Songoftheday 12/18/17 - I got a squad with a list of complainers, I should have started RAPE Rappers Against Phony Entertainers...
from the album Derelicts Of Dialect (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #29 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6
Today's song of the day comes from the New York-based rap group 3rd Bass. Made up by rappers MC Serch (local boy Michael Berrin from Far Rockaway) and Prime Minister Pete Nice (college student Peter Nash) along with DJ Richie Rich from Brooklyn, the trio released their debut record The Cactus Album in November of 1989. With production and street cred provided by Public Enemy's The Bomb Squad and Stetsasonic's Prince Paul, the album was a critical and commercial success, with three hit singles in the urban market. Their first release, "Steppin' To The A.M.", had the sound and flow of a Public Enemy cut, and hit #54 on Billboard's R&B chart and #5 on their Rap Singles list. Their second single was the comical yet somewhat socially conscious track "The Gas Face", which landed the trio their first R&B top-40 hit at #29. It also reached #25 on the Dance Club Play chart in the U.S., and had international exposure peaking at #33 in New Zealand and #71 in the UK. That was followed by the "Best Of My Love"-sampling "Brooklyn-Queens", which gave them their biggest club hit at #20, which stopping at #82 on the R&B tally (it hit #39 in New Zealand and was their most successful British hit at #61).
In 1991, 3rd Bass released their second studio album Derelicts Of Dialect, again with Prince Paul assisting among others. But it was the Vanilla Ice-dissing novelty track "Pop Goes The Weasel" that landed the trio their biggest hit. It sampled Stevie Wonder and the Who, but was anchored by the groove from Peter Gabriel's #1 pop hit "Sledgehammer". Punk god Henry Rollins makes a cameo dressed up like Ice for the video...
"Pop Goes The Weasel" became 3rd Bass' first and only top-40 pop hit in August of 1991. The single also was their highest-climbing R&B hit at #26, and hit Billboard's Dance Club Play tally at #28. The record spent two weeks at #1 on the Rap Tracks chart as well. Internationally, the single went to #17 in New Zealand, and peaked at #64 in Britain.
A second single from Derelicts of Dialect, "Portrait Of The Artist As A Hood", was a minor R&B hit at #67. The video for that song was their second after "The Gas Face" to feature comedian Gilbert Gottfried. But by the end of 1992, the group had called it quits, with Nice and DJ Rich continuing to work together, and MC Serch searching out a solo career. The latter had the most success at it, with his solo album Return Of The Product hitting the albums chart and double-A side single "Here It Comes/Back To The Grill" reaching #71 on the pop Hot 100, #33 on Billboard's R&B chart, and again topping their Rap Tracks list for a week in 1992. Although for a while the split was acrimonious, Serch and Nice reunited in 1998 for a performance at Woodstock and a single that stiffed. Since then Nice/Nash had gone on to concentrate on baseball history, writing books and selling memorabilia, while MC Serch has been a radio DJ mostly, along with a few TV appearance, but his biggest claim to fame was his promotion of up and coming rapper Nas (who appeared on his solo record).
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Here's 3rd Bass in concert in 1991 for a TV special...
next up, a (bad quality) clip of the trio on Arsenio Hall show...
Lastly, the reunited group at Woodstock '99...
Up tomorrow: Hard-workin' pop/rock band goes to the toolbox for their last top-40 pop hit.
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