LP - 2018 - Back Bone Recordings
"You might not know 3PM like you know, for instance, London Posse, Massive Attack or Soul II Soul - their contemporaries in the coming of age of hip-hop's influence on Britain. But in their hometown of Bristol, hip-hop trio 3PM enjoy legendary status. That's not a word we use lightly. MCs Krissy Kriss, Kelz and DJ Lynx have a backstory entwined with the very roots of modern Bristol music. As emcees, they graced the earliest, and now classic, recordings by bass pioneers Smith & Mighty (check 1988's 'Anyone (Rap ' for the3PM prototype). Before that, Krissy Kriss was a charismatic mid-1980s presence on the storied Wild Bunch sound system. Yet to concentrate on the provenance of the group's connections, is to downplay what a generation of South West rap fans already knew by 1990: 3PM were a hip-hop powerhouse in their own right.The most influential group in creating a distinctive identity for Bristol rap, 3PM was at the forefront of British hip-hop's quest for legitimacy - as significant in melding rap to black-Britishness as better-known contemporaries from the capital, like London Posse and the Demon Boyz. Records like 'St.P' (1990) and 'Better Late Than Never' (1993) combined a ruinous low-end and smile-inducing musicality with a verbal ag ility that showed easy confidence in the group's black Bristolian heritage. To put it simply, 3PM told tales of the city they lived in, in the language of its inner-city neighbourhoods like St. Paul's and Easton: Kelz's so-called 'countryfied bumpkin patois'. Perhaps most importantly, in doing this, Kriss and Kelz seemed every bit as magically paired as hip-hop's most charismatic tag-teams. To those following 3PM's tantalizing scatter of vinyl between 1988 and 1995, the recipe was always there to make them one of the great British rap groups of their generation. Yet the album to cement that legacy never came. Why You could probably put it down to the appalling happenstance of the record industry.
Or to British labels' failure to see the potential in hip-hop - particularly hip-hop made in the K, particularly outside of London. But long after the releases dried up and 3PM's members had moved on to new projects, rumours persisted: there was an album.
Somebody was holding DATS. They were scattered to the wind in studios. There's a man who knows a man, who knows a man... That studio album has yet to materialize. But here, thirty years on from 3PM's in-all-but-name debut, Krissy Kriss - now better known as Kinsman - has assembled a selection of tracks from cassettes and DATs, originally recorded in Bristol between 1989 and 1995. From Kelz's righteous fury on 'Posse Move Blues' and Kriss' easy charm on 'My Life' to the beautifully compact a cappella 'Brother', it's a vivid illustration of what could have been. Breakbeats tumble, reggae-inflected basslines tug, and inspired pop references curl into unexpected refrains (see Lynx's deft manipulation of Debbie Harry on 'Toe-to-Toe'). Inspiration, as 3PM would have it, is the word." - deejay.de
A1- Inspiration Is The Word
A2 - Brainwashed
A3 - Believe In Me
A4 - Toe To Toe
B5 - 3'S Da Number
B6 - My Life
B7 - Clash Of The Beats Pt.2
B8 - Posse Move Blues
B9 - Brother
