The High Definite

From their Wikipedia:

“Soul for Real is an R&B group from Wheatley Heights, New York that released three albums in the 1990s, made up of brothers Andre (born April 4, 1974), Brian (born December 14, 1975), Christopher (born April 30, 1973), and Jason Dalyrimple (born May 10, 1980).

Formed in 1992, Soul for Real signed with Uptown Records and released their debut album Candy Rain on March, 28, 1995.Produced by Heavy D, Candy Rain’s first single was the album’s title track. The song hit #1 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and peaked at #2 on the Hot 100 chart. Their second single, “Every Little Thing I Do”, reached #11 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and #17 on the Hot 100 chart.

Soul for Real’s second album, For Life, was produced by Sean Combs and released on September, 24, 1996. The album peaked at #119 on the Billboard 200, and the single album’s single “Love You So” peaked at #64 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs in 1997.”

I was in like 6th grade when Candy Rain came out and it was the consumate makeout/school dance song at the time.  There were other groups like Another Bad Creation holding it down in the “these kids are way too young to be singing about this type of shit” genre, but Soul For Real will always get girls in the loving mood anytime one of these songs gets thrown on.  Some videos to take you back after the jump:

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A continuation of my Thursday series, paying tribute to the stars of yesteryear at the height of their popularity, focusing on their glorious past rather than their devastatingly disappointing present.

From his Wikipedia:

“The Jerry Springer Show debuted on September 30, 1991. It was developed by WLWT-TV to replace its Phil Donahue Show. It started as a politically-oriented talk show, a longer version of Springer’s commentaries. Guests included Oliver North and Jesse Jackson, and topics included homelessness and gun politics.

In the spring of 1994, Springer and his new producer, Richard Dominick, revamped the format of the show in order to garner higher ratings. The show became more and more successful as it became more and more lowbrow, with an emphasis on infidelity. Its guests were typically lower class, minimally-educated, blue collar people confronted on a television stage with a spouse or family member’s adultery, homosexuality, prostitution, transvestism, hate group membership, or other controversial situations. These confrontations often lead to shouting, profanities, chair-throwing, fist-fights, and removal of clothing. Female guests also receive ‘Jerry Beads’ for exposing their breasts to the studio audience, in the style of Mardi Gras revelers. The show garnered huge ratings, and lots of attention. By 1998, it was even beating Oprah Winfrey in many cities, and was reaching more than 6.7 million viewers.

Springer portrayed his own talk show host character in the 1998 movie Ringmaster, though his character’s name is Jerry Farrelly. Ringmaster offers a behind-the-scenes look at would-be guests who apply to a Springer-like show. The same year, Springer also released an unrelated autobiography named Ringmaster; he claimed “I can only think of one title a year.”

He also appeared on an episode of Roseanne during its ninth season, on the 1997 ‘The X-Files episode “The Post-Modern Prometheus”, and voiced a cartoon version of himself in the Halloween 1998 episode of The Simpsons entitled “Starship Poopers.”

Springer was the fucking man in the 90’s.  His show was a media juggernaut and he was so popular he even popped up on MTV’s Spring Break (back when MTV’s Spring Break was awesome). On top of that, no matter where you were, if you saw a  fight in public, some douchebag would start chanting his name, which would result in him getting his dick kicked in and BOOM, more comedy.  You just don’t get quality trash like this beamed into the comfort of your home anymore…

Some kick-ass Jerry Springer Show moments after the jump:

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A continuation of my Thursday series, paying tribute to the stars of yesteryear at the height of their popularity, focusing on their glorious past rather than their devastatingly disappointing present.

Via Wikipedia:

“Saget was cast as Danny Tanner in Full House, which became a huge success through family viewers and landed in the Nielsen Ratings’s Top 30 from the third season onward. In 1989, Saget was cast as the host of America’s Funniest Home Videos, which also became a smash hit. During the early 1990s, Saget was quite busy with his career, doing both Full House and AFV simultaneously. In 1995, Full House ended its run after eight years (due to increasing production costs), and Saget continued to host AFV, despite his desire to move on.”

