About Me
When rap was still in its infancy, Brooklyn distinguished itself from the Bronx by being a party town: it was the duty of the Brooklyn MC to rock the house. Few groups understood this better than WHODINI. The career of Jalil Hutchins, Ecstasy and Grandmaster Dee is a grab-bag of underground connections made by brothers working in the business of human happiness.Formed at a time when rap was still defining itself, WHODINI is the missing link between Kraftwerk, UTFO, Thomas Dolby, Bobby Brown and even Janet Jackson.Together, they streamlined hip-hop and fertilized both the fields of rap and R&B. With their sports jackets and wide-brimmed Zorro hats, they didn't even look as if they belonged in the same world as the Sugarhill Gang or the leather-clad warriors of the Furious Five."When you speak of doin' in front of a crowd and getting' attention," Hutchins told Grown Man Music, "then you had the disco era of hip-hop . . . and cats in the parks with their systems. I mean, the Bronx did their thing with scratching and tricks, but if you talk to old school Brooklyn cats they will tell you!"Even as a high school student in south Brooklyn, Hutchins realized there had to be more to hip-hop than the four-count style used by pioneers like DJ Hollywood. He grew up in an era when rapping was filler, something to amuse the crowd while the DJ flipped from Cheryll Lynn's "Got To Be Real" to MFSB's "Love is the Message."The words weren't meant to get inside the ear and stay there, but ride the beat and put bodies in motion. Jalil came from a different tradition, growing up with records by the Last Poets and practicing his own skills by turning TV commercials into little raps. But he loved hip-hop, and was soon working the phones for Mr. Magic, a famous DJ on New York's WBLS.WHODINI's 1980 debut single "Magic's Wand" followed shortly. There was some concern that the scratching (done by Davy Mills) would keep the song from getting airplay, but, no doubt encouraged by couplets like "the moment he went on the air/ It was plain to see a new phase was here," Magic played it regularly on his show for the next two years."Jalil brought it to Mr. Magic, and Mr. Magic played it two or three times during the course of his show. And people thought this was a record at the time. So we come out side to the basketball court the next day? and everybody is like... 'Yo I heard your record on the radio?'And I was like 'What record you talking about?' It was the first time scratching was heard on the radio. Wooh!"As WHODINI hit the charts, they developed a fierce live show. Hutchins summed up their appeal: "Born and raised on the streets of Brooklyn/ There're three of us and we're all good-looking." Their secret weapon was Grandmaster Dee, a green-eyed man who claimed he could scratch using any part of his body. Sexy!As well as the charismatic front-line, WHODINI had a platoon of dancers that included Jalil's younger brother Doctor Ice and the Kangol Kid. The dance squad became a finishing school for rap talent. Ice and the Kid went on to form UTFO ("Roxanne"); pint-sized Jermaine Dupri became the boss of So So Def, an Atlanta rap kingpin and Janet Jackson's boyfriend. Among his hits was fellow WHODINI dancer Murphy Lee's "What's the Hook Gon' Be?"CRITIC TIME: 'You gotta understand, between '84 and '87, you've got a group that nobody wants to play behind. Run-DMC didn't want to play behind them. And it caused tension. It was like the Four Tops and the Temptations. Hell, they got along, but they were out to smash each other every night.' -- The Broward-Palm Beach New Times
