Remember this blast from the past? The Jets were an 8 member band and all of them were related, all brothers and sisters. Actually my dad has 17 brothers and sisters, they should’ve definitely started their own super group. Anyways jumping back on topic the family band came from Minneapolis and rocked it through the ’80s with their Pop, R&B and Dance sounds. This was one of those bands that my mom listened to back in the day and the one song that really stuck with me was “Crush on You”, which came out in the mid-80s. The group had numerous hits that made to it to the charts between the mid to late ’80s, these include: “Crush On You”, “You Got It All”, “Cross My Broken Heart”, “Rocket 2 U” and “Make it Real”. The band released about 6 - 7 studio albums along with numerous Best Of’s.
Check out video above and reminisce about the first time you heard this.
This week’s Throwback Thursday, Force M.D.’s “Tender Love”. I haven’t heard this song in a minute, like literally YEARS, so when Alicia Keys played it the other night after “Diary”, I didn’t immediately recognize it. Initially I thought it was a Janet Jackson song and I wasn’t the only one, as a few people I talked to thought it was as well. But alas the mystery was solved and it was revealed that it was Force M.D.’s “Tender Love”.
So here’s some knowledge for you. The group, from Staten Island New York, originally formed in 1983 and were signed to Tommy Boy records a year later. The M.D.’s (stands for Musical Diversity) were a vital crew in the early history of street hip-hop and one of the first groups to fuse doo-wop influenced harmonies with hip-hop. They had a few hits here and there, but “Tender Love” was the first that hit top ten. It was in the movie Krush Groove (ahhh classic) and was penned by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, which may have been the reason why I thought it was a Janet Jackson song as they produced some of her work as well. Songs that came to mind from Janet were “Again”, Let’s Wait Awhile” and “Everytime”, it’s the piano.
Anyways sit back and enjoy an oldie but goodie for the very first time again.
Nu Shooz, an 80’s electronic dance group consisting of husband and wife duo John Smith and Valerie Day. The group has released a total of three albums in the U.S. during the 80’s but never really hit it big, except that is for this song. The song “I Can’t Wait” and “Point of No Return” are pretty much the only songs I know from them and I’m willing to bet it’s the only song most people know from this group. The song climbed to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1986 and spent 15 weeks in the Top 40. Again this is one of those joints that my moms liked, which automatically made me like it. Anyways have a listen and let us know what you think.
Chilling in a steakhouse with a couple of my boys talkin’ shit and reminicing, when what do I hear coming out of the speakers, Eddie Murphy’s “Party All The Time”. F-U-C-K-I-N-G AMAZING! Here we are in this fancy steakhouse and out blasts this song, I had to stop the conversation and ask, “Is this Eddie Murphy?”. The song “Party All The Time” was recorded in 1985 and written as well as produced by Rick James and Kevin Johnston. The single reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and basically was the only hit off of the whole album, How Could It Be. The song holds the dubious honor of being ranked #7 in VH1’s list of “The 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs Ever”,and #8 in Blender magazine’s list of the “50 Worst Songs Ever”. Eddie Murphy’s vocals = ill, Rick James’ hair = amazing. Even though it resides on these lists, I still feel like people always have a special place in their heart for this song. Kind of a guilty pleasure I have to say, and that’s this week’s Throwback Thursday.
Ahhhhh…I heard this on my iPod the other day and totally forgot I even had this on there.The group, Exposé, the song, “Point of No Return”. Here’s an interesting fact, the song was originally released in 1985 with Alé as the lead singer, but in 1987 when Arista released their debut album, they had the group re-record the song again, as Alé and Sandeé had left the group to pursue solo careers. The picture you see on the main feature page and below is of the original group, not the reformed version.
Growing up I definitely had a lot of love for this genre of music, Freestyle, as my folks, mainly my mom would always play this kind of stuff. My dad on the hand exposed me to acts such as Bryan Adams, Meatloaf, Randy Travis and Dolly Parton.
Anyways the song reached number one on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play back in 1985. And that folks is this weeks Throwback Thursday.
The year was 1994, the artist, a fairly unknown Nas. In celebration of him releasing his 9th studio album and our collective love for him on Killahbeez.com, we decided to dedicate this Throwback Thursday to the album that kicked it all of. The album, Illmatic, is one of the most classic Hip Hop albums to have ever been released, it received 5 mics from The Source, which back in those days actually meant something.The album featured production from Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, L.E.S and Dj Premier. The album saw three singles officially released including the one above, “The World Is Yours”. If for whatever reason you don’t have this album, do yourself a favor and cop it today and hear why everybody talks about this album as THE album. Oh and if you ain’t copped Untitled, do so now.
This Throwback Thursday we’re featuring a group from Canada, specifically from Toronto. The year was 1992, the group Ghetto Concept, their first single “Certified” was released via indie label Groove-a-lot Records. It would take a few more years before Canadians would hear from these cats again as they re-appeared in ‘96 with their single “E-Z On Tha Motion” which won a Juno, which is the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy. It would take another two years before the group released their debut album Ghetto Concept, which featured the single “Heavy Metals” which featured Sticky Fingaz from Onyx. Ask any hiphop head in Canada about what joint they use to bump when they was youngins and I can guarantee your ass they’ll name this song from Ghetto Concept. Peep it and if you don’t know, well now you know.
So I was completely oblivious to this awesome collabo print by Shepard Fairey and Billy Idol. Now market price is no less than $200 on ebay as opposed to the retail price of $50 on debut. If you missed out like I did, you could always settle for the recently released cd, Idolize Yourself. The cd art of course was also done by Shepard Fairey. In the meantime, check the back for my all time favorite Billy Idol single.
