MPS (MIXTAPE PRESERVATION SOCIETY HOUR 31)

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I bought the album Not In Kansas Anymore by '90s alt-rap band Basehead around the same time I was creating a live rap group of my own with my buddy Syndrome. I was a little disappointed that Basehead wasn't really a full-fledged hip-hop group, but it also made me like the music more. It was far more original than I figured, and helped us to forge ahead with our musically adventurous vision of using live instruments behind dope lyrics.

Michael Ivey still sticks by his eccentric, eclectic agenda, albeit now it is tempered with a healthy dose of religious and spiritual proselytizing. It's still an unconventional mix of the sacred and the profane, and I am taking time today to pay tribute to Ivey and his one-of-a-kind style.

In a day and age where rappers are being accused of mumbling and not being particularly braggadocious, Ivey's influence is both completely understandable and also inadvertently baffling. When the album Play With Toys debuted in the early '90s, it didn't feel like it was ahead of its time... and that's probably because it isn't, in a weird way. Ivey has nothing to do with the current crop of rappers and producers today. And yet, whether they know it or not, they owe him big-- because he was doing it first, in a much more interesting manner.

Most notable for launching the career of onetime DJ Citizen Cope, Basehead has always occupied a special place in my heart and soul, and their albums are more playful and wittier than anything going on in this modern age. Do yourself a favor and peep the murky, inebriated funk of Basehead for 40 minutes or so; you'll be glad you did.

03:50 Segment One: Play With Toys
14:45 2000 BC
20:00 Brown Kisses
23:20 Segment Two: Not In Kansas Anymore
30:05 Let The Drummer Kick It
34:18 Lucy
38:44 Segment Three: Faith
41:26 End Of The Podcast

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