The College of Musical Knowledge

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1. John wrote:

   “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice

   (Apologies to Workman Press, who’s Page-A-Day trivia calendar got this one wrong. Let us know if you ever need a fact checker…)

   Though “Rapper’s Delight” only made it as far as number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1979, it was arguably the first rap single ever, and definitely the first rap single to be certified gold. “Walk this Way” reached number 4 on the Hot 100 Chart in 1986, the first rap song to break into the top 5 and also the first song to fuse rap and rock together. “Wild Thing” got as far as number 2 on the Hot 100 chart in 1989, making it the highest charting rap song at the time. Finally, in the week of November 3, 1990, “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, the first rap single to ever reach the top.

   Of course, all of these songs hit the charts before the implementation of Soundscan, which gauges the popularity of singles and albums through actual point-of-sale data. Prior to this, all the Billboard charts were compiled by contacting record stores and asking them what records were their top sellers. This method was inaccurate to say the least, as many stores could be convinced by various factions (record labels, music promoters, booking agents, artist managers, etc.) to report certain singles and albums as top sellers, despite the actual sales data. Though Soundscan was rolled out in March 1991 (with the May 25th Billboard 200 album chart using it as the sole source to determine ranking), it was not used to compile the Hot 100 chart until November 30, 1991. As a testament to the true popularity of hip-hop, the number one single that week was a rap song, “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss”, by P.M. Dawn. In the years since then, it has been the rare week where a rap song has not been number one.

   Years later, a famous music legend arose which had Suge Knight (founder of Death Row Records) dangling Vanilla Ice out of a 20th story window by his ankles until he signed over the rights to “Ice Ice Baby”, with Knight claiming that a friend of his had actually written the song’s lyrics.

   “Ice Ice Baby”, Vanilla Ice, 1990

   “Rapper’s Delight”, The Sugar Hill Gang, 1979
   This was also the first Top 40 song to only be available as a 12 inch record, as opposed to the then standard 7 inch singles.

   “Walk This Way”, Run-DMC, 1985
   Though this was the first rap-rock song, is it really fair to blame Run-DMC for Limp Bizkit and/or Linkin Park?

   “Wild Thing”, Tone-Loc, 1988
   The phrase “Hasta la Vista, Baby” at the end of the song predates its use in the movie Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

   Monday, November 3, 2008 at 12:29 am | Permalink

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