Duck Rock

Little bits of good music I would have liked to hear the originals of, bastardized and arranged into a collage by an opportunist who seems to ooze British colonialism... Listening to this I thought it was interesting but felt like something was off, reading more about the production and fall-out since it's release it makes sense that it didn't feel quite right.

I really enjoyed this album; a very interesting mix of African and South American sounds and rhythms with old school hip-hop. Malcolm McLaren was absolutely ahead of the curve with this album (and apparently many other trends), but it's an absolute shame that the didn't credit any of the actual world musicians that actually wrote the majority of the music on this album. Shout out to the real heroes: Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, the Boyoyo Boys, MD Shirinda and the Gaza Sisters, The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers, and all the other uncredited, unknown session musicians. An interesting read with some direct comparisons to the songs that he ripped off: https://www.sundaytimes.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/2021-03-28-criminal-record-how-malcolm-mcclaren-ripped-off-sa-musicians/

Definitely a weird album, but interesting sounds even today!

Nope.

Mood molto dance, ci piace

Serial plagiarist. Mclaren may have his place in history but not as a musician.

Weird. I'm not sure this is even an album as much as just a collection of stolen sounds by a British opportunist brought back from Africa and the Americas. I'm no historian, but that seems pretty par for the course.

I couldn't get a bead on what exactly this was, besides noise...

Wtf was this album though? Less fusion than schizophrenic.

This could have been a 4 in an altered state of mind

Dude tried so hard to be relevant.

What a strange album this is. It's Hip Hop, all the elements are there with the Rapping and the Radio fragments and the incredibly groovy basslines. It comes from a completely different place than the American Hip Hop though. It's much more African influenced and seems to borrow a lot from the Post Punk alternative scene as well. It really works. It's familiar to the ear but at the same time a completely different side path that hasn't really been matched since. Is it even music? Not really, songs are barely a thing and there's just a big garble of stitched together elements. It's very creative, and it's fun.

it was fun

It's not bad, but not worth listening to. There is much better experimental rap, jazz, and funk He was a great promoter of punk music and fashion, but this wasn't very good.

1041 - "Here's your juice box and orange slice. Thanks for coming."

It’s alright.

koji je ovo kurac? uopće nije loše

Quite a weird mishmash of styles. I liked parts of it but it felt a little incoherent overall

eh. pretty lame.

music is love

Weird. The best way of describing this album is peculiar and not really any direction with the music. I will give this a VERY generous 3/10 and will never intentionally listen to it again.

Day 369 Fun album, interesting to hear where a lot of the as heard on radio soulwax samples came from Highlights Buffalo Gals Double Dutch Soweto

A bit of a fever dream

On one hand, it reasonably contends for one of the most interesting, vaguely influential, ahead-of-its-time, transgressive, and radical albums ever made. On the other hand, it’s annoying, painfully imposing at times, and all the previous things said but in a pretty awful way. It’s kind of like if Philosophy of the World by The Shaggs was released in 1983 as a proto-alt-dance/plunderphonics joint. Each song is so strange, and at times seems like a satire of itself. That being said, it is also an utterly fascinating, interesting, and spellbinding listen all the same; it’s inconsistent, but interesting. Songs like “Double Dutch” sound stupid and ARE stupid, but at the same time it’s impossible not to hear glimmers of something greater further down the line, something like “Endtroducing…..” or “Donuts” that simply does not exist without this. I’m conflicted. But I’m also a bit enraptured. 6.5/10 DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES REASON: Influence and eclecticism

World music, hip hop, novelty.

I understand the significance in terms of a cultural transfer. That being said, the way it was done leaves a taste in my mouth.

I really enjoyed this. What a wild career. Was this the album that introduced (mostly a waste of space) "skits" to hip hop albums?

Bonus points for now understanding the origins of Eminem's "Two trailer park girls go around the outside..."

Can't keep track of how many musical genres I heard. Didn't love it, but I wasn't bored!

Pretty interesting, I was not really aware of this album at all and it’s a very early example of integrating African music and Hip Hop which is really pretty crazy.

Alright African-sounding electronic album, I've heard a lot of Afrocan music so that's probably bumping this up a bit bit there's some fun stuff

All the annoying parts of hip hop with none of the redeeming features, by a phoney white dude. Ugh.

This is okay, the gimmick kinda wore on me

Felt like novelty music that was popular in the UK for a week, so no wonder it made it here

Fav song: Merengue

I listened to a few tracks and of course Buffalo Gals caught my ear due to Eminem sampling the hook, which led me to read reviews and hoo boy, Malcolm McLaren you really are a stupid fuck. Its a shame because this is a good album, its fun, funky in all the right places, but its a sham. Too bad.

A blast from top to bottom. I love the radio show aspect of it and the music is just so fun. Lots of it reminded me of Paul Simon weirdly. Really dug this album id never heard of. *edit* okay after submitting my review i read some other reviews and apparently this guy is a real piece of shit that stole this music from other artists and didn’t credit them. That’s a real shame and fuck him for it

Music was great, but how was this made by a white dude?

If anything this album was unpredictable

So interesting. Not sure what to think

If cultural appropriation was an album

Reading the description, I thought I would hate it. Turned to be amazing.

It was a probably a 4: most of the tunes were really good, way better than I expected actually, and the World's Famous radio call-in interludes actually... made sense? and were pretty listenable even though they kinda make you wish there were single edits of the tracks that cut them out. But then "Duck for the Oyster" shows up apparently to shit the bed deliberately and kill the vibe of the rest of the album. And then it turns out that most of the performers were uncredited and at least two of the songs were stolen? 4-2=2.

actually couldn't get though this

The whiplash from first to second track is wild. Kind of cool at first, but by the end of the album I was just annoyed.

bela bosta puta que pariu viu

ó o empresário que produziu os sex pistols e exploitou o vício do baixista aí rapaz. eh isso aí né. um SHOW de gêneros e estilos roubados de países com menos dinheiro que a inglaterra. medíocre e ruim. se tivesse pago os outros artistas direitinho, tinha moral ainda.

Not surprisingly, the hack who found Vivienne Westwood and lucked into the Sex Pistols didn't really know what he was doing with his own "music". Sure he found some ok stuff, but he pasted it together as if it was a hip hop mix tap. The music is fine, but McLaren is an exploitive hack. Review more for the person than the album.

Wasn't bad.

I don't know, I mostly thought this was just super annoying. Jive My Baby is probably the only song I actually liked, and it was really more as a novelty thing than anything else. Buffalo Gals and Duck For the Oyster were mostly just annoying, and everything else was just there. It existed.

I quite enjoyed this romp through some memorable past hits and other influenced and influential foot tappingly decent stuff. And having now read some of the top rated reviews on here - and on further reflection - I ENJOYED IT EVEN MORE! Music has been influenced by what came before since medievel times and even earlier than that. Everyone takes from everyone. And who are you to say what music "belongs" to who. So from someone with dubious dental care - go fuck yourself. Good on you Malc! (Oddly enough I visited Highgate Cemetary this week and saw MM's grave. I didn't realise he was dead! )

Yeah so all the reviews got me to read into this guy and he definitely occupies a sort of “villain role” in the music industry. And it really sucks that he basically stole minority artists’ music. On the other hand, it’s a pretty cool sounding record. Like, it ain’t bad to listen to. If you didn’t read up on anything and just hit play you’d probably enjoy it. So those things have to even out a little bit.

26/100. I'm so confused. Did not expect whatever this is from a Sex Pistols manager/creator... It sounds like a mix of the early days of New York electronic music and tropical music that gets all the grandparents in their Hawaii shirts turnt up on a cruise ship, mixed with a radio show where a bunch of females are calling in and saying that it's the best show. And by the way, no disrespect towards any genre that was on this record. This was just very horrid. What did I just listen to?

Lots of talk on the reviews about cultural appropriation and that McLaren is a POS etc. I expected to hate this. Apart from the closing track absolutely taking the piss with the cowboy stuff, the rest of the album is surprisingly good. Obviously it's under McLarens name but looking at the list of performers and production team I suspect his role was ”visionary” for lack of better word. 4/5

Buffalo Gals beloved classic. More cultural appropriation, but a fun album.

Malcolm McLaren is a total cunt. I just think it doesn't get said enough (interesting character tho.)

Vivienne westwood noooo…!

What

Päris lahe seinast-seina võõras kõla. "Double Dutch" kõlab nagu "I Know What I Know" Paul Simoni "Graceland" albumilt, mis tuli alles 3a hiljem välja. Tuleb välja, et Malcolm kasutas mingi sample'it ebaseaduslikult (ning hiljem maksis sp autoritasusid), aga Paul Simon läks Aafrikasse kohapeale ning tegi koostööd kohalikega. See album on tähtis ja mõjukas enda erinevate kultuuride ja žanrite tutvustamise ning segamisega. Kuid keeruline on aru saada, kui palju Malcolm ise siia sisse on pannud. Kuulduste järgi mitte väga palju. Tervikuna mõjub ta ikka päris lahedalt ning see on värske hingetõmme. 3.3/5

Very 80s. I was not expecting someone so connected to the Punk and New Wave worlds to put out an album so embued in Funk, Disco, and Hip Hop.

