Back again is ‘Old rap Wednesdays. In this special, ‘Late homework / Sorry it’s almost Friday edition’.
Audio Two is Milk D. and DJ Gizmo. Rapper and DJ, respectively. Brothers in music and in real life (or maybe half-brothers).
Audio Two had their run between 1985-1992 releasing three LP albums, with slowly ebbing success. They began their career with the (impossible to find) 1985 12″ single titled, ‘A Christmas Rhyme’ on MCM records, but the group really emerged in 1987 on their major-label (First Priority Records) debut single ‘Make It Funky’ with the incredible and classic b-side ‘Top Billin’ which eclipsed the a-side and everything that followed, and still remains as their signature track. ‘Top Billin’ will be the primary focus of this week’s post. Enjoy the original:
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MP3: Audio Two – Top Billin’ (1987)
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MP3: Audio Two – Top Billin’ (Instrumental) (1987)
Now I’ll say something really journalist-y like, the ‘Go Brooklyn!’ vocal sample looped in the instrumental is so quintessentially late 80s BKLYN. Or so my expertise would lead me to believe—considering I was in, like, 3rd grade and living in LA in 1987.
The popularity of the B-side lead to several remixes, like this remix from a 1988, ‘Top Billin’ promo 12″ (pardon the quality):
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MP3: Audio Two – Top Billin’ (Clark Kent Super Mix) (1988)
On their 1990 sophomore album, ‘I Don’t Care’, they reworked the beat and concept from ‘Top Billin’ into a new track called, ‘I Get the Papers’:
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MP3: Audio Two – I Get the Papers (1990)
The group ended in 1992 because of poor record sales of their third album, 1992’s ‘First Dead Indian’—Undoubtedly when the west coast ushered in ‘Dre Day‘, many of the of the more light-hearted pioneers, like Audio Two suddenly found themselves in the dark.
However, the break up of Audio Two wasn’t the end all. Milk D released one album as a solo artist in 1994. Rick Rubin was a fan and put Milk D. on as one of his early artists on his American Records label. Milk D. dropped the D. and titled his record, ‘Never Dated’. The album was a flop, with very few record sales. And those sales were mostly among hardcore Beastie Boys fans, because of Milk’s tie to the Beasties and their collaboration track, ‘Spam’ which features two of the three Beastie Boys, with Adrock on the mic and Mike D on drums:
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MP3: Milk – Spam (feat. The King Ad Rock & Mike D) (1994)
Audio Two has never lost relevance. Perhaps most people have heard Audio Two through a proxy, in the form of the Notiorous B.I.G.’s 1994 debut album, Ready to Die. This ‘new’ Brooklyn MC was obviously influenced by the west coast gangsta rap sound and his 1994 debut record was decidedly more gangster than his Audio Two forefathers. Still, on the intro track, which is a skit intended to sum up B.I.G.’s life up until that point, you’ll hear Audio Two’s ‘Top Billlin’ play for nearly a minute underneath the skit’s dialogue.
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MP3: The Notorious B.I.G. – Intro (1994)
For Biggie, ‘Top Billin’ is the one song chosen to represent the sound of the late 80s (along with Curtis Mayfield’s I’m Your Pusher Man representing 70s, Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ representing early 80s, and Snoop Doggy Dogg’s ‘The Shizint’ representing the early 90s). I find this interesting because the cultural significance of ‘Ready to Die’ and the impact it had, and how that record payed homage to Audio Two and other (dare I say) prolific artists that came before him in such a direct way (as literally playing their songs on his album). Does ‘Top Billin’ represent the late-80s sound perfectly? I think it does.
And it doesn’t end there! Top Billin’ lives on 20 years later in Uffie’s ‘Pop the Glock’ (produced by Mr. Oizo) which borrows heavily from ‘Top Billin’. If you didn’t notice by now, act like you know! Uffie para-phrases, copies entire lyrics, borrows concepts and audio samples from ‘Top Billin’:
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MP3: Uffie – Pop The Glock (2006)
I hope Ed Banger cut Milk D. a nice royalty check for that one.
Here’s another contemporary rework by Curtis Vodka:
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MP3: Audio Two – Top Billin (Curtis Vodka Remix) (2006)
Now you’re up on Audio Two! I’ll end this on one last trivial-pursuit-80s-rap-edition fact: Milk D. is the older brother of MC Lyte, who emerged as a solo artist after the success of her brothers classic single, but went on to even greater hip-hop celebrity.
You can find Audio Two’s first album, ‘What More Can I Say’ on Amazon due to a post-millennium re-release. All other records are harder to locate, and your best/only avenues would be secondary markets like eBay or Amazon affiliates
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[p.s. I know this post was half referential college shit drawing links between stuff and other stuff. Oops. Sorry for making you learn in yr freetime.]
