Were the UK rock kids listening to dance music before the US rock kids?

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I kind of assume they were. But maybe I'm wrong. I always of American rock kids discovering 'electronica' and rave with 'Fat Of The Land' or whatever about 10 years after the same happened here. Of course, you still get some people over here proclaiming that dance music is the work of the devil. I'm talking statistical trends.

I guess it was that line I was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the rock kids / I played it at CBGBs / Everybody thought it was crazy that got me thinking about it again. I mean Daft Punk - that's ridiculously late. Or is it just a misjudged lyric?

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I read on some previous thread that it's "daft punk" not "Daft Punk", if you see what I mean.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

The answer is "yes", N, and I don't think there's any question about it.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Tom - well that's kind of weird. But anyway.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd say "yes". For the most part, I think dance music is still sort've marginalized here in the States.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:19 (twenty-one years ago)

my sister was a huge daft punk fan AND an american rock kid.

she doesn't listen to either anymore though.

my (ie, very american/very indie rock kid) first conscious "techno" purchase was "little fluffy clouds", then adventures beyond the ultraworld. was that bigger in the us or uk?

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:19 (twenty-one years ago)

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

but i think it boils down to if you were a big primal scream fan more than anything else. uk kids were very, very slow on hip-hop.

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Considering that the follow-up, "U.F.Orb" was a #1 album in the UK (and not in the US), I'd say it was far bigger in the UK.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never been there, but surely there have never been DJ's playing house music in CBGB's? And anyway, weren't rock fans listening to James Brown and Motown in the Sixties? Disco and funk in the Seventies?

― JoB (JoB), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:22 (twenty-one years ago)

uk kids were very, very slow on hip-hop

Huh? UK rock kids, maybe (though even then you've got hip hop albums topping the NME writers' poll in 1987, 88 amd 89.)

But definitely not kids generally - hip hop has been massive in the UK since 87 or so.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

*while listening to PWEI's This is the Day, released in 1989* What was the question?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:24 (twenty-one years ago)

hah, i wish i didn't sell that album!

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

>>And anyway, weren't rock fans listening to James Brown and Motown in the Sixties? Disco and funk in the Seventies?<<

Not to mention rock music. Which is, uh, often quite danceable itself. (And often a hell of a lot more danceable than Primal Scream or Happy Mondays or Stone Roses ever were.)

― chuck, Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

hah, i wish i didn't sell that album!

"We dig Run DMC, we dig Renegade Soundwave and AC/DC!" Etc.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Again, 'dance music' in the UK has meant 'stuff from house onwards' (possibly retrospectively including disco) for as long as I can remember. Apologies for the confusion. You know - stuff built with computers around a groove.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

The UK's consumption of early hip-hop (up to about 1986 or so, xpost) is weird. As far as I can tell there was a hipster audience for it (though a fickle one) and a mass audience for it as a novelty (there was LOADS of hip-hop at the school discos I was at in 83/84/85 so everybody could 'breakdance', for instance) but nothing inbetween really.

One thing I've never read anything about - and would be very interested in - is how the black British audience responded to hip-hop. I don't get the feeling black American culture was nearly as much of a touchstone as it is now, it seems to me that the kids who were looking to 'black music' for style cues were all looking to reggae - still plenty of reggae in the charts in the early 80s, plus the whole two-tone thing. Is it possible to imagine an alternative history where hip-hop took off in the way two-tone did in the UK?

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah - Tom correct about hiphop. Occasional chart hit till Run DMC and stuff.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

It was known about but not bought, if you see what I mean. It was enough of a 'thing' for Wham! to do "Wham Rap" as their first single and to be sure their teen audience would know i) what they were doing and ii) that it was cool in some sense.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

What was the situation in America in this period? Was in the Billboard charts much? Or are they not the way to judge mass popularity?

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

The old charts are kind of misleading, I remember when they instituted Soundscan, which was more accurate with tracking actual sales, you saw big spikes for genres like country, heavy metal, and rap....I think that was 90-91? (I remember Skid Row's second record making a real big debut after the Soundscan system went into place)....

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Rap songs didn't really start making the US top 40 on a regular basis until the late 80s. Not one rap artist made the pop top 40 between "Rappers Delight" and "Walk This Way", incredibly enough.

