The Commodores vs Ini Kamoze - My Shiny Gun Mosey

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Mixed by Lenlow

The Commodores were a highly successful soul / funk band in the 1970s . They met as freshmen at Tuskegee Institute , and signed to Motown having first caught the public eye supporting The Jackson Five on tour.

Now they are perhaps best known for the ballad "Easy", which is not considered to be representative of their output. Usually, they recorded funky, driven dance floor hits including "Brick House", "Fancy Dancer", and "Slippery When Wet", amongst others. Their song "Oh No" was highlighted in the movie The Last American Virgin . Later, "Machine Gun", the instrumental title track from their debut album, become a staple at American sporting events, and has similarly been featured in many films, including Boogie Nights . Band members typically traded lead vocal duties. After Lionel Richie left the band , former Heatwave singer J.D. Nicholas assumed his place in the group.

The band jumpstarted careers of Richie and Orange. When Richie left the band in 1982 , it never recovered its earlier success. It has also gradually abandoned funky roots to move into the more commercial disco arena.

The Commodores were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2003 .

Ini Kamoze (EYE-nee ka-MO-zee) (born 9 October 1957 in Port Maria , St. Mary, Jamaica ) is one of the few raggamuffin performers to have been successful both in roots reggae and the modern style. Described as a "pencil thin... disentangled... six-foot vegetarian " at the outset of his career, Kamoze's initial releases had moderate success in Jamaica - enough success to land him on tours with such luminaries as Yellowman and Half Pint . By 1988 , however, Kamoze had effectively disappeared from the music scene following lukewarm reactions to his intermittent releases.

In 1994 , Kamoze burst back onto the scene with a harder sound and the song which would become his signature - " Here Comes The Hotstepper ". Adopting his nickname from the song title, Kamoze would become known as the "Hotstepper", from the Patois for a man on the run from the law. The infectious song found its way onto several soundtracks , including the fashion-industry satire, " Prêt-à-Porter ". The resulting video featured a much more solid Kamoze and the obligatory scantily-clad women for this genre of music. "Hotstepper" still remains one of dancehall 's more well-known hits, with its call-and-response chorus of "Here come de hotstepper - MURDERER - I'm de lyrical gangsta - MURDERER" lighting up clubs worldwide. "Here Comes The Hotstepper" remains Kamoze's only US #1 hit (see Hot 100 No. 1 Hits of 1994 ).

Kamoze's career after this high-water mark features the album "here comes the Hotstepper" which, while it does not match the heights of "Shocking Out" (the comeback album), is nonetheless a solid listen.

This text is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia articles "The Commodores" and "Ini Kamoze"