Pitchfork

What we have here is a mystery: some long-forgotten old-school rap 12" gets unearthed from somebody's record vault, attempts to deduce the identities of the MCs only get as far as their point of origin (in this case, the Bronx) and a tentative name ("Nick Barnes"), and what we're left with is a circa-1981 piece of frothy double-dutch detritus from hip-hop's formative years. The website of Numero Group (the label responsible for the Eccentric Soul series of ramshackle rare-groove r&b compilations) describes the re-discovered track as "catching mildew," which isn't just a storage issue: The rhymes are fairly lightweight, filled with familiar catchphrases a couple weeks from becoming clichés ("In stereo! In stereo! In stereo!"; "He's rockin' on to the break of dawn"; "Rock from the bottom to the t-o-p").

The early hook that gives the track its title ("There were 10 MCs standing in a tub/ Singin' a song called a-rub-a-dub-dub") is also a bit too corny to resonate with anyone who's heard the fiercest moments of the Treacherous Three or the Cold Crush Brothers. Most interesting, though, is the MCs' insistence on flogging the word "disco" at every opportunity -- not entirely uncommon in hip-hop's early years, but here it almost seems like they weren't entirely sure this "rap" thing would work out for 'em and they needed another genre to fall back on, just in case.

The real draw of this track, then, is the beat-- and hey, why not call it disco. One of those live-band outfits that studio rap often turned to in the early 80s, the anonymous session players lay out a thick-bottomed jazz-funk groove with a growling bass line, a smooth electric piano dueling with some chirpy synths, and plenty of roller-rink-friendly flourishes: handclaps, whistles, that classic disco "bew-bew" sound. And Numero Group's selling this 12" with the instrumental on the B-side-- good move.

[from the Rub A Dub Dub 12"; out now on Numero Group]