The Full Metal Jacket KAOS Platoon

KAOS - Court's In Session
KAOS - You've Got The Time

I first heard Brooklyn crew KAOS on John Peel's radio show. I’ve mentioned it before but I still don’t think people truly appreciate how on it he was when it came to hip hop. He played most of the tracks from the album 'Court's In Session' on its release by Bad Boy Records (not to be confused with Puff Diddly’s Bad Boy Entertainment) in 1988, and I recorded them all and made a homemade cassette copy of the album, which I played to death. It’s one of the rarest and most sought after hip hop albums of all time, which isn’t that surprising as it is packed with raw cuts of the highest calibre.

Part of the album's appeal also lies in the fact that the KAOS crew featured one Kenny ‘Dope’ Gonzalez, who helped produce the album and, alongside DJ BOO, scratched up a storm all over the record. Kenny Dope would go on to have massive worldwide success as part of Masters at Work, alongside Little Louie Vega, as well as scoring a massive club hit with ‘The Bomb’ under the alias The Bucketheads. Another future house music luminary who had his hand in with KAOS is Todd Terry, credited as the album’s producer alongside K-Dope, and hailed as “the incredible unit beat machine Mr Todd Terry” by the crew’s MC King Grand. Weirdest thing is, neither Kenny nor Todd make mention of their involvement with KAOS on their official biographies. Maybe they’ve talked it up in interviews, but I can’t find anything on the net. If I’d produced it, I’d be shouting about it from the rooftops as it is the dopest shit.

I’ve posted the title track ‘Court’s In Session’ which uses a slowed down sample of the classic ‘Think (About It)’ break, crashing cymbals, various tough guitar samples and King Grand’s swaggering brag-raps. You also get ‘You've Got the Time’ with some state-of-the-art beat programming from Todd Terry, sampled choral sections and live chants to give it the feel of a jam, and K-Dope rocking the transformer scratch on the theme from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’.

Walking rap encyclopedia Freddy Fresh is selling his very own copy of 'Court's In Session' on eBay, but be prepared to dig deep as it always changes hands for silly money!
KAOS discography
Masters at Work website
Todd Terry at Trust the DJ

Joe.