Micronawts
“Smurph Across the Surf” (Tuff City)

Before he earned fame for coining the phrase “New Jack Swing” and writing the film New Jack City, Village Voice contributor Barry Michael Cooper made a handful of electro experiments, including this entry in the Smurf hip-hop canon. The instrumental track has a skipping rhythm and inaudible vocal whispers; Afrika Bambaataa and Tuff City owner Aaron Fuchs contributed production elements as well. In the November 20, 1982 issue of Billboard, columnist Nelson George wrote, “[Smurph Across the Surf] puts smurfing on the beach with some solid keyboard funk.”

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