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This being 1983, there was nothing new about rap music but, as we've already seen on this album, it had yet to gain very much traction in the mainstream as more than a novelty. By now, we'd obviously moved on from "Oh wow, it's like he's talking instead of singing!" and instead the focus seemed to be on breakdancing, something I can dimly recall a big craze for in the middle of the decade, accompanied by the usual warnings not to try it at home. Funnily enough, I don't recall hearing this track at the time, but with hindsight I probably did: it's just that there's not much to it other than as a vehicle for the video, the Crew themselves being dancers rather than singers. And if the imagery of the video wasn't cliched then, it became so fast enough not to have stuck specifically in my mind.
Of course, this is another record that really begs to be judged on its own terms. Anyone looking for any more positive musical endorsement than "catchy" is barking up the wrong tree, and even after three minutes of listening in front of a computer it's threatening to outstay its welcome - but I'm sure it'd work much better dropped into a well-constructed DJ mix. Really it only exists as a way to cash in the fame they'd accrued by appearing in Flashdance and they were too good at what they did for me to begrudge them that. In fact, I find myself warming to this more than the Malcolm McLaren track, even though by any sober analysis that one's probably better.
On a less cheerful note, I believe this track represents the first posthumous appearance on this blog, since Frosty Freeze died earlier this year.
Available on: Fantastic Day
One of the most random compilations ever?
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