Comments on: 1988 Countdown #85: Fat Boys, “The Twist” http://rulefortytwo.com/2008/07/31/1988-countdown-85-fat-boys-the-twist/ The Self-Aggrandizing Website of Gavin Edwards Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:43:04 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Chris M. http://rulefortytwo.com/2008/07/31/1988-countdown-85-fat-boys-the-twist/#comment-247 Chris M. Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:35:12 +0000 http://rulefortytwo.com/2008/07/31/1988-countdown-85-fat-boys-the-twist/#comment-247 Y'know what else came out in 1988, is equally of the radio-friendly party-rap genre, was also made massive by <i>Yo! MTV Raps</i> in its debut year -- and yet doesn't sound dated today the way this Fat Boys <i>mishegoss</i> does? And, like all the great but more grim-faced stuff you listed above, probably won't be on this contemporaneous MTV countdown? Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock's "It Takes Two." I mention this only to point out that, even in the world of pop-rap crossover, the big cultural gatekeepers were <i>so bad</i> at determining what the great or lasting or radio-gold records were. It isn't just that MTV or Top 40 programmers had, until at least the mid-’90s, awful taste in hip-hop -- that explains PE or Rakim not getting play. They couldn't even identify the <b>rap-based ear candy</b> that helped change the sound of popular music and caught the fancy of the general public. They were too busy playing this dreck (no offense to the Fat Boys, who were once-great beatboxers and became pawns in this game). I mean, Salt-n-Pepa's "Push It" is now considered a rap-pop crossover classic, but back in ’87–’88 (that year again!) it struggled to scrape the Top 20 of the Hot 100, <i>despite selling more than 2 million singles</i>. Think about that: in the days before SoundScan, not only was radio sheepish about playing a massively popular, if sexually aggressive, hip-hop song, retailers were sheepish about reporting how many copies they were selling! They couldn't even properly <i>report</i> the songs that were becoming hits on their own! I basically regard the dominance by hip-hop over the pop charts over the last decade and a half as massive karmic revenge for the ways the genre got screwed by the industry in the ’80s. Y’know what else came out in 1988, is equally of the radio-friendly party-rap genre, was also made massive by Yo! MTV Raps in its debut year — and yet doesn’t sound dated today the way this Fat Boys mishegoss does? And, like all the great but more grim-faced stuff you listed above, probably won’t be on this contemporaneous MTV countdown?

Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock’s “It Takes Two.”

I mention this only to point out that, even in the world of pop-rap crossover, the big cultural gatekeepers were so bad at determining what the great or lasting or radio-gold records were. It isn’t just that MTV or Top 40 programmers had, until at least the mid-’90s, awful taste in hip-hop — that explains PE or Rakim not getting play. They couldn’t even identify the rap-based ear candy that helped change the sound of popular music and caught the fancy of the general public. They were too busy playing this dreck (no offense to the Fat Boys, who were once-great beatboxers and became pawns in this game).

I mean, Salt-n-Pepa’s “Push It” is now considered a rap-pop crossover classic, but back in ’87–’88 (that year again!) it struggled to scrape the Top 20 of the Hot 100, despite selling more than 2 million singles. Think about that: in the days before SoundScan, not only was radio sheepish about playing a massively popular, if sexually aggressive, hip-hop song, retailers were sheepish about reporting how many copies they were selling! They couldn’t even properly report the songs that were becoming hits on their own!

I basically regard the dominance by hip-hop over the pop charts over the last decade and a half as massive karmic revenge for the ways the genre got screwed by the industry in the ’80s.

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