Rammellzee vs. K-Rob - Beat Bop Tartown Records - Basquiat - Test Pressing 1983
  $   8,000

 


$ 8000 Sold For
Sep 17, 2020 Sold Date
Sep 16, 2020 Start Date
1 Number Of Bids
  USA Country Of Seller
eBay Sold at
 
save auction  

Description

Rammellzee vs. K-Rob - Beat Bop (Tartown Records) - Basquiat - 1983.

Cover is in pretty good shape as you see in the photos. No splits just wear. Wish I could go back in time and take better care of it. There’s a couple marks on the vinyl but plays very clean.

The track was initially intended as a battle rap between Rammellzee and Basquiat, following heated arguments between the two. Rammellzee, an influential graffiti artist himself, accused Basquiat of being a fraud. In turn, Basquiat claimed he could out-rap, out-dance, and out-paint anybody. The duo eventually settled on "Beat Bop" acting as an outlet for this tension.

With links to Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat was the toast of the New York art world during that period. Rammellzee, on the other hand, describes himself as being an "up-and-coming con artist". Basquiat therefore agreed to pay for recording, pressing and eventual release. Despite this, both Rammellzee and K-Rob had the power to overrule Basquiat on the record's content: "He wanted [to] say his own verses... me and K-Rob read them and started laughing, and we crushed up his paper with the words

he had written down and we threw it back at him face first."

The result was a ten-minute track featuring Rammellzee and K-Rob on vocals, under the direction of Fab Five Freddy, its production credited to Basquiat only (despite Rammellzee insisting that Basquiat did nothing but foot the bill).

Speaking in 2008, Rammellzee reflected on the relaxed nature of the recording session by saying "we were just having fun".

The record was eventually released in 1983, limited to 500 copies with custom art by Basquiat.

It has also been distributed by Profile Records, in 1983 and later in 2001.

Matrix / Runout (A-side runout etching): TT-001-B-E-1

Matrix / Runout (B-side runout etching): TT-001-A-E-1


price rating