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Nikki D lined up equally with Amy Grant. For May 11, there is a single week Rap #1 with Ed O.G. and Da Bulldogs with “I Got to Have It”. There will be another new Rap #1 Friday and that one left a much larger cultural impact, but that’s Friday, not today. Edward Anderson was born in 1970 in Roxbury in Boston, so a year after Bobby Brown and two after Ronnie Bell and Michael Bivins. As a contemporary of New Edition in the same town, I’m sure they knew or knew of each other. He met the Awesome 2 out of New York, Teddy Ted and Special K, to form Da Bulldogs. Their first album, Life of a Kid in the Ghetto, came out on March 5, 1991. They had two big hits off it, this #1 and a future #5 that got more crossover play. This is probably the most explicit #1 so far. That won’t last. https://youtu.be/_qg979C8PFY Two major samples make up this backing track. The pianos, horns and organs are from “Singing a Song for My Mother”, a funky 1973 soul track from Bohannon, and at 0:55 and continuing, the Got to Have It line is a slowed down James Brown sample off “I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door I’ll Get It Myself)”. That Brown single was a top 20 Pop hit and #3 R&B back in 1969. With Da Bulldogs, Ed released a second album in 1993, Roxbury 02119. 02119 is one of the zip codes for Roxbury, specifically the Nubian Square and Fox Hills neighborhoods. The Orchard Parks projects that New Edition grew up in is in 02119. The album had two minor hit singles - a #19 and #43. Ed then joined with Pete Rock for a 2004 album, then created Special Teamz for a 2007 album. Solo he’s been releasing albums for a long, long time as recently as 2017 and a single this year.

Another Martha Wash #1. I might go to 9. If Italo house is an actual genre, Dreamline is the best example. 2 Unlimited, Belgian producers and Dutch singers and rappers, also a 9. Not ready to give it a 10. Maybe because how jock jammy it became. #2 in the UK (behind Robin Hood), Australia, and Spain - I bet it was heard every second of every day in Ibiza summer of 92. How'd it stay out of the top 10 here??

Amy Grant stays far, far away from the Rap charts. Nichelle Strong, aka Nikki D, instead in our Rap #1. Born in September, 1968 while People Got To Be Free is #1, Nikki D was the first woman signed to Def Jam in 1989. Her one and only album, Daddy’s Little Girl, was released later in 1991 with at least two singles preceding it. Her first release didn’t sell well. Then she released the title track as a single. “Daddy’s Little Girl” only was #1 for two weeks, but crossed over too going to #19 Dance too. https://youtu.be/SV99UaAcz6A Yes, that’s a Susanne Vega sample. In 1998, Nikki became VP of A&R for Queen Latifah’s Flavor Unit Records. Sometime in the 00s she became the marketing manager for Russell Simmons’ Phat Fashion. I can’t tell if she stayed with Baby Phat when Kimora relaunched it in 2019, as Phat Fashion hasn’t been a thing for a while.

It wasn't until 97's Orblivion that I got into The Orb, and to my chagrin that was about it. Probably too ambient for me as I spent 97-00 otherwise chasing Jungle and DnB releases. Orblivion got roasted by the British press, but got some good reviews in the US. I'm sure Adventures... is better ;)

I started thinking this was a bait and switch article for an early 24th anniversary for Goldie's 1998 album Saturnz Return

I had thought it was released earlier! But a more discerning ear now hears all the 90s house influences. Jesus Jones is an 8+. 2 bars in and I can remember every single word!

What ever was in the water in Bristol in the 90s was great.

