Grandmaster Richie Rich* – Check It Out

Richie Rich himself and a few others used to play a pre-release version of 'Check It Out' back in the spring / summer of 1984 on pirate, London Weekend Radio. The beat programming sounded like it was constructed mainly from the TR-808 drum machine and the syncopated bassline very much like the one on Al-Naafiysh. I doubt the versions submitted on discogs were produced via said drum machine above. I've owned the White Label version for donkey's years and it wasn't the version I first stumbled upon the very first time around. The mix played the very first time on pirate radio probably ended up unreleased for whatever reason and they chose the final / full release mixes as these ones here instead.

Roger 'RJ Scratch' Johnson did a mash up scratch mix in 1984 with Magnificent Three & The Fearless Master - Crush which sounded so fresh. Not sure if it's because of youth or because the whole concept of blending two records together was still a new innovation or because electro and early hip hop were still relatively at their early stages, but boy did it sound epic. A year later the same recording found its way onto Kiss FM's airwaves and was played as part of someone else's programme.

Unfortunately I've never managed to keep recordings of any of these shows, sometimes because of my own carelessness or destroyed cassettes or thieving acquaintances. In any case I wish I had done, as much of the history associated with this early underground scene has sadly been forgotten or was never archived in the first place.