mp3s/video/hype for: EGYPTIAN LOVER @ CROSSTOWN STATION SATURDAY, AUGUST 23rd

By Chris Mills | August 16, 2008 at 9:20 pm | No comments | Uncategorized

DJ SKU asked us if we would throw something up on the blog about the show he’s doing with Tactic and Egyptian Lover next Saturday (August 23rd @ Crosstown Station, 1522 McGee, KC, MO, 21+). I’m pretty sure it was Ben Tactic who got ahold of this really nice bio, so I’ll let the rest of the post unfold like that.

Before Ice-T, N.W.A., and the late Eazy-E made Los Angeles famous (or infamous) for gangsta rap in the late ’80s, the city’s rap community was best known for a high-tech, futuristic approach that owed a lot to Afrika Bambaataa’s 1982 classic, “Planet Rock.” In the early to mid-’80s, L.A.-based electro-hoppers like the Egyptian Lover, the World Class Wreckin’ Cru (the group that Dr. Dre belonged to before N.W.A.), the Arabian Prince, and Uncle Jam’s Army didn’t get much respect from East Coast hip-hoppers, who insisted that their music wasn’t gritty enough. But those artists did enjoy a cult following in Southern California. Besides, the Egyptian Lover never claimed to be a hardcore rapper; On the Nile, his debut album of 1984, doesn’t pretend to be a Run-D.M.C., L.L. Cool J, or Fat Boys release any more than Grover Washington, Jr. claimed to be a jazz purist. The closest this LP comes to an East Coast hip-hop vibe is the single “What Is a DJ If He Can’t Scratch”; all of the other tracks offer a synthesizer-driven blend of rap, dance music, and electro-funk. Though “Planet Rock” is a strong influence on this release, it is hardly the Egyptian Lover’s only influence — his sound also owes a debt to Germany’s seminal Kraftwerk (whose innovations greatly influenced “Planet Rock”), Prince, Man Parrish, and Giorgio Moroder, as well as Middle Eastern and North African music. The Egyptian Lover never had great rapping skills, but he was definitely an original and imaginative producer/writer — and his risk-taking spirit serves him well on definitive, high-tech tunes like “Egypt Egypt,” “My House (On the Nile),” and “Girls.” On the Nile isn’t the only Egyptian Lover LP that is worth owning, but most fans insist that it is his most essential and consistent album — and they’re absolutely right.

Here, we have a mix that the Tactic guys did to promote the Egyptian Lover show next Saturday, with a full tracklisting:

http://www.divshare.com/download/5177578-ebf

1. Shannon – Let the Music Play
2. Egyptian Lover – And My Beat Goes Boom
3. Jimmy Edgar – Turn You Inside Out
4. Kraftwerk – Its More Fun To Compute
5. Photocall – Silver Clouds
6. Radioclit – Sound of C
7. Cybotron – Clear
8. Missy Elliot – Lose Control (Darko Edit)
9. Afrika Bambaataa – Planet Rock (Ayres edit)
10. Afro-Rican – Give It All You Got
11. Egyptian Lover – Freak-A-Holic
12. Jimmy Edgar – My Beats
13. Egyptian Lover – Egypt Egypt
14. Debbie Deb – Lookout Weekend

And here, we have a couple songs from Egyptian Lover’s album, On The Nile, which is regarded as a precedent to a lot of the current electro-inclined producers of today:

EGYPTIAN LOVER – I CRY (NIGHT AFTER NIGHT)


EGYPTIAN LOVER – GIRLS


BONUS: DJ SKU’s son, Adrian, balling out at the skatepark. Adrian is looking for people to sponsor him: