[ad_1]
Cameo was remarkably prolific by the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s, churning out a dozen albums inside an preliminary nine-year run rife with R&B hits. Originally a sprawling funk ensemble earlier than steadily downsizing, the New York City group’s sustained success below the management of vocalist/drummer/producer Larry Blackmon mirrored an uncanny capacity to pivot and evolve. Cameo made its title with consummate dance flooring funk so aggressively syncopated (“I Just Want to Be,” “Shake Your Pants,” et al.) the information felt like they could fly off the turntable. But the group may additionally adroitly dabble in disco (“Find My Way”), take stylistic cues from electro (“Single Life”) and new wave (“Alligator Woman”), boast proto-broken beat jazz-funk chops (“The Sound Table”), and excel with beautiful falsetto ballads (“Why Have I Lost You”) all whereas remaining devoted to a core template of Blackmon’s Clinton-esque frontman persona offset by Tomi Jenkins’ silky clean vocals.
Listen to Cameo’s Word Up! now.
Featuring a Blackmon rap in reward of a peculiar femme fatale, 1984’s slinky “She Strange” even discovered the group assuredly harnessing hip-hop’s affect – a trick that defied most of its longstanding Black music contemporaries. This willingness to embrace the burgeoning artwork type slightly than deride it as development (or worse, fumble within the face of its existential risk) wholly informs 1986’s “Word Up,” Cameo’s industrial apex. Its angular funk – within the type of chunky energy chords and horn charts – selectively incorporates rap’s parlance (e.g. the title chorus; “wave your hands in the air like you don’t care”) and perspective (see disparaging references to “sucker DJs who think [they’re] fly”) into Blackmon and Jenkins’ personal confirmed songwriting and arranging acumen, yielding one of many catchiest and quirkiest crossover singles of the last decade.
That stated, it wouldn’t essentially shock anybody if Word Up! was little greater than a automobile for its titular hit. Fortunately, its seven songs embody a few of the most interesting by the group (by this level formally a trio of Blackmon, Jenkins and vocalist Nathan Leftenant). “Word Up’s” rapid follow-up, “Candy,” is a rhythmically infectious, earworm-laden masterpiece that completely performs Blackmon’s exaggerated, nasal supply towards Jenkins and Leftenant’s sweeter vocal assault. Additional songs spotlighting Jenkins’ singing practically match this commonplace. “Back and Forth,” the album’s third substantial hit, playfully laments relationship ups and downs over a buoyant monitor punctuated by traditional interval guitar shredding and drum machine claps. “Don’t Be Lonely” displays the trio’s knack for romantic materials undiminished.
Thematically, the motivational “You Can Have the World” appeared an apropos album nearer. Word Up! grew to become Cameo’s highest charting LP, going primary R&B and high 10 pop. It was additionally basically the group’s final hurrah within the face of a sea change. As the ’80s drew to a detailed, younger hip-hop and New Jack Swing R&B artists supplanted Cameo and different veteran teams because the pacesetters inside Black music. Yet Blackmon’s signature hi-top fade grew to become the adopted look of this youth motion – symbolic of Cameo’s longevity even because the baton handed to the following technology.
Listen to Cameo’s Word Up! now.
[ad_2]