hip-hop mystery solved…

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well, for me and my friends anyway. leave it to “american idol” to solve a mystery that had long baffled me and my girlfriends.

remember back in 1985 when doug e. fresh and slick rick dropped their single “the show”? oh, we loved that joint. we’d play it over and over. “oh, oh, oh, my God!! is it real?” i owe it to that song and many other joints of that time period for ushering in my great love of hip-hop. but there was a slight problem with “the show.” just what the heck was slick rick saying towards the end?

sing along if you can…
oh, golly wolly she was raising hell
she said, um, my name is maggie, but call me michelle
michelle my belle, [and just what the heck is rick saying here?]
sippin on some, slick rick and i’m rockin’ house
ya know i’m sayin? when i’m on the mic, there won’t be no delayin’
bust a move, we show and prove
aiyo, doug (what?) do that record jam on a groove
[doug e. fresh beatboxing]
oh, oh, oh my God!

me and my girls would play that part over and over and over again trying to figure out what the heck rick was saying after “michelle, my belle” and then one of my girls determined rick was saying “something monkeys bumped their heads on…” of course, that didn’t make a whole heck of a lot of sense, but hey, we were 12 and 13 at the time and there were a lot of things that didn’t make sense.

but lo and behold the other night i was watching “american idol” and it was the night of the beatles. i don’t know a whole lot of beatles music (sorry, i just don’t) but i listened in closely when contestant jason castro decided on a tune called “michelle.” i couldn’t believe it!! all this time i thought that slick rick had come up with a totally original line (even though thinking back it’s kind of clear that he had taken the line from some other song) when he started singing the whole ditty about “michelle.” and i finally realized why me and my girls couldn’t figure out what the heck rick was saying! ’cause daggone it, the line is french!

so here i have for you the actual line in the original song “michelle” and “the show” mystery has been solved:
michelle, ma belle
sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble

what?? not in a million years would three preteen girls have figured that out. and just what the heck does it mean? well, from what i found on the good ‘ol internet, i think it means, “these are words that go together well.” french folks chime in if you will.

well, ain’t that something?!! i called my long time best friend (whose name just happens to be michele) after watching jason’s performance on tuesday and said, “you’ll never believe this. remember back in the day when we couldn’t figure out what the heck slick rick was saying on that song ‘the show’? it’s because it was in french!! and you know slick rick is from england so he had probably heard that beatles joint a million times.” she just laughed and i’m sure she probably thinks i’m crazy because only i would be so intense about a discovery like this.

i still have that record and as soon as i find a record player on the low, i will be spinning “the show” and singing right along “sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble.” or maybe i’ll just stick with the b-side’s “la di da di.” i know alllllllllll the lyrics to that joint.

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Filed under about the moxie mama, hip-hop

Tags: "la di da di", "the show", american idol, doug e. fresh, michelle, old school hip-hop, slick rick