The epitome of the Downtown/Uptown early 80’s exchange of musical ideas from new wave to hip-hop and back again. Tom Tom Club is an American new wave band founded in 1981 by husband and wife team Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, both also known for being bandmembers of Talking Heads. Originally established as a side project from Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club comprised a loose aggregation of musicians, sound engineers.
“Genius of Love” has been sampled or reinterpreted by many artists, including L’Trimm, MC Redman, Funkdoobiest, and Mariah Carey in her hit single “Fantasy”. “It’s Nasty” (1982) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five was one of the early hip-hop versions of the song, however the sample was re-recorded by a live band rather than just taken from the original recording, as was common practice at the time. Another version, “Genius Rap” (1981), by Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, was the first cover version. Max B also sampled “Genius of Love” in his single “Get Outta Jail”.
A few favorites are here after the jump
Ivan Orr is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, performer, and writer. A native of Charlottesville, Virginia Ivan was involved with the forming and nascent days of The Music Resource Center as its first Program Director. A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Music, Ivan currently resides in Richmond, VA where he maintains an active performance and production schedule while serving as the Music Editor for Grown Folks Music, a position he has held since 2010.