― Patrick (Patrick), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

the kids who were looking to 'black music' for style cues were all looking to reggae

Well I don't know about the 80s, but when I was at school in the late 70s most of the black kids were into Reggae, especially the really heavy dub 12" around at the time. One black kid I knew referred to Bob Marley as "white man's music" as he was so poppy and the kids into soul and jazz-funk (EW&F, Luther, George Benson) were nearly all white. It caused a lot of fights over the youth center record player I can tell you.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Not even "The Message"? That went Top 10 here!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Nah, "The Message" peaked at #62 in Billboard ("Planet Rock" hit #48).

― Patrick (Patrick), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't forget Go-Go!

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I think there was major resistance even from R&B radio at the time.

― Patrick (Patrick), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

LondonLee, I remember when Janet Street Porter (can't recall the name of that 'youth culture' TV show she had..went out on a Sunday lunchtime, I think) did an investigation into that: the rivalry concerning reggae vs. soul among different groups of young black people at that time.

― David (David), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

My impression of Go-Go in the UK was that nobody listened to it beyond the office door of The Face. But I was only 11 so this is hindsight!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm pretty sure I can remember seeing Melle Mel doing
'Step Off' and Doug E Fresh doing 'The Show' on Top of
the Pops (in England) in 1985/86.

― Jamie Fake (the pirate king), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Chart methodology was pretty screwed-up at the time though, mind you, so you'd have records like "The Breaks" and "The Show" not even entering the charts even though the singles went gold (I think 12-inch singles sales weren't counted for Billboard's Hot 100 back then).

― Patrick (Patrick), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Go Go was a bit of fad (in the UK). I remember not liking it particularly but other members of a band I was in briefly trying to get me to play go go beats (on the drums) which I agreed to a little reluctantly.

― David (David), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:03 (twenty-one years ago)

My sister listened to it! I think she went to a Troublefunk gig. But yes, it did seem a bit of a dead end.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

>>Rap songs didn't really start making the US top 40 on a regular basis until the late 80s. Not one rap artist made the pop top 40 between "Rappers Delight" and "Walk This Way", incredibly enough.<<

Wrong - "Double Dutch Bus" by Frankie Smith went to number 30 in 1981, and "I Feel For You" by Chaka Khan featuring Melle Mel went to number 3 in 1984. There may have been others, too. And for whatever it's worth, both "Rapture" by Blondie and "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen went number one. (Wasn't Ian Dury's "Reasons to Be Cheerful" a number one hit in the UK in 1979, though?)

― chuck, Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

My sister emphatically wasn't a rock kid, though. This thread seems to have mutated rather quickly.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

First top 40 Washington DC go-go hit in the States was probably "Bustin Loose Part 1," Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers, #34 in 1979.

― chuck, Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Reasons to be Cheerful - #3, August 1979

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Does "I Feel For You" really count? Melle Mel is just a guest on there. "Double Dutch Bus" feels more of a (really great) novelty song, but it is a rap. though I'm not sure if Frankie Smith was primarily a rapper.

― Patrick (Patrick), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Snot Rap - #3 April 1983

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:15 (twenty-one years ago)

...more *LIKE* a novelty...

― Patrick (Patrick), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:15 (twenty-one years ago)

First top 40 Washington DC go-go hit in the States was probably "Bustin Loose Part 1," Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers, #34 in 1979.

Did any other go-go record hit the top 40? The only one I can think of is E.U.'s "Da Butt" (if that counts).

― Patrick (Patrick), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm sure I remember seeing Kurtis Blow on TOTP doing "Christmas Wrapping" - admitedly that was a bit of a novelty tune but still.

I was just thinking that part of the reason for the dominance of Reggae over hip-hop among UK black kids early on was that the latter didn't really get into the whole "black identity" thing until later while Reggae (esp. in the late 70s-early 80s) was full of it - Dread Inna Babylon and all that malarkey)

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

"Rappers Delight" felt like a novelty song in 1979, too, trust me. (Just a few months after Steve Martin's top 20 rap hit, "King Tut"!) Frankie Smith was a Philadelphia radio DJ who made a rap album, which means he wasn't all that much different than lots of other early rappers. (And also maybe not all that much different from, say, Rufus Thomas or Pigmeat Markham, but why get nitpicky?)

I think "Pass the Dutchie" by Musical Youth (top 10 in the US in 1983) has a rapping part in it, too.

― chuck, Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Wasn't that 'toasting'?

