The Optical Files #67: Cold Crush Brothers - All The Way Live in '82 (1994)

The Treacherous Three & Furious Five all have fairly extensive recorded catalogs, but the Cold Crush, just as influential an early hiphop crew as the others, barely managed to record 5 singles, & never made a studio album. As a result, there's a certain mystique around them among those who weren't lucky enough to experience them in person, buoyed by much-circulated bootleg tapes like their 1981 battle with the Fantastic 5. In 1994, Tuff City brought out this compilation, which claimed to finally reveal a document of their legendary live show to the masses.

As it turns out, the experience of this low-budget affair isn't much different than listening to one of those bootlegs. The sound is ragged all the way around--tracks 4 through 6 (here labeled as "Freestylin'," "Are You Ready" & "Yvette (and More)" are obviously from a better quality source than the first 3. The balance of all 4 microphones lets you hear their carefully practiced vocal routines & harmonized voices, whereas the 1st half of the disc features hypeman-type vocals that threaten to drown out whatever the main emcee is spitting. I wish the recordings on this CD were better labeled as to exactly when & where they were captured (I'm sure some old school rap supernerd would be able to source them), but I suspect that the latter half was recorded well after 1982, the disc's title notwithstanding.

That's okay, because the 1st half is more interesting, despite the degraded quality complete with tape breaks (I assume that's why the tracks randomly fade out & fade back in later in the same routine). I believe this half is authentically from 1982, & Caz mentions that they are performing in Connecticut for the 1st time--in a roller rink! I'm reminded of how important setting the mood & hyping the DJ was back then, as the 1st 3 minutes feature no rapping whatsoever, just introductions of all 6 members (Caz, Almighty KG, Easy AD, JDL, Tony Tone & Charlie Chase), plus some DJ cuts. Once the rapping starts, the 1st routine is a 10-minute long, unstructured riff over Taana Gardner's "Heartbeat" break. After some talking, Charlie Chase drops the same beat & they go off again.

This thing is as raw as it gets--I love hearing the needle jump off the record because they're getting too hype, & hearing the emcee recover in real time. I love hearing the stage banter, including all the old-school crowd participation standbys from "throw your hands in the air" to "somebody say ho" to asking which NYC boroughs are in the house. As a record-listening experience, the unstructured feel plus the rough recording can make it become a little monotonous, but it's a fascinating listen nonetheless: these guys were on the cutting edge of something, & probably didn't even know what that something was yet. It's so pure & unforced, & for giving us a window into the past--into some sweaty roller skating rink in early '80s Connecticut where nobody knew how major a historical moment they were participating in--I'm grateful for whoever had the foresight to bring a tape recorder.