Continuing with our Twelve Songs of Christmas for the Twelve Days of Christmas, today's song starts out, "What, you didn't know Christmas went hip-hop? Check the clock!" I did, and in great big oversized numerals it said "1-9-8-7." This pure period piece by Sweet Tee from that year's Profile Records compilation Christmas Rap is an answer to Bobby Helms' Jingle Bell Rock from exactly thirty years earlier. The way the late-'80s-caught-in-amber attitude contrasts with Tee's sweet, positive lyrics makes me smile. "Let the Jingle Bells Rock" was the B-side of the original release of Run-D.M.C.'s "Christmas in Hollis." The sample is a 1971 track from Funk, Inc. called "Kool Is Back." Queens NY rapper Sweet Tee, whose real name is Toi Jackson, was an early influence on Queen Latifah. She was produced here by Hurby "Love Bug" Azor, who also produced Salt-N-Pepa and Kid 'n' Play (and if those names don't take you back...). To whoever's in charge of these things, I say we should hear this in the supermarket at least once for every two times we have to hear "Grandma Got Run Over."
Mike
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