Heading back to '89/'90 with this slate of contemporaneous dance stuff that was mixed by the duo of Brooklyn Funk Essentials, who are not be confused with a large collective of the same name that was co-helmed by legendary producer Arthur Baker. Issued by New York label Next Plateau Records, this album appears to have a bunch of songs from the label's own catalogue on it, but there's others that come from outside of the company too, so, maybe this'll be a neat little snapshot of the American dance landscape writ large. US-marketed dance music was in a sort of weird identity crisis at this point, though, unsure of where it was headed and what trends it could chase and potentially build upon.
Also, neat album art, taking the 15 Top Spins title quite literally.
Fido's Choice: 17 Cool Dance Trax
1991
New Jack Swing / R&B / Hip-House / Dance-Pop
Alright, well, before we dive directly into this silly relic of the early 90s, we first need to discuss a little pop cultural cartoon icon from that same era named Fido Dido (pronounced fy-doe dee-doe). Fido Dido was a simple black-ink-on-white-background doodle of a lanky teen-or-early-twenty-something (why was everything on a pure white background back then anyway?) that was conceived in 1985 by the two women who'd later also come up with other cartoon characters like Pepper Ann and Angela Anaconda. Fido embodied an essence of contemporaneously youthful laid-back coolness—sort of like a proto-Bart Simpson or Skeeter Valentine—and as such, he caught on in New York as a fixture of t-shirts, developed his own goofy cult-like mantra, and was eventually licensed out to various brands to use as an animated mascot for their own advertisements, most notably 7 Up, but also CBS, for their own Saturday morning cartoon bumpers. Fido had his own graphic novel, his own comic strip, he was a toy, on bumper stickers, there was a videogame in the works for him before the company that was making it shut down mid-production, and there was even shampoo and hair gel that apparently smelled like 7 Up too. He was an enigmatically ubiquitous piece of intellectual property; a cultural phenomenon that exists in the same pantheon as the smiley face, the cool S, those iconically blocky Keith Haring figures, and bootlegged 'Peeing Calvin' clothes and decals.
And Fido was transnational too. In 1991, a record label in the Netherlands called Magnum would start to promote his very own taste in music with a V/A compilation series called Fido's Choice. And wouldn't ya know it, just like his peer Bart Simpson who'd released his own "Do the Bartman" the year prior, he was *really* into that whole American new jack swing thing, the Teddy Riley-produced fad that successfully made contemporary R&B a whole lot more danceable, with acts like Bobby Brown—who gets his own 7-and-a-half-minute megamix here—Bell Biv DeVoe, Guy, and Tony! Toni! Toné!
Check out the ad while you're here:
But as Fido was very much his own fixture of that specific late 80s-to-early 90s period, so too was new jack swing, which quickly developed into its own worn-out gimmick where so much of the music became so formulaically bland and unremarkably disposable 🗑️. In the heat of that brief 1991 moment, though, Fido really couldn't get enough of that whole vibe, and as a result, we've got a collection of pretty corny tunes here that represents that weird conception of dance music as not necessarily a combination of things like house and techno—both of which the Netherlands was keenly aware of in 1991—but moreso that far more commercially-oriented amalgamation of house, dance-pop, R&B, party-and-pop-rap, and new jack swing that'd fart out something as embarrassingly inescapable as C&C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat," which everyone now pretends that they never liked, despite the fact that its album sold over 5 million copies in the US alone.
Broadly speaking, too, there was also still this very arrogant and misguided belief back then that rapping was actually a very easy thing to do, so there are a bunch of absolutely horrendous verses to be found in a whole bunch of these songs here, treated as gimmicky afterthoughts with a big "how do you do, fellow kids?"-type of stench to them. You can just imagine the wide-tied and suspendered suit in the boardroom going, 'rap's the newest-latest, the kids go crazy for that shit! So let's rap for a handful of bars instead of sing. Here, you've got five minutes to come up with something!'
It's your world
and I'm just a squirrel
Tryin' to get a nut
to move your butt
- Freedom Williams
So, yeah, this thing's a pretty brutal bore, BUT there are still two tracks that are of note. One is "Knockin' Boots" by Candyman, one of a litany of those super corny and light Cali-made rap tunes that were popping up like crazy in the early 90s, alongside stuff like Young MC's "Bust a Move," MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This," Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back," and Tone Lōc's "Wild Thing." And it's Tone-Lōc himself who intros this very track, which isn't all that good, but it uses a sweet summery sample of Betty Wright's "Tonight is the Night" and interpolates Rose Royce's "Ooh Boy" too, which Shaggy and Janet Jackson would much more famously replicate in '97 for Shaggy's "Luv Me, Luv Me" (🎶Ooh, boy, I love you so, never, ever, ever gonna let you go, once I get my hands on you🎶).
