Monday 3 September 2018

D'Angelo - Lady CD1 & CD2 (1996)

Cooltempo Records 7243 8 82914 2

Kym's note: This was my first ever contribution to this site back in the day, although the boss man did the post. It's now in full 320 for your audio pleasure. My D'Angelo CDs are in storage right now so I can't redo the artwork. I'll re scan them and add to these D'Angelo posts as soon as I am able but for now we're stuck with the images rescued from our old file hosting platform. Back over to Mick...


OK Family, major props to the lovely Kymba who has provided not only both parts of this 2 CD release but also, all of the artwork, scanned full size so all the dodgy small print can be read. Great work Honey, looking forward to the YD 12".

The Brown Sugar album finally got some recognition when Lady made the charts a year later in 1996. Although Cruisin' and Brown Sugar were superb releases, Lady was always lauded as a great album track, way before it's single release.

The first CD features a superb Live rendition which proves that D'Angelo is no studio creation. The musicians and backing are all top notch (assuming the band is live too, of course). Track 3 is subtitled Just Tha Beat Mix and features a rap from AZ. It is a straight up street mix. For a short while in the early 90's, this sparse production style was referred to as Drum & Bass, anyone else remember that?

The last track on this CD is what the fuss is about really, Carl McIntosh, no relation to CJ, provides his own remix of Cruisin' and a great job he makes of it. This would have been an essential track had the Wet Mix wasn't already perfect. It doesn't matter though because, what the Wet Mix does in the bedroom, this will do on the dancefloor. Try not to get arrested guys.





Tracklist
  1. Lady (CJ Mackintosh Radio Edit)
  2. Lady (Live Version)
  3. Lady (Just Tha Beat Mix)
  4. Cruisin' (Carl McIntosh Mix) 


Cooltempo Records 7243 8 82913 2 3




The second part of the single release features the full length CJ Mackintosh Mix but also has the Radio Edit which always annoys me. Why put the edit on both releases? For those who are unaware of the UK's ridiculous guidelines, a single release was only allowed to have a certain amount of minutes on it otherwise it would not be counted for chart inclusion. To further complicate matters the release was only allowed to be made in three (I think?) formats. This was a serious problem for awhile (pre-CD ghettoblasters) because, the emergence of CD Single made the format choice awkward. The 7", the 12", the Cassette Single & the CDS were all important for a few years. The missing format could affect sales and kill a release. By the mid 90's though, it was all a marketing ploy to enable the record companies to bleed the record buying public dry.

The Clean Street Version is remixed by DJ Premier and features a rap from AZ. Premier is not credited on the Just Tha Beat Mix which is strange because that's what this is, with a bit of extra production. I think maybe he laid a bit of extra atmosphere over it and they added him to the credits, his name pulled in extra sales. The mix works though, so who cares.

Track 3 is remixed by 2B3 who had a quirky style that was popular for a couple of years. Anybody know what happened to them? The Shake Dat Ass Mix works for me but it takes a bit of getting used to.




CD2 Tracklist
  1. Lady (CJ Mackintosh Radio Edit)
  2. Lady (Clean Street Version)
  3. Lady (2B3 Shake Dat Ass Mix)
  4. Lady (Album Version)
  5. Lady (CJ Mackintosh Mix)


Download: D-L.7z Filesize: 107.113MB
Lady

(Wiggins, Rapael, Archer & Michael)
You're my lady, You're my lady, You're my lady, You're my lady,
Don't think I don't see them looking at ya, All of them wishing they could have ya, And as a matter of fact, uh A bunch of them are itchin'for you to scratch'em, I'm tired of hiding what we feel, I'm trying to get with the real, And I'm-a gonna make it known', Cause I want them to know
[CHORUS]
You're my little baby, my darling baby, I swear you're the talk of the town, And everybody wants to know what's going down, Babe, I know they've seen us before, Maybe at the liquor store, or maybe at the health food stand, They don't know that I'm your man 
[CHORUS]
I can tell they're looking at us, I pick you up everyday from your job,
And every guy in the parking lot wants to rob me of my girl, And my heart and soul, and everybody wants to treat me so cold, But I know I love you and you love me, There's no other lover for you or me, You're my lady
[BRIDGE (AD LIB)]
You're my lady, My divine lady, You're my lady, Such a wonderful lady, I can tell they're looking at us.
A great post and maximum respect to Kymba for making it possible.

