“My main Man Parrish, and Cool Raul…Cooler than the water in a Swimming Pool. The R. to the A. the U. and the L., Pushing more power than a Duracell! The M. to the A. the NN Y., The HIP HOP MASTER THAT YOU CAN’T Deny!” and surely, no one in their right mind could deny it. Man Parrish, Manuel Joseph "Man" Parrish (born May 6, 1958) is one of, if not the most prolific producer, writers, and composers of the electronic music era. Influencing the genres of Hip Hop, Electro, House, Freestyle to Dub Step, the music in his catalog are staples in the world of Electronic Dance Music. The following is from an interview I was honored to have with Man Parrish as he was on a train from Tampa to NYC in the winter of 2015, the following is from that interview.
Man Parrish worked often with other prolific producers from New York during the 1980s, John Robie. Arthur Baker and his music partner Raul Rodriguez. With Raul Rodriguez, he was part of the groups C.O.D. “In the Bottle” and RAMA “Don’t Want You to Be.”[1][2] I found out from Mr. Parrish that C.O.D. stood for “Cash on Delivery” (as in how they wanted to be paid for the project) and RAMA stood for RAul and MAn. Man and Raul also had a group called Two Sisters, of which the electro hits “B Boys, Beware” and “High Noon” were released under.[3][4] Man told me that the name Two Sisters was not about the two female vocalist on the songs.
“There was the queen at the office, who said that me and Raul hung around each other so much it was like we were two sisters. Raul liked that, and the name Two Sisters became the name of the group,. Then Raul wanted to have Theresa Pesco in the group, because he wanted to “get with” her, and she brought a friend in who sang and bang we got a group: Two Sisters, but the two sisters weren’t "two girls," the two sisters were me and Raul!”
Man Parrish was very humble as I expressed how influential and inspiring his music was to DJs and Break Dancers not just in New York, but all over the world. We began talking about one of his greatest hits “Hip Hop Be Bop.”[5]
He said: “You know, when that stuff came out it was local, urban, NYC and Philly, East coast…not so much West Coast. It bumped in Chicago, Detroit, Boston….now we look at it and it has sold 3.5 maybe 4 million copies, it appeared on “Grand Theft Auto” and “Shawn of the Dead.” In the 80’s the music kinda died out, and in the 90s, electro kids in England and Europe rediscovered it. They wanted to go back to their roots and find out who had made this stuff. Like Arthur Baker, Afrika Bambatta, John Robie and myself. We were making records for $500 or $1,000 dollars, just to pay the rent.”
I also learned that Man and Raul formed the group I.R.T. (Which stood for Interboro Rhythm Team) and produced the hit “Watch the Closing Doors.”[6] Another seminal hit from the Electro / B Boy Era. Man Parish talked about the term Hip Hop and the difference between Hip Hop and Rap Music.
He stated: “We worked with U.T.F.O on the Whistle song, which was Rap, (the term) “Hip Hop – Be Bop” was…Hip Hop, making your “hips hop” (dance) and “be bop” the sound of jazzy dance music, So Hip Hop Be Bop meant “dance to the jazz”, Rap records were MCs rapping over disco beats (Rapper Delight) and was to pump the party, Hip Hop was for the break dancers. Eventually Hip Hop and Rap merged into one.”
Man Parrish talked about the studio they recorded at, Vanguard Studios on 23rd Street in New York, which was a Jazz studio that he, Arthur Baker, John Robie and others rented out evenings when it was not in use. Man used the example of how he and his friend Michael Rudestky (died August 6, 1986 in Boy George’s apartment) were working on Alisha’s “Baby Talk” and “Too Turned On” (both on Alisha’s 1985 self-titled album on Vanguard Records) in Man’s apartment.[7] They would rent the Fairlight Keyboard on a Friday night so they could get the one day rate and return it on Monday, as the place they rented the Fairlight from was closed on Saturday and Sunday. At Vanguard they would work from Friday to Monday morning banging out these songs. The studio time was 25 an hour, much cheaper than some of the main studios at $150 per hour at that time, so they would go in at 8pm and have a finished song by 4am. Regarding those sessions back then Man stated:
“I remember in (the early 80s) going in the studio…Afrika (Bambatta) would be laying on the couch, waiting to do his rhyme…they were running over session, which made us run over session….after us, Freeze was up after us recording I.O.U….we were pumping out a lot of music…a lot of stuff back in those days. Working on everything and anything we could get our hands on.”
Man was one of the few people in NYC in the early 80s to get his hands on professional synthesizers, which allowed him to be involved and called in on many projects. He worked with Gloria Gaynor, Klaus Nomi, Shannon, etc. Man worked with the Roland Juno II and Jupiter II, the Korg Poly 800, David Smith Instruments Prophet 1 and Prophet 5, an Oberheim Sound Module and an 8 step sequencer. The way Man composed his music was utterly incredible.
In our age of computer sequencing programs like Cakewalk, Reason and Logic or even using the various MPC machines, its hard to imagine a world without MIDI, this was a world that didn’t even have SMPTE. Man would have to manually record track after track and match the speeds on the tracks manually. Ten bars at a time, rolling the tape back, on a 24 track machine.
Man stated: “It would take 4, 5 maybe even 6 hours just hand syncing everything for a couple of bars, rolling back, 1, 2, 3 punch, and starting the drum machine on the down beat and run a couple more bars, do it again. That’s how we laid basslines and sequencing lines. No MIDI, all that stuff was done manually.”
