![]() ![]() There was none of the mechanical, stiffly executed choreography of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever or Deney Terrio on Dance Fever, both of which were laughable to African Americans, the prime sources of American dance crazes from the cakewalk and the turkey trot to the jitterbug and the twist to the Roger Rabbit and the cabbage patch. The black dancers set the standard for Serch’s performance, which was remarkable for a Euro-American (most are embarrassingly awkward on the floor). Later, Serch told me they have already been given some fatherly advice by industry bigwigs: “Get rid of the blacks in the act.” Which he assured me they weren’t down with. They had a black DJ and several black dancers. MC Serch, with “3rd Bass” carved in the back of his fresh fade haircut, quickly started stepping while Prime Minister Pete Nice sat in a big wooden chair chillin, smoking a big cigar and looking gangsterish as a muthafucka with a fly white girl standing by his right side. My first impulse was to brace myself for another white-folks parody à la Blondie’s “Rapture,” with its man from Mars eating cars, or the Beastie Boys’ “Fight for Your Right (To Party).” But these dudes were dead up in the groove. But when I finally looked up to see what was happening, there were two funky white boys. I was chillin out at my writing table trying to make my game, so I spaced on the video for a while. He was raggedy as a mango seed, dancing his ass off and laying down the laws of fundamental funk followed by everybody from Parliament to Prince to the hard-school rappers. The brazenly pumped-up bass in conjunction with polyrhythmic traps and cymbals caught my ear, because I’ve been down with James Brown ever since I used to check him out for a dollar a dance at the Royal Palm Auditorium in Jacksonville, Florida, back in the mid-’50s. WHEN I FIRST heard the opening bars of “Steppin’ to the A.M.” on Channel 31’s Video Music Box a few weeks ago, I thought soul brother numero uno had set up a studio in the joint, where his soul is currently on ice. ![]() Two Funky White Boys: Judging 3rd Bass by the Standards of the Street ![]()
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