Brothers on the Slide ~ Hip Hop ~ Freshout Media : Spread the Word

Brothers on the Slide

By Transmute

Published: March 13th, 2006

Bird

For all my true hip-hop heads and cratediggers, you’ll find this jam familiar (check out MF Doom’s works). For my b-boys and b-girls, you’ll dig this jam, too. Cymande is a music band. This sound like a facetious statement, but how else should a band be categorized that plays soul, funk, reggae, psychedelic, and blues and whose vibe is appreciated by hip-hop heads?

Cymande dropped a number of fiery gems throughout the 70’s which have been forgotten through the rise of the synthesized era. “Brothers on the Slide” is only one example of the fire that time is trying to extinguish.

This nine member band of self-taught musicians dropped this song in 1974, on their Promised Heights album on Janus Records. The song opens with a funky guitar solo that sets up the heart of the song, which everything else is built around. Accompanied by a brotherly bassline that follows the guitar’s every note, the interjection of horns every once in a while to “answer” the lead vocalist’s lines, and a drum and percussion section that adds structure to the song, with the bongos and congas that act as an apparition of the African soul within the group, “Brothers on the Slide” easily becomes a b-boy/b-girl’s close friend. It grooves so well that poppers and lockers can gyrate to the beat. The nice part about the instrumentation is that it is not overpowering. None of the band members out-play each other and the sounds are not so heavy that a person could not sit back and relax to the song, though dancing to it is almost inevitable.

The lyrics that accompany the instrumentation carry a message of purpose. The verses seem to talk of a man who has made some wrong turns in life. The hook acts as a warning to the listener to not fall victim to the mistakes experienced by the man in the verse. The break acts as a two-way conversation between the lead singer and the back-up singers. The overall message has to do with knowing where you are headed in life, a message that, unfortunately, is not the focus of many songs nowadays.

On the strength, “Brothers on the Slide” is a dope song and Cymande is a group that needs more recognition. Check out their works, cop some of their song, strap on you shell tops and get down!

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One Response to “Brothers on the Slide”

mcgowan Says:
March 13th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
yeah- bout time someone writes about Cymande - great music.
m

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Transmute
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The imperial emcee and devout Hip-Hop head Transmute ANS, or Tr. ANS, reps for the state of Connecticut, but chills in the Illadelph for the time being. Not one to divulge much information about himself, this is what should be known. People think he’s nice on the mic, he says different; until he is heard the question is: “is he ill?” or is he what an emcee is supposed to be? Whatever the answer is, Tr. ANS does have too many aliases, multiple personalities to go with them, and too many crews/groups that he is associated with (hence his love for Madlib and MF DOOM). As a Hip-Hop head, Tr. ANS’ mind is that of a Hip-Hop DJ, in that Hip-Hop music is not just rap music, but encompasses every genre that has influenced the culture’s music. Therefore, for Freshout, Transmute handles rap (which is called Hip-Hop on the site), funk, jazz, soul, and reggae (Kool DJ Herc baby! Respect!). Hip-Hop is such a large part of his life that he has dedicated his life to the study and development of Hip-Hop Architecture (the man has a Bachelors of Architecture degree). (It should be noted that Transmute did not make this discipline up, there are others who have dedicated time to this study.) Also, Transmutist is a music junkie. The man downloads and buys music so much that he make a crackhead look clam next to his dealer. His knowledge of music is fairly good and if he does have a particular that someone is looking for (Hip-Hop of course), he will look for it. As a Fresh Out writer, Transmute puts his “stamp of approval on every artist that he writes about, so check out his posts and the artists that he is listening to, hit him up if you want and remember to spell the man’s name right— capital “T”, lower case “r”, “dot”, “space”, capital “A”, capital “N”, capital “S”; the hardest name to spell in Hip-Hop— Tr. ANS. Casper.