ESCAPE: RAP'S 1ST PLATINUM ALBUM TURNS 30

                                                                                            

" All I hear is platinum that, platinum this/platinum whips, nobody got no platinum hits"

                                                                                       ---Mase                                                                                        

 Hip hop's paradigm shift in '83 saw Rap's New Generation usher in new styles and sounds generating a need for a much greater platform of creative expression. Four years before the much heralded legendary Golden Era, 1984 emerged as the breakout year of the rap album.

 In the days before Yo! MTV Raps and BET's Rap City, albums gave fans a chance to make the visual connection with the artists behind their favorite songs. Whodini's Escape was part of a wave of releases giving hip hop exposure to a larger audience.

 Fast forward to 2014. The original demographic that purchased those rap albums thirty years ago have been displaced by a new breed of hip hop fans weaned on the compressed sounds of their iTunes playlists and the distortion frequency of hip hop history has resulted in Whodini's legacy falling on deaf ears.  

 In the mid eighties only pop artists like Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince were considered capable of delivering blockbuster albums with spin off hits. That all changed on October 17, 1984 when master rapper Jalil Hutchins and partner-in-rhyme Ecstacy broke the mold and delivered five of them---Friends, Five Minutes of Funk, Big Mouth, Escape (I Need A Break) and Freaks Come Out At Night. 

 Packed with diverse content and a peerless combination of vocals and sound, Escape helped hip hop reach a whole new plateau in terms of commercial acceptance. It penetrated ears on both sides of the Atlantic and when super listeners picked up on the vibration a million copies later, hip hop had its very first platinum album.  

Whodini's contemporaries would also flourish in this new climate. Reigning rap king Kurtis Blow, the first hip hop artist signed to a major label was five years and three albums in a career spanning rap's entire duration of wax. 

Released on the heels of the Sugar Hill Gang's Rapper's Delight Blow's debut single Christmas Rappin (1979) was rap's second major release. It would move over a quarter million copies setting up his follow up The Breaks (1980), scoring rap's first gold 12 inch single. Four years later, he dropped Ego Trip. Selling 400,000 copies on the strength of AJ Scratch, Basketball and Eight Million Stories. It was the biggest album of his career.

Blow affiliates (via manager Russell Simmons) Run-D.M.C provided hip hop with a hard hitting makeover and delivered rap's first gold album, Run-D.M.C. Built around blazing singles It's Like That/Sucker MCs and Hard Times/Jam Master Jay, the album quickly put the group on the fast track to crossover success.

Hip hop heavyweights The Fat Boys' self titled debut was a winner from the gate. Riding the popularity of Jailhouse Rap/ Stick'Em and Fat Boys/Human Beat Box, the album was produced by Blow at the height of his creative powers. It set up a run of four straight straight gold or platinum releases in five years.

These albums pushed the culture forward confirming that rap careers could extend beyond a hit single. The roots of Escape's development go back to Whodini's association with Jive Records, a small label based in London, England by way of South Africa.

Jive was the eclectic home for British new wave and synth-pop groups A Flock of Seagulls and The Thompson Twins. By signing Whodini (and R&B/pop crooner Billy Ocean), Jive began making inroads toward American R&B markets. The label also became a potential major player in an industry serviced by more familiar rap imprints like Sugar Hill, Tommy Boy and Profile.

Jive's distribution agreement with record mogul Clive Davis' Arista Records and parent label RCA gave Escape access to the domestic and international purchasing power that pushed the album past one million in sales during a time when gold represented the hip hop success standard.



During hip hop's early years on wax, musicians replicated the break beats that rocked parks and nightclubs. Rap was a singles format   and albums followed the old school Motown approach, padding the hits with filler or repackaging previously released hit material for public consumption.

"We're the men with the international beepers/but call us at night because our rates our cheaper"

                                                                                     ---Ecstasy

 Whodini was dispatched to Europe to record their eponymous debut Whodini (1983). They worked exclusively at Cam Studios in Cologne, Germany and Jive's home base, Battery Studios where they began working with state of art equipment like the Fairlight Computer Synthesizer years before it arrived in America.

 Layered, multi-tracked vocals dropped in and out of the music tracks, leaving room for echo chambers, sound effects and extended funky vamps. Single Yours For A Night (featuring Tashan) was an early hip hop/R&B hybrid and precursor to future Whodini songs.

The blistering keyboard solos, vocoder vocals and crisp drums sounds found in Nasty Lady, The Haunted House of Rock and  autobiographical rap narrative Magic's Wand were the origins of what would be heard later on Escape. 