For April 13, Monie Love gets her second and final #1 with “It’s a Shame (My Sister)”. It was her biggest hit, getting to #26 on the Hot 100, #2 Dance, #8 R&B, and #12 in the UK. https://youtu.be/4g8QwVnUM_I It’s built on the hook from “It’s a Shame” by The Spinners (written by Stevie Wonder) and the drums from “The Jam” by Graham Central Station. Stevie got writing credits for another #1, which if I’m counting right, is his 25th #1 writing credit - he has 10 pop #1s, 3 Dance #1, and 20 R&B #1s, and only 8 of those pop hits were R&B #1. Only one of those dance hits was #1 on any other chart (Part-Time Lover). This single was featuring True Image. I can’t find anything about True Image! As far as I can tell they only existed to be featured on this album. They have no other releases, they are never featured by any other artists. Monie Love’s two #1s were her third and fourth singles off her first album. She came back with a second album in 1993 after showing up on the Boyz n The Hood and Class Act soundtracks. Her second album spawned a Prince-produced top ten Rap hit that also was a dance #1. It didn’t sell as well as her first though. At the same time, Prince asked her to write for Carmen Electra’s album… Side story, cause it’s not going anywhere else: Carmen Electra started her career as a dancer at a King’s Island in metro Cincinnati then moved to Minneapolis and met Prince. After her 93 album, she moved to LA, got into Playboy four times, and started acting in 97. I thought the album was after 97, but it’s bad. Back to Monie. In 2004 she became the morning DJ for WPHI in Philadelphia where she stayed until 2006. She was an official Myspace DJ. She had/has? a show on SiriusXM. In 2015, she was back on morning radio in Philadelphia on WPHI. In 16, she moved to Houston as co-host with Ed Lover on his morning show on KROI, and since 2019, she’s been the afternoon host for WALR in Atlanta. That’s an interesting career! She also had a new (non-charting) single this year.

When I lived in Sacramento, we had projects at the hospital in Clovis (for non-CA people, it's a suburb of Fresno). The guy who did construction administration there would fly his Cessna down every week instead of driving the 4 hours through nothing but M-towns on CA-99

Those last 30 votes came in heavy for Will to Power. At 102 votes, it was a 51-51 tie!

I don't like the song. I like Tom's story though. I really don't like Fresno nor Clovis either.

Our one week pop #1 lines up with the start of a three week Rap #1. Main Source had their first #1 with the first single off their debut album. Main Source was a couple DJs from Toronto - brothers K-Cut and Sir Scratch - and a MC from Queens, Large professor. K-Cut, Kevin McKenzie, was born in 1971 when Indian Reservation by The Raiders was #1 in the US. He and his brother Shawn moved to Queens during elementary school where they later met William Mitchell, Large Professor, in high school. Mitchell was born in 1972 in Harlem, A Horse With No Name was #1, making Main Source the first #1 born after 1970 (Monie Love was born in 70). Main Source formed in 89 and released their first demo single “Think”. That got them a contract with Wild Pitch Records where they released their first album “Breaking Atoms”. In addition to today’s #1, Breaking Atoms is also notable for being the first release featuring Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones. Nas, born in 1973, recorded demos for Large Professor and ended up on the 10th track “Live at the Barbeque”. The debut single “Looking at the Front Door” has been retroactively called alternative hip hop. A lot of that is because it was built around the hook from jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd’s “Think Twice”. Who else sampled “Looking at the Front Door”? A Tribe Called Quest. There were a lot of other samples in there too, some really obscure: “Baby Don’t Cry” by The Third Guitar, “You’re Getting a Little Too Smart” by the Detroit Emeralds, “Chick A Boom” by The Pazant Brothers, “Let a Woman Be a Woman - Let a Man Be a Man” by Dyke & the Blazers, and “So Good Together” by Ken Lazarus. https://youtu.be/RNRCQ9eagWQ Main Source will be back. Nas will be back. Tom will be writing about Nas too.

And it's still a tie almost 4 hours and 62 votes later! This has been great

"house-music pianos" is the perfect description for that remix! I've heard them thousands of times, someone smarter than me can probably say exactly which piano or synth it comes out of.

It ain't no Massive Attack, but nicely done!

Written by a Boston lesbian*? At least half the country would lose their minds! *Katharine Lee Bates was an English professor at Wellesley, she spent 25 years living with another Wellesley professor, Katharine Coman. It could have been platonic, but her surviving letters don't look that way.

I'm sure I've heard a bunch of them, but I have to look forward all the way to a #1 in July to really know I know a song. And I was 13 in 91, but as we all know there were some major things afoot in 91-96 or so.

