Songoftheday 12/13/18 - The day seems nice and bright and everything feels alright, I went to school without a fool tryin' to pick a fight...
from the album Da Bomb (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #19 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10
Today's song of the day comes from the hip-hop duo Kris Kross, who were just turning teenagers when their massive breakthrough hit "Jump" topped the pop charts in Billboard magazine, followed by the top 20 follow-up "Warm It Up" in the summer of 1992. Now with that immediate volume of success coupled by the off-the-norm nature of the pair themselves, it would be usually safe to say that Chris Kelly (Mac Daddy) and Chris Smith (Daddy Mac) would quickly fade to obscurity after the second single that capitalized off the "novelty" nature of "Jump". However the two boys had more talent than most, and more importantly excellect mentorship by the likes of Jermaine Dupri. After spending a little time guesting on other records and videos, the Chrises returned in 1993 with their sophomore effort Da Bomb. The first single from the set was "Alright", a midtempo jam featuring reggae "dancehall" toaster Super Cat that was based on a sample of Slave's post-disco tune "Just A Touch Of Love". With rhymes written by Dupri that were squeaky-clean but they controlled their flow with ease, fitting in the middle between Will Smith's "Summertime" and N2Deep's "Back 2 The Hotel". The pair found themselves back with a pretty respectable hit, even if it didn't reach the sales numbers of "Jump"...
"Alright" became Kris Kross' third top 20 pop hit in August of 1993. The song also climbed to #8 on Billboard's R&B chart, while being their third to top the Rap Singles Chart. The remixes of the track helped it scale to #40 on their Dance Club Play list as well. Internationally, the single climbed to #8 in New Zealand, while missing the top-40 in the UK at #47.
Their next single from the record was "I'm Real", which tried to ape the G-Funk sound of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, but it didn't quite click and stalled down at #84 on the pop chart and #45 R&B. Finally, the title track "Da Bomb" featuring their own discovery Da Brat (who would soon have success of her own), rose to #74 on the R&B list. Nevertheless, the album sold over a million copies and reached the top 20.
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And here's Kris Kross and Supercat performing live on the Uptown Comedy Club TV Show in 1993...
Up tomorrow: The King of Pop frees his Willy.
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