N' Effect Posse - We Got A Message In Our Music
Live N' Effect Posse - We Got To Get Paid
Main Source - Atom
Main Source - Think
Marauder & The Fury - Get Loose Mother Goose
Marauder & The Fury - Terminator
MC Outloud - Clean & Sober
MC Outloud - I'll Put A Hurten
MC Tatiana - Mission To Rock
Mikey D & The LA Posse - Bust A Rhyme Mike
Mikey D & The LA Posse - Comin' In The House
Mikey D & The LA Posse - Dawn
Mikey D & The LA Posse - I Get Rough
Mikey D & The LA Posse - My Telephone
Mikey D & The LA Posse - Out Of Control
Phase & Rhythm - Brainfood
Phase & Rhythm - Hyperactive

Strictly Paul C pt3

Princess Ivori - Boy What A Night
Princess Ivori - Crackpipe (Changed It All)
Queen Latifah feat Monie Love - Ladies First
Rappers On A Mission - S.O.L.O.
Simply Too Positive - Cooling One Day (Demo)
Simply Too Positive - International Arrival (Demo)
Simply Too Positive - Mind Over Matter (Demo)
Spicey Ham - Sex, Sex & More Sex
Spicey Ham - You Never Heard Of Me & I Never Heard Of You
Sport G & Mastermind - Live
Sport G & Mastermind - Louder
Stezo - Freak The Funk
Stezo - It's My Turn
Stezo - To The Max
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud - Do The James
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud - Get's No Deeper
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud - I Gotta Good Thing (Remix)
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud - Romeo
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud - Super Casanova
The Heartbeat Brothers - Bring In The Bassline
The Heartbeat Brothers - Can We Do This
The Heartbeat Brothers - Time To Get Paid


Strictly Paul C pt4

The Mic Profesah - Bust The Format
The Mic Profesah - Cry Freedom
The Rangers - I'm Hot
The Rangers - Jack's On Crack
The Ultimate Choice - And I Love It
The Ultimate Choice - How I'm Livin'
The Ultimate Choice - Keep It On
The Ultimate Choice - Set It Off
The Ultimate Choice - You Can't Front (We Will Rock You)
Too Poetic - God Made Me Funky
Too Poetic - Poetical Terror
Trio Connection - Astoria Is In The House
Trio Connection - Got To Get Funky
Trio Connection - Lover Girl
Trio Connection - The Dope Beat
Trio Connection - The Duck
Ultramagnetic MCs - A Chorus Line
Ultramagnetic MCs - Give The Drummer Some
Ultramagnetic MCs - Moe Luv's Theme
Ultramagnetic MCs - Travelling At The Speed Of Thought
Ultramagnetic MCs - Watch Me Now

Password - defandstupid


Paul also did significant work on the following LPs -

Stezo - Crazy Noise

Ultramagnetic MCs - Critical Beatdown

Black Rock & Ron - Stop The World

Superlover Cee & Casanova Rud - Girls I Got 'Em Locked

Biz Markie - Biz Never Sleeps

Mikey C & The LA Posse - Better Late Than Never

Paul's work with the Mandolindley Roadshow can be heard here & here.

Here is a list of the tracks we were unable to include -

360° - Pelon / The Producer Speaks

Queen Latifah - A King & Queen Creation

Two Shades Of Black - Surrender / Flaunt It

Princess Ivori - Q.I.E. (Get Down)

Almighty Marski - Leader of the Force

YSL & D Dubb - No Stoppin

Kid Flash - Havin' Fun

MC Tatiana - Back Up Jack

All The Way - She Dropped A Dime On Me

Double Dose - Envious

Trio Connection - It's A Hit

Trio Connection - Mystery Girl / Keep On Dancin'


If anyone out there can supply these for part 5 we would be eternally grateful, also needed are the infamous photo of Paul in a Stetson & the other tracks from the S.T.P. demo, Paul C to the organisms !

(And don't dare front if we missed something, or if a certain track wasn't decent enough quality, or if I stupidly happened to forget to flip the 360° joint (unless you are called 157). Flair happens to be in war mode son, and it won't take much to make me Hulk up. Just leave a polite comment & we can all get along happily).

Anyway, maybe the hardness of these joints got to me (maybe not the Black Rock & Ron remix though), maybe it's knowing that Paul's killer was never found, maybe it's because 1212 burned up (As much as I love Ultra, I also like the metal bands that played in the same building), maybe it's because it's dark & wet outside, maybe it's because "Coolin' On The Ave" sounds horrible on mp3, maybe it's because I couldn't find more Kid Flash joints, maybe it's because Paul's brother Tim ended up on Puff "Twat" Daddy tracks, maybe it's because Keith has used so many shit Bontempi beats, maybe it's my awareness of all the rumours related to Paul's killer, maybe a combination of all of these that has put me in the mood I am right now (battle head on)........

But all that shit needs to go out of the window because the last thing I want to do is let my mood disrespect Paul's memory, this is about the legend of one man in New York who did more for the music we love than most of us will ever understand. Thank you homeboy.

Rest in Peace Paul McKasty

And if you want to know more about Paul C, as I have said, here & here are good places to start.

Shouts to 157, Murmurdonz, The Def Offenders & the entire Strictly Biz famalam.

"A Fly Tramp, That's What She Called Me"