2.13.2009

Bounce Blueprints: True Brown Beats

"Beats & Pieces" Cameron Paul
(1987, Mixx-it) cassette rip @ 320

Today's send-off finally bridges the gap between my IP address and the 504 area code. It's the first in a series of breaks compilations / DJ tools / whatever you want to call it by former KMEL DJ and current Tulsa, Oklahoma resident Cameron Paul and home to the infamous "brown beats" - the 808 bass, rimshot and samples that forms the spine of so much bounce: the Ike to Triggaman's Tina, the Optimo packed with a Drag Rap dub. 

Confusingly, I've already posted this bounce riddim. That's because the most often sampled bars of this track also form Derek B's "Rock the Beat". I stay stuck to my assumption that Cameron Paul is sampling Derek B. and not the reverse, but both records came out the same year and until Paul returns my emails or some bounce historian shares the timeline (Dr. Thug?) I'll remain somewhat uncertain. Fortunately, we can be a little more certain about which of the two records are sampled in bounce music: both. You'll immediately hear the hollered lo-bit digital samples that color so much early bounce in Paul's version, but I remember at least one "Mannie Fresh Mix" to use the chorus off Derek B's cut and I'll edit this post when I recapture that data. The fact that this recently became a point of exactly the kind of contention I'd like to see more of from T&G commenters combined with poster N0LA $o1ja's outing of the ubiquitous barking Bounce dog sample have proved the arduous task of the Bounce Breaks Archive to be worth what it cost me in worsened hyperopia

I'm glad as hell that even the economic downturn is not turning Ebayers back on to cassettes: I find so much shit going for shit on tape that goes for gold on vinyl or compact disc. Strange alchemy. The great thing about this cassette rip is that (and this goes especially for the NR off vers.) you can really capture that Pimp Daddy 93 sound for your own retro bounce productions. 

Also, thanks Chris Brown for permanently clouding the "Brown Beats" google.

15 comments:

N0LA $ou1ja said...

Good shit man. I been had this on request on another forum for a long time. Thanks.

kid slizzard said...

consider it a return favor for your LL clue

brandon said...

Excellent post like all of your posts, but uh, I really liked this one. A piece of history no one else is touching on.

Unknown said...

Nice, thanks for the post.

Also, don't know if you're still looking for DJ Jimi's second album, but here's an LP rip:

http://rapidshare.com/files/198840955/DJ_Jimi_-_I_m_Back__I_m_Back__1994_.zip.html

The A side is good, but the flip side is a bit crispy. The CD version has extra tracks, but I've never come across it.

kid slizzard said...

wow, thanks. I have no beef with crispiness.

kid slizzard said...

who didnt realize hpow much overlap there is with this and juvie's "playaz of da game"

Unknown said...

I wonder who was behind that release...DJ Jimi, are you listening?

Anonymous said...

Playaz of the Game is on that shady d3 entertainment label, I'm pretty sure that's not an officially licensed release. Good to have it out there, though. I can't clarify the timeline on the Derek B /Cameron Paul issue but I am glad you tracked down the CP release, which was always a mystery to me. I have also heard it called "Brown's beat"...
"I'm Back I'm Back"
ThugDoubt

N0LA $ou1ja said...

Yeah, I'm on the fence too, with this Brown Beats issue. I originally know the beat from Derek B's Rock The Beat. And seems as though both albums are from '87. The first time I actually heard it called Brown Beats was when Mannie Fresh said it in Big Ballin "Brought 2 Brown Beats & Trigger Man". But after hearing Cool Beats & Monkey Beats from the same album, I'm not too sure CP is the originator. Someone please get to the bottom of this.

kid slizzard said...

I think the best resource on BB history is Cameron himself: he has a blogspot address and he was posting on it a couple of years ago... an active myspace account too. He hasn't responded to my email, but he encourages it on his site, and says he might take a while to get back.
Thug, let me know if you need a hard copy.

kid slizzard said...

Cheeky Blakk "Story Tell" is a good example of an explicitly Cameron Paul Brown Beat...also noticed that wail in the beginning of Devious's Hey P Poppers for the first time

Anonymous said...

What's up man? How's everything? Hope it's all good. Hey, you know that bounce beat folder for your comp system sounds? Could you do this on a PC? Hey, have you checked out Tommy Wright 3's myspace recently? He posted a really cool house tour video. The only other video I've seen of him was in that interview with C-9.

Anonymous said...

Good post, this obviously took some digging.

Alison F. said...

This may be irrelevant now since I saw this like four months after the original comments, but I have about a zillion original copies on cassette and CD in the shrink wrap of I'm Back I'm Back. Any takers holla at fensterstock at gmail dot com.

It's a long story.

ohhru said...

This site is awesome but none of the download links work...tryin to get into bounce music and lookin for the beats.
from the looks of it there's a lot of other stuff that would be really cool to sample, play with and blog about but...can't direct people to dead links :-/