This just wasn't any good.

Great Songs: Good Songs: Buffalo Gals, Double Dutch, Merengue, Punk It Up, Jive My Baby, World's Famous Mid Songs: Obatala, El San Juanera, Legba, Song for Chango, Soweto Bad Songs: Duck for the Oyster

If you wanted an album that's just those weird interlude tracks from rap records then you're in luck

I liked a significant portion for me and a lot of this was incredibly experimental, however, the last song on this track (and many before it) were atrocious, bad and terrible. Although there are a few hidden gems, it was not a good album. 3/10

I think I've heard some of these songs sampled in some rap/hip hop groups... but anyway, the album isn't good. It just sounds like a collage of random sounds, and not in a good way.

3.5. Odd mixture of genres but I liked it

While there is some good stuff on here, it sticks in craw that McLaren is allowed to pass himself off as its creator in any way.

Liked Soweto. Other than that, there isnt much here. Great that it inspired others and has been sampled but shame on McLaren and his failure to credit the original artists. Enjoy your star Malcolm.

I have a lot of feels about Malcolm McLaren.

This reminds me of those music samplers that you could buy mail-order from a TV commercial for $9.99 + S&H. But then someone taped over part of the cassette with a NY hip hop radio station.

To me, the most impressive thing about this album is the fact that it was released in '83. It certainly differs from the hip-hop music of its time, opting instead for a more playful and colorful presentation more akin to a plunderphonics record from the '2000s. But there are no fat beats or cleverly chopped samples to be found, and it ultimately ends up feeling like a cracked-out DJ mix or radio show consisting almost exclusively of quirky little interludes - for better or worse. It's not bad by any means; there are some good moments laced throughout. I really liked the sunny 'Double Dutch', largely because of how catchy and breezy the original sample is. Maybe the most proto-Avalanches song here. I feel similarly about 'Merengue'; it was a cool fusion of dirty western and salsa that painted a pretty epic scene, despite the really annoying adlibbing over the whole thing. 'Soweto' was another catchy song, but again, not enough interesting being done with its core samples. The electronic tracks here, like the ambient opener 'Obtala' and the noodly yet evocative 'Legba', were pretty neat inclusions and nice breathers overall. And 'World's Famous' was maybe the most mind-bogglingly ahead-of-its-time song here, just super predictive of instrumental hip hop to come. So yeah, more fascinating than anything and something to sort of vibe with in the background. While I can respect that it was doing some cooky plunderphonics things way before it was cool, I really just found myself wanting to listen to J Dilla or Avalanches by the end of it.

Idk why this was made by a white dude? Who is this guy?

weird mix throughout the album, was fun Will I listen to again: 30%

mäh

This album is overall really good but what on earth was with that last song????

When I pressed play on this a giant key appeared and unlocked my brain. This album has everything that I love in music! Wonderful first listen that made me understand so many other artists I already know

Okay

Pretentious noise nonsense.

Plagiarism

Graceland avant Graceland? Les tracks de rap m'ont moins parlé, mais j'ai vraiment aimé les incursions exotiques. Ça faisait globalement un drôle de pot-pourri (le 'son', le rap, la musique de mariachi,etc.), mais c'est fun!

What an oddball. 80s hip-hop mixed with African music.

Eclectic, varied and joyful. A fun genre-hopping listen, loosely hung together with little radio segments.

1.3/5

I did not recognise the man's name on first reading it, so was rather impressed at the wide range of music on display here. Then it turns out that it's really a compilation attributed to Vivienne Westwoods ex boyfriend. Hmmm if he did steal all the music then that is, you know, bad. But it was easy to listen to

Was quite enjoying this until I read some context about him. Fuck this guy and fuck this album, if you want to listen to great music go and find the original artists!

This album was absolutely terrible. There was absolutely 0 identity for the music throughout the album. It felt like I was listening to a crock pot. There were 2 good songs almost everything else was utterly terrible. I do not know what to say this felt like a fever dream.

Very eclectic. Not my particular style, didn’t really draw me in.

#48 World music, but it's ambient and interspersed with radio show cutouts. The idea is interesting, but the execution is not good. It's trying to do too much, cramming too many musical styles into a single album while also having no clear direction. None of the tracks even stand out as prime examples of their genre. The cherry on top is that he didn't credit the actual musicians behind everything he compiled here.

This album oscillated between embarrassing and cultural appropriation (I know, I get fed up of people shoehorning this claim into most forms of critique too). What an areshole, stealing people's music and ideas with absolutely no credit. His headstone reads - Better a spectacular failure, than a benign success - sounds like everyone figured him out. The album is quite well produced!

I didn't mind some of the sounds here, but the more I read about this guy the more uncomfortable I felt - I bet this guy loves AI and taking credit for work that isn't his, but rather is pilfered off other people's hard work.

Some good stuff, interspersed with annoying scratching. Not liking this enough to make it a regular listen.

Some really interesting music, I found the bass parts super groovy and loved a lot of the samlles. Those first tracks were particularly great, but then I read about this album and Mclaren's controversy and I was extremely disappointed. In my opinion if you're going to sample this much whilst claiming it as you own because you added some racist and boring verses, it should've just been labelled a compilation that compensated the other artists... But evidently Mclaren's doesn't care about that...

Apple Music calls this Hip Hop, but there's only one of those on this album, Rather, it seems to take a world tour of generes, and having a blast with every one. The DJ gimmick is quickly tiresome, but this is an early version of it, so I'll overlook it. The joy is infectious. 3/5

3 sterne

Merengue is a standout for me.

Very few ducks.

Was kind of enjoying it until I read the review about the guy.

hard to listen to in its entirety. I didn't hate it but there's nothing here for me to revisit so 2 stars

I wanna call this one racist so bad I think the parts that are actually supposed to be music aren’t too bad, some decent hip hop in there and it’s got a lot of variety. I’ll talk about the specifics later but yes unfortunately the African influence does make it more interesting than if it was trying to be American I just…don’t like this album from a moral standpoint. Malcolm McLaren, a man infamous for taking his name and putting it on stuff made by other people, also happened to take his name and steal a bunch of ideas from African artists. I don’t like the spoken words parts either, which take up a bit more runtime than I’d like. Maybe because of the whole theft thing but this album feels soulless I’d say I’m usually pretty good at separating the art from the artist on this list, since if you’re looking for an artist that hasn’t ever done anything bad in their life, this list would be empty. The problem with this one is that that shiftiness and theft is directly relevant for the music itself, so it’s pretty hard to ignore. Also this guy sorta introduced hip hop to the Brits so I think the world would have been better off without this album

i liked the songs on here a lot, probably because he stole them all lmao

I don't really know what to make of this. It is not the first samples based album we have seen and there were other groups doing sample work well before this. A lot of it seems like it's barely sampled and more like "I took an existing song and added reverb to it". In a bubble it's fine but this album isn't fun because the artist did nothing really impressive, it's fun because the music that's taken and presented is inherently decent and danceable. If this was a live DJ mix then I think it'd be fine, if mostly primitive and a kinda forgettable one. This is supposed to be some sort of project though, it's not like this was recorded in a club or from a radio show. I'm guessing this may have been the first mainstream incorporation of african/carribbean music in to the british pop scene, which is why it's notable. If it isn't that then...what is this doing in here?

Garbage

I enjoyed this album quite a bit more than I thought I would, was a cool fusion of several styles. Overall 3.25/5 See a lot of hate for the artist in the reviews, which might be true.. Unfortunately a lot of bad practices have happened in the history of music so I try not to let that affect my opinion.

the good parts were what this dude didn't do

An eclectic mix of hip hop, Latin, and African music that McLaren largely nicked. That being said, the album is very easy to listen to and most songs are quite catchy, so I’ll turn a blind eye.

Whole album pretty much goes hard

Divertido, raro. Me llama la atención lo latino. Muy de fondo o soundtrack, difícilmente escuchable como disco.

I’ll be honest I’m a bit confounded by this one. A self-professed “impresario” decides he can make his own album? But it’s a mix of hip hop, South African and Latin American music? But he’s a British white guy? But some of the stuff kinda slaps? But it’s performed by uncredited POC’s? But it’s supposedly credited with introducing hip-hop to the UK? But it’s so deeply sonically incohesive and unfocused? But Eminem referenced it on “Without Me”? Idk I feel like that kombucha meme girl. Giving it a two for now but might demote or promote later I’m so confused.

