Songoftheday 9/8/20 - Some of y'all might know this and some of y'all don't, some of y'all might be with this and some of y'all won't...

 

 

"Let Me Clear My Throat" - DJ Kool

from the album Let Me Clear My Throat (1996)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #30 (three weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 9

 

Today's song of the day comes from rapper John Bowman Jr, who records under the nickname DJ Kool, who got his start in the Washington, DC hip-hop/go-go scene of the late 1980s-early 1990s. His debut album The Music Ain't Loud Enough placed on Billboard magazine's R&B Albums chart, as did his sophomore effort, 20 Minute Workout. But it was his third release, Let Me Clear My Throat, that landed Kool his biggest success. The title track, which appears twice on the album, found it's live version had the best radio reception. Featuring (uncredited) rappers Biz Markie ("Just A Friend") and Doug E. Fresh rare concert single from a hip-hop act scored Kool his first and only top-40 pop hit...

 

 
"Let Me Clear My Throat" landed in the pop Top-40 in March of 1997. The song also climbed to #21 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart. Internationally, the single was even bigger, making the top ten in the UK (#8) and the Netherlands (#10), and got to #19 in New Zealand. The Let Me Clear My Throat album climbed to #21 on the R&B Albums sales chart, and #161 on the all-genre Billboard 200. 

 

The follow-up single, "I Got Dat Feelin'", was also live, but while it appeared on the R&B chart at #80, it only "bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 at #106.  A year later, Kool rapped on the Crooklyn Clan single "Here We Go Now", which popped on to the British singles chart for a week at #97. Despite the great reception of "Let Me Clear My Throat", he wasn't able to continue that success. Kool returned in 2000 with the one-off single "It Takes Two" with Fatman Scoop, an interpolation of the Rob Base/DJ EZ rock classic from the 1980s, which rose to #85 on the R&B chart, followed by a collaboration with Redman a year later, "Let's Get Dirty", which almost made the R&B top-40 at #46, spending 20 weeks on the chart. Since then, Kool has guested on a couple tracks, his latest chart appearance being a guest turn on fellow go-go veteran Chuck Brown's "Block Party", which peaked at #60 on the R&B list in 2007.

 

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 Here's Kool appearing on local DC TV performing "I Got Dat Feelin'" and "Let Me Clear My Throat" with Biz Markie and Doug E Fresh in 1997...

and lastly, Kool live in Atlantic City in 2012...

Up tomorrow: Brandy's frenemy makes a promise for Space Jam.