Nuyorican Soul ‎– Nuyorican Soul

WHAT!! No-one has posted an comment on this...YET!!
Everybody excuse yourself and say what you mean about this piece of ground-breaking music from Little Louie And Kenny Dope. It is unbelievable.. First time i heard trough this i had to sit down later and just let it sink in. The last tune i heard then was Sweet Tears with Roy Ayers on Vibes and vocals. It`s a sad tune actually but is uplifting in the otherway.. It totaly blew my mind. To be able to fusionate House with Blues, Latin, Soul hip-hop.. You name it, Way back in 1996 is totally unbelievable. It was groundbreaking, turned the whole scene up-side down. If you ever see this 6-pack. Grab it whatever pricetag it may have. Its my most precious piece of music in my collection. Louie & Kenny became the most respected house producers after this. I rest my case!!!

(I belive that this boxset was released in even more limited releases. It was the same box but it featured 4 or 5 Cigars with "Nuyorican Soul" written on the belt. Totally awesome. And the picture here might be wrong, My boxset is not in color, its simply in a brown colored box (and was)Sealed with a green nuyorican soul bill)

What can I say that hasn't been said already? Well…I'll give it a try.

This is the culmination of Louie & Kenny's many years of experience working with world class musicians and singers, and perhaps the highest point of their many accomplishments. I don't mean to imply they've gone downhill since then, or anything like that; I just don't think they could ever *outdo* this one.

I loved their deep house and hip hop stuff back when they were "just" a couple dudes writing tracks, but sometime around 1994, they really started to take it to the next level. A major milestone that stands out in my mind was the song "Love & Happiness" (which they released as River Ocean, with singer India). It was one of the greatest of the great singles of that era -- a time when singles were sometimes a bigger deal than entire albums (like they used to be in the 60s and 70s). Consider their epic hit "The Bomb", as The Bucketheads…if you're even reading this page, I bet you have a copy of that track in your crate or on your shelf. Now how many of you bought The Bucketheads *album*?

(I did, but you didn't really need to. What you *should* buy, however, is Chicago's epic disco classic "Street Player". I give Louie & Kenny full props for digging this one out, but their track was pretty much borrowed wholesale from Chicago's song, and once you've heard the original, "The Bomb" starts to sound like a skipping record, but I digress. The Bomb really was the bomb when it first landed.)

There was a real charm to MaW's double 12" singles. Thick, heavy, high quality vinyl, truly great songs (as opposed to "tracks") made with a parade of talented musicians, and great remixes by great artists (the latter doesn't always guarantee the former!). You could hear how much love and sweat had gone into each one.

To me, that's the backstory that led up to this album. At this point I felt like their love of music had reached a level of maturity that allowed them to really break out of the mold and find their true voice. It's pretty impressive that they managed to bring their own style to the table, even while working with some of the living legends of our time (George Benson, Roy Ayers, Tito Puente…do I even need to drop names here?).

They said themselves, in the liner notes of this album, that it was a dream come true to work with these musicians, and I'm sure it really was. It's been a treat just *listening* to all this fine music over the years. These tracks still sound as fresh and alive as they did when I first tore the plastic off my copy back in 1997.

Enormous respect.

Well i'll post on it man! I bought this album back in the day when it first came out and played it til i had to buy another copy. And now here i am thinking of buying a box set just because it deserves that respect. Wonderful album full of intelligent, soulful, funky, housey, sassy, emotional grooves that you just can't get enough of. For me, the amazing vocals and the unforgettable piano hook of "black old of the sun" makes this the favourite track for me, but George Benson does some beautiful work on this album as does Roy Ayers. A real music lover's album, regardless of your preferences.
It's THE fucking shit.
Scotty Boy,
Glasgow/Edinburgh
Scotland.