1,457.) Sat Nov. 28, 2020

The Song of the Day is:

DJ Kool – “Let Me Clear My Throat”

From the album Let Me Clear My Throat (1996)

Here we go now, here we go now, here we go now
Here we go now, here we go now
Here we go, here we go, now listen

Some of y’all might know this, and some of y’all don’t (jam jam)
Some of y’all might be with this, and some of y’all won’t
But listen, let me clear my throat
Oh, have mercy babe, Ha!
I hope ya don’t mind, let me clear my throat

Robert Mickens – Claydes Smith – Mark Jones – Dennis Thomas – George Brown – Allen Westfield – John Bowman – Ronald Nathan Bell – Robert Bell – Mark James

Here’s one of the great party tracks, an throwback to old school hip hop from DJ Kool. For the record, this is not DJ Kool Herc, who basically invented hip hop in the 70’s, nor is he associated with Kool & the Gang. Though this song does sample their 1974 hit “Hollywood Swinging, thus giving that band 9/10ths of the writing credits for “Let Me Clear My Throat”. This song also features a goosey horn sample from The 45 King’s “The 900 Number” as well as borrowing the title line from the Beastie Boys’ “The New Style”. This is a really fun song though, infectious really, and it was captured live. I had always thought that it contained studio samples to make it sound live, but that’s not the case. It was recorded live in Philadelphia by DC-based rapper DJ Kool. Kool had began his career with a mixture of rap and Washington’s local sound of go-go music in the late 80’s. He’d had minor successes, but they barely registered compared to “Let Me Clear My Throat” in ’96. I was paying attention to music quite avidly at this point, though I don’t really remember this song breaking through. It’s likely, given its old-school feel, that when it was new I thought it was old. This was the time when Notorious B.I.G., Coolio, and Wu-Tang were some of the biggest names in rap, and they didn’t sound anything like DJ Kool. Kool was more of a throwback to the Sugar Hill Gang and Kurtis Blow, and frankly, it’s refreshing to just have a party rap song, without a message or macho bravado. In fact, there’s some true female positivity towards the end of the song that celebrates real hair, fingernails and life accomplishments (make some noise, ladies!). As I listened to this with the kids this morning, my wife gleefully showed the kids how we used to dance to such bangers. Anybody who has been to enough sporting events has probably heard this pumping through the PA, it is what has become known as a “jock jam”. Details are scarce on DJ Kool, but according to Wikipedia, he has released four albums though he hasn’t reached the same level of popularity following this song.

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