In a recent interview with Spin, Young MC broke down the making of his signature song, "Bust A Move."
The track arrived in 1989 on Delicious Vinyl, and was written in 1988 while Young was still a student at University of Southern California. "I was writing my songs after homework on school nights. And I remember the draft to “Bust A Move,” once I got the track, took about 90 minutes," he remembered. "Other than changing the title — because it was initially “Make That Move” — other than that, it’s pretty much verbatim. It’s full-on stream of consciousness, no rhyming dictionary, nothing. And a lot of the big words came from the fact that I was probably doing English or some other homework right beforehand, so my vocabulary’s kind of in that multisyllabic realm. And then I’d write the song."
The Queens, NY native also talked about how the sociopolitical climate was different at that time, and so was Hip-Hop. He said that initially, "Bust A Move" was compared to "It Takes Two" by Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock.
"In terms of where hip-hop was, N.W.A. was just coming out," he said. "There were a couple things in terms of the West Coast like Ice-T, Toddy Tee, The World Class Wreckin’ Cru, that kind of thing. There wasn’t a lot of crossover in terms of more pop records. So “Wild Thing” had done its thing, but that record hadn’t been broken on K-ROQ. It was broken more on an alternative rock station, and “Bust A Move” sounded more like an R&B track or more of an R&B/dance track, so I had no clue. There wasn’t really anything for me to stand on to say, “OK. ‘Bust A Move’ sounds like this, so I should be able to garner such and such audience.” Some people were comparing it to “It Takes Two” [by Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock], but the only real similarity was a woman singing the hook. Other than that, they’re pretty different songs."