Despite his soon to be discovered penchant for crude stand-up comedy, Bob Saget proved that some people in Hollywood will do anything to get paid. He was simultaneously on two of the biggest shows on television… playing two of the biggest dinks on television, but getting paid copious amounts of money to do so.  Playing a wholesome father and the corny guy that your parents loved served to be quite lucrative for Saget, whose decade long run as a television star surely provided for whatever vices he has to this day. Wherever that big head of yours is now, I hope it’s sandwiched between a pair of large breasts and a plate of coke, sir.  That’s what heroes deserve.

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A continuation of my Thursday series, paying tribute to the stars of yesteryear at the height of their popularity, focusing on their glorious past rather than their devastatingly disappointing present.

Via Wikipedia:

“She began acting at the age of ten, making appearances in several movies and guest starring on shows such as Baywatch, Webster, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Blossom. She also starred in General Hospital from 1993 to 1995 and had a recurring role on the saturday morning program California Dreams. She apparently appeared in the Badder section of Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker.

Her appearances on various TV shows would lead to her first prime-time starring role as Tiffany Malloy on the sitcom Unhappily Ever After, which ran on the WB 1995–1999.

After being romantically linked to Kevin Connolly, who played her brother on Unhappily Ever After, Cox was engaged in 1999 to Bobcat Goldthwait, a comedian more than 15 years her senior, who played the voice of Mr. Floppy, a stuffed bunny, on Unhappily Ever After.”

Nikki Cox was one of the most popular (read: breastiest) actresses from the 90’s and apparantly REALLY liked the people that she worked with on her biggest acting role.  She’s being honored because although she’s transforming herself from Playboy material (I still wish for it, c’moonnnnn) into an extra from Underworld, she still deserves to be credited as one of the hottest chicks to hit television back in the day.  I’d also like to take this opportunity to wish her the best of luck in the future and to remind her that plastic surgery isn’t a one-way street…

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Fuck the “Where are they now” approach… I’d rather celebrate people in their glory days.  Hence, the start of a new series I will do on Thursday’s entitled: Where They Were Then.

Via Wikipedia:

“Kris Kross was a teenage rap duo of the early 1990s. The duo is most famous for their 1992 hit “Jump,” and their fashion styling—consisting of wearing their clothes backwards.

Kris Kross, consisted of Atlanta natives: Chris “Mac Daddy” Kelly (born August 11, 1978), and Chris “Daddy Mac” Smith (born January 10, 1979). Childhood friends, Kelly and Smith were discovered in 1991, at the age of twelve, by Jermaine Dupri at an Atlanta shopping mall. Dupri thought the two “looked like a rap group,” and proceeded to groom them as such.

Their Dupri-produced debut album, Totally Krossed Out, was released in 1992; selling four million copies in the US. It included the hit single “Jump,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks. In the interim, the duo landed a spot on Michael Jackson’s European tour that year, as well as a cameo appearance on Jackson’s “Jam” music video. In addition to this, they also made appearances in the music videos for Run DMC’s “Down With the King”, TLC ’s Hat 2 Da Back and DJ Nab’s “Live megamix.” They were also featured in a episode of A Different World.”

I first heard Kriss Kross in the 3rd grade (1993), a year after their debut album and their smash hit “Jump” was flying all over the charts and the radio.  Now, I know that was the year of Wu-Tang’s “36 Chambers”, ATCQ’s “Midnight Mauraders”, Snoop’s “Doggystyle”, KRS’s “Return of The Boom Bap”, and a myriad of other outstanding albums, but I couldn’t relate, being I was in the 3rd fucking grade.  I wasn’t trying to hear about housing projects and crack fiends in the same week I was watching TMNT and eating Captain Crunch.  Kriss Kross was my entry into hip-hop, albeit an unglorified one that is probably being scorned by those of you that consider yourselves hip-hop stans.  This isn’t the embarassing point.  The embarassing point is that they made songs back in 1992 as kids that were better than 80% of this new bullshit mainstream hip-hop.  I implore you to revisit some of their classic videos and NOT recognize their skills that they had at such a young age. 

May their careers rest in peace.

Warm It Up

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It’s A Shame

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The Way Of The Rhyme

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