EPMD was #1 for Whitney’s first week. For the week of March 2nd, 1991’s Rap #1 started their three weeks at #1. Chubb Rock, born Richard Simpson, was born in Brooklyn in 1968 while “Tighten Up” by Archie Bell & the Drells was #1. He was a National Merit Scholar, but dropped out of college to focus on making music. His first two albums sold better and better, but he broke through with his third. “Treat ‘Em Right” was the first single off his third album The One. Got to number one with a Robocop and Max Mad Beyond the Thunderdome inspired video. https://youtu.be/W4kydwb50S4 Containing very few samples, Treat Em Right really highlighted Rock’s MC abilities. The main drum and bass lick was a sample from Dee Felice Trio, “There Was a Time” from 1969. A little obscure, they don’t even have a wikipedia page, but they released two albums in 1969. The Trio, aptly named, was a 3-piece jazz combo that happened to be produced by James Brown. Brown also covered the same, but it was a lot more funky with lyrics. The other sample was from First Choice’s disco track “Love Thang” from 1979, they sampled the strings and the lyrics Treat me right. “Treat ‘Em Right” was the #1 single of 1991. Chubb Rock will return.

Blue Lines is totally a 10. Safe From Harm is a 10. Their cover of Be Thankful for What You've Got is at least a 9 (the William DeVaughn was a R&B #1 and about an 8). But I think Protection is a better album.

Martha also has a dozen Dance #1s and four #2s. And a R&B #1 for this song. The two singles with Sylvester both were #1s, the first two Two Tons of Fun got to #2, then It's Raining Men was a #1, three #1s with Black Box, her first two off her self titled album, "Do You Want To Get Funky" Tom mentioned was a dance #1, she had two #1s with Todd Terry and then two more with Tony Moran, the last one in 2015! She had another #1 in 2008 with Ralph Falcon. That's a great career.

The best song of the 1990s was released on February 11, 1991. https://youtu.be/ZWmrfgj0MZI The second single released by Massive Attack, “Unfinished Sympathy” is perfect. The only ding against it is that it was released by “Massive” - Massive Attack decided to drop Attack from their name on the first two singles due to Desert Storm. By May’s “Safe From Harm” single, they were back to Massive Attack. Massive Attack grew out of the Bristol sound system Wild Bunch, which has been mentioned in these comments a couple times before. The Wild Bunch was Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles, Claude Williams, Milo Johnson, Tricky, and Nellee Hooper. We know that Hooper went on to be the Grammy winning producer for Soul II Soul, Tina Turner, Sinead O’Connor, Bjork, and others. Tricky went on to work with Massive Attack and have an interesting solo career, was in The Fifth Element as Gary Oldman’s henchman - and dated Bjork for a while. Del Naja, Marshall, and Vowles became Massive Attack. Del Naja might also be Banksy… Massive Attack enlisted former Wild Bunch collaborator Shara Nelson for vocals. She also sung on their debut single “Daydreaming” released in late 90. She later was nominated for a couple BRIT awards and a Mercury prize. The song contains at least three really obscure samples. The bells are from “Take Me To The Mardi Gras” by Bob James. The drums are out of “Parade Strut” by J.J. Johnson and some lyrics are sampled from “Planetary Citizen” by Mahavishnu Orchestra and John McLaughlin! It only hit #13 on the UK Official Chart, and #3 UK dance. Hit #1 in the Netherlands though! Didn’t chart at all in the US, but we’re heathens. UK MTV2 named this the best song ever recorded. The magazines The Face and Melody Maker ranked it the best single of 1991. Radio 1 has named it the best song ever. Radio 2 ranked it 44th all time. NME said #8 of 1991. NME later ranked it #10 all time. Q magazine ranked it eighth all time. Blue Lines ended up as a #13 album in the UK, and #2 R&B. Again, it didn’t chart in the US. Channel 4, HMV and The Guardian named it the 21st greatest album of all time. Rolling Stone thought enough to put it in all three versions of their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - 395, 397, and 241 over the years. Pitchfork even ranked it as the 85th best album of the 90s. The album has only sold a little more than a quarter million copies in the US. For comparison, it’s double platinum in the UK and has sold at least 600,000 copies! Anyway, when Marsha Walsh’s uncredited vocals got to #1, EPMD got their first Rap #1 with “Gold Digger”, the first single off their third album. EPMD, Erick and Parrish Making Dollars, was formed in 1987 by Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith in Long Island. In the pre-Rap charts time, their debut album, Strictly Business, was quite influential. That first album got them signed with Sleeping Bag Records, a NYC independent hip-hop and freestyle label. Sleeping Bag went under in 1992, but not before EPMD signed with Def Jam. https://youtu.be/5HN58C3JsUM EPDM’s third album, Business as Usual, not only launched their first number one, it also contained some collaborations with two other Def Jam artists. There is a track featuring LL Cool J, “Rampage”, which hit #2 Rap and #30 Pop, and the first two tracks Redman appears on. Gold Digger is a wonderland of samples! There are seven unique samples! The big one is Lyn Collins’ “Think” - Think’s drum break has been sampled at least 3025 times. James Brown wrote and produced Think and The J.B.’s are her backing band. EPDM also sampled three other different James Brown tracks: “It’s a New Day”, “My Thang”, and “Get Up, Get IntoIt, Get Involved”. To round out the later-cliches, they also sample Funkadelic’s “(Not Just) Knee Deep”. There were two samples from the 80s too: “I’ll Do Anything for You” by Denroy Morgan and “A Fly Girl” by The Boogie Boys. EPDM will be back. LL will be back. Redman will be back. Def Jam will be back.

