House of Pain - Jump Around (1992)
*** (of four)
"Jump Around" is possibly the catchiest hip-hop single ever to be built around a one-note sample (shit, even the "O.P.P." piano hook was two notes), that siren-sounding bagpipe wail bound to get stuck in your cranium for hours after you hear it. It's also one of the more enduring white-boy rap songs of the early '90s, closer to Cypress Hill than Vanilla Ice.
And, mere days after I celebrated St. Patrick's Day by downing my first green beer at 8:30 and being booted from an outdoor venue in mid-afternoon for continuing to urinate wildly after I'd already backed out of the Johnny on the Spot, it's comforting to watch Everlast and the boys celebrate their Irish heritage by bouncing up and down among a massive pub crowd while the St. Pat's parade goes by in black and white outside. (Who says my sentences don't run on like they used to?)
Director David Perez keeps the entire affair manic but easy to follow - Irish-related stock footage flies by while jerky closeups of the rappers are cut in. And, a good decade-plus later, "Jump Around" is one of the few videos you'll see on the MTV cable channels that have the word "ho" intact. He's even allowed to threaten to smack an out-of-line ho. This is a cherished relic of a bygone era.
"Jump Around" is possibly the catchiest hip-hop single ever to be built around a one-note sample (shit, even the "O.P.P." piano hook was two notes), that siren-sounding bagpipe wail bound to get stuck in your cranium for hours after you hear it. It's also one of the more enduring white-boy rap songs of the early '90s, closer to Cypress Hill than Vanilla Ice.
And, mere days after I celebrated St. Patrick's Day by downing my first green beer at 8:30 and being booted from an outdoor venue in mid-afternoon for continuing to urinate wildly after I'd already backed out of the Johnny on the Spot, it's comforting to watch Everlast and the boys celebrate their Irish heritage by bouncing up and down among a massive pub crowd while the St. Pat's parade goes by in black and white outside. (Who says my sentences don't run on like they used to?)
Director David Perez keeps the entire affair manic but easy to follow - Irish-related stock footage flies by while jerky closeups of the rappers are cut in. And, a good decade-plus later, "Jump Around" is one of the few videos you'll see on the MTV cable channels that have the word "ho" intact. He's even allowed to threaten to smack an out-of-line ho. This is a cherished relic of a bygone era.
posted by daytime at 1:21 AM
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