WTF?

I don’t hate this. In fact the it’s the South African vibes I love the best, McLaren is definitely a musical magpie. It does end up a bit of a mess though. Overall a fun listen

What a melting pot! Great.

I’m a fan of the song Buffalo Gals, but the story behind this album is pretty exploitative. Lots of better early hip hop pioneers that could have been included on the list. 2⭐️

está bacanito pero no va conmigo

I'm surprised at how much I didn't hate it...

Effectively Malcolm McLaren and the Art of Noise and that AON influence comes through. An interesting artifact, gets a bit repetitive but was one of the first commercial "world music" hits in UK.

Una por y una onga

not for me :')

All over the musical map in a good way.

This is weird and disjointed, a grab bag of musical styles that bonk abruptly off each other, smelling of cultural appropriation and toward no discernible end. Paaasssss

Not for me but vry creative and fun, radio segments reminded me of songs for the deaf

I mean, stealing from black artists and exploited drug addicts is probably not the best if you want to make a *good* album.

I don’t even know what this was

Ekki leiðinlegt svo sem en gerir lítið fyrir mig. Sé platan raunverulega próblematísk er mér sama, nenni ekki að setja mig inn í það mál frekar en ég nenni öðru rennsli. 2,8 stjörnur.

It somehow felt like each song was a different genre. I recognized Buffalo Gals only from Eminem.

I completely forgot this existed, and would never have guessed this was created by the produce of Sex Pistols and other early punk. Thank you for bringing this to me and givng me the chance to re-explore and read up. Kind of like how Lydon did PiL and Strummer did with the Mescalaros, these early punks evolved to explore much more diverse styles as they aged. Some tracks, like Duck Rock, leaned too heavily into crappies 80s synth pop, but the afro-beat and early hip hop tracks made up for it. Bumping down to 3 because I'm annoyed about the shafting credits to the African contributers. Putz.

A very unusual but enjoyable mix of African music and early hip hop beats, samba and Hispanic music too. A really weird album, the kind I am glad is on this list for broadening the microscopic horizons of its listeners. Sorry to hear that the credited artist is really just a thieving producer, but I like his taste in stolen goods. I liked the analogy of another reviewer: "like if you invited a really great set of friends over for a potluck and then posted photos of it captioned "look at this great dinner i made." The potluck was good, the attribution, not so much." True, but I did enjoy the dinner a lot.

What a fun collection of sounds! It very much sounds like the 80s so the mishmash of genres comes off as charmingly naive at worst which I will take over cynically calculated and overproduced any day.

This made for one of the most interesting internet research rabbit holes of this experience so far! I genuinely love the opening track on this. I’m aware that most of the other things about the record that I appreciate have been lifted from other musicians and artists. The DJ bit gets old fast. Some cool things here that have sparked my interest in other artists, but overall it doesn’t quite feel like a cohesive piece and there are some very annoying bits too. 2.5

What is an Impresario? I dont really know, but Malcolm McClaren is always described as one. I think its a pretty cool title. Maybe DJ Kahled would be the closest Impresario that we have today? Someone that doesnt really do anything, but curates? Anyway, this album is pretty sick. Love the way that hip hop is blended with the African pop music sound. Really cool.

Crazy how boomers always complain about participation trophies when THIS album made the 1001 albums you need to hear before you die list cuz man I genuinely feel gross listening to this bullshit. Best: Soweto Worst: Jive My Baby Liked songs: 3/11 High 1

a moment in time - and it stands up much better than I expected it would, all these years on.

4/10 Rarisimo. Usa muchos estilos, pero no me jode eso, el tema es que son malos los temas, capaz podes recatar alguna parte pero hasta ahi

Interestingly odd.

I really liked this a lot. Some how so extremely cohesive across genres

I only know him as the Sex Pistols manager. I had no idea he had an album. I quickly looked at Wikipedia and he has great musicians on here. I would have never sought this out on my own since I had no idea of it’s existence. I’m glad this album was suggested. It’s interesting and keeping my attention.

Man, I was not ready for this comments section. Judging purely on the music - the whiplash between catchy and annoying is staggering. I don’t think I would ever voluntarily put this on again, but I wouldn’t call it bad I guess?

It started strong on this album. It felt like a trip across Brooklyn NY in the early days of Hop Hop. By the time you got to the end it felt like I was dropped into an Oklahoma ho-down. I respect the idea that it was a look at Americana, with techno-New Wave nods, Hip Hop and the Latin roots appealing to Puerto Rican and Cuban cultures, and the radio skits were interesting but I am not quite sure how they tied in, unless it is the whole Yankee Hotel Foxtrot theory of a radio journey across American. Overall, I respect the diversity but as a whole it felt disjointed.

Random thoughts: * I thought this was some Howard the Duck movie tie in which honestly sounded pretty horrible. Luckily, this was way more interesting! * Buffalo Gals is the bomb! I see why it was interpolated by Eminem. * This is like the coolest radio station from possible Long Island. Shout out Oyster Bay. * This is the kind of discovery I was hoping for from 1001. * Sometimes the radio interludes are a bit too much but overall it gives the right vibe. * Also, there is so many genres blending which is pretty normal now but obviously this was a pioneering album at the time. * Interesting album and the reason why I am doing 1001.

Sure

2.5 if possible. Rounding up.

Well I certainly remember the absurdity of "Buffalo Gals" from when it was on the radio at the time, but had no idea it had this whole-ass mess of an album attached to it. I've always had a slightly jaded attitude about McLaren, like he was fashion punk instead of real political punk, which isn't helping. And I'd feel a little more charitable if the samples from various musicians had been attributed; it feels a little tone-deaf right now. But when I pretend to have no idea about the context of this record? I have to say it's a pretty fun listen. 4/5

This is one of the most confused albums I’ve ever listened to. It sounds like some dude has taken 5-6 genres or ideas, and mashed them together without much thought as to how they fit with one another. Don’t get me wrong, some of the tracks are really good and are enjoyable in isolation - especially the upbeat likes of Double Dutch. But from what I’m hearing and reading, this album is basically cultural appropriation with no respect for a coherent, well written album.

Three stars for teaching me the origin of Eminem's "Two trailer park girls go 'round the outside"

I dag er dette i grunn novelty music. Får trøstepoeng for historisk relevans. Burde få minuspoeng for tvilsom kredittering av de involverte.

Rart å tenke på hvor innflytelsesrikt det albumet har vært, for i dag høres det ut som Banana Airlines med hiphopinnflytelser og Gil Scott-Heron-imitator.

Enjoyed the concept more than the album

I mean, cool that he took all this world music and fused it with hip hop, but feels kinda weird that apparently it needs a white dude from England to make that stuff worthy of "you have to listen to it before you die"

I like the oldschool rap but cannot connect with the african beats.

This sounds like someone really tried hard to create fun and enjoyable music, but ended up achieving the opposite for me. These radio-style intros are genuinely annoying. I can't find any song I like, only ones I hate less.

interessting experimental hip hop elements. totaly worth a listen

This is just not for me at all. Probably great music, but I cannot connect to it at all.

Wow, now I know exactly where Eminem got his "Trailer park girls go round the outside" line for "Without Me"! Hearing the original source on "Buffalo Gals" completely blew my mind. "Punk It Up" was pretty catchy, playing out like a wild Caribbean homage to the Sex Pistols, which makes sense given Malcolm McLaren's history with them. The skit during "Jive My Baby" was pretty funny too, adding to that chaotic radio-show vibe. However, "Duck for the Oyster" didn't sound like it belonged on this tracklist at all. Mixing square-dance calling with electronic hip-hop beats just completely derailed the momentum for me. As a whole, the album is a fascinating time capsule of early 80s hip-hop, scratching, and world music collage. While it is cool to see how groundbreaking it was as a blueprint for sampling, the shifting genres make it way too jarring and messy for a casual listen. It feels less like a cohesive musical record and more like an art project or a global field recording experiment gone off the rails.

Malcolm is such a slime ball to an almost comedic degree. Despite that and despite being egregious cultural appropriation, I had a decent enough time listening throughout. A lot of it sounded like King Creole. Rating: 2.2

Meh album, apparently terrible person. Last song is awful. It's tantamount to torture.

Heard Before? Only "Buffalo Gals". Verdict: Ignore the name on the cover and all circumstances of the album's production and it becomes a fascinating relic of the early sampling era. Talk about plunderphonic, but the beat of Soweto is, in fact, indestructible. Listen Again? Unlikely, but I'm glad I finally heard the whole thing.

