B is for: "Boom! Shake The Room" - Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh PrinceWhat, no Be My Baby? My choice for "B" presents the perfect
opportunity to confirm an essential aspect of this A-Z, which is that I intend to compile it instinctively, in a first-thought, best-thought sorta way - this is a list of pop songs that matter to me personally, which spring immediately to mind because they're heavily playlisted on mybrain FM, rather than an exercise in advertising what refined taste I have. So I coulda chosen the undeniably wondrous Phil Spector / Ronettes girl-group classic, and almost did...but the truth is what I always really wanted to pick was Boom! Shake The Room, by Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. So I have.
"The f-f-f-f fresh p-p-p-prince is who I am: so tell my mother that I never wrote a wack jam."
Should an alien race ever require the people of earth to provide a sample of our best work, we would bundle William Smith up onto a rocket ship and send him hurtling off into the cosmos, with a suitcase containing the Fresh Prince of Bel Air DVD box-set, Men In Black, 'Summertime', 'Miami' and this record on 12" vinyl, and a note stapled to his t-shirt saying "Now show us what you've got." Will Smith is about as bankable a celebrity as it's possible to imagine, and B!STR is a Very Commercial Record. It's essentially LL Cool J's Momma Said Knock You Out, already a relatively pop rap single, with every pop hook turned up to 11, an explosion for a chorus, and a lead vocal performance by the most charismatic man on the planet. If hip-hop heads wanna grumble about how "sanitised" Will & Jazz's version of Rap Music is here, let 'em. One of pop music's roles is as a gateway drug to harder, more adult kicks. B!STR was a sneaky toke behind the bikesheds for a generation of Fresh Prince teens, who the very next year were probably nodding out in their bedrooms to the sounds of Cypress Hill and Snoop Dogg.
2 comments:
Funnily enough, I was only talking to someone the other day about favourite JJ+FP tracks (I'm sad like that). I plumped for the sublime "Parents Just Don't Understand" (the only comedy record that always makes me laugh, no matter how often I hear it), but this was in the mix.
I have to confess that as a pop song, B!STR doesn't do much for me, but as a party record, it delivers a devastating payload - chock-ful of shout-outs & hooks, backed by a fat, thundering bassline designed to send dancefloors mental.
I agree with you about Big Willie too - I've not always liked his shows, films or records, but I always like him. As you say, the guy is Mr Charisma...
Yeah, you're right in all respects - hook-central, and such a massive production. An undeniable dancefloor monster. And you're right that it's really a "party" track too - I guess the definition of "pop" I'm using here is pretty all encompassing. Two A-Z posts down, 24 to go...
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