In only eight tracks, Whodini was able to capture the nation’s attention with its 1984 album, Escape. Dana Dane names the group as his favorite of all time for many reasons, including that they are from his hometown of Brooklyn, New York.
On a recent episode of “Best Albums,” Dana Dane explains his earliest memories of Escape.
“I had just graduated out of high school and I was working at McDonald’s on 40th Street and 7th Avenue,” he recalls. “The radio was kind of similar to now, they’d play a certain song almost every time the same time of day, so I get into McDonald’s, we’re unloading the truck and we got the speaker on in the warehouse where we putting the food and stacking it up. Anywhere between 8:10 and 8:45, they play either ‘Five Minutes of Funk’ or ‘Freaks Come Out at Night.’ One or the other is gonna play.”
In regards to the latter track, Dana Dane says that it was impactful because it was able to help Whodini, comprised of Jalil Hutchins, Ecstasy and Grandmaster Dee, transcend genres and further the reach of hip-hop overall.
“It was a great crossover song because it didn’t just speak to hip-hop, but it spoke to the freaks,” he says. “You know what, ’cause hip-hop was in that transition from Disco and dance music into hip-hop at that time. So a lot of people used to go to the dance clubs like Bond International in New York City, they had the Garage, and they used to have really the freaks out there. They had the leather and the lace and the tight pants. When Jalil wrote the joint and Ecstacy, one of the great voices in hip-hop, I was like, ‘Yo, that’s kind of dope.’ When they do that song at the shows, people love it because I think people are inner freaks.”
Dana Dane says he appreciates the album because of the lack of sampling from producing legend Larry Smith. Standout tracks for him sonically on Escape include “Big Mouth,” “Friends” and “Five Minutes of Funk.”
“Larry is like the father of hip-hop producing,” Dana Dane says. “All the work he did with Whodini and of course with Run-D.M.C. and some of the other groups before that was incredible, was musically and sonically dope. It made me wanna use less samples and use more real music and things of that sort. Even when I did some of my albums, when I did my first album, I tried not to even if I used samples, I wanted it played over it because of what Larry Smith and Whodini did.”
Dana Dane credits Whodini for teaching him the importance of a good hook to go along with the skill of storytelling that he learned from his friend Slick Rick. He says that Whodini’s own combination of storytelling and production allowed the group to create the first ever rap album to go platinum with one million sales.
“They brought debonair and elegance into hip-hop without removing the raw substance of what hip-hop is,” he says. “So they were able to have socially conscious lyrics, dope music, original music, dope choruses, still have that hip-hop foundation with the worldwide appeal.”
As he was coming up in the rap game, Dana Dane remembers realizing the first time that he had a legitimate fanbase himself was on tour with Whodini, who was hesitant to accept him at first. But soon enough, he was a long way from unpacking boxes at McDonald’s.
“In hip-hop back in the day, there was a rite of passage type of thing,” he explains. It ain’t like you can just put out records now and you just big on the Internet and you’re just accepted. No, you had to meet the other artists and they had to say, ‘Ok, lil dude, you can hang.’ I met Jalil and Ecstasy backstage and they weren’t really all that interested in meeting me at the time. They were like, ‘Yeah, yeah, you got one song. We like it, but go do some more work,’ basically. So Grandmaster Dee tells me that in two weeks, they going on the road for the whole tour and I should come. I was like, ‘Yeah, bet. I’ll come.’ I’m not thinking nothing of it. Two weeks go by and Grandmaster Dee calls me and says, ‘Yo Dane, we’re going. Meet us downtown with your bags. Man, I packed some stuff real quick, ran out of town and next thing you know, I’m on the road with Whodini. I’d never been out of the state on my own song and now, I’m onstage and they’re performing ‘Five Minutes of Funk.’ I think we’re in Virginia or something like that. Right before ‘Five Minutes of Funk,’ they’re like, ‘Hold on, we wanna bring somebody out for you.’ And Grandmaster Dee throws on ‘Nightmares.’ And I walk out and it’s like 15,000 whatever and the crowd goes crazy. I do a little quick verse, I go off and I’m backstage and like, ‘They know me! They know me!'”