MISSY DEE: FRESH FOR '81
Missy Dee & The Melody Crew: Missy Missy Dee
From Don't Stop: Recording Tap (Numero Group, 2008)
Missy Dee and the Melody Crew's "Missy Missy Dee" is a lost slice of early hip-hop that captures not just the vibrancy of the times but also its hesitancies. Recorded in 1981 but kept underwraps until 1983, "Missy Missy Dee" can only said to have been barely released. Tap Records pressed it up but it had no distribution (ah, if only Missy Dee had a myspace page back in the day), thereby consigning it to be instantly forgotten, especially amidst the flood of other releases vying for attention.
The single was one of the many potential hits squandered by Jeremiah Yisrael - a North Carolina-born, New York-based, would-be music visionary, erstwhile actor, health food mogul and eventual founder of a pseudo-Jewish temple known as the Brotherhood of Wisdom. Sufficed to say, Yisrael was a man of many interests and passions. As a producer and label head, he was also incredibly prolific, leaving behind dozens of reels of tape long after his days in the music business had ended. However, only a tiny fraction of his recordings ever saw the light of day, including "Missy Missy Dee," an 8 minute cut full of sass and charm that it could have easily been an old school classic with the right push but instead is consigned to a long list of forgotten, buried rap efforts.
Musically, it's clear "Missy Missy Dee" comes out of an era where the line between hip-hop, funk and disco was barely perceptible. The driving groove behind the track could just have easily been something that bubbled up from Enjoy or Sugarhill's house bands. (In fact, Yisrael had taken the original masters to Sugarhill to query Sylvia Robinson's interest but nothing transpired.) It's not a particularly sophisticated arrangement but like many early rap songs of its era, it distills the bouncy groove of disco to its basic components - a bouncing bassline, bright guitar accompaniment and some well-placed handclaps - and rides it out for all eight minutes.
Missy Dee herself was Denette Scott, a female MC talent recommend to Yisrael by another short-lived rap group, the Fabulous 3 MCs (their song for Tap, "Rub a Dub Dub" also appears on the anthology). Backing her were the Melody Crew, thrown together at the last minute: Apple C, Easy and Lady T, aka Tanya Barns of Kurtis Blow's crew. Despite the relative inexperience of the assembled group, Missy Dee and the Melody Crew put together an impressive effort, especially on the chorus where the ladies craft a hook that follows the rhythm track with a slick synchronicity. As the Melody Crew say: "we're so damn fly/all you guys won't deny."
Recording Tap, expertly and lovingly compiled by the folks at Numero Group, finally gives "Missy Missy Dee" the shine it deserved (they've also released the song on its own 12"), alongside over a dozen other Tap recordings spanning from the 1960s through early '80s. Tap in.
Tags: old school
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