Whodini established themselves as trendsetters early in their career. Two years before the futuristic explorations of the Roger and Zapp's Computer Love (1985) and jazz fusion artist Roy Ayers' Programmed For Love (1985), Whodini ventured into the zone of hip hop drones with Rap Machine. 

 

 These songs were originally released in extended and singles format but their appeal led Jive to compile Whodini's hottest records into one of rap's first EP maxi-singles.

  
Three decades before Pharrell and Daft Punk's Grammy Award winning French Connection, Whodini collaborated with electronic music pioneer, British producer Thomas Dolby of She Blinded Me With Science fame.

Thomas Dolby

 Heatwave alum and writer/arranger Roy Carter, the man behind Afro-Brit funk ensemble Central Line's 80's classic Walking On Sunshine ( LL's Jingling Baby sample) and studio wizards Bryan "Chuck" New and Nigel Green rounded the crew from across the water working with the group.

                

 Songs like the Soul Sonic Force's Planet Rock (1982) took their creative inspirations from Gary Numan's Cars (1979), Japanese electro-group Yellow Magic Orchestra's Computer Games (1980) and Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express (1977). 

Gary Numan

Yellow Magic Orchestra performing Computer Games on Soul Train in 1980.

Kraftwerk

Conny Plank

Whodini went straight to the source, enlisting the talents of German engineer/producer Conny Plank. Before the introduction of MIDI controllers and computer software, Plank developed a way to synchronize synthesizer sounds and use mixing board consoles to give electronic sounds the feel of live musicianship. He worked with Devo and put MTV superstars like the Eurythmics and Kraftwerk on the path to success producing their early albums.

Whodini's digital sound was light years ahead of American analog music. Their method of making music foreshadowed new creative possibilities when hip hop artists began gaining access to sound labs like West Hollywood's Westlake Studios, Manhattan's Platnium Sounds and the Hit Factory.

                                              " Larry Larr/he's the King of the Beat" ---Jalil


 Larry Smith--- hip hop's original super producer was responsible hip hop's first gold and platinum albums and singles. When Dr. Dre was taking his first steps towards establishing his wining streak of breaking new artists, Smith was five years into a near decade run as hip hop's preeminent music man. 

 Smith ignited countless rap careers as writer, producer and major musical contributor. He was the man behind early hits The Bubble Bunch (1982), Money, (Dollar Bill Ya'll) and Live At The Fever (1983).

 Colleague and frequent collaborator Kurtis Blow revealed that Smith's bass line from Blow's Christmas Rappin' was lifted by rock group Queen for their smash Another One Bites The Dust. Smith was also a member of Orange Krush, one of the earliest hip hop bands.

Resurrecting the iconic drum track from their hit Action (1982), He created Run-D.M.C.'s signature sound and produced their first two albums. Heavily in demand, he lent his talents to every major rap album release of 1984.

He was a product of the fertile southeast Queens jazz/funk scene that bred trumpeter Tom Browne and young prodigy Bernard Wright. The groove and syncopation that drove their Funkin' for Jamaica ( N.Y.) and Who Do You You Love was the same formula that gave Whodini's songs the ability to resonate in the clubs as well as the streets. 

Smith articulated Whodini's ideas and navigated Escape toward a more hip hop sensibility. Because he was proficient in Fender Jazz bass, assorted keyboards and drum programming, Smith could focus on creating sample free compositions that gave the album a different vibe from other hip hop records.

Smith's musical prowess was perfectly in sync with Jalil's superior writing abilities. Their prolific partnership mirrored popular music creative duos like 60s urbane sophisticates Burt Bacharach and Hal David or 70s Philly Soul team Thom Bell and Linda Creed. 

During a TV-One Unsung segment on the group, Public Enemy front man Chuck D compared the Smith-Hutchins tandem to the union of Beatles song-writers John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

     "Like Whodini/I chose/Cazals to lean on my nose/drivin by the club gleamin' in gold"                                                                                            ---Nas

   " For all you emcees that's looking for an idol/Jalil's my name and master rapper's my title"
                                                                        ---Jalil

While today's emcees' measure their greatness by flooding rap blog sites with an endless supply of music, Jalil always understood the importance of quality over quantity. He was a master scribe who created conceptual material that became standards in the Great American Hip Hop Songbook.

Before Escape, hip hop songs might be converted from onstage routines and battle rhymes. Older lyrics from previously material might be recycled into new ones.

Emcees wrote for other emcees. Teams of writers might work out ideas together. Hits of the day like The Message would be mined for ideas inspiring similar social commentary rap songs.