I despise Midler, and I still voted We are the World! Defiantly finals worthy, it's a Duke-Kansas matchup in the second round.

I'd give I touch a 8 too, but it hit #4 in the US right after I turned 13, so it was a 10 then ;) It seemed to be everywhere that summer! As indicated by getting to #2 on the alt rock airplay chart.

Yep, a complete blank on this one. Another note: these guys were OLD in 91. They were born in the 50s (53 to 59). LL was rap #1 at the same time, he was born more than 10 year later, they replaced Janet who is 2 years older than LL. We just (Dec 90) had a rap #1 born in the 70s! OK, yes, Madonna is the same age as Bernard Jackson, but Mariah is a year younger than LL.

In a round that features double NKOTB and double Peter Cetera AND Captain & Tennille, Whitney vs. Madonna seems out of place!

I'll give another data point for useless Grammys, not that it's needed. At the 33rd, MC Hammer won best Rap Solo Performance for Can't Touch This. can't fault them for that. He also won for best R&B song for the same single... 91 was the first year with a Rap award - former #1s Ice Ice Baby and Monie in the Middle, along with Queen Latifah's debut and Big Daddy Kane lost to Hammer.

Don't worry, the Rap chart has you covered! For example, 1993 has 10 pop #1s (not including the last 1992) and the Rap chart had 31 #1s!

Marvin Gaye has entered the chat

Accelerator is FSOL's crown jewel and amazing. Lifeforms and Dead Cities are great, but not Accelerator. Papua New Guinea is the greatest ambient track ever, and one of the best debut singles. Radio Babylon, the Meat Beat Manifesto sampled song, is also pretty great https://youtu.be/ak169_XCiXs

And here's my obligatory: Iggy Pop and Bob Seager went to high school together. Both went to Ann Arbor Pioneer, with Iggy graduating in 65 and Seager in 63. Bob Kirchen of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen also graduated from Pioneer in 65. My wife graduated from Pioneer more than 30 years later.

#5! oh man

I remember really liking "Justify my Love" at the time, but I don't see it now. I almost came around with Tom's argument about foundational trip-hop, but I was too busy listening to Public Enemy videos by then :D

Madonna’s first week was Father MC’s final week at #1. For her second week, and all of Monday’s #1, and all of next Wednesday’s #1, LL was back at #1 with his third single off Mama Said Knock You Out, and second straight #1. “Around the Way Girl” was LL’s first big crossover hit - it was his first Top 10 Hot 40 (#9), hit #5 R&B and #7 on both Dance charts. It’s built around a big sample from “All Night Long” by the Mary Jane Girls, and also samples the drums from The Honey Dippers anti-Nixon song “Impeach the President” and Keni Burke’s “Risin’ to the Top” Here’s the video beginning with about a minute of a stupid sketch https://youtu.be/0w541JX3o_Y By the time this single had been #1 for three days, it had already gone Gold, having come out November 20, 1990 while Candyman and Mariah were #1. James Todd Smith will be back very soon. Eventually Tom will write about him too.

