★★★★★
Signed to Jive in 1981 and affiliated with everyone from Russell Simmons to Afrika Bambaataa, Whodini (Jalil, Ecstasy and Grandmaster Dee) released Escape in 1984. Thanks to prime TV placement and their down-to-earth, everyday subject matter, it sold over a million copies. Rarely reissued, this version comes with the expected bonus tracks and remixes, but the original eight cuts are all you need...
- www.recordcollectormag.com
2011-09-12
★★★★★
Almost a decade after hip-hop spawned from New York city's streets, the astoundingly fast-shifting music had already undergone several reinventions: from lone DJs cutting-and-looping 12"s in the mid-70s, to a later realisation of commercial potential in Sugar Hill's releases, and Tommy Boy's harnessing of the Miami bass sound with the likes of Planet Rock in 1982...
- www.recordcollectormag.com
2010-12-21
★★★★★
Before hip-hop could replace disco in the clubs, it had to play by dance music's rules ? Whodini became early rap stars by making that compromise sound like a coup. At their best, MCs Jalil and Ecstasy and DJ Grandmaster Dee let Kraftwerk-indebted electro loops spiral endlessly, alternating effusive, simple rhymes with even simpler chants and copious instrumental breaks...
- www.blender.com
2010-08-22
★★★★★
Internet radio is being driven out of existance by the corrupt power triangle of the FCC, the music industry, and the corporate broadcast titans like Clear Channel. That's a damn shame because without old school hip-hop mix shows online the only other venue to hear classic Whodini songs is XM 65 Raw or buy "Funky Beat: The Best of Whodini." This is not a Back to the Lab review though despite the old school nature of the hip-hop artists involved...
- rapreviews.com
2009-07-21
★★★★★
I admit it, I get off on "Early Mother's Day Card," a rap achievement surpassing even a stay-in-school song capable of keeping somebody in school. But when it's all I notice beyond a def beat or two, I wonder whether they're still in the right business.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
With the secret of the great rap album still shrouded in mystery, you can't fault this attempt for starting with two intelligent if corny black youths from Brooklyn (cf. Wham! U.K.). But novelty hits do sometimes wear thin (cf. "The Haunted House of Rock: Vocoder Version"). And though you might get away with producing your album in London or even Cologne, going from one to the other is asking for trouble.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
They're not just ladies' men, they're the big brothers every B-boy wishes he had. Or so they hope. Autobiographical examples make their stay-in-school and one-love advice more convincing than most, though just to cover all the bases they don't stint with the etiquette tips ("That's Dom Perignon, it's supposed to bubble")...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Like all aspiring popmeisters, producer Larry Smith and head rapper Jalil Hutchins turn out ingratiating variations on a formula. Fortunately, the formula isn't tired yet--it was a great singing synth riff that put "Haunted House of Rock" over, not the novelty concept. Even the putative follow-up "Freaks Come Out at Night," dumber lyrically than "Escape" and "Friends" and dumber musically than the irresistible "Five Minutes of Funk," is five minutes of fun.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Hard to believe these are thesame three guys who specialized in good-natured 1980selectro-rap novelties like "Friends" and "Haunted House ofRock." "If You Want It" flirts with the trio's old poppycrossover bounce, and "Here He Comes" is a cute Monkees rip. Buton Six, Whodini mainly focus on thugs barfing up murder threats,toilet language, and mush-mouthed come-ons with the subtlety ofdrunk garbage truck drivers. C+
- ew.com
2009-06-12
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