Double J and Twice the T: Mod Rap (1989)

While going through a pile of old New Zealand singles I chanced on this. They may not have been gangstas or even remotely hard, but if you check the clip below their hearts were in the right place.

But for this they pulled together Ray Columbus and the Invader's She's a Mod hit from '65 with rap and beatbox, and it wasn't as bad as some at the time said. The haters (did we have them then?) were just being too cool for school.

Interesting though that the rap is written out on the back of the picture sleeve and it is credited to M. Chunn, and that would be the same Mike Chunn from Split Enz and Citizen Band (incidentally the latter covered I Feel Good which had been a Sixties hit for Larry's Rebels) and this was on the Definitiv label (which I seem to recall being told was owned/part-owned by Neil Finn, I can be called out on that though).

Recorded at Stebbings by Chunn and Steve Smith, with thanks to Simon Grigg, Greg Clark, Rikki Morris and Tony Nogotautama, there's a lot of New Zealand musical history distilled here.

And it's about mum rocking along to the Mod Nod of Ray and the band at the Bali Hi.

Lotta fun. 

For more oddities, one-offs or songs with an interesting backstory check the massive back-catalogue at From the Vaults.