For the last two weeks of Steve B and the first week of 1991, Father MC is back with his final #1 single “I’ll Do 4 U”. This was the lead track on his debut album and his second single. It’s built off former #1 Soul/R&B single “Got to be Real” by Cheryl Lynn, a 10. https://youtu.be/pZ0xC-9GLqw If you remember, one Sean Combs was the executive producer of Father MC’s album and his first single featured multi-Platinum R&B group Jodeci. His second single features future mega-star Mary J Blige. However, this is Father MC’s last #1 single. He continued to release albums up to 2010. However, in August 1996, he appeared in a Playgirl spread.

After six weeks of Candyman, another first on the Rap charts, and one I’ve never heard of. This time, there is a two week #1 single from a British Rapper! Monie Love is also the youngest #1 artist so far, the first born in the 70s. She was born on July 2, 1970 in Battersea, London, a section of London on the south bank of the Thames that is only 53% white and has a long history of public housing. Michael Jackson and his brothers were #1 with “The Love You Save” at the time. She moved to NYC in 1988 and got a contract with Blondie’s label Chrysalis in one of their last acts as an actual label - in 89 half of Chrysalis was sold off and in 91, EMI took over the rest. Her debut album came out in October 1990 with six singles. “Monie in the Middle” was the third single. https://youtu.be/MwOzqLYM6S8 Monie in the Middle stayed at #1 for two weeks, there will be a new Christmas Rap #1. This track was built on three pretty obscure singles: “Black Grass” by Bad Boscomb, “Willie Whopper” by Willie Colon, and “I Couldn’t Change a Thing” by Coke Escovedo. This won’t be the last we hear of Monie. Her post stardom career is pretty interesting too!

This was Martha Wash's 6th Dance #1! Two with backing up Sylvester with Izora Armstead, then It's Raining Men, then Columbia dropped The Weather Girls and they split, so Martha had two dance #1s in 89 and 90 with Black Box! But Black Box ALSO didn't credit Martha... The C+C story is a doozy, but I don't want to spoil it. https://youtu.be/l5aZJBLAu1E

Lots of contenders I'd pick first - a lot in the 90s when they'd hit Modern Rock or Airplay #1. Smells Like Teen Spirit to start. Then stuff that went R&B #1: What's Going On, Inner City Blues. Anyway, here's Wonderwall.

Or moved sampling/sampledelia to the underground and obscure. 1996's Endtroducting... by DJ Shadow was created with just two turntables, an AKAI sampler and Pro-Tools. Midnight in a Perfect World is made from eight samples, but the least obscure is a 1968 David Axlerod track.

An all timer, up with Skee-Lo's "I Wish". Young MC sampled Bette Midler's drums from Daytime Hustler! It did get to #2 Rap and won a Grammy (i.e. white executives liked it)

Wednesday’s pop #1 only was Rap #1 for a single week. For the next 6 weeks, up to next Wednesday’s pop #1, “Knockin’ Boots” by Candyman was Rap #1. Candyman, born John Shaffer III in June 1968 while Herb Alpert was #1, grew up in South Central LA. He shows up in the front row on the cover of NWA and the Posse. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/85/Nwafirstalbum.jpg Candyman was later “discovered” by Tone Loc then signed with Epic and released his debut album. His debut major label single was “Knockin’ Boots”. https://youtu.be/i1gbn2vUaBw It even got up to #9 Pop and #5 R&B. In 1991, he released his second album on Sony, which spawned one single that got up to Rap #13. In 93, he released another album, this time on IRS records, another in 95 and 2001 to diminishing returns. He spent the naughts appearing on a couple track, but the trail runs cold in 2007.