Melvin Van Peebles - What The Fuck You Mean I Can't Sing?! [1973]

Okay, so he's more famous for his son and his TV shows but, like the celebs of today he tried his hand at tunage and this the one album that says the most about his talent. A laugh - oh yeah. A gimmick - perhaps. Good music - unlikely. A classic - no way. A great listen - absolutely. Think of it a soundtrack or poetry or whatever - and give me more of those Sweet Sweetback's Badass songs.

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Lightnin' Rod - Hustler's Convention [1973]

Back in the days of yore (90s) I picked up a mix tape (yup a tape) from a clothes shop called Driver in Northampton - the tape played out with a fantastic tale of a 70s style hustler - prototypical rap over funky backing tracks - but I never found out how the tale ended. I didn't know the name or the artist and back in those Compuserve days it certainly didn't exist in the interweb. Later on I asked a few DJs and they reckoned it must have been Iceberg Slim but that was a dead end. Finally Google rescued me when I finally decided that if it was about a hustler going to a convention a good search would be Hustler Convention and combined with the amazing back catalogues on emusic I was released from purgatory and finally owned this album. Some may find it only a one listen wonder but a wonder it is nonetheless.

Purchase: emusic

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