Illegal Foreign Object

When raspy, rapping raconteur Tone-Lōc hit the mainstream in late-1988, he hit like a 10-pound hammer. I had fallen in love with hip-hop a few years prior, and hearing stuff from N.W.A., Kid ‘N Play, LL Cool J, and Public Enemy while on the playground was a pretty regular occurrence. When Lōc’s debut album Lōc-ed After Dark dropped in January of ’89, however, holy moly. The album exploded, spawning three humongous singles en route to double platinum status, but above all else, it was catchy as hell! The Young MC-penned lead single, “Wild Thing”, which had been released in late-’88, was everywhere. You couldn’t turn on the radio or MTV for an hour without hearing that instantly recognizable sample from Van Halen’s “Jamie’s Cryin’”. I remember going to the Chicago Cubs Spring Training in Mesa, Arizona in March of that year and hearing it bumping out of multiple cars in the Hohokam Stadium parking lot.

Producer, DJ, and Co-founder of Delicious Vinyl Matt Dike was responsible for bringing the Van Halen track to the table. Teaming up with the Dust Brothers, Dike created a hip-hop masterpiece. Lōc loved the track. Eddie Van Halen, however, was less than enthusiastic. Turns out, Delicious Vinyl never actually bothered to clear the sample. They reached an out-of-court settlement, but a drunken Eddie supposedly bumped into Tone after the fact and popped off about the rapper stealing money from the guitar god. When asked about the incident, Lōc said, “He’s lucky I didn’t sock him in his jaw, but I was chillin’”.

Listeners weren’t sick of hearing the double platinum single “Wild Thing” when “Funky Cold Medina” dropped into our laps. Samples from Foreigner, Free, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and KISS were puzzle-pieced together to create a track that kept Tone all over MTV and radio. Seriously, queue it up and sing Foreigner’s “Hot Blooded” over it. It’s fun. Well, as much fun as a song about spiking someone’s drink can be in 2023. Hey, y’all, not everything ages well. Sometimes, you have to take a look back, cringe, and move on.

Lōc’s third and final single, “I Got It Goin’ On” sampled Tom Browne’s “Funkin’ For Jamaica”, mixed in a healthy dose of lyrical braggadocio, and rode the still-sky high “Wild Thing” wave to yet another Gold single. 

Tone was at his apex as a rapper but he was also smart to the music game. Rather than hitting the road solo or with other rap artists, he linked up with the Club MTV concert package that included Milli Vanilli, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Was (Not Was), Information Society, and Paula Abdul. Shout “sellout” from the rafters if you want, but Tone-Lōc was the biggest-selling rap artist in the world in 1989. Lōc-ed After Dark topped the Billboard Top 200 chart (just the 2nd time a rap album accomplished this feat — the Beastie Boys’ License To Ill was the first).

In the pantheon of hip-hop, you get pretty far down the list before you see the name Tone-Lōc. Fair or unfair, it’s simply how it goes with a lot of music. Listeners quickly move on to the next thing, especially when the previous thing gets called “pop”. There has always been something so wholly disposable about that descriptor. What cannot be denied, however, is Tone-Lōc’s importance to the fabric and history of hip-hop. The numbers back it up — 1989 was his year. Hip-hop owes him a debt of gratitude for the barriers he reduced to rubble.

Track List:

1. On Fire – Remix 7/10
2. Wild Thing 10/10
3. Lōc’ed After Dark 8/10
4. I Got It Goin’ On 8/10
5. Cutting Rhythms 9/10
6. Funky Cold Medina 10/10
7. Next Episode 6/10
8. Cheeba Cheeba 10/10
9. Don’t Get Close 7/10
10. Lōc’in On The Shaw 8/10
11. The Homies 6/10

Grade: 81