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Song Stories

“Raw”

Big Daddy Kane | 1987

In 1987, Big Daddy Kane — who'd just signed with Marley Marl's Cold Chillin' Records — compared himself to a rap "terrorist" on "Raw," a promo single released to introduce the emcee to the world. The underground hit, featuring a sample of the James Brown classic "Hot Pants," was remixed for his debut Long Live the Kane, but real hip-hop heads (and hardcore fans of the rapper) will always remember the braggadocious original, where Kane spits, "So full of action/My name should be a verb." "I couldn't really see it going too far," he recalled. "I thought we'd have a neighborhood song out, a Brooklyn hit, and that's it."

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“Hey Jane”
Spiritualized | 2012
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“Informer”
Snow | 1993

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

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