“Break ’N Spin” was the first in a series of electro classics tailor-made for the street crowd at clubs like Disco Fever and the Funhouse. The label saw him work with an old friend he had first met in the 1970s. “Marley Marl was spinning at a club in Queensbridge, and I just happened to come by there and had a copy of ‘Rapper Dapper Snapper’ and was trying to get it out there. I gave him a copy, and he was about the first one to play it. He was only about fifteen or sixteen at the time. So it was great to work with him on [the 1987 12-inch ‘On a Mission’ from hip-hop duo] Too Nice for Singh.” As well as mixing other tracks for Too Nice’s 1989 LP, Cold Facts , on Arista (an album that Birdsong coproduced with the Aleem Brothers), Marley Marl also coproduced Birdsong’s “Too Good to Go (WhenYou Get It Right)” alongside Patrick Adams. It’s a partnership that continues to this day. “Marley Marl had a great influence on what I did with my music later on,” Edwin says. “In fact, he and I just cut something in the studio about two months ago when I was in New York.” Whether cutting tracks with Marley Marl, being sampled by Daft Punk, or mentoring cats like Funkghost, Edwin Birdsong continues to exert his influence in his own unassuming way:“I have been truly blessed to have met and been with all these different people,” he concludes modestly. .
A year later, he was to return on another legendary label. Released on Salsoul in 1981, the LP Funtaztik saw Birdsong in the studio with the great engineer Bob Blank and a band that included bassist Marcus Miller.With touches of François Kevorkian’s mix of Dinosaur L’s “Go Bang,” the opener, “Win Tonight,” is a gloriously off-key slab of mutant disco. But it was “Rapper Snapper Dapper” that made the biggest mark on the underground clubs of New York. “I took that to Larry at the Garage, and he loved it. He played the shit out of it, and that crowd loved it.” Later sampled most famously by De La Soul for “Me Myself and I,” the track was actually inspired by visits to another pivotal New York club. “I went to the [Disco] Fever in the Bronx a lot and listened to DJs like Grandmaster Flash. I’ve always been a student of music and would take notes of what was going [on].The Fever was like the spot at the time. It was a very special place like the Paradise Garage.” Nights at Disco Fever inspired Edwin’s next commercial venture with the label Singh Records. His 1984 production of
In 1980,Birdsong and Ayers collaborated once more on another future cult classic, Ladies of the Eighties by Eighties Ladies. “I found most of the girls that sang on that, and named the group,” says Edwin. An underground club hit that reached new ears when it opened the influential compilation Classic Rare Groove Mastercuts, Volume 1 , “Turned On to You” is another example of Birdsong’s beautiful vocal arrangements on an LP packed with soulful gems.
I took “RAPPER SNAPPER DAPPER” to Larry at the Garage, and he loved it. He played the shit out of it, and that crowd loved it.
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