Thursday, February 01, 2007

Stop, Look and Listen...



Mink featuring 2wic-e the Trouble - Hey! Hey! Can U Relate?
DJ Mink featuring The K.I.D. & Carruthers - Hey! Hey! Can U Relate

One of life’s great mysteries is why ‘Hey! Hey! Can You Relate?’, a brilliant slice of British hip hop from Nottingham’s DJ Mink and 2wic-e the Trouble (aka The K.I.D. and Carruthers), remains the only thing they ever did. The track is sheer quality, in both the incarnations I’ve posted here, but there was to be no follow-up. There are rumours of some other tracks from The K.I.D. in circulation, but as far as I’m aware nothing else from the collective was ever committed to wax. Mink did some production and scratching here and there, but never scaled these heights again. Mores the pity.

Originally released on Mark Brydon’s Nottingham-based FON Records (FON stood for ‘Fuck Off Nazis’) in 1989, ‘Hey! Hey! Can You Relate?’ is credited to Mink featuring 2wic-e the Trouble. This track is a fully paid-up member of the proper banger club, with hard as hell breakbeats, an awesome array of funk samples, and 2wic-e the Trouble’s fluid raps. They’re not the greatest MC’s by any stretch of the imagination, but their rhymes work perfectly with the track, and Mink proves himself to be a decent scratch DJ, demonstrating his ample skills towards the end of the track.

One year on and the track was picked up by the fledgling Warp Records to become their fourth 12” and first non-techno release. Somewhere along the line, Parrot from Sweet Exorcist got his mitts on it and transformed it into a prototype-bleep-rap-monster, complete with a freestyle flute that makes the track, giving it a sunny disposition that inspires face-aching smiles on even the surliest of faces. This version featured on the groundbreaking Warp compilation ‘Pioneers of the Hypnotic Groove’, and the original was remixed by Luke Vibert for the Warp 10th Anniversary collection ‘10+3’. The Warp 12” often pops up on eBay, changing hands for about £15, but I’ve never seen the Fon release for sale anywhere.

Search eBay for 'Hey! Hey! Can U Relate?'
Buy ‘Pioneers of the Hypnotic Groove’ from Warpmart for only £5.99

Joe.