A friend texted me the other night and said she heard a hip-hop song that sampled Spandau Ballet's sappy New Romantic hit "True." I texted back: "PM Dawn" -- but she said it wasn't it. I never did find out exactly what tune she meant (I suspect it was Soul:ID's "True") , but a little Google-fu tells me that Nelly also sampled the song, on "N Dey Say." In honor of Nelly week on the blog, I figure I'd make P.M. Dawn's 1991 #1 hit "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" our jam of the week.
P.M. Dawn is a duo of brothers from Jersey City who are still together and touring -- although its last scheduled date was a gig with Boyz II Men in Youngstown, Ohio, last December. A new album is rumored to be in the works. But the following song is by far their most well-known tune.
By request. Montell Jordan hit # 1 in 1995 with this jam called "This Is How We Do It." Hear it once, doubt you'll get it out of your head.
Believe it or not, Jordan is more active than ever as a musician. (In fact, he seems to be performing in Zurich this weekend, if you're there.) His MySpace (linked on his name above) touts a new official Web site, www.montellbumpages.com, which says Jordan's seventh album, Pressure, would be out in fall 2007. A link to this site claims you can buy Pressure, but I haven't been able to determine if it's been released.
This DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince song sounds the best each year during the first warm week of spring. Like right here, right now in St. Louis, where everybody seems to have come alive with happiness and energy. A chart hit in 1991, the still-popular tune samples Kool & the Gang's "Summer Madness" and can be found on the pair's fourth album, Homebase.
Chicago-born Skee-Lo's 1995 lament "I Wish" is this week's '90s hip-hop flashback. Who hasn't wanted to be taller? Or wanted to be a "baller"? Or pined after a significant other who "looked good" so you could call them?
Skee-Lo actually released a second album (2000's I Can't Stop), but appears to have been quiet since then (although you can watch the "At the Mall" video here).
"Return of the Mack" was by far Mark Morrison's biggest U.S. hit: It peaked at #2 on the charts in 1997. (For more information on his string of hit U.K. singles and multiple run-ins with the law, see this page.)
But Morrison's not down or out: He's releasing King of British R&B: The Best Of...Mark Morrison this summer; a European tour will coincide with its release. He's also appeared on "Innocent (Misunderstood)" a 2008 single by rapper Cassidy.
A request from co-worker Kristie. One of the best new jack swing tunes of the decade, the Oakland outfit Tony! Toni! Tone! dominated MTV and radio with this tune in 1993. From the album Sons of Soul.
This was probably not the best video for an impressionable adolescent to watch, but perhaps it sent me on my uber-feminist path.
Fun fact: My calculus teacher in high school used to reference this song, vaguely, when mentioning us doing math on our TI-82 calculators. It wasn't creepy; it was just hilarious.
Even more fun facts: According to Wikipedia, "'Rump Shaker' is also notable for featuring a verse (performed by Teddy Riley) written by a young Pharrell Williams, who, along with fellow future-Neptune Chad Hugo, contributed additional production work as Teddy Riley's then-protégés."
Williams and Hugo, of course, are in town at 8 p.m. this Sunday night at the Pageant with N.E.R.D.See our feature here.
I repeat: Coolio -- he of "Fantastic Voyage" and "Gangsta's Paradise" fame -- has a cooking show called (natch) "Cookin with Coolio." Ian posted about it here. The link he provides goes to here -- and that entry states:
Coolio, the rapper known mostly for the song Gangsta's Paradise, wants to "teach yo ass how to cook," and now the self proclaimed Ghetto Gourmet has his own online cooking show. Unsurprisingly, the show features cleavage, swearing, and references to swords, nunchucks, and pistols. The subject of the first show—caprese salad, or as Coolio explains it, "I'm gunna teach you how to make a salad that will get them panties right off."
