Whodini — Escape

After the release of the debut album, Whodini should face a world tour, but stop after three months in Europe, accompanied for part of the tour by UTFO and Kangol Kid, before returning home. For the second disc, the boys are looking for new producers, Jive can't find them, and Jalil Hutchins decides to rely on his friend Larry Smith, whom he has just met in New York.

One year after their debut, hip-hop trio Whodini releases their second effort. The group records in London and entrusts the entire production of the disc to Larry Smith, New York producer already known for producing several Kurtis Blow hits such as "Christmas Rappin'" and "The Breaks", and a large part of Run-DMC's debut album in 1983, including four of the five singles released, all finished in the charts. The trio would like to go towards more rock-oriented sounds with heavy use of the synthesizer in the vein of the successes of the Isley Brothers, however, Smith leaves his synthesizer in New York, sure he'll find one in the UK, which he doesn't. The group then listens to Run-DMC's "Rock Box" and chooses to focus their music on sounds closer to R&B, Jive would like the boys to copy Simmons & McDaniels, which everyone will do, but the trio manages to build something different.

The album is opened by "Five Minutes of Funk", the b-side of the project's first single, "Friends". Over a fresh production by Smith, Jalil delivers four braggadocio verses in an upbeat, festive slant. "Freaks Come Out at Night" is released as the second single, it's another party cut with an exquisite funky-electro production, it boasts a hook performed with the vocoder and is another success of Whodini, then being also included in the soundtrack of the film "The Jewel of the Nile" (1985). The disc becomes one of the major influences on new jack swing, a genre that mixes funk, hip-hop and rnb.  "Featuring Grand Master Dee" is the instrumental of the first track and is six minutes long, the beat is good, however, the track is deemed unnecessary and one of the weaknesses of an almost unassailable disc: at a time when DJs were losing attention and prominence to rappers, Whodini attempts to keep their DJ some space with this track, with limited success. Side A is closed by "Big Mouth", a song consisting of a minimal rhythm about a guy who talks too much. Released as the third single from the album, it's the fifth to enter the charts at home.

The title track is pick number five and opens the B-side. "Escape (I Need a Break)" boasts both the album's best production and lyrics and is one of Whodini's best tracks. Ecstasy flies over a simply magical, at times ethereal production by Larry Smith, who builds a fantastic soundscape for this track, as the artist describes the anxieties and hardships of life in inner cities. Fourth and final single from the album of the same name, it enters the dance songs chart. Another classic follows, "Friends", released as the first single from the trio's second album. It reached number four on the rnb singles, becoming the group's biggest hit, as well as being the only one released by the group in 1984 and the only one to also enter the Hot 100. Smith invents sublime and magnificent music for this song about friends and girlfriends, the song becomes one of the most sampled in the history of hip-hop, among others also by 2Pac ("Troublesome '96"), MF DOOM ("Myrrh") and Nas ("If I Ruled the World"). "Out of Control" is almost an instrumental track, with an ominous and dark beat, and works very well as a direct sequel to "Haunted House of Rock", the beat is beautiful. The album ends with track number eight, which serves as the group's introduction, "We Are Whodini," over an exquisite production by Smith.

To promote the album, the group opens a national tour in which Kurtis Blow, Newcleus, Fat Boys and Run-DMC also take part. "Escape" is one of the first albums to be certified platinum by the RIAA after Run-DMC's, the record gets a positive reception from critics and reaches the #35 box on Billboard Top Pop, the first hip-hop album to enter in the top 40 of the chart, improving on the Sugarhill Gang's "8th Wonder" which had hit the number 50 box in 1981. Second LP by Whodini, it's considered one of the best albums in the electro rap subgenre, one of the most important and most influential in hip-hop. Larry Smith's production is one of the best of the period, making great use of bass and synthesizer, and crafting funky and electro beats that still sound crisp and fresh decades later. The lyrics are simple, braggadocio most of the time, with several interesting excerpts and good dynamics on the mic. The boys' rapping is average, even if the musical background offered by the producer helps to improve the style of Jalil and Ecstasy, making the whole project better than the debut from every point of view.

Rating: 8/10.