Philadelphia Proto-Rap from Butterball
- Listen to this song on youtube: Butterballs
- Listen to these 45s in a Spotify playlist here with other 45s from the blog (though note, spotify doesn’t have all / many of the songs featured on the site so some playlists may be incomplete or feature slightly different versions than the original 45s I’m referring to here.
- This song is available on Musical Episode #016: Singles Mixer v. 5
So today’s record is pretty special to me in a lot of ways. First of all it’s the essence of why I love record shopping in actual stores. I picked this up a while back for .99 cents based on the obvious clues – the label and catalog number looking like it’s a one-off, private press, the “instrumental” and “monologue” sides suggesting something, at the very least, weird and finally the food titles.
Worst case scenario it’s a novelty food joke record, best case, well, listen for yourself.
After a little bit of reading and sorting out what little I knew going into this post I determined this is not the most well known butterball, Bill “Butterball” Crane from WVON in Chicago who also cut an amazing proto-rap 45 , nor is it Milton “Butterball” Smith a DJ from Miami who helped launch the career of Blowfly and many others, but this record is popular Philadelphia DJ Joe “Butterball” Tamboro who was a staple on Philly radio station WDAS.
Butterball’s show was a huge part of the Philadelphia music scene, having strong ties to the Gamble and Huff Philadelphia International community, “There wouldn’t have been a Sound of Philadelphia were it not for Jimmy Bishop and Butterball,” Kenny Gamble said. “They played our music first. I would go in the studio and record and produce something, and I’d say, ‘Butter, I want you to listen.’ He’d pick my singles. This guy had golden ears. That continued for many years. I would always consult him.”
Another part of Butterball’s appeal was his ability to “rap” on the mic, constantly spinning a yarn, telling jokes and dropping some brags and boasts. He would host local dances and get people going between songs with his banter and today’s 45 is a beautiful taste of that moment in time when radio format was expanding and giving DJ’s tastes and personality free reign. His influence was so profound that he was shouted out on “first wave” rapper Lady B’s Sugar Hill release “To The Beat” wherein she actually humbles herself saying “I’m no Butterball.”
I’m definitely of the mind that “rap” as it were extends back much further than Rapper’s Delight, and today’s 45 is a good example of why.
-George / Snack Attack
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