You know what era of music I really like listening to? That weird one between the late 80's and early 90's. Every genre was having an identity crisis lol.
Hairbands were on the way out in favor of Seattle grunge like Nirvana and hip hop was changing from the goody two shoe sound to the rough, rugged cuts of N.W.A. (That's "ninjas with attitude" to my Wonderbread friends out there).
On the whole though, rap and R&B just sounded like an extension of the 80's sound in the early 90's. For that reason alone it's VERY easy to confuse what the fuck came out in '88-'92 to the untrained ear. Bell Biv Devoe's 1990 hit, "Poison," is one of those songs.
This came out before most people of my generation were even in school, but I'm sure we've all heard this through out our childhood at some point. I've always liked it when I heard it on the radio, but never knew who the hell it was by. When the track was included on the GTA San Andreas soundtrack, I was really happy lol. I can't tell you how many times I've heard this song in the game. This is the first real time I've even seen the damn video! Yeah, I'm usually "Mr. Nostalgic-Knowledge-Bank-Man," but this one was really before my time with music. Still, I acknowledge the greatness. Folks, this is what Pretty Ricky hopes to be a fraction of.
As a very small time producer myself, I have to say this beat is CRAZY -- or as they used to say back then, "STUPID!". The drum programming alone is out of this world -- I admire everything about the production on this track and the singing is on point, too. I do have to say that this video is pretty lame, but hey -- it was 1990 lol. Also note that while this song is beyond sleazy, notice the girls in the video still look dignified instead of hoes like in today's videos.
The New Edition spin-off seem to have retired from their raunchy recordings, but hey, there's always the internet! The only other song I would suggest getting for your iPod (or God forbid you have a Zune) would be "Do Me!" because that's uh, the only one I've heard from the library. Throw in some Bobby Brown, Sir Mix-A-Lot and some Too Short and you got your self a nice little party mix lol... don't forget the Boyz II Men.
Want more memories of good times? Check out the Flashback Friday Archive right here!
