On Thursday night at Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan, VH1 celebrated its fourth annual Hip Hop Honors award show and concert. Honorees included Missy Elliott, Teddy Riley and Andre Harrell (as “The New Jack era”), the film Wild Style, Snoop Dogg and A Tribe Called Quest.
After the show, honorees, both of which performed, had very different sentiments when asked about the status of reunions, albums and future work.
Brooklyn-based trio Whodini, who are best remembered for 1984 hit singles “Friends” and “Freaks Come Out At Night” spoke highly on the significance of the award. One of the two emcees of the group, Ecstasy, told HipHopDX, “I’m happy for ourselves, but I’m more happy for our children. They might hear our songs or see our videos, but they never get an impact to feel what Whodini was all about. A night like tonight changes that.”
Although Whodini would release a swan-song album, Six, in 1996 on So So Def Records, the group’s last successful album was 1987’s Open Sesame, which earned them a gold plaque. Whodini claims to be the first rap group to achieve platinum status on an album, with 1984’s Escape. Both of the earlier releases were on Jive Records, while the group was managed by Russell Simmons. Asked if any members had any regrets, Jalil Hutchins, the other emcee, boldly stated, “My only regret is fucking up $400,000.”
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Hip Hop Honors affected the group’s attitude though. After a standout performance featuring the over 40-year-old Grandmaster Dee being carried by his bandmates while scratching horizontally, the acclaimed DJ for the trio indicated that the night would yield a seventh Whodini album. “After this show tonight, Whodini gotta make another album. What we gotta do is better music, clean up the lyrics and let’s take it back to the party,”Dee told HipHopDX. Although no title or label was revealed, the emcees of the group nodded along with the statement.
Twenty years since their last plaque, while their influence still resonates on the charts through Fabolous and T-Pain’s “Baby Don’t Go” (which samples “Let Me Get Some”), Whodini rides back into the hearts and ears of fun-loving Hip Hop fans.
