Melvin Van Peebles – You Gotta Be Holdin’ Out Five Dollars on Me on A&M Records

You know what I like most about doing this blog? The people I meet and speak to on a regular basis. Whether it’s an old or new DJ friend who passes on some info, or someone who digs what I’m doing, or most of all, someone who lets me know what’s up with a particular record. Thanks Alan for setting the record straight with the info on a track on my Sound of Now! Mix. I was under the impression that Vampisoul reissued the “Yeah Yeah Yeah” tune, when in fact it was made last year, produced by a cat in Brooklyn. Good lookin’ out my brother, and welcome to the FMF family. That being said, it’s Friday, and I have another treat for you.

I almost passed this record this past weekend digging. Until I brought my stack up to pay my local guy, near the trunk of his car. Hey kid, need some Funk or Soul, reeeeeal cheap man. I always feel like I’m buying drugs or something, but of course it’s a legal drug, vinyl. He said: “You interested in a Melvin Van Peebles record?” Of course I said. I look out for stuff by him, but didn’t realize he’d done a Broadway record. It was in the dollar pile, and I mean can you really go wrong for a buck? It was Melvin Van Peebles after all. The side I’m bringing to light today is “You Gotta Be Holdin’ Out Five Dollars On Me”, from the Soundtrack to the Broadway Musical: “Ain’t Supposed To Die A Natural Death, Tunes From Blackness” on A & M Records.

Melvin Van Peebles is best known for his Blaxploitation films, “Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song”, “The Watermelon Man”, and “The Story of a Three Day Pass”, which he had total control over. The man wrote, directed, and scored the music for each of those films. He was also responsible for such classic records as “Br’er Soul, “As Serious As a Heart Attack”, and “Don’t Play Us Cheap” on A&M, before moving over to Atlantic to release “What the….You Mean I Can’t Sing”. Van Peebles is known as a forefather of modern rap music, with his ebullient delivery style and fusion of Soul, Free Jazz, and Funk. His music was revolutionary, as were the times, and a lot of artists today owe Melvin Van Peebles for what the man did for Black Music. This guy was doing this stuff in the lates 60’s any way he wanted. When A & M gave him some static, he just went over to Atlantic and did his thing there. He wrote songs from real life experiences which spilled over into his music.

The whole record itself is one Funk filled, Free Jazz, Soul Brotha Number One, Ghettotastic piece of Broadway. Iceberg Slim had nothing on him. Easily the funkiest score to a play ( or Broadway show) I’ve ever come across. It starts off with a great Bluesy riff, but here comes that funky ass bass line creepin’ in and a drum beat that could easily have been Bernard Purdie, but was actually Richard Pratt, an ex-New York Giants football player who was a severely talented professional musician as well and a veteran on the NY music scene. The guitar of Lloyd Davis (who has played with Reuben Wilson and Dave Brubeck) moves from the Blues and funks up this pimps background as one of his ladies is holdin’ out five dollars from him. With Harold Wheeler laying down the keyboard and the horn section of Charles Sullivan and Robert Carten doing some cool free jazz improvising, I can see what’s unfolding on vinyl in my mind. It’s a blaxploitation film adaptation right on Broadway, as only Melvin Van Peebles can do. Way ahead of his time, this man foreshadowed Ganster Rap. You know Dre, Eazy, and Cube were grooving to him, not just Charles Wright records. He was a great example of an individual saying fuck it, fuck what people say, fuck the system, I’m doing things my own damn self. He’s a bad mother, shut your mouth….I’m really just talkin’ about Melvin. I can’t stress enough that this guy was way, way, way ahead of his time. He made a come back in 1995 with “Ghetto Logic”, and was still well received some 20 years later. A stone cold pimp who took his street saavy ways and put them to music, Melvin Van Peebles is an innovator and a great contributor to Black Music. In the late 90’s the high pitched alter ego of Madlib, was all over this full length on the Quasimoto record, “The Unseen”. He sampled several songs from “Ain’t Supposed To”, and sampled this very song for his rendition of “Good Morning Sunshine”. As a matter of fact, a Madlib/ Van Peebles collaboration is going to occur on Stones Throw by way of a double disc release by the genius minds of the two. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, here’s a primer to the official collaboration, Madlib’s use of the Van Peeble’s legacy, obviously impressing the legend himself so much he agreed to do a record with him.

Buy the Melvin Van Peebles samplefest on Quasimoto’s “The Unseen” at Turntable Lab

See you around the flea market, I’ll be the guy buying records out of a trunk. Keep diggin’!