#958. Holy shit this is bad. Get this shit away from me. 1/5: absolutely not

komischer mix aus hip hop, spanischer musik, rock, random snippets etc., also so mid

I enjoyed this more than anticipated. Double Dutch is still as full of joy as it was when I first heard it in the 80s, and the rest of the album continues with the overall cheery mood. I know McLaren comes with issues, but this little slice of happiness really hit the spot and was much needed right now.

Don’t know. 1983. British. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Um… where to start… so it seems each nation has its own expression of the Devil. For the US, it’s Rick Ruben. Yasi Salek said it on an episode of her podcast Bandsplain: “and here’s the point in the artist’s career where the Devil, Rick Ruben, appears.” After she said that I almost died. It’s soooo true. Struggling, unsure where to turn, “ah hello here I am to help you along my child. You only have to give me…. Well, you know. Let’s call it ‘creative control.’ It sounds so much better.” Now Rick Ruben is subtle. Malcolm McLaren is not. I guess the Devil can be more out in the open across the Atlantic. Interestingly the Devil sees the soul connection between Punk and Rap. And the Devil is given credit for using this connection to bring Rap to a larger, largely white, audience. The Devil makes music of other people’s music. The Devil doesn’t play an instrument, he plays people. And I guess in Great Britain, the Devil can actually put his name to this “product.” Rick Ruben would never dare. But just get him talking about the late Johnny Cash and he’ll tell you who REALLY is responsible for the American series, American IV, and the entire late career of Cash. Cash was the instrument Ruben played and you can bet if he COULD have put his name on it, he would have. Which brings me to the problem of rating this album. There is much about its organization and “world music” interludes that I find soulless. But… the samples of The World’s Famous Supreme Team are historic gold. For anyone interested in the history of hip- hop this right here is an amazing document. Worth the pain of the album. So I guess I’m giving it a 2 but a Boolean of YES. Bad Devil, good hip hop history.

Its hard to know what to do with this. This album is very manufactured much like most of the things McLaren did. But I did enjoy its weirdness.

Alright but apparently bad

Buffalo Gals Double Dutch Soweto

Was war denn das für eine Mischung? Ein bisschen Afrika, ein bisschen..., abgeschlossen durch einen Square Dance ...

Did not really want to rate this one. I really liked the music. Very fun and groovy. Could dance along. But the lyrics were... Questionable. First time I have noticed that with an album on here. The use of the word "female" over and over again. Some other lyrics that I'm like... Hmm. And the music feels strange for a white artist to make, but I might be missing something there. To close with something positive: did like that there was a main theme throughout the album and small things kept coming back.

The more I read up on this album the grosser it felt to me. Like, I'm sure without any outside context I would've thought this album was just... Fine. A lot of nice South African music turned novelty by Malcolm McLaren farting out some sub-standard raps over it. I could've been amused by it. I'm not against novelty music; I listen to too much of it to be. But you hafta take into consideration how much South African music was sampled on this album, and how much of it went completely uncredited. Only recently has any of it been credited to anyone besides McLaren and the album's producer, Trevor Horn. Quite frankly, it feels like an insult. "Here's your music, born from your culture— and it's mine now. It's mine and I made it because my name's on it. Here's some square dance calls and shit about jumping rope." Sure, I guess this album was important to UK hip hop or something. It has some place in some history. But as a listening experience, why would I wanna listen to the Sex Pistols' manager stealing South African music when I could just listen to the artists he stole from? Like, jeez, even Elvis would openly acknowledge where he got a lot of his moves. Led Zeppelin stole a lot of shit, too, but at least they have blues tradition as a flimsy excuse. Not to mention, their shit feels like tribute. Malcolm's, meanwhile, feels a lot more like Kid Rock's use of sampling: he was just too lazy to actually record anything himself. Duck this.

This album is all over the place in terms of genre, and I'm not entirely sure if that's a good or bad thing. 2.5 bumped up to 3.

I’m at a 2. It’s competent. It was probably solidly fun in 1983 when the bar wasn’t as high. It’s barely compelling by modern standards & nowadays, tremendously plain. Malcolm McLaren’s horrendous racial insensitivity as the lead white vocalist constantly doing an African accent aside, the production work here feels a bit slapdash. One might call it “early hip-hop”, as a chance to forgive the weirdness. I will graciously choose to call it “accidental plunderphonics”, as a lot of these tracks really settle into their beats / instrumentals in the first minute & rarely give themselves a sense of more entertaining progression. The soundscapes here, however, for 1983, are all genuinely kinda cool, and at least a little ahead of pace. I never knew “Buffalo Gals” is what Eminem interpolated for “Without Me”, nor did I know it was one of the first major UK hiphop hits in general, and one of the first to incorporate record scratching in the beat. It barely qualifies as a rap track nowadays, but based on who’s sampled it, it’s clear there’s at least something intriguing to the production that can catch the ears in a way that might warrant a very slight head bop. That’s true for most of the album, with a lot of famous artists sampling tracks here. The problem, of course, is that the intrigue lasts for a measure or two, and then relies on it for the entire track as a crutch before throwing the World’s Famous Supreme Team with an interstitial radio recording that occasionally repeats. This album’s biggest curse is that it follows the exact same formula for the whole thing, at least in the structure of each track. That’s why I call it “accidental plunderphonics”, since the samples coming out of those intriguing measures are all far more compelling on other better produced beats & albums. I won’t deny that this probably did have an impact on introducing hip-hop to the UK, to a degree, but the parts of this album that comprise “hiphop” are far overstated compared to the rest of the album, which is uncredited African instrumentation, a crummy Spanish song, a track where Malcolm McLaren practically sucks himself off in “Punk It Up”, and a completely goofy closer in “Duck for the Oyster”, which is a square dance track with a very loose trip-hop vibe mixed in. I don’t think they’re all that bad, but… damn, they really let a white guy who managed & got kicked out by the Sex Pistols be the initial representative for this stuff? What were they doing, man? I’m almost inclined to give it a 1, but there are a handful of moments here where the tracks don’t feel that dismally plain (and one surprisingly strong beat / vibe for 1983 on “World’s Famous”). No, Malcolm McLaren’s relatively racist singing is not as good as his promoting skills, but as far as picking the right team of producers to put this together, he at least put together a competent enough group that were able to make some decently memorable stuff. At the very least, it’s memorable stuff as made famous by other people putting in the work to expand & improve on this album’s rather shaky, if fine (& stolen) foundation. I don’t think it’s all that bad. It’s just very, very plain, and a bit boring at times. If you got something out of it, more power to you. I just never really elevated past a head bop that faded away before the tracks ended. Hence, a 2.

I was expecting Punk. I was not expecting Hip Hop and World Music. I was also not expecting to hear something that Eminem sampled in Buffalo Gals. My mood lifted when hearing Double Dutch and Punk it Up because of the clearly South African influence, only to be disappointed to read that it was plagiarised. The more i listened to this album the more i realised how almost this entire album has been culturally appropriated and plagiarised from artists around the world, and especially South African Artists in a period when they were already heavily marginalised. If it was just about the music then my view might be slightly different, but I can't look past this. How disappointing. 1 star Go listen to Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens instead

Mediocre in my opinion. For this style I prefer DJ Shadow!!!

gillade! bra produktioner och lite galet att han varit manager till en hel drös band :O

Would'nt have guessed UK

🎧Remove from list immediately.

This album promised so much with a fusion of multiple styles, but just falls flat. It’s at its best when the South African influence is at the fore. Unfortunately McLaren vocals (if you can call them that) spoil tracks like Double Dutch. Duck For The Oyster is a fun closer though .

I remain utterly baffled that this is the man who managed The Sex Pistols. I knew “Double Dutch” already, and recognised “Buffalo Gals” from the Eminem sample. Aside from those, I was totally unfamiliar with this - but I quite enjoyed it. It dragged out a little long and, towards the end, the songs lost their spark, but generally I went in with low expectations and came out very surprised.

This was odd. It seemed to jump around allover the place in terms of genres, something I would normally enjoy, but for some reason it didn't click for me at all. It was fine, I guess.2/5

It's just okay.

I am taking a star off because the last song was so annoying. The rest was okay at best.

This album is all over the place with some crazy good moments. But it's kind an assorted collection of cool ideas rather than a cohesive album, in my opinion. I absolutely loved Obatala, it's going on my other playlist for cool/chill instrumentals.

I wasn't sure about the album at first, but it sort of grew on me. With a name like Malcolm McLaren I should've expected it, but I was surprised when I found out this man was as white as white can be.

