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DR. RAP
AND
THE SOUND SURGEON
AKA
EDWARD ST. MARTIN, M.D.
AND
ARMAND ST. MARTIN
In July of 2005 Edward St. Martin called his brother Armand one day out of the blue and said, "Armand, I've written a rap song."
Oh, Really?
"It's a Hurricane Rap. Can you record it and get it played on the radio?"
Sure!
So Edward, the prominent New Orleans cardiologist, read his witty lyrics about "the Big One" to his New Orleans musician brother Armand.
Mind you, no New Orleanian had ever dreamt that "the Big One" would really occur.
For the next couple of weeks, Armand dropped everything else to record his first rap song performance. He and Edward played the production back and forth, refining the "single" until they were satisfied.
At this time, there wasn't even a hint of a hurricane on the horizon.
By the end of August, 2005, "Contraflow" was ready for radio.
Ironically, it was aired for the very first time by DJ Roger on WWOZ Radio in New Orleans within the last half hour of his show on Saturday, August 28th, the night before Hurricane Katrina made landfall.
After the storm hit, Armand and Edward were reticent to play the song anymore. But as time has passed, they keep receiving more and more requests for "Contraflow" from folks who got a kick out of the song and now even get a few goosebumps from its uncanny timing.
OUT OF PRINT CURRENTLY. Contact info@PattyLeeRecords.com if you really "must have" a custom copy of this highly collectible CD.
.
Critical review re: Contraflow: "Whatever possessed the two of you to do that?" -- Mrs. Dr. Rap
EXCERPTS ABOUT THE ST. MARTIN BROTHER'S "CONTRAFLOW":
TIMES PICAYUNE (New Orleans)
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
"YOU CAN MAKE IT IF YOU TRY"
by Angus Lind
. . . Armand St. Martin was sitting with me and my wife because we have a connection. His brother, Dr. Edward St. Martin, is my doctor, and they had collaborated on a highly unlikely undertaking, the recording of a rap song written by Dr. Ed named "Contraflow."
"He called me out of the blue in July and said, 'Armand, I've written a rap song,' " St. Martin said. "That was very un-Ed-like. But it was wonderful, a project we could do together. I set up the tracks and I, well, I rapped it."
The artists are identified as "Dr. Rap and the
Sound Surgeon."
"WWOZ played it the Saturday night before the storm," he said.
"Who knew?"
We got a plan
Called contraflow
But if one man's contra
Then the flow won't go.
Armand evacuated to Houston, Ed to Atlanta.
"He kind of wanted to squelch it," Armand said, as his brother
was worried about people's sensitivities over the devastation. So what
happened? "We started getting requests for the song. That's New Orleans."
. . . St. Martin's songs, such as "Be Your Own Parade" and "St. Expedite," are influenced by Allen Toussaint, Fats, Dr. John . . . . One critic said his boogie-woogie piano style was "reminiscent of the maniac from Ferriday." That would be Jerry Lee Lewis.
. . . Quite a few years back, St. Martin and his wife, Patty Lee, got involved with the cemetery theft issue, when stolen New Orleans artifacts were being sold in L.A. That led to their later involvement with the Friends of New Orleans Cemeteries effort to build a New Orleans Musicians Tomb and the producing of their "Dying to Get In" benefits for that cause. . .
. . . "I just love Mardi Gras," St. Martin said, "and I got to thinking about all those people who leave town for it. " . . .
This is my city
With the Carnival beat
These are my people
We're out on the street
This is the holiday we all wait for
You'd have to be crazy to miss Mardi Gras!
"I hear a certain piano lick and a siren, and all
of a sudden I know it's not a fire -- it's a parade coming," St.
Martin said. "When I'm anywhere, I talk about New Orleans and Mardi
Gras. We're just rebuilding our lives and reassembling New Orleans life.
The people who don't get it, well, they just don't get it."
. . . . . . .
Contra-Flow rap-lyrics written by Edward St. Martin, 2005
Contra-Flow rap music and performance by Armand St. Martin 2005
(c)(p) St. Martin and St. Martin, 2005, 2010 for Patty Lee Records
CONTRAFLOW
KATRINA ANTHEM
c 2006, 2010 Patty Lee Records