Apr 29
Nina ist wild!
Nina Hagen, New York New York, 1983
seen from Vietnam
seen from Brazil
seen from United States
seen from Portugal
seen from Singapore
seen from Spain
seen from Germany
seen from Australia
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Uruguay
seen from Uzbekistan
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Uruguay
seen from Singapore
seen from China
Nina ist wild!
Nina Hagen, New York New York, 1983
Tracklist:
Bad Boys • A Ray Of Sunshine • Love Machine • Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do?) • Club Tropicana • Nothing Looks the Same In the Light • Come On! • Young Guns (Go for It!)
Have you listened to Fantastic by Wham! (1983)?
Yes, the entire album!
Partially, some but not all songs
No, but familiar with it
Haven't heard of it before
Submitter's note: this thang rocks <- biased opinion
Spotify ♪ YouTube
Have you heard Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five?
Yes
No but I've heard of them
Haven't even heard of them
Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel - “White Lines (Don’t Do It)” The Best Rap Album of All Time Song released in 1984. Compilation released in 1999. Disco-Rap / Hip Hop
Although the classic old school disco-rap jam of "White Lines" is often credited to both Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel, the truth is that Grandmaster Flash had absolutely nothing to do with the song. In fact, Flash wasn't involved with any of the original songs that were attributed to Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, including "The Message." The music was taken care of by Sugar Hill Records' in-house band and the writing was done by both Melle Mel and Sugar Hill owner Sylvia Robinson, who was also Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five's producer and manager. Flash's role in the group was as a DJ, and if the song didn't call for a DJ, then Flash wasn't involved in the song-making process. He'd steal the show in a live setting though, and one particular track where he did flex for a studio recording was the inimitable "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel."
So why was Flash's name on this track alongside Melle Mel's? Sylvia Robinson put it on there to move units; simple as that. Back in those days, the DJ was the leader of the group and the rappers always came second. And without Flash's name on the record, "White Lines" would've had a huge potential to flop. But Flash had actually departed Sugar Hill Records the year before the song was released and he also had stopped working with Melle Mel entirely. Deceptive, unethical, all around terrible, sure, but if you didn't know that Flash wasn't on this song, do you think, unless you were a die-hard Melle Mel or Sugar Hill Records fan, that you'd have ever heard it? I doubt it. Probably wouldn't have been a hit otherwise.
Couple other things about "White Lines": first, the song ended up bankrupting Sugar Hill Records. And not because of a Grandmaster Flash lawsuit, but because of a different lawsuit: an art punk-funk group called Liquid Liquid sued Sugar Hill over the tune because it very clearly appropriated the bassline of one of Liquid Liquid's songs, "Cavern," as well as some vocal melodies from it as well ("slip in and out of phenomenon" from "Cavern" was transformed by Melle Mel's vocal backers into the iconic rap line, "something like a phenomenon," for example). The verdict ruled that Sugar Hill was to pay Liquid Liquid $600,000, but rather than pay that sum, Sugar Hill decided to declare bankruptcy instead.
One other thing about this song is that it was ostensibly supposed to be an anti-cocaine anthem, but there's some conflicting info on that. In some places you'll read that the impetus for "White Lines" was the then-recent fatal overdose of a drug dealer that Melle Mel knew, whereas other sources disclose that the song was supposed to be an ironic, sort of over-the-top glorification of cocaine, but in order to become marketable to a wider audience, the words "don't do it" had to be appended to both the song's title and its lyrics. And for what it's worth, a lot of the song's short verses do warn about the perils of addiction, too.
But I mean, if you listen to this song, how is it really not anything other than a cocaine anthem? "White Lines" is so goddamn jittery, from its stuttering, stolen bassline that was re-produced by the Sugar Hill band, to its triumphant trumpet stabs on the chorus. And there's a high level of uneasy intensity to the whole thing, too, thanks in large part to that bassline and the sudden shock of the chorus. But all of that more or less gets evened out by the light, high-pitched, euphoric choir of doo-woppy backing vocals ("rang-dang-diggedy-dang-di-dang"). Hmm... an intense beat, but euphoric vocals...intensity and euphoria...two trademarks of a cocaine high. Go figure. And did I mention that there's also audible nasal snorts that form part of the beat, too? Lyrics be damned!
In the end, "White Lines" is like a sonic pile of blow, and despite its lyrical attempts to make it an anti-drug song, tons of people naturally didn't heed those words and ended up doing copious amounts of white lines to it instead. Great fucking idea, honestly, to make a song that could both be construed as either a wink and a nod to cocaine use or as a song against cocaine use. Plenty of mass appeal there. Sylvia Robinson, you evil genius.
So here's an even more coked-out version of "White Lines," which seems to have been remixed by a guy from New Jersey who went by the name of King Shameek. This version, dubbed the "New Re-Mix," originally appeared on a 1984 self-titled Sugar Hill Records album called Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious Five. One-third mostly instrumental, simmering breakbeat with hazy, dubby reverb effects, one-third dope rap track, and one-third disco groove, this tune, although short, does a nifty job of appealing to both the b-boys and b-girls who wanted to get down as well as the partygoers who came with an interest to hear some rhymes, too.
Perhaps the greatest irony though is the song that contained the lyrics, "higher baby, get higher baby, get higher baby, and don't ever come down," which could've been interpreted as a map of Sugar Hill's own ascension at the time, is the song that actually wound up marking the label's ultimate and sudden demise. But the void that was caused by Liquid Liquid's lawsuit actually proved as one of hip hop's most pivotal moments, as groups like Run-D.M.C., who would bring a more advanced form of lyricism to the table, began to show that hip hop was well on its way to becoming much more than just some post-disco fad that was destined to fizzle out in just a few short years.
P.S.: Didn't know where to fit this in the post, but definitely a bit of trivia worth mentioning: the first time Grandmaster Flash heard "White Lines," he was actually on his way to buy some crack. He claims that he thought the song was actually directed towards him in that moment. Ha!
‘The Magnificent Seven’ by The Clash, from ‘Sandinista!’
Tracklist:
Wordy Rappinghood • Genius Of Love • Tom Tom Theme • L'Éléphant • As Above, So Below • Lorelei • On, On, On, On... • Booming And Zooming
Have you listened to Tom Tom Club's self-titled album (1981)?
Yes, the entire album!
Partially, some but not all songs
No, but familiar with it
Haven't heard of it before
Submitter's Note: The song “Genius of Love” has been sampled countless times, especially by hip-hop and R&B artists. The most well known use of the song was in Mariah Carey’s song “Fantasy”.
Spotify ♪ YouTube
Have you heard Falco?
Yes
No but I've heard of them
Haven't even heard of them
Tracklist:
Pola Monola + Coca Cola • Tankowanie Nocą • Sound - Ciężkie Brzmienie • Ja Jestem Menago • Dysk - Dżokej • Jednoręki Bandyta • Królowa Dysko • Marynara Łu-bu-du-bu • King Bruce Lee Karate Mistrz • Dysko Story • Pożegnanie Franka
Have you listened to Franek Kimono's self-titled album (1984)?
Yes, the entire album!
Partially, some but not all songs
No, but familiar with it
Haven't heard of it before
Spotify ♪ YouTube