When I think of Malcom McLaren I think of his time managing and forming the Sex Pistols and New York Dolls. I've never really thought about his musician phase of his career because I don't think he caught on in America. Maybe because Americans have better taste, I mean have you seen British food? Okay to be fair Chicken Tikki Masala is really good, but what else after that? Duck Rock is certainly An Album. It's trying to catch onto trends that would get superseded by other 80s trends really quickly. Trevor Horn saves the album with his synth wizardry. The hip hop elements are time accurate in corny levels to hear from a British perspective of a very American genre at the time. Duck Rock sounds like a haphazard studio ideas flying around themes of what was trendy in music at the time, a McLaren talent of understanding the market. But the result is mid. Very mid. Quite mid. Or in British terms, it was like the cheapest bin of beans you would find at a Tesco. Some songs were interesting, Obatala was a nice mellow opener. Merengue was cool I think. Soweto is cromulent. Song for Chango was good for the first half or so. Duck For The Oyster is a terrible song and should not close the album. The rest is honestly forgettable and nothing impressive. Duck Rock is like going to your neighbor's garage sale and seeing nothing but old shit from the 50s through the 80s (at best) and seeing shit that looked like it was preserved in some asbestos lined room and fades immediately once its exposed to sunlight. Now please buy this garage sale item for $150 because I too am a phone user that can use eBay to sell things at approximate value like everyone else nowadays. My tangents are keeping me entertained enough to keep writing about this. I don't think it's fully shit (or 'shite' for the locals), but I don't think the novelty of the record warrants a presence on this list. I'm not sure it holds any kind of legacy other than being another "super 80s!!!!!" album. I'd replace this record with The Egyptian Lover's On the Nile. Another very 80s (self-produced!) record that had a lasting impact on electro music. Also it still sounds good and is immediately impressionable, unlike Duck Rock where it's so weirdly bland despite trying to be innovative and getting swept away by much more creative artists of its time. At least it's not Disco Duck?

Least favorite hip hop album on this list. I know it was a pioneering album for samples but I just didn’t get my brain thinking as much as I hoped

I don't know what this is. I kept waiting for something to happen on each track, but it was a lot of jumbled clips of radio broadcasts and phone messages. Not for me. Not sure why its on this list.

What is happening here? Drunk brunch bingo on a Virgin Islands merry-go-round.

Interesting, thought it was going to be more 80's (Men w/o Hats-Flock of Seagulls) but never got there.

Very interesting blend of music with the african/ hip hop/ reggae and a heavy dose of sampling for a live DJ style. There's a lot of high energy forward momentum going on with a few tracks to break it up and keep things unpredictable and interesting (Duck For The Oyster is an odd placement though). Not sure I would would have found this album outside of this list which is great.

Nostalgic and very fun, guy who talks on the radio reminds me of Professor Rocket from Crashbox. Best songs in my opinion are "Obatala" and "Song For Chango"

I had this album on cassette when it first came out. As a kid on the Surrey/London border in the early 80's it was my connection to urban culture, we'd started hearing about hip-hop and breakdancing in the US but didn't really have a fucking clue. We thought we were cool. Anyway, this album has aged quite a lot. It's still very good, yet I find myself thinking I'm likely to rate it higher because of what it meant to me back in the 80's instead of objectively rating it on the music. Fuck it, if nothing else it changed my musical tastes.

Punk Svengali Malcolm McClaren once described himself as “the most evil man in pop music”. I wouldn’t go that far (at least compared to some of the vile bigots and predators that I won’t mention here), but it’s fair to say that he was a thief, a plagiarist and an exploiter of other people’s talents. For this album he plundered from South African township bands, New York Hip Hop artists and traditional American folk music with not a credit or royalty to be seen (until he was sued and settled out of court for an undisclosed sum). This is also a wildly uneven album with the two hits (clumsy yet catchy takes on line dancing and skipping) bookended by samples from a Hip Hop radio show and odd little electronic and ambient pieces. The latter pieces were from producer Trevor Horn and musicians Anne Dudley and JJ Jeckzalik who would later form the much more interesting group The Art of Noise. Two stars for the original work on this and zero for Mr McClaren himself.

From the Vault #15 (January 6, 2026) Here we are again with another handy pre-written review. This is a pretty out-there title for what is allegedly a hip-hop album. I genuinely have no clue what I'm getting myself into, though chances are I'm in for something old school similar to that of Grandmaster Flash. Anyways, here goes. Wow. I wasn't expecting this. A dance-y, electronic, Afrobeat, samba, old-school hip-hop kind of thing. I'm not feeling it. I don't think there's much nuance to this music beyond its gimmicky nature. The merging of different world music styles is novel at first, but very quickly becomes an annoyance once the novelty disappears. Most of these songs are simply way too busy and cluttered. I never had the opportunity to regroup or absorb what I was listening to, so much of this album passed me by, truth be told. The mixing is also pretty strange. Very lo-fi, which I would venture to guess is by design since this guy certainly wasn't strapped for cash after managing The Sex Pistols. It works in the case of the opening track, but I can't say I appreciated the sound on the rest of the album. The radio interludes are also pretty frustrating. I imagine they're here to contextualise the varied styles under the concept of a radio broadcast, but they go on for way too long and feature nothing of interest. Overall, I appreciate this album's guts, though I shant be returning to it for obvious reasons. As far as individual songs go, "Obtala" is a pretty good opener. I dig the wavy synth and cool ambience which hangs over the track. The African sound peeking through in the percussion and vocal sections is the best part, if only for how unique the combination is. Book time. Created after a journey across America and Africa. McClaren apparently had no idea what he was doing while making this album which, frankly, I can believe. "Buffalo Gals" was the first big hip-hop single in Europe. I'm kind of in this album's corner, but I shall consult Wikipedia so I can be certain. Responsible for introducing hip-hop to a wider audience in the UK. Mild critical acclaim. I mean, sure. I think this album has somewhat of a claim to the list. I cosign this inclusion.

I liked this a lot more than I initially thought I would. It's bizarre and eclectic, catchy and goofy—at times a hip hop album, a radio show, a world music expose. By the last track, it's like someone broke into the Looney Tunes sound booth and went insane. I don’t think the songwriting is all that strong, but I do appreciate this for what it is.

Great that this widened the audience for hip hop. But this is not a great album. Sounds like some sketchy stuff going on around royalties too.

The guy who manufactured Sex Pistols and opened a bondage shop with Vivienne Westwood steals music from 4 continents and creates a disjointed mixtape. I’d score this a strong ‘whattheactualfuck’ out of five.

Lowkey kaleidoscopic.

extremely disappointing I didn't hear a single quack. also i have no idea what I just listened to but I kinda liked it.

I enjoyed this eclectic mix. Never heard of him or this album but it was different enough to keep me interested.

This album was so goddamn fun. I wish I could give it 4.5 but this will have to suffice.

I don’t know what this is but I kind of liked it.

Feel like this album doesn’t know what it’s wants to be

It's ok

Interesting listen but there's gotta be better albums that didn't make the list.

Ça l’air d’être un des records les plus originaux depuis le début, FUN Purée, « round the outside vient de là » Sur un Album entier pas sûr que ça m’intéresse quand même L’album est vraiment bizarre en fait Il y a malgré tout des bonnes musiques (song for chango) qui captent mon attention J’ai aussi un problème avec le fait que ce soit Malcom McLaren qui nous fasse découvrir des sons traditionnels africains et nous importe le hip hop en Europe 6/10 ? 3/5 ?

What a weird ass album lol it was very world sounding but also just out there!

Not my bag…baby?

Interesting concept, it’s like listening to a radio straight of a Spike Lee joint. So, this album is cool if you like this vibe but just once or twice. I wouldn’t listen to it on a regular basis.

Fucking hell this has to genuinely be some of the worst genre blending in all of music. Like I can appreciate taking a diverse selection of influences, but this is just ridiculous. It's messy as hell, with none of the styles really mixing well at all, as well as just that there is simply too much going on. It's all so fast paced that by the time you've registered what a song is trying to do, it's already moved on to the next thing. This whole album is just a pointless annoying mess that is best left forgotten. I have rated well over 100 albums a 1/5 by now, but I have a short list of maybe 5-10 albums that are the absolute worst of the worst, even among all my 1s. So welcome to the club Duck Rock, you are such a generational pile of garbage that you are more than just "a bad album," you are officially one of the worst albums I have ever heard in my life.

Appropriation. Boo.

The radio shit is obnoxious. Calling women "females" is dehumanizing.

A bit of this and a bit of that type album. A weird and interesting mix of hip hop, world music, and god knows what else which is apparently British. Jive My Baby is brilliant!

Seemed both exploitive of and enthusiastic about various NYC cultures. Nenah Cherry had a better Buffalo song

A conceptual mish-mash of sounds and styles generated from the chaotic mind of a cultural revolutionary, so I get its importance in that regard, but as music, it’s more an idea than something tangible

I don’t even know where to start. It’s not hip hop. I don’t know what it is. 2

I really don't appreciate that the World musicians that performed on this album were left uncredited by McLaren - they are far and away the best parts of this album, and their omission from official credits feels exploitative and racist, especially considering this album seems to steal almost exclusively from musical cultures that are predominantly black. Malcolm McLaren is nowhere to be found on this album; what could have been a really eclectic mix of musical styles ends up being an almost mocking pastiche of "the other". There is no original personality or voice on this album, and with each song, I was increasingly interested in listening to the original songs that were sampled (stolen). 1/5

The underlying music is really interesting and good. I understand that it's stolen in a worse way than any sampling. Whatever original sounds have been put over said music is pretty bad.