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

(that was a joke, btw)

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

(But OF COURSE those sounded like novelty hits; it was a new kind of music, you know? Which means it was a novelty by DEFINITION!) (And toasting IS rapping. It's just rapping by Jamaican people!)

― chuck, Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:23 (twenty-one years ago)

That's why it was a joke. It was a pedantry thing.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:24 (twenty-one years ago)

>>Did any other go-go record hit the top 40? The only one I can think of is E.U.'s "Da Butt" (if that counts).<<

Of course it counts; why wouldn't it? But also:
DJ Kool: 1997 Let Me Clear My Throat No. 30

― chuck, Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

How did Mclaren's records chart in the UK?

― Former Supposed So Called Nihilist Teenage Drug Disco Addiction Counselor (mjt), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Do you mean how the fuck did they, or where did they?

If the latter then:

Buffalo Girls - #9
Soweto Girls - #32
Double Dutch - #3

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 26 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Is there a website that shows chart data for the UK? This is really buggin' me.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 23:31 (twenty-one years ago)

LL Cool J has had 7 Top Ten hits in the UK.

Snrub everyhit.com might - dunno if it does albums.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 23:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks a lot Tico! That site is awesome!

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 23:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Not that anyone cares at this point but my list upthread totally missed out "Candy Girl" by New Edition, #1 in 1983.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 23:36 (twenty-one years ago)

candy girl is not hip-hop!

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 4 March 2004 00:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not totally convinced Modern Romance and Mel Brooks are hip-hop either Gygax.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 4 March 2004 00:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Hip-hop albums to have reached #1 in the UK

Wu-Tang Clan Wu-Tang Forever Jun 1997
Beastie Boys Hello Nasty Jul 1998
Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP Jun 2000
D12 Devil's Night Jun 2001
Eminem The Eminem Show Jun 2002

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 4 March 2004 00:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Nelly's had six top 10 singles, for what it's worth. As has Dr Dre.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 4 March 2004 00:26 (twenty-one years ago)

"Candy Girl", for what little it's worth, was the first UK #1 to include a rap element (although only #46 on the Hot 100, I think).

Hasn't Missy Elliott had six UK top 10 singles now?

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Thursday, 4 March 2004 00:30 (twenty-one years ago)

what year was "one night in bangkok"?

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 4 March 2004 00:59 (twenty-one years ago)

everyhit.com is amazing. OutKast didn't have ANY pre-Stankonia UK chart action? Not even "Rosa Parks"?? Speakerboxxx/The Love Below only got up to number eight? Stankonia barely scraped the top ten?Crazy.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Thursday, 4 March 2004 01:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Isn't it true that only like three or four rap/hip-hop LPs have EVER reached #1 on the UK album charts? How the hell is that possible?

There aren't a lot of African Americans living in the UK.....

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 4 March 2004 01:10 (twenty-one years ago)

"One Night In Bangkok", essentially an old-school Tory public schoolboy trying to wish rap away through polite parody, was the tail end of 1984. Speakerboxxx / The Love Below, I should point out, is at UK #8 *this week*, and could yet climb higher.

I won't fuel Geir's fire ...

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Thursday, 4 March 2004 01:18 (twenty-one years ago)

some possible reasons for US hip-hop not being even bigger than it is in the UK (it's still pretty damn big of course):

1. US labels unsure of how to market the acts and their releases properly in a territory that for them equates a 'single State'...

2. ...itself partly due to it being difficult to get the artists to perform live in the UK - including at festivals

3. mainstream radio in the UK only supports the poppier stuff, but even the likes of Nelly and Missy don't get THAT much airplay all things considered. 'indier' stations like XFM get confused over which artists to play (it depends on the song - i doubt they went for '21 Questions', something like Missy's 'Hot Boys' or clean version of 'Get Low' forexample, the only place you would've heard that is on Westwood's show), all of which is a bit silly. that said it still seems bizarre to me how well even the harder stuff does on Billboard charts over there

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 4 March 2004 01:33 (twenty-one years ago)

*Something* has been playing "Get Low" a lot lately if what I hear from shops and cars is any indication.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 4 March 2004 01:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think "One Night In Bangkok" has anything to do with parody and very little to do with rap.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 4 March 2004 01:37 (twenty-one years ago)

4. Most hip-hop acts are Americans.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 4 March 2004 01:37 (twenty-one years ago)

There aren't a lot of African Americans living in the UK....

