1959 folkways street gang kids do improv raps NM



Urban field recordings of the Junior Mint gang. Freestyling, rhyming and letting it all out over kiddie bongo drills. Listen to clips of Gang Fight and I Want Some Food.

eBay: "stone mint in the shrink" ($80 and going up)
amazon: download the album for $8.99.

5 comments:

  1. I'm going to use "stone mint and in the shrink" at least once a day now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That sounds brilliant. Thanks for introducing me to this. I am going to buy up on lots of old folk music for kids but this is very unique. Any other suggestions please email me at thedaddiaries@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. The clips reminded me of really high beat poets. . . but oddly enough they sound most, to me, like me - when I'm improving - and I judge it as terrible! It's interesting how we commend children for their creativity but expect something more sophisticated from ourselves as adults.

    ReplyDelete
  4. By "improving" I meant: improvising (apparently).

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm very tired so my thoughts are fragmented, here; excuse me.
    It's interesting (how we commend. . .) because in art complexity/sophistication of form and content doesn't always best represent the subject. The gangland kids, for example, represent their lives through music in simple, unstructured ways - and it does the job perfectly. A visual comparison might be hieroglyphics: children and adults alike could deploy them to equally "good" results.

    ReplyDelete