Why is Lord Finesse & DJ Mike Smooth’s Funky Technician on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Lord Finesse and DJ Mike Smooth dial up the number of the funky technician!
Some stats & info about Lord Finesse & DJ Mike Smooth – Funky Technician
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? East Coast Rap, Hip Hop Golden Age, Old School Hip Hop, Hip Hop, Rap
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Funky Technician released? 1990
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #666 out of 1,000
Lord Finesse & DJ Mike Smooth’s Funky Technician on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.
What does Lord Finesse & DJ Mike Smooth’s Funky Technician mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
One of the really fun things about hip hop – especially in the old school/golden age era when sampling was much more prevalent (read = free) – is figuring out what is being sampled where. And in the case of the sample-centric party that is Funky Technician, the fun truly abounds.
For example, when I first the title track, “Funky Technician,” I immediately thought, “Oh, this samples ‘They Want EFX,” off Dead Serious by east coast hip hop legends Das EFX. However, it turns out to be the other way around! Dead Serious came out in 1992, two years after Funky Technician, for starters (where, credit due to Diamond D to producing this track). And, bonus, both songs apparently sample James Browns’ “Blind Man Can’t See It”!
It’s really cool to listen to both versions and take in how relatively slow the Funky Technician version is, where Das EFX blasts it into hyperspeed.
And speaking of the James Brown influence, “Bad Mutha” very unambiguously samples The Hardest Working Man in Show Business’ (paid the cost to be) “The Boss.” I should also add how great and… smooth, for lack of a better word, Lord Finesse’s flow is here.
Even more James Brown on “Here I Come,” and it all works magnificently.
The minimalist funk guitar and hip hop beat on “Slave To My Soundwave” is everything I want out of an old school hip hop track.
As a side note, this is an album falls under one of those odd situations that I see occasionally where it’s not abundantly clear who Funky Technician is “by.” That’s to say that some sources display it as being by Lord Finesse and DJ Mike Smooth, while others simply go with Lord Finesse. Since the album cover art itself runs with both of them, I’m following suit and proclaiming Funky Technician as a Lord Finesse and DJ Mike Smooth co-production.