Blowfly

It’s a sad indicator of how we process art that even the most multifaceted artists are usually remembered for just one narrow aspect of what they’ve done. But you can’t really blame people when it comes to novelty acts. Early in his career, Clarence Reid, the R&B producer and songwriter who found considerable success in the ’60s and ’70s with (among others) KC & the Sunshine Band and Gwen McRae (not to mention his own releases), created the alter-ego Blowfly as an extension of his childhood habit of singing obscene versions of popular hits. Unsurprisingly, white people took delight, and the caped character has stuck with Reid ever since. Fortunately, Reid (who is, go figure, a sometime minister) shrugs off the credit he’s often given as the first “dirty rapper” (if not the first rapper, period) by insisting that the “soul talking” style was already around when he turned it into an act. It’s hard to gauge what relevance the man who grandfathered 2 Live Crew still has today, but his new album, Fahrenheit 69, provides plenty of clues.