While other rappers focused on being dope on the mic, Jalil was an astute musicologist and chameleon. Tuned in to a wide selection of artists from Blue Magic and War to Pat Benatar, He was equally adept at employing Smokey Robinson's poetic lyricism or tapping into a wealth of personal experiences creating powerful anthems like Friends.
   

 Like songwriter Rod Temperton's nocturnal catalog Give Me The Night, Boogie Nights, Off The Wall and The Groove Line, Jalil vividly captured the night life with The Freaks Come Out At Night and Five Minutes of Funk's opening verse ("Now the party don't start 'til I walk in") establishing the difference between hot lines and hot songs long before Jay-Z's critical analysis of uneven rap catalogs.

Def Jam producer Rick Rubin molded LL's sprawling lyricism into a more structured format but not enough credit goes to Jalil's simplistic genius. It cemented Escape's durability to the point where its songs repeatedly turned up on compilation albums, movie soundtracks and on the big screen in films like

 Illegal Tender, El Cantante, Next Friday and Jewel of the Nile.

Decades after its release, Escape would be lyrically and musically reinterpreted by a galaxy of hip hop stars from Will Smith (Potnas), Jermaine Dupri (Welcome To Atlanta), Snoop Dogg (Game of Life) Master P (Homies and Thugs), Nas (If I Ruled The World), Pastor Troy (Benz), The Firm (Five Minutes to Flush) MF Doom(Deep Fried Frenz) to neo-soul /R&B singers Meshell Ndegeocello (Friends) LSG (Just Friends) and Morris Day (The Character).

 Escape was a rap album but it was more closely aligned with the way other genres approached music. The album featured original music with intros, breakdowns and hooks.

Experimenting with alternative sounds before the arrival of CD expanded versions, Escape contained an instrumental track and a remix edit. Rather than focus on lyrical complexity or braggadocio lyrics, the album featured story lines with a sense of depth that was just as impactful as the dynamic cadences and flows of their peers.

Another reason for Escape's success was that the album retained key characteristics defining Eighties pop albums like Thriller, Purple Rain and Like A Virgin--- complete packages that rocked from beginning to end. It was virtually a greatest hits package, capable of holding its own against other albums released during the period.   

           "As you all we well know/ we got the gusto/I'm telling you the crews mag-ni-fi-co"                                                                        ---Ecstacy

 Powerful emcees DMC and LL crushed competitors on sight. Rakim, Moe Dee, Kane and G. Rap's articulation raised the lyrical bar. The booming rap dissertations of Melle Melle, Chuck D and KRS-One contained messages uplifting millions by all means necessary. 

John Fletcher aka Ecstasy was cut from a different cloth. He was one of a select few emcees (Ice Cube and X-Clan's Brother J come to mind) who were vocal execution masters who gave songs a distinct character yet remained true to their context and structure.  

While hip hop cats strived to emulate the Sinatra swagger, it was Ecstasy who was really closest to the Chairman of the Board. Ex's enunciation and delivery made the ladies swoon and his meticulous phrasing was impeccable.

 Ecstasy possessed a rich baritone with perfect pitch and tone. He wasn't a singer but he could navigate a lyric like Luther Vandross. He bent his voice like a jazz note, capturing energy and mood. Ex could convey skepticism and irony when exploring senstive topics of friendships and love. When he wistfully bemoaned his curfew right before club turn up time on Freaks, he conjured up feelings of nostalgia the listener could clearly identify with.  

Hip hop heads under 35 preferring Wu Tang's Inspectah Deck's sound bombing intros underestimate the impact of Ecstasy and his role in bringing Whodini's songs to life. 

Their methods of working in the studio was a lesson in utility and teamwork. During a 2006 interview piece Grown Man Music for hip hop website thafoundation.com, Jalil explained Ex's role in the creative process.

 "Ecstasy was the lead vocalist on most of the songs because anything we played he could rap in key. When we set up Whodini songs, I would ask Ecstasy to go into the studio to talk trash on the track so I can get the key down to write the song. That was 80% of the Whodini songs. The first sounds he spoke I wrote to."

Ecstasy's flair that made him one of the most charismatic vocalists in the game. Jalil credits him as being one of the architects of the percussive style later perfected by artists like the Notorious B.I.G., Q-Tip, LL Cool J and Public Enemy.

 "Only three cats had the key back then. Moe Dee, Melle Melle and my partner. They just hadn't heard him yet. What I mean by the key is rapping up and down the syncopated scale. Cats that flow like that sound great on every track. They make it hard for any man to follow them on a song." 