Wow Macolm really shoved every single element of the 80s into one album and you know what, it works? not particularly controversial to say loool. It's really overstimulating but I do like it. Ol Malcom was a lot wasn't he, a busy busy boy. Why not release this album you know? Sex Pistols was old hat, you gotta REINVENT THE WHEEL. I wrote that like it was a reference to something and it isn't. But he was a visionary. Reinventing.... or maybe... a white guy a little bit borrowing from other cultures to make something cool WHO CAN SAY. but it is good. (not that he did that, but the sound of the album).

Weird album, like it’s full of bangers but it’s also cultural appropriation the album, so I dunno. Did I enjoy it? Yeah. Did it make me feel a bit bad? Also yeah. So idk, three stars?

not much to write home about

This felt more like a compilation of songs played during a radio show. The concept works, and the radio call intermissions started off feeling really fresh, but by the end they became a bit dull. I read that the album was seminal in bridging the gap between genres and exposing a lot of people in the UK to an entirely new set of sounds. Of course, there’s also the controversy surrounding Malcolm McLaren and what his actual contribution to the project was, but I’m truly out of my depth on that topic. I know there were some nice jams here, but as with a lot of compilation albums, it doesn’t really feel like a cohesive vision. I enjoyed "Double Dutch" and "Merengue".

Absolutely love. Will revisit this many times!

This is not hip hop, this is not world music, this is a boring white dude who suddenly discovered that black people make great music and he wanted to steal some of their pie. This is the first album on this list that I can say with 100% certainty was an actual waste of time and did not need to be listened to by me before my eventual passing. Give the actual musicians some credit, but this "album" is def a 0.

favs: double dutch punk it up

Kind of sad, really. Not that terrible of an album, and there are plenty of ideas, to bad its not his

I don’t really know what I just listened to. I didn’t hate it, but don’t think want to listen to it again. Soeme weird stuff came out of the eighties.

Id malcolm mclaren wasn't famous, this would never have been released let alone made this list. Its the noodlings of a man who has some interesting ideas but has 0 musical talent.

Volgens veel reviews op deze site mogen we dit niet leuk vinden omdat het meeste gestolen is. Dat komt me niet zo slecht uit want ik vind het sowieso verre van een topalbum. George of the Jungle gemengd met Rocksteady Crew. En dan nog continu die radiofragmenten tussendoor. Dit vind ik echt een haast kinderachtig niveau. Ik voel dit album echt totaal niet zoals je misschien merkt. Dit album heeft geholpen met de grote doorbraak van hiphop in de UK blijkbaar (citation needed staat erachter op Wikipedia), maar dat is dan ongeveer zoals dat de Brigand IPA mijn eerste IPA was. Daarna brak IPA bij mij door, maar dat was zeker niet dankzij die Brigand IPA. Ik vind het maar matig. 2 sterren.

World hiphop som introducerer collage genren som jeg så godt kan lide, som er meget video agtig hvis man kan sige det sådan og blander mange forskellige genre og lyde. Ham der har været med til at lave det har tidligere arbejdet med sex pistols bl.a. jeg synes det var et sjovt album at lytte til bl.a. fordi det var grineren den måde det var lavet radio agtig på, som også er en af genrene som er beskrevet. Men det er åbenbart også et kultur og politisk album som handler om at sorte også skal have plads i industrien. Det nåede også hele vejen til Europa og blev populært. Jeg synes overall det var godt men også rimelig forgetable i min bog, men generelt et rigtig godt album at lytte til fra start til slut, da det føles som om det er meget sammenhængende. Lyden er bare lidt klassisk old School hip hop i min optik.

I'm not quite sure what this is, but essential listening before one dies it definitely is not.

McLaren is (in)famous for saying something like “ do you feel you have been cheated.” Anything positive on this already exists in much better form, I suppose he brought it to a white audience but he apparently was quiet open to the idea of stealing from different cultures and as much about scandalous success as the music (product). He didn’t credit others (the original artists) and had legal action for plagiarism too. So it gives you snippets of world music, basic hip hop but Doesn’t really lead to a great album, and it’s an overall mess. 2 Star

So far it feels like minecraft music in a way and I really like it. It is not like minecraft music anymore but I'm still really enjoying it. I love the random skits, they're super fun. This album has such an upbeat feeling that makes me happy.

Good for me

3.5

Bad, really bad.

this album really lacks cohesion for me. i'm not sure what is going on. Its not bad more confusing.

Meh, más ruido hecho por hombres blancos

and dosido your partners

No conecté

Pleasant enough for three stars, but not pleasant enough to be remembered beyond a single listen. ★★★

I don't understand what this is doing. It isn't expressly bad but it has a snarkiness to it. I could be biasing my experience from reading a few reviews, but it sounds like he's showing you a bunch of global sounds and saying "have you heard of these sounds??? I've heard of these sounds. I'm so smart and worldly"

I don't really know what to make of this. It is not the first samples based album we have seen and there were other groups doing sample work well before this. A lot of it seems like it's barely sampled and more like "I took an existing song and added reverb to it". In a bubble it's fine but this album isn't fun because the artist did anything really impressive, it's fun because the music that's taken and presented is inherently decent and danceable. If this was a live DJ mix then I think it'd be fine, if mostly primitive and a kinda forgettable one. This is supposed to be some sort of project though, it's not like this was recorded in a club or from a radio show. I'm guessing this may have been the first mainstream incorporation of african/carribbean music in to the british pop scene, which is why it's notable. If it isn't that then...what is this doing in here?

Obviously this album is caked in controversy, the uncredited artist list is shameful. But it’s undeniable the influence this has had, and I enjoyed about 80% of it. Except for duck for the oyster which was as awful as I expected a song with a title like that to be. I would agree this is a must listen though.

I think there is a lot here to love. I know that Malcolm McLaren gets a lot of hate but the vision he has for music seems pretty good. This album gives us a lot of that including the adding of the "skits" that I think were not a thing back then but are still used now and a lot of interesting music. Again we sometimes have to seperate the sheister from the music itself

funky

Ha das gar nöd checkt

Lotta thoughts about this one. In a vacuum, this should be a great album. Conceptually, I love the idea, especially considering this came out all the way back in 1983 - a variety radio station flipping through early hip-hop and regional styles such as Caribbean merengue and South African mbaqanga. Done properly, this would be a shoe-in for one of the most forward-thinking records of its day! Unfortunately, the execution leaves much to be desired. First off, there's the obvious problem of the credited artist - Malcolm McLaren adds nothing to this with his narration, and in fact actively detracts from it in some songs, especially with that god-awful accent in "Merengue". Further, while there's been much discourse over the last four decades about the morality of sampling in music, this goes one further - they actually invited in many of the performers of the original music to record new takes, and then simply didn't credit them! McLaren and producer Trevor Horn also claimed composer credits for many traditional and religious music pieces across the album, some of which are centuries old. This blatant thievery and focus on McLaren's own name and credit, while simultaneously purporting to actually be interested in the history of the music it's presenting, is an inexcusable cognitive dissonance, and really just leaves the whole record feeling much more sour than it should. And considering the way inclusions in this book have gone across this challenge so far, there's a pretty good chance that McLaren's little exercise in self-aggrandization has bumped a genuinely worthy merengue or mbaqanga album from being represented. There's a world where this could be 3 or even 4 stars for me, but this is not the one. A real shame.

There are moments of really cool stuff on here but then I’d hear Malcolm McLaren input some annoying interjection and be reminded about how most of the musicians on the album went uncredited. Bleh

It's cursed knowledge to read up on this album. The music and performances themselves are excellent, and connecting all these different regions' music through radio skits is pretty charming; if it was a way to spotlight the various bands we hear throughout, this would be a lovely project! Instead, the spotlight is on Malcolm McLaren, for who this is really only a business venture -- so artificial-feeling that even the gorgeous cover art contribution from Keith Harring is reduced to just another marketable element. Standouts: Obatala • Double Dutch • Merengue • Punk It Up • Jive My Baby

I was not impressed with this on first listen and the idea of giving it my customary second listen filled me with dread. This is what everyone was always accusing Kanye of doing with sampling - stealing someone else's song and yelling over it. The oyster song at the end was particularly abominable. If you want a GOOD album that fuses Western and African influences where everyone was credited, Graceland exists. If you don't want the Western influence, The Indestructible Beat of Soweto exists. This sucks.