But a ton more white people listen to rap and hip-hop than black people!

(adopts Chris Rock voice):

First of all there aren't even all that many black people in the country. Black people live in like five places: New York, L.A., Philly, Atlanta, and Chicago. THERE AIN'T NO BLACK PEOPLE IN MINNESOTA! Only black people in Minnesota is Prince and Kirby Puckett! That's it!

Awww man Chris Rock is the shit.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Thursday, 4 March 2004 01:41 (twenty-one years ago)

probably not, Tom, but i love to imagine what Tim Rice would have thought of early rap and then abstract from there. odd that Britain was pretty much the only country where it wasn't the biggest hit from Chess.

as for "Get Low", it's currently at #18 in the German singles chart, its first significant European success as far as I can tell - unbelievably, it is rubbing shoulders with two Schlager/Volksmuzik hits in the top 30. i assume its UK release date was put back seeing as it failed to appear in the top 75 - maybe they're hoping on Usher's "Yeah!" to make an impact in the UK, a reasonable guess considering Usher's previous success here (his last album actually hit #1), and therefore increase public consciousness of the Lil Jon sound (he's the harshened next phase in a lineage which has never made much impact here - "Whoomp! There It Is" only made #34 just over ten years ago).

Mr Snrub, can i take it that you have had little previous contact with Geir Hongro?

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Thursday, 4 March 2004 01:46 (twenty-one years ago)

"(Get Low) failed to appear in the top 75 when it was in the chart prediction game", that should read ...

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Thursday, 4 March 2004 01:48 (twenty-one years ago)

"one night in bangkok" is more hip-hop than "candy girl".

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 4 March 2004 02:09 (twenty-one years ago)

XFM probably ARE playing 'Get Low' and I am out of touch - but I can't believe the damn thing still hasn't come out yet

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 4 March 2004 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

despite the Lancing College connection, gygax!? mind you, Westwood was already a pirate DJ by then, and i can see where you're coming from ... it's a brilliant song, anyway.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Thursday, 4 March 2004 02:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Stevem completely right about UK hip-hop 'market' never being exploited properly by record companies, but our record companies should sign the AIDS virus and cure it by accident through distribution 'skills'. Missy and Outkast had major cult status here before they broke, whereas people like Li'l Kim still have cult but haven't broke. It is totally down to OTT demands when over for promotion (wanting the cover, keeping people waiting inna Naomi Campbell style and other sorts of presumptuous attempts to bling out before anyone's heard you sing out).

One Night in Bangkok is a SHOWTUNE from a Tim Rice musical, Chess, which as a pop single is in Falco/Taco territory. As they said at the time, 'rap with a silent C'. However, naming those mid-'80s Eurohits reminds me that even if rap records took an age to break, the scratched break started to appear in UK/Euro pop singles ages before 'Walk This Way'.

― suzy (suzy), Thursday, 4 March 2004 08:08 (twenty-one years ago)

hold on, didn't "three feet high and rising" get to number one in the UK? how come the impressionable 15 year old me bought it if it didn't?

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Thursday, 4 March 2004 09:25 (twenty-one years ago)

also what matt said about druqs

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Thursday, 4 March 2004 09:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Haven't the Fugees had a number one alb in the UK?

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Thursday, 4 March 2004 10:14 (twenty-one years ago)

The Go-Go phenom in the UK seemed to be much of a continuation of the soul fan love affair w/ 'obscure' or non-charting American r+b/funk - from Northern Soul to the popularity of people like Roy Ayers, Lonnie Liston Smith, Bobby Womack, Anita Baker, Maze and on into 'rare groove' etc.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Thursday, 4 March 2004 10:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Talking of rock kids getting into dance music (Well, someone's got to do it!!!!), wot about those new-wavey bands (ACR, ABC etc) getting doing "radical" versions of disco!??! Or the UK bands doing Kraftwery/Moroder type synthy stuffs (eg Human League, Heaven 17)?!?!?!

― Old Fart!!! (oldfart_sd), Thursday, 4 March 2004 11:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Is get low not released yet? Brilliant I can't wait to review it, mainly cos I'll get to listen to it a few hundred more times.

Is N becoming a raver?

