Vinyl: Unreleased Rap * Hip-Hop Acetate * Upper West Side * Pee Wee Mel * Barry B. HEAR

Up for auction is a rare two-sided hip-hop / rap / electro acetate from 1985 by a NYC-based group called Upper West Side. Group members include Pee Wee Mel & Barry B. ~ notable for foundational rap records they made in the early 80’s for labels such as Express (“Maximus Party” & “Are You Ready”) and 12 Star Records (“Life On Planet Earth”)…

Song featured here is called “It’s Our Time To Rock Now” and contains some nice mid-80’s drum machine work, some human beat box, a synth bassline that seems to be a loose reference to Cat Stevens’s “Was Dog A Doughnut”, and some subtle touches of delay / echo in the mix throughout. Side A is the vocal version. Side B is the dub / instrumental…

The 12-inch sleeve has a personalized, hand-written inscription from Barry B. to Pee Wee Mel and likely indicates that this was Pee Wee Mel’s copy at some point.

Labels appear to be one-off / test labels pasted / glued overtop the acetate labels (see photos)…

Record / Acetate Condition:

Side A (the more crucial of the two sides, being the vocal) is a solid G+ / Some surface noise & ticks here and there with visual wear to the acetate surface, but an enjoyable listen all the way through, all fragility considered…

Side B is more of a G grade at best. Unfortunately there’s some old paint (white-out?) splatter in the grooves that causes some loud ticks etc BUT that said, the side holds up / doesn’t skip and is still quite listenable throughout (and more or less improves as it goes along). There’s also some smudge / wipe-marks in the run-out groove that wander into the last few grooves aka the end of the instrumental track. Some repeated soaks with warm water & soap might dramatically improve things aka allow for paint removal, but I’ll leave that up to you if you wish to experiment!

Full soundclip links below, taken directly from the acetate, tell the tale audio / condition-wise for both sides, and the last two photos show the paint situation on the instrumental side…

Side A (vocal):

https:/youtu.be/EYq0oldf1t8

Side B (instrumental):

https:/youtu.be/k5o1kGPhJPk

All in all, a cool hip-hop artifact and likely the only remaining copy of this otherwise “lost” recording…

Shipping: Given the rarity of the item & the delicate nature of acetates, gonna default to USPS Priority (both for domestic & international) for swift, tracked shipping. (Also happy to discuss other shipping options at buyer’s request…)

Happy bidding, y’all!