I was super-hyped about 1990 bass, and barely noticed that 91 was far less than 90...i just was riding high on 90 still. By the end of 92, I realized it was all gone.
2 Live broke up in 1990 (a brief, contractual reunion for the 91 album). Their producer, Mr. Mixx, was Luke's in house producer for all his groups until then. Mixx moved to Oakland between 1990-1991, so that left a huge void.
DJ Magic Mike made his opus in 1990 (Bass is the Name of the Game), but from then on, seemed more focused on Shocklee style sample collage driven music. Yeah, much was still Bass, but not the same, and eventually just focused on more traditional Hip-Hop.
Jealous J (now Jim Jonsin) left Cut it Up Def in 1990 for a deal that proved not too fruitful on Heatwave Records, leaving Jock D to spearhead the remnants of Cut it Up Def before that company got screwed over in a bad M&D deal in 1991.
And the Vanilla Ice reps Miami thing embarrassed a lot of artists to the point of detachment about the city and style. Couple that with the Biz Markie sampling case, these made 1991 a wrap for many artists.
Luke and Joey Boy records both hired Devastator as the NEW HOT GUY in 1991/1992 to make beats.
Unlike Mr. Mixx, Magic Mike, Jealous J, and Jock D, Devastator was not a turntablist scratch DJ, and as a beatmasker, he loved HIGH TEMPO beats. The former group of guys were between 120-130 bpms. Devastator 1st big hit for Luke (I wanna Rock/Doo Doo Brown) was like, 146bpm, I think.
I liked Devastator well enough. It was his imitators that bored me to tears in 1993 and beyond.
And worse, I wasn't one of those suburban car audio dudes, so the emerging car audio bass scene in the wake of Techmaster PEB's 1991 album was of little-to-no interest to me at that time.
The only other big behind the scenes guy was CC Lemonhead, who wsa the core of 95 South/69 Boyz/Quad City DJs. He was kinda a contemporary of mine. We both worked out of Jacksonville in our early days, worked with a number of the same people (Mamado, Kareem Mills, etc). When he finally got OUT if his bad deal and began doing what he wanted to, it was 1993, and he too borrowed from Devastator's sound to a degree (although, FAR better than nearly anyone else). I LOVE Ride the Train!
I did work at a record store in 1996-1997 that was (is?) ran by a very bass-centric guy, so all the So-So Def/And then There was Bass type compilations got a LOT of in store play, so I know it all more or less, but it just didn't have the elements that I liked (sp1200 samples, turntablism, etc.)
Pina Colada got tons of play in store.
There were other heroes of the 1987-1990 short span of greatness (Kooley C, Danny D, Dynamix II, Luis Diaz, Clay D, Eric Griffin, etc), but they either all dropped out, signed deals that tied their hands, got killed, or changed their styles greatly (Dynamix II became a Front 242 inspired group briefly before turning to car audio, then to Florida raves...and Danny D was one of the producers behind the So-So Def era, updating his style to a post-Devastator pastiche).
As stated, Jealous J became HUGE as Jim Jonsin in recent years, producing Danity Kane, Jamie Foxx, etc., as did Luis Diaz with his bother and their protege, Pitbull.
Maggotron is about the only artist to maintain his style and fanbase, but to be honest, I wasn't the biggest fan of his then as his style is SOOO unique. Today, I understand it finally, and consider myself to be a fan.
― i am truley sorry for your lots (PappaWheelie V), Wednesday, 26 November 2008 07:11 (seventeen years ago)