26 October 2016, No. 208, Convertion, ‘Let’s Do It’

I played No. 208, Convertion’s “Let’s Do It,” at the spot the other week and was worried for a second that old school Big Bank Hank-style rapping was going to take over the track—but then it didn’t. I like that style of rapping (and rocking the house) well enough, but unless it’s actually “Rapper’s Delight” (or “The Breaks” or another well-known example), people react to disco rap as though it’s a little too far beneath the level of sophistication they require in their rap lyrics these days. I hope that trend changes, but for now it makes me mix out of some joints a little more quickly than I’d like. I’m thinking specifically of the go-go juggler “Pump Me Up” by Trouble Funk, which I love to play, but I don’t leave it on long.

In addition to singing lead vocals here, Leroy Burgess worked with Black Ivory, Inner Life, and Aleem, among others. Antonio Ocasio, in the documentary Maestro, tells a good story about Larry Levan mixing Aleem’s “Release Yourself” with Prince’s “When Doves Cry” at the Paradise Garage, but that’s getting a little too far off topic. “Let’s Do It” has a catchy hook, cool synth pads and leads, and those super fake-sounding synth toms, pew pew pew. There’s nothing to it.