Steely Dan
The Fez
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Album: The Royal Scam (1976)

Bizzie Boys
For Those Who Slept
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Album: Droppin’ It! (1989)

This time out on Musical Cousins, a minor Steely Dan hit begets an even more obscure hip hop track.

“The Fez” was included on The Royal Scam and though it doesn’t have quite the lyrical depth as most of Steely Dan’s hits (“I wanna be your holy man”?), the track’s driving rhythm has kept it in fans’ memories some 30+ years after its release.

One of the earlier hip hop acts to come out of the south, North Carolina’s Bizzie Boyz didn’t make a huge mark, but their album Droppin’ It! had heads nodding throughout the underground in the late 80s. The producer/rapper, Willski (who went on to become Ski Beatz, producer of Camp Lo’s awesome Uptown Saturday Night LP), doesn’t diverge too far from the Steely Dan original: he sped up and looped the intro, added a respectable DJ Premier-inspired scratched “chorus”, and a bouncy rap.