I’m old enough that I was in high school when Whodini was emerging. The cover for The Haunted House Of Rock stuck in my head because of the distinctive art and that it was one of the first Hip-Hop twelve inches I ever bought. Whodini helped prop up Hip-Hop in the eventual backlash after the genre’s initial burst into popular consciousness. They really only had three good albums, but their tracks still get played and have influence to this day. I’ve put together a Hip-Hop playlist for my iPod Nano, and a surprising number of Whodini tracks wound up on it, including:
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The Haunted House of Rock
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Five Minutes of Funk
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Freaks Come Out at Night
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Funky Beat
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Friends
And that doesn’t even account for Magic’s Wand, Big Mouth, Escape (I Need a Break), I’m a Ho, and One Love, which has a really nice beat, but which I think is a little sappy.
Considered soft relative to the militant, Afrocentric, and gangsta strains that started to crest in 1988, I always enjoyed their music. Well produced, never vulgar, and lyrically solid, Whodini earned a well-deserved place in the annals of rap.