Really disjointed in it's approach and weirdly soulless? From some digging, the fact McLaren just tried to cash in on Afro-fusion and hip hop without living this may explain it.

Unlike anything i ever heard before! My favorite moment is when the DJ asks the callers to call in about a girl with amnesia if you know her so she can learn something about herself

wow this was agressively 80s

8.5

The Brits are at it again. It's kind of profound that the first "hip-hop" album on this list is a white British guy doing "world music" The music isn't bad, but it makes me feel gross that this is hear instead of the music it's largely inspired by. On principle this is 1.

Thought this was fun. No idea who Malcolm McClaren is really. Was expecting punk. Wasn't sure who was making this, but enjoyed it for what it was. I listen to world music and folk music at lot, I don't have much experience of listening to hip hop. I'm always looking for something different and unusual, and like albums that are complete piece of work, so this was a ride. Before reading about the album I might have assumed it was an exploration of cultural identity. Maybe so - perhaps not McClaren's own?! Would listen again but also seek out the (uncredited) artists as it was the world music that drew me into the record. The Boyoyo Boys Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens MD Shirinda & the Gaza Sisters Luis Kalaff y sus Alegres Dominicanos. 4

A unique collection of songs ranging from pseudo raggae to rap to dance (specifically break dancing) to r&b. I have to admit I liked it more than I thought I might when the album's first song played. Definitely an album worthy of this list as something you should experience as an outside the box sound.

On the one hand, this is a pioneering record that's more of a DJ mix than an album. On the other, this is an extremely gross example of a privileged white guy appropriating Afro-Latin musical traditions he absolutely should not touch. McLaren knew what he was doing -- none of this is haphazard or incidental. He consciously used appropriation as an artistic method throughout his career, dating back to his pre-Sex Pistols clothing stores in the early 70s. Scholars like Paul Gorman have done a great job unpacking McLaren's genuine role in the development of postmodern artistic styles. He put together an extremely weird and enjoyable record here, but it's undeniable he was basically an artistic criminal and a really bad guy. McLaren had almost no skill or creativity but was ultra-confident in his artistic taste and instincts, which is a pretty good foreshadow of pop culture in the 2020s.

This is a bit of a misleading album. While this may have brought in hip hop and other world music to the UK, the artist supposedly didn't credit some of the African musicians involved in the recording here. He also had a history with this sort of thing too, unfortunately. The actual musicianship and recording here is good enough, it's not often that you listen to an album that mashes up all sorts of different world music styles. Shame about the lack of credits and just the appropriation in general, though.

I listened to the first few tracks and turned it off.

This is a strange album. It feels like a random collection of stuff to fill Top of the Pops up with Legs and Co or Ruby Flipper when guests are lacking. I say this because I remember seeing Double Dutch on it 😆 The Caribbean bits could be fun, but the album lacks any meaningful structure to get any joy from it. Misses the mark.

Chlini Achterbahnfahrt. Zerst hani Oldschool Hiphop erwartet (irgendwie), denn de ersti sphärischi Track wo mer no pässlet het, gfolgt vo oldschool hiphop (hans doch gwüsst!) und eme Wilde Mix vo Ariel die Meerjungfrau-Soundtrack und draufni bongo-songs. Eigentlich fan dass es mal chli was anders isch aber leider chani ned meh wie 2 Stockente geh

A long time ago, I mentioned how manager Malcolm McLaren was involved in the formation of the Sex Pistols. As it turns out, that's not all. He also managed the likes of the New York Dolls, Adam and the Ants, and Bow Wow Wow, albeit rather poorly for all of them. Not only that, but he also decided to pursue a solo career, with Duck Rock as his debut. After managing multiple acts, did he fare well on his own? Well, not exactly. This album is admittedly tricky to discuss, given how wildly inconsistent in tone and style it is. It is a true hodgepodge of different sounds and genres attempted, including hip hop, mbaqanga, merengue, Afropop, new wave, synthpop, and closing out with the country pastiche of "Duck for the Oyster". Along the way, clips from the short-lived hip hop radio show The World's Famous Supreme Team are interspersed between tracks, making for one of the loosest framing devices I've heard in a while. As for McLaren himself, while he is vocally present throughout the record, his role could best be described as a hype man, supporting the musicians he assembled with exclamations and ad-libs, save for a few instrumentals like "Legba" and "Song for Chango". I won't deny that McLaren assembled a good cast of musicians for exposing a lot of hip hop and world music to a wider audience in the U.K., even if he didn't fully acknowledge all of the artists he brought in, like the uncredited mbaqaanga vocal group Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens on tracks like "Double Dutch" and "Jive My Baby". But I also find McLaren to be an obnoxious presence on his own record, taking these various stylings and dating them with some truly cringeworthy dialogue, be it the attempts at dance routines on "Buffalo Gals" and "Soweto", or having to remind the audience that he founded the Sex Pistols on "Punk It Up". Not to mention, his presence is redundant, as The World's Famous Supreme Team, whom McLaren invited for this record, was already a reasonable hype duo present throughout, and weren't nearly as aggravating a vocal presence. All's to say that I felt Malcolm McLaren got in the way of his own world music/hip-hop novelty crossover record. While I was generally fine with the individual stylings offered on Duck Rock, it's a tonally inconsistent record, curated by a man who seemed to revel in the cheapening of these sounds.

The GOAT

A little outside my wheelhouse

A fun kind of experimental vibe

What the inside of Spike Lee’s head sounds like

Honestly, this would have been a zero if it wasn't interesting enough—or even seminal enough—to get people listening to hip-hop and music from South Africa at the time. Why McLaren didn't give any credit to the musicians on the album is beyond me. Why the editors would include this over hundreds of deserving African artists from the same time period is simply baffling. Somehow, it's not totally unnecessary, but other than its commercial importance to Western audiences, what is this doing here? Piss off! 1.5 stars.

From what it says in the 10001 book, the fact that some coherent album came to be at all is nothing short of a miracle. The process seems like it was chaotic, but that is unimportant. Most prevalent here are the African sounds which are the perfect mix of joyousness and weight. The hip hop elements are fun and well observed. The radio announcement segues aren’t too annoying, which is something that can easily happen with such things. And there are other interesting tracks that are less easy to pigeonhole. I would have appreciated it if they had resisted the urge to take the line-dance dabbling of Buffalo Gals and push it further to end up full hoedown for the dreadful closer, but I have learned to raise the needle early and pretend it doesn’t exist. Aside from that, there really is quality throughout this unusual album.

Unfortunately this seems to me like a big case of cultural appropriation in his purest form. I like the album, the album is fun but I can't ignore him being a big culture vulture.

Mashups of world music and rap, with interludes of recordings of (radio?) DJs. Also features the members of Art of Noise on some songs. Depending on how old you are, you might remember seeing the video for Double Dutch on MTV way back in the day. A few of the songs sound very similar to Paul Simon's Graceland album, only this was produced 3 years prior. Special mention of the square dance song Duck for the Oyster. Some of the grooves are pretty damn good, but the interludes are annoying. And the amount of whiplash genre-hopping makes it pretty wacky. It would probably be 3 stars for anyone else, but Malcolm McLaren is a sketchy douche and I can't condone that.

I see how it’s influential ig but still not for me. The obvious best track is “Buffalo gals”

There are some cool songs amongst the filler, it feels like someone has taken 4 albums, chopped them up and assembled them in a random order. It just shows that being great and being influential aren't always one and the same

Such a weird mashup artist very fun

I had no idea the Sex Pistols’ hype man made music, and this is not what you’d expect from someone with that history. The music is okay to good, but lyrically/vocally there’s not much going on. And sometimes the vocals are downright irritating. Meh

2 Feel like he's just making the stuff he nicked from other artists worse

Típico MC de los 90

This was kinda weird but it wasn't bad. Some hip hop ish stuff, some rock ish stuff, some like drums and chanting ish stuff? The in between songs "radio station" bits were pretty funny though. 3/5

Groundbreaking record, really something to behold. It's amazing to think this record came out in 1983. "Buffalo Gals" was an unlikely hit, but worthy of the attention. This record, much like releases from Art of Noise, expanded on the idea of a modern pastiche with found sound and funky beats. It leans extensively into world music and sampling, and influenced a couple of generations of hip hop artists, among others.

Liked this more than I expected to, I enjoyed the radio broadcast gimmick and thought it was an interesting mash-up of music styles (though a bit annoying at points).

