Dystopian Dance Party

Tag: full force

  • Jheri Curl June: Full Force’s “Old Flames Never Die”

    Jheri Curl June: Full Force’s “Old Flames Never Die”

    Okay, so we covered Full Force back in our very first year of Jheri Curl June, but the song I picked wasn’t their best by any means and I got in some jabs at the group. Though I still stand by those jabs, Full Force deserves better. Every time I watch the House Party movies, I’m struck by the fact that their role as the bullies is one of the best parts of the films (seriously, try to watch House Party 3, 4, or 5 and tell me I’m wrong,) and their “Ain’t My Type of Hype” is THE most memorable song in the first movie, appearing during the iconic dance-off scene.

    But even before House Party, Full Force were successful producers and hitmakers in their own right. And their second album, Full Force Get Busy 1 Time, is wall to wall late-era Jheri Curl bangers. “Old Flames Never Die” even sounds a bit like, dare I say, an unreleased Prince track from the early ’80s, or a song that would feel at home on the Time‘s first album. It’s simple and funky, with a little New Wave-y flare and a fun interpolation of Sly and the Family Stone‘s “Everyday People.”

    So, there you go, I’ve managed to finally write something about Full Force without roasting them because, despite all appearances, I actually love Full Force. I mean, they are an ’80s R&B group with Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure character bodies who all dress like “Macho Man” Randy Savage and have Jheri curls. What is there NOT to love?

    We’ll be back tomorrow to wrap up week three of Jheri Curl June 2K23! In the meantime, check out the rest of our picks this year in the playlists below:

  • Jheri Curl June: Samantha Fox’s “Naughty Girls Need Love Too”

    Samantha Fox began her career as a glamour model in 1983, but by the mid-’80s had made the natural transition to pop music. After the success of her debut album, 1985’s Touch Me, Fox returned to the studio to record her self-titled sophomore album, which further expands on her bad girl image.

    Fox enlisted the help of prolific producers, R&B/freestyle group, professional swole clowns, photobombers, and Jheri Curl June alumni Full Force to write and produce “Naughty Girls (Need Love Too).” Of course, in typical Full Force fashion, the group insisted on not just writing, producing, and singing backup for the song, but also appearing in the video:

    We’ll be back tomorrow for one more day of woman-fronted jheri curl music. Spotify and YouTube playlists below:

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  • Jheri Curl June: Imaginary Genres – Jheri Curl Music

    It’s finally here! In case you weren’t aware, Jheri Curl June is our most sacred holiday season here at Dystopian Dance Party, and we wanted to do something special for its third annual observance (“Jh3ri Curl Jun3”). So, instead of resurrecting the same hoary old introductory post from 2014, we thought we’d offer a concise introduction to the genre we call Jheri Curl Music in the form of a short video. Please enjoy; transcript and video/audio credits are past the jump. And come back tomorrow for some more traditional Jheri Curl June fare!

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  • My Type of Hype: A House Party Series Retrospective

    My Type of Hype: A House Party Series Retrospective

    Last month marked the 25th anniversary of the release of House Party: the definitive early ’90s African American teen comedy, starring pop-rappers Kid ‘n Play and directed by Reginald Hudlin. So what better time than now to look back and recall the classic film, the sequels it spawned, and the moment in urban youth culture it inimitably captured and preserved? If you have fond memories of the House Party films, read this post and you just might learn something new–especially about the franchise’s lesser-seen third and fourth installments.

    The original House Party, an expanded remake of a student film Hudlin made while attending Harvard University in 1986, structures itself loosely around a single day in the lives of a group of high school seniors. Peter, a.k.a. “Play” (Christopher “Play” Martin), is throwing the titular house party while his parents are out of town. His friend Christopher, or “Kid” (Christopher “Kid” Reid), wants to use the party as an opportunity to showcase his “dope lyrics” as an M.C., but his plans are jeopardized when he runs afoul of the school bullies: hulking “Stab” and “Zilla” and diminutive, squeaky-voiced “Pee Wee,” played respectively by real-life brothers Paul Anthony, Brian “B-Fine,” and Lucien “Bowlegged Lou” George of the R&B group Full Force. Also attending the festivities are Tisha Campbell as the “bougie” upper-class girl, Sidney, who harbors a crush on Kid; A.J. Johnson as her worldly friend from the projects, Sharane; and Martin Lawrence–in only his second feature film role, after Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989)–as Bilal, the party’s irascible D.J.

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  • Jheri Curl June: Full Force’s “Love is for Suckers (Like Me and You)”

    As we discussed in a previous post, by the middle of the decade the popularity of jheri curl music was waning, thus making room for both hip-hop and New Jack Swing.  Full Force, who released their first album in 1985, combine equal parts of all three genres, helping to bridge the gap between JCM and New Jack Swing that many other jheri curl musicians crossed. This is evident in “Love is For Suckers (Like Me and You),” the first single from Full Force’s third album, 1987’s Guess Who’s Comin’ to the Crib?

    The video, an unwatchable nearly five minutes of aggressive goofiness set in what appears to be Pee Wee’s Playhouse, features the group (with either a child or a midget in a full-face helmet… maybe it’s a play on words?) breaking down a white family’s door to eat all their fried chicken and otherwise terrorize them until they disappear into thin air, apparently going back to the fantasy world from whence they came. The one where white spandex fringed bodysuits are fashionable.

    We have only one day left of Jheri Curl June, but our playlist is at a whopping 48 songs! Check it out after the jump.

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