“Well my name is Young MC and I’m cold rockin’ the house I came up into the place and I’m a-turnin’ it out”
Make sure you flux capacitor is fluxing because we’re heading back, wayyy back, to 1989. It’s fall and I’m just starting the seventh grade. Girls are kind of on the radar but, hey, we just got a Nintendo so, you know, priorities. Plus, I still have to watch Batman about 78 more times. With the suddenly realization that the first school dance of the year is rapidly approaching and my groove-set consisted of a clunky Roger Rabbit and a comedic Bat Dance, I was unprepared for dance floor circle mastery and ready to face dance floor circle mockery! Young MC to the rescue!
The Queens, NYC rapper would give me all the motivation I needed when he informed me that a girl dressed in yellow would say hello and want to sit next to me, a fine fellow! I wouldn’t have a second a to lose. Damn it, kid, put down your controller and Bat-a-rang because you gotta’ learn how to “Bust a Move”.
Before Marvin Young was pumping rhyme into my school dance, he earned that MC by rapping over a telephone for Delicious Vinyl reps who promptly delivered his recording contract to the kid’s USC dorm room. Getting dance floors to bust a move was on the way but first he helped us do the “Wild Thing”, collaborating with Tone Lōc on that ’89 chart topper and follow up “Funky Cold Medina”.
Already on a roll in the rap world, MC stepped into a readymade spotlight by dropping his own Top 10 single, “Bust a Move”, which would go on to best Lōc at the 1990 Grammys when it took the award for Best Rap Performance.
“I dreamt of stuff like this but never thought it was going to happen so soon,” said MC, clearly surprised at the wave of success he’d been riding since his debut single.
The cut helped propel MC’s debut album Stone Cold Rhymin’ into Billboard’s Top 10 with the introductory release eventually hitting platinum. Though comparisons could be made to Lōc-ed After Dark (both were engineered by Mario Caldato, Jr. and both feature Delicious cofounders Matt Dike and Mike Ross producing with the Dust Brothers), MC’s hoisting of the Grammy proved he wasn’t about to stand solely on other people’s beats.
To this day, “Bust A Move” remains one of the ultimate party songs, a feel good tune that commands you to move. Sure, this reviewer may have stunk up that Grade 7 dance floor with gyrations that resembled Carlton Banks strutting his stuff on a slab of Jell-o but who’s going to notice when you have such a bombastically fun soundtrack, right?
Like Lōc-ed After Dark, Stone Cold Rhymin’ can be looked back on as one of the popularizers of funky, sample-based hip-hop, dropping a mega-hit as the genre was beginning to modernize. Other cuts like “My Name Is Young” and “Principal’s Office” didn’t reach the same panicle as “Bust a Move” but this throwback is still something to reach for when you want a good time spin.
If it’s got Flea slapping some bass on it, it’s gotta’ be funky!
When Craft Recordings relaunched some of hip-hops pioneering essentials, Young MC’s debut was easily part of the cut, receiving a remastering fitting of some of the most lasting music of the genre. Stone Cold Rhymin’ comes from that moment in time when rap was busting into the mainstream with tunes your English teacher was fine popping into the tape-deck or cuts nobody would be worried about if played at your Aunt Mary’s wedding reception. To some hip hop devotes, this watered down sanitation is the kinda’ sellout suckery Metallica’s “Black Album” was to Metalheads. True, Young MC isn’t telling you to “Fight the Power” or “Fuck the Police” but how many dance floors were those tunes filling?
Sometimes you just need some sweet icing to add to the mix that keeps you “groovin’ it and always movin’ it… Pullin’ out rhymes like books off the shelf” ‘cause “this is stone cold rhymin’, no frills, no fluffs!”
Track list:
A1. I Come Off
A2. Principal’s Office
A3. Bust A Move
A4. Non Stop
A5. Fastest Rhyme
A6. My Name Is Young
B1. Know How
B2. Roll With The Punches
B3. I Let ‘Em Know
B4. Pick Up The Pace
B5. Got More Rhymes
B6. Stone Cold Buggin’
B7. Just Say No
A1. I Come Off
A2. Principal’s Office
A3. Bust A Move
A4. Non Stop
A5. Fastest Rhyme
A6. My Name Is Young
B1. Know How
B2. Roll With The Punches
B3. I Let ‘Em Know
B4. Pick Up The Pace
B5. Got More Rhymes
B6. Stone Cold Buggin’
B7. Just Say No
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