Man also talked about the famous New York percussionist, Bashari Johnson (May 12, 1955), who would come in a play over the tracks.[8] About Bashari Man said:
“Bashari Johnson is a great percussionist, he worked with Michael Jackson. He was a local percussion guy, so we would give him $50 bucks, and he come in with his two big cases of stuff, put percussion on stuff and we’d have a record!”
The Drum machine patterns that Johnson played over were created with the Roland TR 808 Drum Machine and the Linn Drum Machine. I asked man how they were able to get so much bass, as we heard in Two Sisters “B-Boys Be Dubbed” and in “Boogie Down Bronx” Man answered:
“I remember, we would have Herbie Powers do all our mastering, they would never allow anyone in the room when they mastered, but Herbie liked my music and would let us in the room. I would say: ‘Herbie, put more bass on it, put more bass on it! Make it fatter!’ and Herbie would say “I can’t because the grooves are gonna start touching and the needle would jump out the record!’ and I said: ‘We’ll make the record shorter!” so we would go back and edit the record. So it wouldn’t be 12 minutes long, it would be like 7 (looking at the twelve inch version of Boogie Down Bronx on Sugarscoop, you will notice the regular version is 5:10 and the Boogie Down (DUB) is 5:47.) The most space possible between the grooves to add more bottom, more low end on it.”
Man stated that Arthur Baker would run in the studio throw Man’s records down and complain to Herb Powers:
“Why come my records don’t sound like Man Parrish’s? Me an Arthur are friends now, but he hated me back then! (insert laughter)”
What Arthur Baker didn’t realize, was Man Parrish and Raul Rodriguez were recording this stuff in Man’s bedroom on the Tascam 8 track, bring it to the studio and bump it up on the 24 track. Man said:
“Boogie Down Bronx was done in my bedroom. Heck I worked with Village People in my bedroom, Crystal Waters in my bedroom., Man 2 Man, Boy George eating in my bedroom~. It was a trip with the Village People standing next to my bed singing into the mic!(insert more laughter!) So what I played went straigt into the 8 track from the synths, so it was very pure when we would bring the 8 track to the studio.”
I asked Man about the labels they worked with, as many DJs myself included, awaited records coming from Streetwise, Sugarscoop, Importe 12 and Disconet. Man told me that:
“Sugarscoop, Importe 12 and “Disconet, the first dj subscription service” were all one guy, Mike Wilkenson”
Shameless Plug, I am the first DJ from Chicago to tell Man Parrish that his song “Hip Hop Be Bop – Don’t Stop!” was a staple of Chicago DJs during the House Music era, and arguably is considered HOUSE music by many of us (not by genre but by being influential and a standard song played during the House Era of Chicago 1982-1989) to which Man laughed and said:
“Oh that’s funny, they think it’s a House record! (insert more laughter) With those beats? Really? Get the..What? Wow! Well that’s alright, I’ll take that!.”
Which exemplifies how Man Parrish is a guy who appreciates the fans of his music, and understands that his Electronic Music made in his bedroom, influenced all kinds of genres of Electronic Dance Music.
To Be Continued….
[1] Herron, Gil Scott (writer), Raul A. Rodriguez, Man Parrish (producers) In the Bottle (New York, NY, Emergency Records, Brouhaha Publishing 1983) Discogs, accessed December 3, 2016, http://www.discogs.com/Jesse-Saunders-On-And-On/master/8442
[2] Parrish, Man, Michael Stuart Rudetsky, Raul A. Rodriguez* (writer), Raul A. Rodriguez, Man Parrish (producers) Don’t Want You To Be (New York, NY, Sugarscoop Records, Nibbor Music 1984) Discogs, accessed December 3, 2016, https://www.discogs.com/COD-In-The-Bottle/release/69603
[3] Rodriguez, Raul A., W.T. Smith (writer), Raul A. Rodriguez, Man Parrish (producers) B Boys Beware (New York, NY, Sugarscoop Records 1983) Discogs, accessed December 3, 2016, https://www.discogs.com/Two-Sisters-B-Boys-Beware/master/94383
[4] Rodriguez, Raul A., Tessa Marquis (writer), Raul A. Rodriguez, Man Parrish (producers) High Noon (New York, NY, Sugarscoop Records 1983) Discogs, accessed December 3, 2016, https://www.discogs.com/Two-Sisters-High-Noon/master/54548
[5] Parrish, Man, John Robie, Raul A. Rodriguez* (writer), Raul A. Rodriguez, Man Parrish (producers) Hip Hop, Be Bop “Don’t Stop” (New York, NY, Sugarscoop Records, Importe/12 1982) Discogs, accessed December 3, 2016, https://www.discogs.com/Man-Parrish-Hip-Hop-Be-Bop-Dont-Stop/release/19816
[6] Rodriguez, Raul A. Man Parrish (producers) Watch the Closing Doors) (New York, NY, RCA Records 1982) Discogs, accessed December 3, 2016, https://www.discogs.com/IRT-Interboro-Rhythm-Team-Watch-The-Closing-Doors/release/201484
[7] United Press International, “American Musician Dies In Boy George`s Home” Chicago Tribune, August 7, 1986 (accessed December 5, 2016) http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-08-07/news/8602260755_1_kevin-o-dowd-george-o-dowd-drug-related-death
[8] “Bashari Johnson,” BASHIRI JOHNSON, Percussionist, Producer, and Educator in Brooklyn, New York, (accessed December 5, 2016,) https://about.me/bashirijohnson