Almost a decade after hip-hop spawned from New York city’s streets, the astoundingly fast-shifting music had already undergone several reinventions: from lone DJs cutting-and-looping 12”s in the mid-70s, to a later realisation of commercial potential in Sugar Hill’s releases, and Tommy Boy’s harnessing of the Miami bass sound with the likes of Planet Rock in 1982.
Things having gone as far as they could for a while, everyone seemed to take a breath before Run-DMC, Public Enemy, LL Cool J (briefly) and Beastie Boys roughed them up again. Whodini’s self-titled 1983 debut filled something of a gap. Less ambitious than Afrika Bambaataa and prone to the obligatory rap ballad (Yours For A Night) and comedy goof (The Haunted House Of Rock), they made commercial electronic hip-hop that didn’t ride a groove as well as, say, the West Coast’s Arabian Prince (Underground’s overlong outro is closer to Wesley Willis’ synth triggers than anything), but some of which still stands up today. It’s perhaps no surprise that Thomas Dolby helped out on the standout cut Magic’s Wand, while Whodini would better find their own groove on 1984’s darker Escape, which boasts the likes of Friends and perennially spooky The Freaks Come Out At Night.
