The birth of rap/hip hop was an ugly thing. Can you believe some of these lyrics?
If you’re not a square
from Delaware
And you’ve got on clean underwear
And your Momma ain’t on welfare….
Oops…. I just threw up in my mouth a little.
Nevertheless, there was never a shortage of shaking asses on the dance floor when the DJ played this song. This song was the first commercial recording with the phrase “The Roof! The Roof! The Roof is on fire!”, which has since entered popular culture. This song actually peaked at #5 on the charts in early 1985.
A story that rotated around campus (veracity unproven) was that a warehouse close to campus caught fire. A group of onlookers - including college students - assembled to watch the fire department battle the blaze. Someone had brought a boom-box and played this song. The police and firemen were not amused.
The Roof is on Fire, by Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three
My wife and I really enjoyed Moulin Rouge. If was quite fun to see many of the songs we knew re-rendered. Plus my wife had a woman-crush on Nicole Kidman at the time. I bought her the DVD and the CD soundtrack when they were released.
It was November 2001 and her family was visiting for Thanksgiving. My son was 3 months shy of turning two. The Moulin Rouge soundtrack was playing on the stereo and this song came on. He had just gotten out of his bath and needed no encouragement. He dropped towel and went to town, full monty, right in the living room in front of the whole family. I mean he went to town. The best part?
As I mentioned before, I started college in the winter semester after taking some time off after high school. I’ve already written about my first roommate, Chris. Our room was on the second floor. Right above me was a guy named Kenny, who also grew up in Calvert County, although he attended the other high school (there were only two). We both had worked at McDonalds; that’s how I knew him. He had also briefly dated Bruce’s sister (whose name I can’t remember), who also worked at McDonald’s. I guess you’ve figured out by now that about the only place for a teenager to work in Calvert County was McDonald’s!
It was through Kenny that I met Bob, who I ended up rooming with through most of college. I was Bob’s best man at his wedding as well, and still speak with him occasionally today.
That January, fresh off of Christmas break, Kenny was pretty eager to show of his new stereo. It had dual cassette decks, which at the time was pretty cool. He had a whole plan to dub tapes for people to make money. To show off how great his new system sounded, he put on this song, which was pretty high on the charts at the time.
From August 1991 - August 1994, I was stationed at Yokota Air Base, Japan, which is northwest of Tokyo. My wife and I married in January, and eight months later I drag her off to Japan!
Friday nights we usually went to the Officer’s Club. Stateside, most of the on-base clubs are pretty lame; there’s just too much to do and too many places to go off base. But overseas the clubs are much more active, a gathering where folks congregate to share the familiar. A bit of home, if you will.
We were at the club one Friday and the DJ played this song, which my wife liked. She spoke to him and found out the name of the group and CD. The next day we checked at the Base Exchange, but they didn’t have it, so we jumped on the trains and headed into Tokyo with some friends, with the mission in mind of tracking down the Voice if the Beehive CD.
We ended up at a Tower Records, a huge place of 3 floors. With the help of a friendly salesperson who spoke some English, we found it and paid 32,000 yen (about $29)!