And then I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Fatboy Slim is on here as well. Before he'd go on to become the undisputed king of the big beat genre that defined a sizeable chunk of the sound of the turn-of-the-millennium itself, he was helming a project in the early 90s called Beats International, whose "Dub Be Good to Me," a street soul-acid jazz-dub-type of rework of S.O.S. Band's "Just Be Good to Me," went to #1 in the UK. Humidly Caribbean and with a fronting female vocal, it's a bit similar to Saint Etienne's cover of Neil Young's own "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" too, which came out in the same year. So if you're ever on that early 90s UK reggae-infused tip for whatever reason, you can rock those two together.
Honestly, though, I'm kinda disappointed and surprised by what Fido was into in 1991. I don't mind that he liked new jack swing and the genres and styles that it adjacently coexisted with, but he really seemed to dig some of the lamest examples of what those things yielded. I really thought he'd be a lot cooler because he's a skateboarder who drinks lemon-lime soda and all, but I guess he really was a fan of this weird and largely forgettable period of keyboard overuse. Ironically, I go so totally nuts over all types of visuals that come from around this same time period—including Fido himself!—and the 80s and 90s as a whole are definitely my two favorite music decades too, but these years that specifically bridged them together really ended up generating some of the worst and most hollow crap imaginable; and there are a bunch of examples of it on here 😩.
Still, though, I wonder what type of stuff Fido's listening to these days? 🤔
Here's a significantly deeper dive into the story behind him, by the way.
Highlights:
Candyman - "Knockin' Boots"
C & C Music Factory feat. Freedom Williams - "Gonna Make You Sweat"
Beats International - "Dub Be Good to Me"
Club MTV: Party to Go, Vol. 1 by Howard Kessler
1991
Dance-Pop / New Jack Swing / Synthpop / Party Rap / Pop-Rap / Hip-House
Before Tommy Boy Records went on to define a piece of the 90s by way of a partnership with ESPN to deliver us the stadium dance anthems of Jock Jams, they initially launched into a partnership with MTV in the early 90s to give us a dance series called Party to Go. And this is its first installment, a DJ mix by an in-house guy at Tommy Boy named Howard Kessler who did some radio edit work and mastered De La Soul's Buhloone Mindstate.
Kessler's mix really seems to more or less represent what mainstream dance music essentially was in early 90s America: a totally confused hodgepodge of dance-pop, synthpop, new jack swing, hip-house, and party rap. It's certainly not a forgotten aspect of 90s dance music by any means, but I'd say it's far less remembered than the oncoming crush of Eurodance that bombarded the airwaves a couple years later; a dance craze that Tommy Boy itself played a large role in perpetrating through Jock Jams, and one I tend to enjoy a whole lot more. Just say the words "90s dance music" to someone and tell me that they don't think of Haddaway's "What Is Love" before literally any song on here.
Anyway, the thing that ultimately really mars this release is its overall selection. There's just too many headscratchingly bad tunes on here for this to be considered good. Awful showings from both MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice, two of the corniest rappers to ever rap, but who both managed to put out fun 90s tunes in their time. And these aren't their fun tunes, not even in an ironic way for you to appreciate their goofiness. They're just plain embarrassingly terrible! And there's a total curveball to close things out as well, with a very weird remix of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus." It's not bad, but it doesn't go with this new jack swingin' hip-house dance-pop vibe at all. It's on some post-punk-coming-to-the-early-90s-electronic-age kind of thing. Oil and water.
But there's definitely some good to this! The track list and liner notes don't reflect it, but there's a bunch of special remixes in here that you wouldn't have heard on your favorite top 40 radio station or seen on MTV back in the day. Kessler's use of rarer extended remixes, like the "Mental mix" of Bell Biv DeVoe's "Poison" or the "Virtual Reality mix" of Information Society's "Think" gives this mix some more points than your typical reproduction of top 40 hits.
But that doesn't make it worth owning. There's simply too much bad to overcome that bit of good. This mix doesn't seem to have been all that well thought out, but that might not have been Howard Kessler's fault in the end. Hard to say, but he may not have had much choice in what to select. He may have been forced to use tunes that were getting play on MTV at the time, and that would make it hard to create a quality dance mix since MTV didn't play too much dance music then, or really ever.
Too weird, too jumpy, and just not a good flow. The good dance vibes get interrupted by the bad dance vibes far too many times for this to be worth a listen. But some of these songs are still worth a listen on an individual level. Plus, it's hard to say for certain, but the existence of this series may have laid the groundwork for Tommy Boy to branch itself out into its other much more popular dance series, Jock Jams. So, if that's the case, then thank God that this thing exists at all! 😅
Listen to the full mix here.