21 comments:

  1. You've really got the knack of conjuring an excellent write-up out of thin air, haven't you Mr P?

    You know, I've got so many beloved tracks from this blog that I either never managed to get my mitts on first time round, or lost when my house was burgaled, I'm really pleased to be able to give something back.

    To that end, would you be interested in Loose Ends' excellent "Love's Got Me" CD single from 1990? As good as Hangin' on a String, in my humble opinion, and helped in the funky stakes by cheeky sampling of the ace drum break from Alyson William's Sleeptalk. And, oh my gosh, Carl McIntosh really does sound like he's chanelling Marvin Gaye on the vocals. No bad thing, obviously!

    Kymba x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Answered on the wrong comments page?

    Yes Kymba, save me a rip...

    :-)

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  3. Still great post, Mr.Mickey P !!
    My first time to listen Carl Macintosh Mix of Cruisin'.
    Thank you sooooo much!
    Cheers!

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  4. Absolutly great. I have this 12" but this set contains some versions that i didn't know. Thank you both for this work.

    Greetings

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  5. Thanks for the share, Kymba! Unfortunately the Megaupload link is down. Would you be able to re-up CD #1 of this? It'd be REALLY appreciated! The "Just Tha Beat" remix of Lady featuring AZ was so hard....that beat is crazy! thanks in advance

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    Replies
    1. Done and ready to go!

      PS - I'm pretty sure the Just The Beat remix uses the same samples as Blak Twang's Dettwork Southeast? (another dope track)

      Delete
    2. thanks for taking the time to re-up this, Kymba. Really appreciate it!
      Also, just wanted to say that I like the informative write-ups you guys do on each release...much better than blogs who just solely post music.

      You're right...the "Lady (Just The Beat Mix)" does sound very similar to the Blak Twang, and it looks like they came out the same year. I wonder who copied who haha.

      Do you happen to have the D'Angelo - Brown Sugar (Beatminerz Remix) on CD? It featured Kool G Rap, and was on 1 version of the Cruisin CD single (the other version of the Cruisin CD single just had the Brown Sugar 'Main Body Remix' on it)

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    3. I do - it's in my "to do" (write-ups, artwork scans) stack of CDs. The MP3s are good to go if you want it immediately?

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    4. if you could email me a link, itd be MUCH appreciated Kymba! promoguy1@gmail.com
      although i will def be checking back later on to read your writeups.
      320 kbps mp3 would be ideal, if that's not a problem for you. thanks for taking the time to encode and upload these gems for everybody!

      Delete
  6. Filthy - I'll dig out the CD's and re-up this and any others that I can! Give me a day or two and it's yours. :)

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  7. hi,,,,,could you reup cd2 of this the links dead...thanks..great blog

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    Replies
    1. Sorry about that - Mediafire are being awkward.

      Replaced with new Filedropper links.

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    2. Thanks Kymba for the reup

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  8. Can we get a re-up please Kymba? The Filedropper links seem to be dead. Thanks in advance.

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  9. Replies
    1. Done - apologies for being 6 years late! :D

      Delete
  10. The Cruisin' and Brown Sugar links are from the old blog site, they go nowhere now.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hey Kymba & P....i have a project that I'm about to drop soon. A Hip Hop tribute to Aretha Franklin (all the hip hop songs that sampled her, mixed with her original samples, as well as some custom blends of my own). I wanted to shoot you an email....what's your addy? or you can email me at promoguy1 [at] gmail [dot] com ....Peace

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'll ping you an email. That sounds wicked. I love Aretha so much I can't wait to hear your work.

    ReplyDelete

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