The Cookie Crew - Born This Way! (UK 1989)

The Cookie Crew - Born This Way!
Label - FFRR
Released - 1989
Style - Electronic, Hip Hop, Breaks, House, Hip House
* per Special Request from a friend.

Tracklist:
1 Yo! What's Up
2 From The South
3 Come On And Get Some
4 Pick Up On This
5 Feelin' Proud
6 Bad Girls (Rock The Spot)
7 Got To Keep On
8 Born This Way
9 Black Is The Word
10 Places And Spaces For Your Mind
11 Rhymes And Careers
12 Dazzle's Theme

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but I had to find it first. Now that I found it, I'm really syked to post it because it's one of those highly overlooked urban gems from the late 80s that really deserves its props. The main track I knew from the album was the title song 'Born This Way (Let's Dance)' - and I only just recently became exposed to that from watching VH1 Soul's Soul School show. If you live in the states and get the VH1 Soul channel on cable, check your listings for Soul School. They play alot of the classic hip hop/r&b videos from the 80s and early 90s. There isn't alot of that stuff that I haven't come across before, but they do surprise me from time to time. Seeing the Cookie Crew video was one of those surprises. Being natives of South London, the Cookie Crew girls were obviously in touch with house music and acid house which were big in London at the time. So you can really pick up on the 'hip-house' sound they helped pioneer; a sound that gave way in the states to entire new music genres like Baltimore Club music and Nu Jack Swing. I look at it as some sort of underground Music Pathology, and I'm always looking for connections between different forms of music or sample sources and shit. So in that respect, this Cookie Crew album is seriously interesting to me. Please believe it. And enjoy it. Word.

(from Wiki)
Group Members:
* MC Remedee (real name Debbie Pryce).
* Susie Q (born Susan Banfield, 10 March 1967).

Cookie Crew is a rap music duo formed in Clapham, South London in 1983. Pryce and Banfield decided to break away from a 13-strong rap aggregation called "Warm Milk And The Cookie Crew" and make a career as a duo. In 1985 their career took off after winning a national rap championship and recording two sessions for the John Peel radio show. They gained a contract from the UK dance record label Rhythm King and were put in the studio with the production trio Beatmasters, who put them in a house music direction.

In July 1987, the resultant single "Rok Da House" (no relation to the dance single "Rock The House" by Scoop) was popular in the nightclubs and peaked at number 79 in UK Singles Chart. Their follow-up single "Females" also was a minor hit in October 1987. The continuing popularity of "Rok Da House" in nightclubs eventually renewed interest in the track and garnered a couple of television appearances. The record was re-issued at end of December 1987 and crossed over into the mainstream. The song became a Top 5 hit at the beginning of February 1988, and was even used for an advertising campaign. The track is often quoted as being the first hip house record.

The duo moved on to another label, FFRR Records and different producers, resulting in a string of hit singles in 1989, with "Born This Way (Let's Dance)", "Got To Keep On" with Edwin Starr and "Come And Get Some"; plus the album Born This Way! which reached a modest number 24 in the UK Albums Chart.

By 1992 there were differences of opinion with their then label London Records over musical direction, and the duo parted company to pursue separate projects.


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