Many people may think of a 70-year-old pianist and completely write off that they could be a major contributor to hip-hop.  However, if you did so with Galt MacDermot, you’d be making a huge mistake. Galt is best known to the general public for composing the incredibly popular Soundtrack for the film and play Hair, but to hip hoppers he is best known through the samples and loops that rappers Busta Rhymes, Run DMC, and others have used on some of their best tracks. Egon from Stones Throw picked up on the brilliance of Galt years ago, and has since worked with the man sifting through tons of unreleased songs that Galt literally kept in the basement.

From countless tapes, reels, and acetates Egon pulled together two volumes of funky songs that were first released on vinyl, and now put out together on a single CD. It comes together to become a cratediggers dream come true. The Album starts off with “Ripped Open By Metal Explosions”, a song from the play Hair that should be recognizable to all Artifacts fans as the song looped for “C’mon Wit ‘Da Git Down”. On another track “Duffer In F (Version 2)” you’ll hear Galt’s Funky Piano style backed by some of the hardest hip-hop sample ready drums you can find, care of the legendary Bernard “Pretty” Purdie.

Galt Shows his ability to turn anything funky with “Cool It with Contac”, a radio spot for the mouthwash company featuring soul singer Melba Moore. Galt’s soundtrack scores bring the most symphonic funk scores prove to be some of the most head bangin’ tracks on the album. Songs like “Rhinoceros Main Theme”, and “Prison Life” are begging for a producer to sample them.

The music on this CD is a testament to a musician’s music that predates rap by decades. This is the type of compilation that makes you want to go out and start getting your fingers dusty at your local used record shop. A few years ago I would of seen this album and passed right by it thinking it would have nothing to interest the backpacker in me. But now I can look at it and see that this record is as hip-hop as it gets. I guess 70 year old piano players can still git down wit ‘da git down.