INNER NINJA
Artist: Classified featuring Olly Murs
Writers: David Myles, Luke Boyd, Mark Pellizzer, Mike Boyd
Producers: Luke Boyd
Album: Right Place Right Time (Special Edition)
Release Date: 10/11/2013
Chart Positions: #36 (New Zealand)
At the same time that ‘Troublemaker’ was sitting proud atop the UK charts in November 2012, over the Atlantic in Canada, native rapper Lucas Boyd – better known by his stage name of Classified – was storming the airwaves and charts with a track called ‘Inner Ninja’. The original version was a collaboration with David Myles, a self-proclaimed ‘funk jazz roots’ singer songwriter, and had hit the top 5 and given the single’s parent album his first ever chart topper.
This ultra-cool hip hop stormer, calling to mind both ‘D.A.N.C.E’ by Justice and ‘Dirty Harry’ by Gorillaz was still doing rather well indeed when Olly had returned to North America and Canada in the spring of 2013 to promote the Stateside release of the ‘Right Place Right Time’ album. Classified’s record label was keen to break him across the pond, and thus asked Olly if he would mind re-recording the vocal for a special UK remix.
The result was this single, landing a whole two weeks before the repacked ‘Special Edition’ of the ‘Right Place Right Time’ album (on which this was added to the track list of), but perhaps owing to the fact it arrived a week before Olly’s own new single which was naturally getting far more airtime and promo (more on which next week of course) it flopped here – it was only in New Zealand that the track got granted a top 40 entry.
It’s a shame really, because even down to its call and response chorus, and adorable Karate Kid inspired video, in any perfectly normal circumstances ‘Inner Ninja’ would have been a bonafide smash hit. It was rather like the ‘Heart Skips A Beat’ US fiasco of a year previously, only this time Olly was the Chiddy Bang in the equation so to speak. Sadly, it seems to be but a forgotten footnote in Olly’s career – and we don’t doubt it is in Classified’s as well – but we still love it.
