One Song Wonders: 90 M.P.H.- “Mackframalama”

I had never heard this song until a few months ago, and now it’s something that gets stuck in my head and I spin in a large percentage of my DJ sets.  Much like the Freshco and Miz record I wrote about, it was something I found as an mp3, got hooked on, researched, and now talk about every chance I get.

90 M.P.H. were one of a very few groups to release a record on Motown’s short-lived “Mad Sounds” hip-hop imprint: this was the group’s sole single (and the title track of their LP).  It’s an infectious midtempo groove with a loping bassline, a boom-boom-BANG beat, and lyrics that don’t tell a story so much as string together thematic half-sequiters.  The sound fits nicely between their Atlanta contemporaries Outkast and Arrested Development, neither as heavy and sample-based as the NY productions or as synthesized and rubbery as the West Coast rap of that era; it’s a great kitchen-sink song full of sampled gospelly backing vocals, instruments dropping in and out, electric guitar squeals during the breakdowns, and a repetitive call-and-response refrain.  The lyrics wax poetic about girls and cars, bemoan the price increases of Atlanta’s public transportation system, and (of course) testify to the vocalists’ irresistibility and unmatched rhyming skills.  The third verse starts off with a lot of whispering for no ascertainable reason (everyone was just shouting the chorus, so it’s a safe bet they don’t have any cover to blow by this point in the song).  And as a finishing touch, there’s a long string of shout-outs and big-ups to friends and acquaintances.

I tracked down a copy of the group’s full album, and as I pessimistically expected, nothing else on it captures that sense of easy-going awesomosity.  I guess the group recognized that and made the best of it, opening the set with the title track and reprising it forty-odd minutes later as the record fades out.  And while the song was catchy and got a little bit of attention from the press and radio, neither the single or full-length charted, and the band drifted into obscurity.  They weren’t even a one-hit wonder, but they did have this one great moment: a song that still sounds great nearly two decades after its release, that makes me feel good each time I hear it.