Blowfly
Thus sayeth the Blowfly (and we quote)
"Look out New Orleans freaks! They are letting the World's baddest nigger headline a festival! OH YOU ARE IN FOR IT NOW!!!! Details to follow -- like if im playing on the 26th or the 27th!"
Born Clarence Reid on Valentine’s Day, 1946 in Cochran, Georgia, X-rated rap pioneer and funky super hero Blowfly was nicknamed by his grandmother, who proclaimed that he was “nastier than a blowfly” when she heard the youngster singing a dirty parody of “The Twist” that replaced the otherwise innocent words with details about fellatio. It was all down hill from there, so to speak, and one marvels at the kind of wilderness that today’s hip-hop artists would be wandering in without the godfather of the genre. But it goes back even further than that, as Blowfly himself will tell you, to rhymin’ Miami R&B master King Coleman, he of such brilliantly warped discs as “Mashed Potatoes,’ “Loo-Key Doo-Key” and “Alley Rat” (“You heard songs about this, you heard songs about that, you heard songs about people, big and fat…but the name of this song is called the Alley Rat”!!).
Reid was packing records for Miami distributor Henry Stone when he fell under the influence of Coleman. Seemingly, it was the final piece in this one-of-a-kind puzzle. He began cutting R&B records for a variety labels, including Buddy Killen’s Dial imprint and Stone’s own Alston label (for whom he would later write and produce Betty Wright’s “Clean Up Woman”) and in 1969 he barreled into the R&B top ten with “Nobody But You Babe.” He hit the Chitlin’ Circuit, opening for the likes of James Brown and Sam and Dave and with money in his pocket, he resurrected his Blowfly alter ego and began pressing his own filthy 45s. They quickly took their place among under-the-counter royalty such as Rudy Ray Moore, Redd Foxx and Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts. In 1973 he recorded his first LP, The Weird World Of Blowfly in four hours. Without even getting into the grooves, the album cover was self-explanatory: it pictured him standing on a trashcan clutching a rubber chicken, clawing at two nude females and sporting what writer Tom Brower dubbed “a ghetto Halloween costume: a yellow rubber mask with antennae, yellow wings, black pantyhose, knee-high white stockings and a black superhero jersey emblazoned with a gold lame ‘BF.’” Recorded live in the studio, it sounded like an all-night drunken lease-breaking bash. In reality, Reid was—and is—a teetotaler who doesn’t even so much as smoke cigarettes! A devout Christian, Reid has done his time in the pulpit, that is when he’s not busy strolling up to the microphone and greeting his audience with the tender words, “Good evening cock suckers and mother fuckers!”
Although he continued writing and producing as Clarence Reid (he essentially invented the Miami disco-funk sound with Gwen McCrae’s “Rockin’ Chair” and also produced KC and the Sunshine Band ), Blowfly was hardly a one trick pony. Every few years he arose from the underground, a little nastier and freakier than before with the advent of Blowfly On TV and Porno Freak, whose title track has often been called the first rap song. His latest album is set to be released on Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label.
"Look out New Orleans freaks! They are letting the World's baddest nigger headline a festival! OH YOU ARE IN FOR IT NOW!!!! Details to follow -- like if im playing on the 26th or the 27th!"
Born Clarence Reid on Valentine’s Day, 1946 in Cochran, Georgia, X-rated rap pioneer and funky super hero Blowfly was nicknamed by his grandmother, who proclaimed that he was “nastier than a blowfly” when she heard the youngster singing a dirty parody of “The Twist” that replaced the otherwise innocent words with details about fellatio. It was all down hill from there, so to speak, and one marvels at the kind of wilderness that today’s hip-hop artists would be wandering in without the godfather of the genre. But it goes back even further than that, as Blowfly himself will tell you, to rhymin’ Miami R&B master King Coleman, he of such brilliantly warped discs as “Mashed Potatoes,’ “Loo-Key Doo-Key” and “Alley Rat” (“You heard songs about this, you heard songs about that, you heard songs about people, big and fat…but the name of this song is called the Alley Rat”!!).Reid was packing records for Miami distributor Henry Stone when he fell under the influence of Coleman. Seemingly, it was the final piece in this one-of-a-kind puzzle. He began cutting R&B records for a variety labels, including Buddy Killen’s Dial imprint and Stone’s own Alston label (for whom he would later write and produce Betty Wright’s “Clean Up Woman”) and in 1969 he barreled into the R&B top ten with “Nobody But You Babe.” He hit the Chitlin’ Circuit, opening for the likes of James Brown and Sam and Dave and with money in his pocket, he resurrected his Blowfly alter ego and began pressing his own filthy 45s. They quickly took their place among under-the-counter royalty such as Rudy Ray Moore, Redd Foxx and Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts. In 1973 he recorded his first LP, The Weird World Of Blowfly in four hours. Without even getting into the grooves, the album cover was self-explanatory: it pictured him standing on a trashcan clutching a rubber chicken, clawing at two nude females and sporting what writer Tom Brower dubbed “a ghetto Halloween costume: a yellow rubber mask with antennae, yellow wings, black pantyhose, knee-high white stockings and a black superhero jersey emblazoned with a gold lame ‘BF.’” Recorded live in the studio, it sounded like an all-night drunken lease-breaking bash. In reality, Reid was—and is—a teetotaler who doesn’t even so much as smoke cigarettes! A devout Christian, Reid has done his time in the pulpit, that is when he’s not busy strolling up to the microphone and greeting his audience with the tender words, “Good evening cock suckers and mother fuckers!”
Although he continued writing and producing as Clarence Reid (he essentially invented the Miami disco-funk sound with Gwen McCrae’s “Rockin’ Chair” and also produced KC and the Sunshine Band ), Blowfly was hardly a one trick pony. Every few years he arose from the underground, a little nastier and freakier than before with the advent of Blowfly On TV and Porno Freak, whose title track has often been called the first rap song. His latest album is set to be released on Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label.