NEW BEAT MEETS HIP HOP

In 1990, Belgian Abdel Hamid Gharbaoui, better known as BENNY B released VOUS ETES FOU!, which would become the first hip hop hit single in French. Very quickly, more "serious" rappers will follow and they will all, without a single exception, dismiss him as a big joke, like, say, Vanilla Ice. Sure, he was not "street" enough, appeared in many family-oriented TV shows, didn't have a "message", and so on.
However, with 20 years insight, after the first wave of French hip hop has been followed by many acts that were also messageless jokes, we can reassess this song with more indulgence.
I would even go further than that: while the "serious" rappers of the time were all essentially apeing Public Enemy, BENNY B was the only one showing his true colors and repping the sound of young Belgium, since he was basically rapping over NEW BEAT jams.
You be the judge:

Because I enjoy this track so much, I had a little fun and made my own version, using the best bits of the "Wild Mix" and the Acapella, both on the B-side of the 12".
Enjoy VOUS ETES FOUS! (Whistled & Tasted).

NEW BEAT MEETS CUMBIA

If you've been reading older posts here, you already know I feel THE MACKENZIE is the best band in NEW BEAT, that Belgian bastard son of Acid-House, born in the late 80s when, by mistake, a DJ played the 12" of FLESH by A SPLIT SECOND at 33 RPM instead of 45.
What I hadn't said is that I perversely play these MacKenzie 12" at 33 RPM so that they play even sloooooower than they already are.
Today I recorded and upped one of them; and I added a cumbia on top for good measure.
THE MACKENZIE - HIGHER IN THE SKY (Whistled & Tasted)

A NEW STYLE OF MUSIC

So in all this time, and in spite of the sad and untimely death of the great blog new-beat.be, I've discovered quite a lot of NEW BEAT. Lately I've been touring again and had the pleasure to come back to Brussels, where I went straight to the cheapo bins, where all the forgotten new-beat 12" patiently wait for someone like me, someone who still cares about them. I came out with an awesome comp called NEW BEAT TAKE TWO which featured as a bonus a song that is neither new beat nor Belgium, plus it predates new-beat era by a good ten years, but it's great and sortof rare on vinyl, so I'm really glad I got it: MAX BERLIN's ELLE ET MOI!
Lots of greatness on this comp, many discoveries among classics by KINGS OF AGREPPO , EXPLORERS OF THE NILE, or PUBLIC RELATIONS... and then, one of the most succesfull hits of the genre knocked me off my socks like it does every time I play it... Yes, no matter how much I search, I will always come back to CONFETTI'S' THE SOUND OF C.

NEW BEAT SUPREME

During a short trip to Belgium, we've acquired quite a lot of NEW BEAT 12 inches. But it only confirmed what we already knew: the best (and possibly the slowest) NEW BEAT band in Belgium is without a doubt THE MACKENZIE.
ENJOY THIS 1990 CLASSIC.

NEW BEAT MEETS TOM TOM CLUB

Let's go SUBOCEANA.

NEW BEAT MEETS POP

1992 was one of the best years for music, ever. We'll get back to that later.

In 1991, Primal Scream fused Acid-House/Manchester-Rave with Rock'nRoll/IndieCred. They knew they would look cool, so they did it.

In 1992, Pulp fused New-Beat/Euro-Dance with Bubblegum/Pop. They knew they would look square, but they did it anyway.