Tyree* Featuring Kool Rock Steady – Turn Up The Bass

One of those rare instances of a 7" being an actual different mix to any other mix rather than as in 99% of cases just an edited mix of an extended mix. I've often wondered why anyone at a record company sanctioned these as since the end of the 1970s and defintely since as early as i can remember (ie the early 1980s) no-one who bought dance music ever bought 7" versions so surely all the work that went into creating such a 'special' 7" version was missed by 99% of its target audience.

Am I the only one in the world who noticed the error on track #2 on side B (of this pressing only) which has Julian "Jumpin" Perez listed as Julian "Jumpin" Pete. I guess you have to be from Chicago to catch this one...

When the subject is the so-called fusion between Hip Hop & House, you may be certain that Tyree will figure as quintessential artist of the genre with his contemporaries such as Fast Eddie, Todd Terry, Mr. Lee, Frankie Bones, Tommy Musto, among others.

Only few tunes inside this universe reached the level of popularity of "Turn Up The Bass" Worldwide (just imagine that, in a Country such as Brazil, with all the economical instability, the track was played in all the important electronic music clubs, from the small to the bigger ones - underground and mainstream. That maybe some of the reasons why the original release of DJ International (Chicago) was repressed years later by the blockbuster Epic with new remixes.

This amazing music had the partnership between its author, Tyree Cooper, and the rapper Kool Rock Steady (may he rest in peace): "I first met Kool Rock in 1987 with Lidell Townsell (another amazing producer from the Chicago House scene, who's classic "I'll Make You Dance" also had the vocals of Kool Rock). We used to hang out a little bit", says Tyree about his good old times.

When he started to remind himself about this major tune of his career, 'Turn Up The Bass' - the respect for his rapper partner was mentionned once again - and at that subject, Tyree revealed a very interesting curiosity: "When I started producing the track, I needed a rapper. The first person I asked was JMD, but he was busy at that moment, so I just asked Kool Rock, and he was like - "Cool, I'll do it!" - and the rest, as they would say, is history".

Kool's quote Honoring Tyree on this tune, "Tyree Cooper! The producer! Awesome super-dooper-trooper!", became part of the history of the House genre as a whole, sampled several times later, like on Daniele Davoli's "Piano Groove" massive hit as The Mixmaster that came out in 1989. The same quote was also behind Tyree's Supa Dupa Recordings' label name.