De minimix op deze avond was MC Miker G and DJ Sven – Holiday Rap. In het voorgesprek vertelt Ben Liebrand waarom hij voor deze plaat heeft gekozen. Al een paar weken is hij bezig om op zijn Facebook-pagina het verhaal achter de remix te vertellen. Deze minimix werd overigens voor het eerst uitgezonden op 12 september 1986, bijna precies 26 jaar eerder (en eigenlijk 1 jaar te laat dus…). Hier volgt dat verhaal:

The Story Behind The Remix.

MC MIKER G & DJ SVEN – Holiday Rap

Somewhere early 1986 Frits van Swoll of Dureco records contacted me with a demo made by Martin van der Schagt, featuring 2 rappers, DJ Sven & MC Miker G. The demo featured an instrumental edit from Madonna’s Holiday, over which a rap was recorded. Right at the very end, they also threw in Cliff Richard’s – We Are Going On A Summer Holiday. That demo can still be heard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6WYAQJJ05Y

I rearranged the flow of the song so the “Cliff Richard” part would be the chorus, or as people say the “hook” of the song. Many people assume I simply sampled Madonna’s song, as was the case in the demo. Well, I didn’t, as sampling would cause big problems and re-recording it would be considered “making a cover version”, which legally was perfectly OK in The Netherlands.

So next up was finding out what John Jellybean Benitez used for sounds. Checking the album covers and liner notes of Madonna’s album revealed useful info as producers still mentioned their instruments at that time. First, the drums, which came from the DMX drum computer. … The bass line I re-created with the Minimoog, setting a sound that came as close as possible to the original. … Strings I believe came from my Roland D-550. Guitars were done by Bernard Oattes from The Limit and a ride to Haarlem (The Dutch one, not the one in NY) provided the the synth parts re-created by Peter Schön. The female chorus vocals where performed by Jody Pijper, one of Holland’s most experienced studio vocalists.

Bernard Oattes & Rob van Schaik

So the track was done and it was time to record the raps. DJ Sven and Miker-G where invited to Nijmegen in my little studio, which was the very first time I met those guys. The set-up was pretty much as shown here: http://www.liebrand.nl/studio/Liebrand-Studio1985.jpg Sven recorded his parts and then Miker G stepped in front of the microphone. His voice was routed through the mixer where he could here him self back through the Lexicon PCM-70, adding a beautiful reverb to his voice. He started rapping and beat-boxing hearing himself with that reverb, really enjoying himself. Thing is, the tape wasn’t running yet and I literally had to un-plug him to make him stop. Miker G had the text ready for the song, but I ended up using a big part from a freestyle part he was very used to doing. Also recorded a couple of tracks of beat boxing of which a combination is featured in the song.

Being a big Art Of Noise fan I also asked them to do some short vocal sounds that could be used to play melodies with. The only sampler used was the Akai s612 which featured a whopping 0.8 seconds sampling time at best quality and everything was recorded on a Fostex B16 16-track recorder.

The first mix-down wasn’t just right, but the second one was, mixing the channels recorded on the 16-track with other sounds running along in real-time. The whole 12″ version, the format in which I recorded it, was mixed in one go, no automation, fingers on all faders and hoping for the best.

Dropped the master of at Frits van Swoll from Dureco Records and the whole thing went into production. Dureco, scheming as their financial department was, deciding they wanted the whole production for as little money as possible and offered me peanuts as payment, instead they gave me a high percentage to make up for it. Glad they did !

I played the mix to Rob van Schaik, the other half of the Limit and his legendary response in Dutch was: “Dit is te lullig om geen hit te zijn”, meaning: “This is too silly/stupid not to be a hit”. And he proved to be right!
So of I went to New York, to the New Music Seminar, a Music Industry convention held at the Marriott Marquis on Times Square. In a time without internet and even affordable portable phones, you wonder how people met. On my flight back home I looked over another passenger’s shoulder at the music charts: MC Miker G & DJ Sven – Holiday Rap on Position #1.

Could that be right? It sure was and not only in The Netherlands. All of Europe was “going on a Summer holiday”. I believe the USA blocked the release, perhaps because they thought it contained samples from the original, or because of publishing issues. No idea and no sleep lost over that.
Receiving my Platinum sales award at Dureco was the second time I met Sven and Miker G. I believe there are still a couple of Gold discs meant for me lying around at Record Companies in southern Europe.

So I started on a follow-up, which included Disney Samples. To avoid giving Frits van Swoll to much hope on a production that might never work, I asked my publishers at the time to look into how problematic that would be. Meanwhile the “Dark Side” of Dureco did not want to wait, or probably wanted to make better on the high royalty they had to pay me on the first one, and decided to record the follow up themselves. I simply could not understand how Frits van Swoll could let this happen after all we had achieved together in the years before. I believe Dureco simply put him between a rock and a hard place. I did meet Frits years later on a Champagne filled evening in Cannes where I believe he very much regretted how things panned out due to decisions made at that time. No hard feelings after that. Anyway, the Celebration Rap came out and did OK, but did not even come close to the success of the Holiday Rap.

The third time (ever) I saw DJ Sven an Miker G, the whole adventure was over, making it one of the weirdest experiences ever. For me, just trying to recreate Madonna’s Music and parting ways with Frits, for Sven, becoming an Artist whilst not wanting to be on the road performing and for Miker G, blowing a fortune on “friends” who weren’t real friends.

In later years my path and Sven’s once again joined when my weekly minimix became part of Sven’s radio show on Veronica. Sven is one of the nicest (and craziest) guys I know. You’ll pee your pants laughing, hearing his adventures in this crazy business. He is my kinda totally nuts!
I only saw Miker G once more at a party where he and Sven performed specially for me on the occasion of me being 25 years in this business. I hope he’s doing well.

Apparently there is an “official video” of the Holiday Rap, which won worst video of the year. Still have to see that one! And yes, it is a truly silly song indeed. So silly, that it just had to become a hit.

🙂 Ben

Wat precies de officiële videoclip is, is ons onbekend, maar op Youtube is wel een aardige te vinden.

Het eerste uur van In The Mix was nieuw. Hier volgt de tracklist, waar de uitvoerende artiesten van twee acapella’s inmiddels dank zij een trouwe volger niet meer ontbreken:

01. Afrika Bambaataa – Just Get Up And Dance
02. Robin S. – Show Me Love
03. Rose Royce – Is It Love You’re After
04. Eminem – Without Me (acap.)
05. Rose Royce – Car Wash
06. Dweed – Gonna Make You Get Down (acap.)
07. Crystal Waters – Gypsy Woman (La Da Dee La Da Da)
08. Jack E Makossa – The Opera House
09. Madonna – Deeper and Deeper
10. Blue Mercedes – Love Is The Gun
11. Side Kick – All I Want Is (The Bass) (acap)
12. Joey Negro presents The Sunburst Band ‎– Until The End Of Time
13. Baby’O – In The Forest

In het tweede uur van In The Mix was ITM #271 nogmaals te horen. Deze werd op 2009-01-24 voor het eerst uitgezonden.