Rv

graceland but somehow badly done and more controversial, which means half of the reviews are talking about cultural appropriation while also potentially licking led zeppelin’s boots in other reviews. (i like led zep and isnt complaining about this i was just pointing out a point.) bitch learned what “exploitation” means and is destinies to use it in the review of every single controversial album meanwhile i’m just here for the weird shit. woke isn’t a fucking thing in the 80s and you should all go fuck yourself cause you are fucking boring. still the 1001 albums list is not a list of 1001 best albums it’s just 1001 albums that reflect modern popular music history in its different eras so weird and bad shit is not excluded. anyway this shit is dumb but still better than ive expected and sometimes although theres the cultural appropriation thing and other controversies, malcolm is still talented when it comes to figuring out the vogue reflective in his actions like being the manager of the sex pistols and stuff. he has a ear for whats popular and its so dumb in the modern times when what people only believe in "authenticity" cause who the fuck cares. 2.5/5

Quite eclectic. 2.6 stars.

Much like Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, early Rolling Stones, solo Eric Clapton, and the Bluesbreakers work, the cloud of "white man popularising the black man's music" hangs heavy here. Classic old skool hip hop, albeit stolen and distilled.

I like the blending of genres here, but the songs don’t quite do it for me. There’s a bit of that 80s hip-hip vibe that can feel a bit stiff and trite

Mr. 1001 Guy has decided I need more Worldbeat in my life, I guess. I like the really sample-heavy turntable songs and some of the more ambient stuff is nice, but I prefer that Jah Wobble album I got a little bit ago to this. The bulk of this album takes pretty heavily from Southern African music, and while it's neat, those sections started to lose me towards the end. That one really high-energy Latin song towards the start of the album was pretty neat, though. It's like 50/50 great and boring.

фенс більше заходить

Dear Lord, where has this been all my life? Coming out like a recording of an FM radio program in the 80's. I could have listened to five hours of this. Including the 4:00 show. Amazing music, the skits made sense and were bolted into the tracks. This cannot be redone. Supremely wonderful. My Rating: 10/5

Erikoinen sekoitus kaikkea. Ei ihan omaan makuun.

Great album!

Not my jam

This is basically a scam of Milli Vanilli proportions. Most of the musicianship on this album is made by uncredited musicians, with Malcolm McLaren adding oh yeahs and that line Eminem sampled. As always with this man, there’s a scam involved. However, the album isn’t bad. It’s danceable and innovative, ahead of its time. 5/10 or thereabout

Derivative schlock. It's as if Malcolm McLaren spliced together an assortment of discarded reel-to-reel tape he found while secretly rummaging through a trash bin behind a recording studio.

p504. 1983. 1 star. Really badly dated cultural appropriation at its worst. And McLaren was a twat. Hard pass from me.

Colonizer album. “World music” is fun and I’m sure this introduced people to non-western sounds, but the whole project falls apart when the british guy starts talking.

Not sure what to make of this one. It seems like it's mostly samples of other people's music, and the wiki shows that many of the samples went uncredited originally, which sucks. Overall, it made for an interesting listen; not really something I'd choose to listen to myself, at least not often. 2.5/5

Enjoyed this one more than I expected. It has some of that desert rock feel, which I guess is just my ignorance of African rock. I like the feeling like the dial is turning from station to station. Fun album. 3.5/5

A bloody mess. There's no consistent musical vision

Duck Rock just reinforces my urge to punch him in the throat

Strange

Duck Rock? Uh, ok..? the British (UK) slant on this list is on full display here, it seems, after reading the reviews before going in. I've never heard of it or him (even in passing) and I consider myself pretty knowledgeable in music. I've been a good sport, so far, but I hold little hope. I do vaguely recognize "Buffalo Gals", but it's been eons since I've heard it. What the actual f*ck is this? Is this what cocaine does? I've never had the privilege. This clinches it -- I officially know what the soundtrack to cocaine sounds like. What a hyperactive mess. I chuckled at the absurdity of it. It's definitely something, but it's not anything I care for. "Jive My Baby" and "Duck For The Oyster" actually had me rolling around laughing they were so absurd. Not sure that was the intent. (1.5/5) because I laughed (unintentionally), but rounding down because there is nothing redeeming here. It actually felt more like an assault.

Any redeeming qualities of this album (and there are very few) are overshadowed by just the slightest modicum of research about this guy. I won't waste my time expounding.

Variety: 1 Adequacy: 1 Listenability: 1 Uniqueness: 1 Emotionality: 0 .8 rounded up to a 1 "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" I have listened to this once before, a couple if decades or more ago as it was on a similar list of recommended albums. The fact that I remember absolutely nothing about it other than being irritated that it was so well reviewed, does not bode well for this review. McLaren is a gold certified P.O.S. of the music world, and not sure many would argue with that take. Will try and keep the man separate from the music though, as this does seem to have some historic importance to all the groups that sampled it over the years. So out of respect to De La Soul and Missy Elliott I guess, here goes. I will, however , give most of the credit here to superproducer Trevor Horn and company ( of Yes, The Art of Noise, The Buggles, producer of hits by ABC, Grace Jones, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and countless others). Unfortunely not sure any of the musicians sampled were credited. THE TRACKS Side One "Obatala" - This was nice mix of some African beats over a dreamy synth. More restrained and tasteful than I recall. "Buffalo Gals" - Some ok old school stuff from The World's Famous Supreme Team here, but depends on your patience for all the stuff layered overtop and around it, which I have very little of. "Double Dutch" - Bright uptempo stuff here that would improve 1000% if McLaren's awful voice could be isolated and removed. Yes, Malcom, describe a thing to us... I guess? The disco strings and the muted watery production also don't endear me much either. "Merengue" - Ugh... this one felt uncomfortably awful. Like maybe they just played some stock music at double speed while McLaren read off some hastily scrawled lyrics. Good track to play maybe if you wat to induce an anxiety attack? Awful. "Punk It Up" - This starts off pleasantly enough, reminding me of the bouncy stuff Paul Simon would incorporate into Graceland, but it very quickly wears out its welcome with repetition and what I can only assume is McLaren again being awful over top of actual professional musicians' work. This guy must have been exhausting to be around. Horn sneaks some Art of Noise weirdness in at the end which adds nothing. Side Two "Legba" - I'm intrigued. Can we make it through this one on vibes and music alone? Maybe.... maybe. Nothing special, but least there was no extraneous dumb sample added to the en - - - Oh, nevermind. "Jive My Baby" - "Punk It Up" part II. Interesting bouncy, pleasant groove and background vocals, but the we get McLaren doing some sounding like Gollum and Smeagol having an argument. Jesus... This is entering Morrisey territory for how antagonistic I am feeling towards the creators. "Song for Chango" - Easily the most atmospheric thing on here, though not much work seems to have went into integrating the chants with the ambient noise. "Soweto" - Mclaren doing a piss-poor John Lydon PiL-era impersonation here I think ruins what might have been another ok song. "World's Famous" - Betting a good portion of the samples taken from this were generated by this track. Most interesting soundscape on the album, and largely a showcase for The World's Famous Supreme Team, but very slight and pretty forgettable "Duck for the Oyster" - McLaren can even find a way to make a kindergarten-level square dancing number worse. Embarrassing and terrible. HIGHLIGHTS - "Obatala" MIDLIGHTS - "Legba" - "Song for Chango" LOWLIGHTS - "Buffalo Gals" - "Double Dutch" - "Merengue" - "Punk It Up" - "Jive My Baby" - "Soweto" - "World's Famous" - "Duck for the Oyster" FINAL THOUGHTS I guess a lot of the reputation of this one lies on how much it has been sampled. Can't even really call it very innovative in it's scavenging as Byrne and Eno got there a couple of years earlier with My life in the bush of Ghosts, and did it far better. Was not expecting much of anything from McLaren, but hoped at least I would find something to like about the original artists and the production, but I thought that was not even an adequate draw. The production was muddy, and everything felt too cut to pieces. The nicest thing i can say about it is that I would not be apposed to seeking out something from the original African musicians, if I can find some credits... PLAYLIST ALTERATIONS - Happy to never revisit any of this again FURTHER LISTENING - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts - David Byrne and Brian Eno - Remain in Light - by Talking Heads - Graceland by Paul Simon - Metalbox by Public Image Ltd.

“Well, I'm back, da-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na-na Fix your bent antenna, tune it in, and then I'm gonna Enter in and up under your skin like a splinter“ Eminem - “Without Me” So the first thing I noticed about this record was that the artist was stylized as an "impresario." Not a musician or singer. Weird. Made me scratch a little bit more on the Wikipedia article before I went any further. Found out the hip-hop well on this album is deep. This album's downstream influence looms large. And none of that save it from being fucking terrible. The first track was so ambiently aimed world music I felt like I was playing a game of Sid Meijer's Civilization. Just needed to automate my workers, build a wonder, and research agriculture. That fond memory of a game I loved would be the highlight of the album. It was all downhill from there. This is a pirate radio broadcast of an album. On paper, I can see the vision, I just can't, or don't want, to hear it.