     " Its you, my friend who he said he saw/ my poster hangin' up on the wall/ the picture's clear                                               there's no mistake /my videos play in every state" ---Ecstasy

  "The next time you open up you fan club letter/it might just say that Whodini rocks better"         

---Jalil

Whodini's list of accomplishments were long. Jalil recorded the first radio promo that led to the group's formation. They were first to make videos. They were the first rappers signed to an indie with major label distribution and first to record an album with the most hit singles. Their music was featured as the official theme music for NYC show Video Music Box. Their videos were some of the first to feature celebrity cameos.

 Other groups made songs about their deejays. Whodini kicked it up a notch when their very own Grandmaster Dee came from behind the turntables to kick rhymes on Funky Beat.

Spoonie Gee's seminal Love Rap (1979) and LL's smash I Need Love (1987) exposed rap's softer side but it was One Love (1986) that established the template for the modern rap ballad still used today. Friends and One Love's mid tempo style, introspection and smooth vocal hooks would resurface on Puff Daddy's Satisfy You (1999) and I Need A Girl Pt. 1 (2002), LL's  Love You Better (2002) and Jay-Z's  Song Cry (2001).


Whodini's success raised their Jive's profile. The label became the destination for black music. Schooly D, Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, A Tribe Called Quest, Too Short, Boogie Down Productions and Kool Moe Dee would all record for Jive over the next two decades. R&B superstars R. Kelly, Joe and Charlie Wilson would also register hits with Jive.

Long before the POTUS/ Jay-Z mutual brotherhood and Diddy's Vote or Die campaign, Whodini's positive image led them to  become the only rap group to have a music video funded by the New York State Division of Substance Abuse and selected as a public service announcement vehicle.

Conservative black media failed to see rap's appeal and staying power. This attitude forced manager Russell Simmons to seek out unconventional partnerships with people who understood his vision of positioning rap as the new rebel youth music parallel to rock and punk.

Instead of being equally promoting Whodini and Run-D.M.C. as two rap super groups capable of cornering consumer markets similar to the Rolling Stones and The Beatles, Run-D.M.C. was installed as the cornerstone of the Rush Management roster. Headlining most major rap tours, their string of hits, rock influenced sound and alternative image drew an audience that existed outside of the R&B world that Simmons avoided. It lead to them being constantly featured in magazines and television specials around the world.    

"We put our special talents together/now we're a team wearing silk and leather/with platnium records, we're well respected"

                                ---Ecstacy

"Hear our records in the clubs/as well as the streets"

                               --- Jalil

While the Kings from Queens bridged the gap between rock and rap, Whodini also broke down barriers. Escape's popularity beyond rap circles attracted music fans who might have rocked with The SOS Band or the older Sugar Hill style.

Regional areas unable to decipher the ever changing NYC b-boy vernacular appreciated Escape's straight forward delivery and musical styles. Their message oriented lyrics attracted older listeners. Female fans zeroed in on their fly image cementing the group's image as rap sex symbols. Whodini built relationships with black radio programmers, chipping away at the policy of no hip hop daytime airplay. R&B bands who years earlier criticized rappers and sabotaged their stage shows bonded with Whodini and mentored them on live performances.

  

Despite these unique qualities, the synergy between Rush Management and Jive did not generate the endorsement opportunities, movie deals and TV commercials reserved for Blow, Run-D.M.C and The Fat Boys. 

"I used to watch the show I Dream of Jeannie/and dream about when I would be large like Whodini"

       --- KRS-One

"And right now here before your very eyes/I'm here to do what others dare to try"          

---Jalil

  Sketchy stats tallied in the days of rap's pre- Soundcsan era place Run-DMC's second album King of Rock or its follow up Raising Hell above Escape as rap's first platinum album. A closer look at data taken from Billboard Magazine reveal that timelines and numbers never lie:

October 17, 1984--- Jive Records releases Whodini's second album Escape. It enters the Billboard Black Charts in November.

December 1, 1984--- Arista Records releases sales figures of Five Minutes of Funk/ Friends. In just four months, the two-sided single is up to 350,000 copies in seven and 12 inch sales. It is a significant increase from the 250,000 sold by Haunted House of Rock and Magic's Wand. 

Jive initially targets the streets with Funk as the lead-off single until Friends emerges as the across the board favorite when older record buyers discover the record. 

Jive acknowledges a major percentage of the songs' sales were driven by mainstream interest outside of urban music circles.  Simmons is not satisfied with the sales performance. He expresses desire to seek independent promotion committed to moving the record properly.

January-July 1985--- Jive Records releases ads to Billboard promoting its roster and Zomba publishing company. Five Minutes of Funk/Friends hits the Top 40 in Black Singles Airplay and Sales chart at number 18.

 Escape peaks at the number five spot on the Black Albums charts just below New Edition, Stevie Wonder, Ashford and Simpson and Prince. Three months after its release, it climbs into the Pop Album Top 40 at number 37.  

