Coco Macca ~ Instrumental ~ Freshout Media : Spread the Word

Coco Macca

By Transmute

Published: March 20th, 2006

One Step Dub

When it comes to instrumentation, one of the best was Lee “Scratch” Perry. With his studio band, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Perry has delivered hundreds of musical gems that solidify him as a musical genius. The song “Coca Macca” helps to show how great The Upsetters and Perry were.

The slow tempo introduction to this song gets the listener’s head bobbing, having them feel as if they are listening to a Madlib beat. In fact if one were to listen to Madlib’s jazzy projects like Yesterday’s New Quintet, then listen to “Coca Macca”, he would be able to hear where some of Mad’s musical influence comes from (check out Madlib’s Blunted in the Bomb Shelter mix if you either like Madlib, reggae, or good music). But it would not be a surprise if the first few bar of “Coco Macca” got sampled and vocals were added. After four bars of what seems to be the beginnings of a “Madlibian” soundscape, the lead horn, accompanied by the drummer, drop the break that immediately transforms the song from hip-hop’s predecessor to good ol’ Jamaican instrumentation (I don’t believe it is a dub until it is used as an instrumental track for toasting.)

It could be imagined that in the dancehall the crowd goes nuts, as the reggae bassline kicks in, with the drummer lacing it with the familiar rub-a-dub style playing. The horn player carries the lead of the song with confidence throughout the tune, especially after the break. The guitar adds a funky-ness to the song that was highly appreciated by most in the 1970s, when the song was released, on a record entitled Musical Bones. Musical Bones is part of a trilogy of albums, including Kung Fu Meets the Dragon and Return of Wax. And with titles like these, it is no wonder reggae has influenced so many hip-hop heads (big-up to Kool DJ Herc!)
“Coco Macca” is a fairly short song for an instrumental played by a live band (2 minutes and 34 seconds), but within that small time frame so much of the music culture is revealed. The talents of the members of The Upsetter coupled with Perry’s brilliance, provided the soundscape that has influenced so many artists from the time the song was first introduced until today.

There have not been many artists that display such greatness, and because of this fact, it is an honorable experience to listen to Lee Perry and the Upsetters, since listening to them draws you closer to musical greatness. Selah.

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For More Information on Lee Perry and The Upsetters - http://www.blackark.com/

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One Response to “Coco Macca”

sakwald him self Says:
April 13th, 2006 at 12:37 am
trans .. took me long enough to read this.. nice job good to see we have some dub heads on the team

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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.