#newcleus

“Jam On It” is a song by American rap/hip-hop group Newcleus that was released in 1984 and was very popular during break dancing battles of the time as well as on the dance floor.  It originated from an instrumental 1981 single by the group called "Jam-On's Revenge" (re-released as "Jam on Revenge (The Wikki-Wikki Song)" in 1983. Ironically, the first single began as an anti-rap joke, according to founding member DJ and producer Ben Cenac.

“At the time (1981) we were going by the name Positive Messenger and were making music that had a purpose, either messages of love or faith or talking about the conditions of the world. However, we were still doing lots of Hip-Hop jams with our DJ crew Jam-On Productions. So, one of our DJs, Salvador Smooth, kept nagging me to do a Rap song. Having come out of Hip-Hop street battles in Brooklyn in the ’70s, I didn't really think much of the Rap records that were playing on the radio, so I figured as a joke I would make a parody jam ... I threw in an idea from an [event] that actually had happened in the ’70s, when a DJ who we had just blown out in a battle said to me "Yeah, you guys are bad, but you can't do this… wikki wikki wikki wikki," meaning how we didn't scratch on the turntables.”

“I used to play "Jam-On's Revenge" at our parties and it would fill the dance floor, so even though I had never planned to release it, when I was shopping Positive Messenger for a deal I put it on the tape just to fill out space at the end. Turned out it ended up being the track that drove everybody crazy! So, we went with it and changed our names to Newcleus.”

The evolution of the song became revolutionary: Rainfall and laughter. Ominous synths. Schoolyard taunts. A bass drum bounces like a freshly-pumped basketball. And of course the pitch-shifted vocals to mimic a scratching record (”wikki wikki”).

For the lyrics, Cozmo D, who wrote the song, dug into his notebook for rhymes he would recite to the crowds when he was DJing for the group.  At one point in the song, Superman comes down to battle, blows away every crew he faces, but is thwarted by Newcleus, who have "Disco Kryptonite" on their turntable. Back in the day, many MCs had a Superman rhyme, the most famous is by Big Hank Hank in "Rapper's Delight" (which he lifted from Grandmaster Caz of The Cold Crush)."Everybody had a Superman rhyme, but I had the BEST superman rhyme," Cozmo D boasted. "I decided I was going to change it up completely, so my Superman rhyme doesn't sound like everybody else's. It talks about the crew."

Back to the "wikki-wikki" refrain: the lyrics are in a high-pitched voice similar to The Chipmunks. They were done lo-tech by recording the voices at slow speeds so when they played back they'd be pitched up.

Newcleus - Jam On It