Highlights:
Bell Biv DeVoe - "Poison (Mental mix)"
Paula Abdul - "Knocked Out (Pettibone 12")"
Information Society -" Think (Virtual Reality mix)"
DNA feat. Suzanne Vega - "Tom's Diner (12" mix)"
Digital Underground - "The Humpty Dance"
Dance Mix USA by Markus Klinke, Rawle James & Rob Rettberg
1994
House / Eurodance / Euro House / Hip-House / New Jack Swing
First installment in the classic “As Seen on TV” Dance Mix USA series. Super commercial, so it’s a huge fucking dose of early 90s dance nostalgia, but I fear that the bulk of this set of tunes represents the limit of most Americans’ early 90s dance knowledge. Look, I love a lot of these songs to absolute pieces. Most of them rip on their own still, but there were thousands of other great dance tunes out there at the same time that were just as good, and oftentimes better. So if you wanna relive some early 90s dance fun, this is a phenomenal release, but just be aware that there’s far more out there than just this super popular stuff if you really want to sink your teeth into some early 90s dance fare.
A good bit of different mixes on this that I can’t say that I’d actually ever heard before, like this club mix of Salt-N-Pepa’s “Let’s Talk About Sex,” which is actually way less intense than the original version. Crystal Waters’ “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)” is also a different mix than the original and it comes with lots of dramatic, cinematic string strikes.
Also, I think the crown jewel on this mix is a song that I’d actually never heard before: “Run to You” by Rage. It’s a super anthemic 1992 dance cover of Bryan Adams. Didn’t do well in the States, but looks like it smashed in the UK. Really superb song.
Unfortunately, I can’t find a link to this whole mix, but I hope this YouTube vid that has a little more than the last 30 minutes and begins with Technotronic’s “Move This” will suffice 😃.
Listen to the last half-hour-plus of the mix here.
Highlights:
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam - “Let the Beat Hit ‘em”
C+C Music Factory - “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)”
TLC - “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg”
Salt-N-Pepa - “Let’s Talk About Sex”
Cathy Dennis - “Touch Me (All Night Long)”
Double You - “Please Don’t Go”
Crystal Waters - “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)”
Black Box - “Strike It Up”
Technotronic - “Move This”
Snap! - “Rhythm Is a Dancer”
Claudja B. - “Summer of Love”
Rozalla - “Everybody’s Free (to Feel Good)”
Rage - “Run to You”
2 Unlimited - “Tribal Dance”
2 Unlimited - “Twilight Zone”
The Movement - “Jump!”
Knight Owl - “Who’s the Man?”
Brown & Proud, Volume 1
1994
Hip Hop / Party Rap / G-Funk
The Knightowl (now Mr. Knightowl) is a pioneering Chicano gangsta rapper from San Diego. Debuting in 1993, his career nearly took off when he was set to sign a contract with Eazy-E’s Ruthless Records, but Eazy’s untimely passing in 1995 caused that plan to derail. Since then, the Knightowl has been a staple of the SoCal underground gangsta rap scene, appearing on tracks alongside venerated west coast veterans such as Daz Dillinger, Kid Frost, and the aforementioned Eazy-E.
His 1994 self-titled debut album contains an awesome and overlooked piece of party rap hype called “Who’s the Man”. That same year, it appeared on a Latin hip hop compilation called Brown & Proud, released by Miami bass label Pandisc Records.
“Who’s the Man” is a piece of golden age high-powered dope. Produced by the completely unknown Reggie Valenzuela, this song is littered with constant g-funk shrieks, whining horn synths, and corrugated electro-funk basslines. Matching the beat’s intensity, the Knightowl spits with a brash and aggressive, confident ferociousness, sounding something like a cross between Marky Mark on “Good Vibrations” and LL Cool J on “Mama Said Knock You Out”. And when the Knightowl’s not rapping, someone else (Valenzuela?) intervenes with some excellent turntable scratching.
A super underrated track. Good for any old school 90s party rap mix.
15 Top Spins • Volume One by Brooklyn Funk Essentials
1990
Party Rap / Freestyle / R&B / House / Hip-House
There’s still a couple pretty sweet joints on here, though, and I think the one warranting the most mention has to be Bronx freestyle trio Sweet Sensation’s “Take It While It’s Hot,” which is a pretty decent dance number on its own, but here, it sounds like Victor and Lenny made their own personal and exclusive enhancement to it too. On the “Take It While It’s Hot” 12-inch, there’s what’s called a “Percapella” version, which cuts out an underlying drum track and encourages someone to fill in all that blank space themselves. So, here, Victor and Lenny open up the tune with a wall-shaking four-on-the-floor kick, but then combine that with a sample of the iconic drum break off of James Brown’s “Funky Drummer” as well. And let me tell you, this particular version beats out all the other commercially available versions that I’ve heard from this song’s own respective 12-inch single. The use of that break, particularly, gives the tune such an added texture of awesomely funky bounce. Have a listen for yourself and then compare it to the original; it’s fantastic 🙌.
Note: I wanted to post this exclusive version of the Sweet Sensation track that I'm referring to here, but Tumblr won't let me. It's in the full post on Substack, though 👀.