Escape sells 500,000 copies and receives a gold certification. A third single Big Mouth is released in March. That same month, Profile Records releases a promo to Billboard advertising King of Rock's release. By July, Billboard reports that King of Rock has gone gold.

October 1985--- Russell Simmons campaigns for hip hop daytime radio airplay in a Billboard. Challenging the racial and industry systemic discrimination against rap music, he references Escape's near platinum sales and appeal to traditional consumers to validate rap music's commercial value. Escape begins its descent from the charts after 48 weeks.

December 7, 1985--- Arista Records releases a year end promo ad commemorating its ten year anniversary, celebrating a banner sales year. Whodini is recognized for the sale of over 900,000 copies of Escape. Arista crowns it the biggest selling rap album of all time.

January-June 1986--- Jive Records CEO Clive Calder discusses Whodini's commercial success and Escape's genre defining status as rap's biggest album. LL Cool J's debut album Radio---powered by hard drum sounds and LL's potent delivery goes gold in five months and hailed by Billboard as rap's next big hit.

Despite earning a second consecutive gold album, Run-D.M.C. feels King of Rock lacks the punch of their debut. They move on from producer Larry Smith and work with Rick Rubin for their follow up, Raising Hell. 

In his 1987 biography Tougher Than Leather: The Rise of Run-DMC, Rush publicist Bill Adler attributed Run's competitiveness and fear of being eclipsed in popularity as the driving force to return to the studio.

In April,  Jive releases Whodini's third album Back In Black. In May, Billboard Magazine reports the release of Run- D.M.C.'s Raising Hell. It ships gold by June.

    July 5, 1986--- Jive Records releases a promo ad for Back In Black. The album sells 500,000 copies in six weeks and receives a gold certification by July. It eventually goes platinum. The ad also references Escape's own platinum success holding strong as rap music's premier album.

             

July 15, 1986- October 11, 1986---Profile Records releases a Raising Hell promo ad to Billboard celebrating the album hitting the million sales mark. It receives gold and platinum certifications on the same day. The success of Aerosmith duet Walk This Way, expands to rock and pop radio airplay. Black media is unresponsive but mainstream press and TV cover the frenzy behind the record.

As the album racks up sales, its draws more press attention. Profile intensely tracks the records progress and reports that Raising Hell sales are up to two million in sales. It becomes rap's first multi-platinum seller, continuing its ascent before topping out at three million copies sold. 

 

             
Oct 1986-January 1988---The legendary Fresh Fest and Raising Hell tour packages and overseas appearances spike back catalog album sales. During his appearance in the seminal Dutch hip hop documentary Big Fun In The Big Town, Simmons reports that Run-D.M.C.'s first two albums have now sold 900,000 copies apiece. 



By 1987, Escape is still registered as an RIAA gold album despite going platinum two years prior. Holding down every major rap tour since '84, Whodini performs in 13 countries encountering fans who have the record and know every song. The album's popularity does not reflect actual sales and updated reports that potentially take it past its initial numbers continue to go unreported.

Nepotism, industry politics and limited label aggressive foresight in terms of marketing and promotion their brand to Whodini's diverse consumer mix of hip hop fans and mature audiences. 

When Escape's official platinum certification finally comes in May 1987, it happens one year after Raising Hell and three months after King of Rock. The album will go down in history as one of the first million selling rap albums instead of the first.

In September '87, they drop their final Jive album Open Sesame.   It sells 450,000 copies in just eight weeks and goes gold by January '88 closing out their platinum and gold run just as a new run of rap releases arrive to overtake the magic of 1984. 


The concept of the singular rap producer introduced by Larry Smith would take root as classic albums Long Live The Kane, Straight Outta Compton, Strictly Business, Three Feet High and Rising, Lyte As A Rock and Goin'Off would model the same formula.
  
  The Chronic, Ready To Die, Return of the 36 Chambers, Life After Death are rightfully hailed as masterpieces.They elevated hip hop album construction using Escape's focus on presentation and creative totality.

These days, massive album sales are a thing of the past, thanks to  industry downsizing and the decline of physical product. If hip hop ever returns to its platinum selling glory, rap historians will have to connect the dots back to the group that placed Brooklyn on the map in terms of hip hop excellence before Kane, Biggie and Jay-Z.

 As of this writing, Jalil is placing the finishing touches on his long awaited memoir  that will reveal the untold stories and inspirations behind the creation of the Whodini catalog. Until the book drops, thankfully we have Spotify and You Tube on hand to help us revisit the magic of Escape while we wait.