Gigolo, Huh, Sukka?

Neneh Cherry: "So Here I Come" and "Manchild"
From: Raw Like Sushi (Virgin Records, 1989)

It's blog confession time, when Neneh Cherry's debut album came out I developed a major childhood crush on the lady. Maybe it was the music, maybe it was the attitude, maybe it was that she was the closest thing we'd ever had to a great UK rapper at the time, maybe it was seeing her perform Buffalo Stance on Top Of The Pops while 7 months pregnant without a care in the world, who knows? Whatever the reason I'm pleased to see my adolescent tastes weren't all absolutely shit as this album that I played to death on my old record player when it came out still stands up to scrutiny today. While less willfully obscure than most of the music I post I still believe this is well worthy of a reappraisal.

Part of the "Wild Bunch" crew, which also consisted of Massive Attack and Tricky, the album was definitely helped by the production work of Massive Attack's DJ Mushroom and the legendary Bomb The Bass. In my personal opinion nothing Cherry has done in the subsequent 16 years has really touched the brilliance of her debut album with it's combination of hip hop, electronica and r'n'b vibes as she quickly chose to go down a less vibrant, safer route in her later albums. You can read more about the lady here.

The first song I have for you today is Here I Come. From the moment the looped guitar riff comes in you know it's going to be a great rap record but what really sells it is the bass line that raises its head about 50 seconds in. I love the raw energy of this track and the fact that it's Neneh rapping about her childhood. Check out the breakdown about 2 minutes in as well with DJ Mushroom throwing in a whole multitude of classic samples. I'm a firm believer that if you dropped this in a club today it would still tear up the crowd.

The second track is the classic Manchild, cowritten by Massive Attack's Robert "3D" Delnaja. I always loved the old school break beat with those quality synthetic strings layered over the top. Although it contains a few short bursts of rap this is really more about Neneh's singing voice and she does a great job with it, especially considering the quite unusual subject matter of the song. Check out the scratched "huhs" and the fluttery keyboard chords as well, absolute classic.