1983-1988
Stones Throw
2016
Rating: 8.5 tadpole shrimp out of 10
I had no idea Egyptian Lover even existed until Moogfest in 2014. A friend and I had driven up to Asheville just for the day to see Kraftwerk (one of the best shows I've ever seen in my entire life, for the record), and while wasting time that afternoon walking around downtown, came across the free, outdoor portion of the festival. It was five in the afternoon, and here was this older, slightly chubby gentleman (and his assistant?) blasting some of the raddest 808 beats and synth layers on top of rapping that was straight out of the playbook of Afrika Bambaata. It literally felt like I'd traveled back in time, and I loved every minute of it. It was the perfect hip hop accompaniment to Kraftwerk, an urban version of their sound in a lot of ways.
After that gig I searched out his material, but outside of Discogs it's not super easy to find. Thankfully, the good folks at Stones Throw got a hold of the masters from the Lover himself, and released a four record compilation of all of his jams called "1983-1988" (despite the name, these songs are actually all from the period of 1983 to 1987). It sounds so goddamn great, I want nothing more than to drive around and bump this in my car as if I was a kid again. So many jams here - "Egypt, Egypt," "Computer Power," "Dial-A-Freak," "My House (On the Nile)," ...seriously, I love everything on here. Just writing about it makes me excited to listen again and again and again.
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