Dolemite Vinyl, CD & Tape 4 Items

Another raucous and raw comedy album from Rudy Ray Moore's vast crazy catalog! He's got some nasty ass shit to talk and you will thrill with the exploits of Dangerous Dan, Lolita (who likes mucho peetah) and even Romeo & Juliet (!). Don't be ashamed if you find yourself repeating these bits to friends as there's plenty here to laugh at. This album is over 40 years old and a testament to the power and shock of Moore's material. If you need to catch your breath, Moore gives you a break by the album's end as he reworks one of his old vocal tracks with... well... some pretty nasty lyrics. What did you expect? This is a Rudy Ray Moore album!

- Mark Jason Murray, Biographer

Rudy Ray continued to cut his comedy party records, rappin' out his street rhymes with a little music behind. The room was packed with guys and gals, friends and partiers from the neighborhood. Dudes, pimps, gangsters, players, winos, and just plain Bad Ass Kids! And this album is breakout time! I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing blew the doors open, set the trend, the one that a decade later in 1986 launched 2 Live Crew when they sampled Rudy Ray Moore on hit singles "Throw That D" and "Get it Girl" from their debut album The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are. Through word of mouth and pure outrageousness the 2 Live Crew album sold over half a million copies.

And it didn't stop there!! Rudy Ray was now deep in the Hip Hop mix. 2 Live Crew's "Movin' Something" audaciously sampled "Romeo and Juliet," Rudy Ray's nasty duet with Lady Reed, aka Queen Bee from the Dolemite movies and one of Rudy's early label signings back in the day. Ice Cube with Funk Master George Clinton throws out in "Bop Gun" a Rudy Ray Moore line from on this very album, "No One Knows Where the Nose Goes." Big Daddy Kane loves the track "Dangerous Dan."

I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing is the album that sets the tone for the Hardcore Hip Hop scene. Here you can hear where Dr. Dre, N.W.A. Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, and Ice T got their stuff. Also where comedian Robin Harris took Rudy's joke "Piccolo Player" and made it one of his own laugh line bits. All of it jumped off
this album and swayed a generation. Straight off the street from shooting dice, playin' the horses in a bookie joint, and cruising in a lowrider car to smoking weed and late night listening when the kids are all asleep. Yeah, right!

As Rudy Ray Moore said, "Rappin' and cappin' is my game. And all those young men are rappin' good! BUT, when it comes down to rappin', I was through with it before they even learned what to do with it!!"

- Liner Notes by Donald Randell

Rudy Ray Moore was a lot of things. In his Dolemite persona, he was a Kung Fu master. In a smoky club late at night, a comedy master. And his comedy was known to be of the sort that would make Red Foxx blush. The Rudy Ray Moore Zodiac Album is just that sort of record - and then some. Risqué from its cover art, right through the A-side and right through the B-side. When released in the early 70s, this was the sort of record kept under the counter or sold in a brown paper bag. On Zodiac, Rudy Ray is joined by The Madam - as they talk the listener through some solid sexual advice for men and women based on the signs of the zodiac. The illustrations on the cover art give you an idea as to the sort of advice they're offering up...and from the sound of it perhaps demonstrating.

This one is among Rudy Ray Moore's filthy best!

Rudy Ray Moore
The Turning Point

Dolemite Records
DOL103-CD
8 29357 01032 2
$8.14

Throughout the 1970s, Rudy Ray Moore made his name as one of the most uniquely explicit, anti-establishment underground comedians working. With his profane, controversial material, and frequently taboo stories surrounding his famed pimp character Dolemite, Moore commanded a cult-fanbase throughout the decade, remained a star of blaxploitation films of the era, and was a strong influence on rap stars such as Snoop Dogg, Big Daddy Kane, and 2 Live Crew. His party records were considered too vulgar to be displayed in record shops, but word of mouth made his albums the stuff of legends.

Though Rudy Ray Moore was widely known for his provocative stand-up, less is known about his musical side. Though he found success as a comedian he had always wanted to be a famous singer, and deeply loved to perform music. (His stand-up shows regularly featured a backing band, providing his monologues a backdrop of jazz and R&B music.) In 1972, as his comedy career was booming with cult-popularity, Moore released The Turning Point, and fans were treated to the raunchy raconteur's previously unheard croon. The album features smooth R&B renditions of songs by Curtis Mayfield, The Impressions, The Platters, and other favorites of the comedian, even featuring two originals written by Moore himself.

The music on The Turning Point could easily stand toe-to-toe with the smooth, silky 70s soul of greats like Isaac Hayes or Lou Rawls. Over 35 years later, Dolemite Records, with a dedication to bringing Rudy Ray Moore's legacy to a modern audience, now brings you this compact disc reissue, complete with retrospective liner notes from Rudy's former manager Donald Randell.

Although the cover lists it as his third, this was actually Rudy Ray Moore's seventh full length comedy album release. After the massive success of Eat Out More Often and This Pussy Belongs To Me in 1970, Moore had developed a formula taking long traditional spoken monologues, or "toasts", and freshening them up for the "now generation" as he would call it. The release of The Cockpit in early 1971 continued this formula and also introduced the world to "Petey Wheatstraw: The Devil's Son-in-law", a character which Moore would later base a feature length film around in 1977. The Cockpit remains one of Mooreís most popular albums. It also needs to be
noted that this was the first time Rudy used completely topless women in his artwork and this may in fact be the first major record release that includes a man on the cover with semi-naked women!

- Mark Jason Murray, Biographer

Rudy Ray's Petey Wheatstraw was inspired by the real deal, an influential blues recording artist from back in the 1930's who spelled it "Peetie" and billed himself not only as the Devilís Son-in-Law but also the High Sheriff From Hell with song titles like "I Want Some Seafood" and "Meat Cutter Blues." Poetic humor. Rhythm and rhyme. That's where Rudy Ray got the name and then turned his jokester character from a comedy bit into a 1976 motion picture... and during the filming where I, Don Randell, first met Rudy Ray Moore.

The Cockpit was recorded in front of a live audience, their great applause an indication of how deeply into Rudy Ray they were with his pimpin'& players sex on wax party album... ghetto street rhymes that help them free their minds and release some pressure. Rudy Ray Moore takes them on a high flyin' wicked ride, in total control at the helm in "The Cockpit."

- Liners Notes by Donald Randell