Delivered by Young in a cool “i-won’t-break-a-sweat” baritone, they elevate the song out of monotonous rap hell and into pop-rap heaven. But the track’s not-so-secret weapon? The hilarious and quotable lyrics, among the wittiest and silliest in rap music history. The beats of the song – including samples from Scorpio by Dennis Coffey and Daytime Hustler by Bette Midler (!!!) – render it immediately dance-floor ready. First, the song’s musical track – based mainly on a sample of the song Found a Child by the group Ballin’ Jack – is accessible and irresistible. Ostensibly an ode to rejecting shyness and making one’s move with the lady of one’s choice, the song is a fantastic primer for everything that is wonderful about the pop-rap hits of this era. The first single from Stone Cold Rhymin’ was the great Bust a Move. This partnership set the stage for Young’s first album, Stone Cold Rhymin’, which was released in late 1989 and made the US Top 10. There, he met the rapper Tone Loc, and collaborated with him on the songs Wild Thing and Funky Cold Medina, which became top 5 pop chart hits and million sellers in the US. While a student at USC, Young was offered a record contract from the rap label Delicious Vinyl after rapping over the phone to label executives. Born in London and raised in Queens, New York, Young moved to LA in the late 80s to attend the University of Southern California where he earned a degree in economics. On the pop singles charts, rap as a genre didn’t really begin its big breakthrough until 19, when a diverse platform of both good and bad rap artists – Tone Loc, Monie Love, Vanilla Ice, Salt-n-Pepa, and MC Hammer among many others – stormed radio and the pop sales charts on both sides of the Atlantic and began to establish rap as the consistent chart hit generator that it remains to this day.Ĭaught up in this sweeping ’89-90 wave of pop-rap was one Marvin Young, otherwise known as Young MC. Sure, there were some rap songs that were big chart hits prior to that year – Rapper’s Delight by the Sugar Hill Gang, Walk this Way by Run DMC, The Message and White Lines by Grandmaster Flash, (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (to Party) by the Beastie Boys and, erm, Holiday Rap by MC Miker G and DJ Sven, but these were mainly outliers. But truth be told, when the Straight Outta Compton album was released in 1988, rap music of any kind was only just beginning to make a dent on the upper reaches of the pop singles charts. The surprise international box office success of the NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton has generated renewed interest in the early years of rap music, and in particular the rise of West Coast and gangsta rap.
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