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 4 March 2004 11:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Of course.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 4 March 2004 11:47 (twenty-one years ago)

(there has always been a rave element to my dancing)

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 4 March 2004 11:48 (twenty-one years ago)

now for your second album it has more of an edge to it.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 4 March 2004 11:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, the followup to the hugely successful Lick It Off will be the uncompromising Don't Try It.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 4 March 2004 11:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Marcello Hannett will produce.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 4 March 2004 11:58 (twenty-one years ago)

De La Soul album placings:

27 De La Soul 3 Feet High And Rising Mar 1989
13 De La Soul 3 Feet High And Rising (re-entry) Jul 1989
7 De La Soul De La Soul Is Dead May 1991
37 De La Soul Buhloone Mindstate Oct 1993
17 De La Soul 3 Feet High And Rising (re-issue) Oct 1999
22 De La Soul Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump Aug 2000
17 De La Soul The Best Of De La Soul Jun 2003

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 4 March 2004 16:46 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Score" got to #2, being kept off #1 by Celine Dion's "Falling Into You".

Missy has managed six top ten singles, yes. Jay-Z's been credited on five top 10 singles, but he was also (uncredited) on Crazy In Love.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 4 March 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

And, seemingly only second to Eminem in the hearts of the UK public when it comes to rappers...

8 Busta Rhymes Woo-Hah!! Got You All In Check May 1996 Notes
3 Fugees featuring A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes & Forte Rumble In The Jungle Mar 1997 Notes
8 B Real / Busta Rhymes / Coolio / LL Cool J / Method Man Hit 'Em High (The Monstars' Anthem) Apr 1997
2 Busta Rhymes Turn It Up / Fire It Up Apr 1998 Notes
5 Busta Rhymes Gimme Some More Jan 1999
6 Busta Rhymes featuring Janet What's It Gonna Be?! May 1999 Notes
7 MOP featuring Busta Rhymes Ante Up Aug 2001
3 Busta Rhymes & Mariah Carey I Know What You Want Jun 2003

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 4 March 2004 16:50 (twenty-one years ago)

My girlfriend has some kind of idea that Outkast would have got to number one in both the album and singles charts if it had been distributed properly. She looked all over for both CDs and every time she asked it had 'sold out'. She figures she can't have been the only one.

― Jim Robinson (Original Miscreant), Thursday, 4 March 2004 17:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I heard of people unable to buy it too.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 4 March 2004 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Back to the first question - this certainly was not true in Chicago, where 'dance' or whatever you're calling it got played on the radio in the early 80s and had a cult following. Got played in the 'juice bars' and stuff, too. I guess it depends on whether you were an urban kid or not.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Thursday, 4 March 2004 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

'Cult following' among the new wave / post-punk kids, that is.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Thursday, 4 March 2004 17:41 (twenty-one years ago)

not that it matters, Suzy, but i don't see a Falco comparison as a diss - "Der Kommissar" is a fantastic single. i like the idea of a song poised on the borderline of showtunes and pop, which is what i think "One Night In Bangkok" is, although i do think Tim Rice is a cunt.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Friday, 5 March 2004 00:05 (twenty-one years ago)

big ups to falco - c u when i get there

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 5 March 2004 06:16 (twenty-one years ago)

"Sometimes, you're better off dead,
There's a gun in your hand and it's pointing to your head.
You think you're mad, too unstable
Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables
In a restaurant - in a West End town
Call the Police, there's a madman around
Running down underground to a dive bar
In a West End town"

And it was the first to go to #1!

― bruceramsbottom, Friday, 5 March 2004 22:45 (twenty-one years ago)

first rap song to go number one in US, probably (1974 -- and gangsta rap, no less!) (maybe this went number one in the UK too, though??):

My daddy was a cop on the east side of Chicago
Back in the U.S.A. back in the bad old days
In the heat of a summer night
In the land of the dollar bill
When the town of Chicago died
And they talk about it still
When a man named Al Capone
Tried to make that town his own
And he called his gang to war
With the forces of the law

― chuck, Friday, 5 March 2004 22:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Does "Convoy" count as rap?

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Friday, 5 March 2004 22:55 (twenty-one years ago)

of course, but that was a couple years later, right?

― chuck, Friday, 5 March 2004 22:56 (twenty-one years ago)

No idea, I'm a little fuzzy on 70s cheese. I think it was a UK #1 though!

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Friday, 5 March 2004 22:58 (twenty-one years ago)

for those who care, "Convoy" hit #2 in the UK, "The Night Chicago Died" reached #3.

― pedant (robin carmody), Saturday, 6 March 2004 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

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