YELLOW IS THE COLOR OF SUNRAYS
From SPIN magazine, August 1989
"Yo, John, how much do you love Soul II Soul?"
It was Fab 5 Freddy, the host of "Yo MTV Raps," calling in a state. He'd just hired a car, rounded up four top black writers, and driven around Manhattan's Lower East Side with the new Soul II Soul tape booming on the car's monstrous system. "You wouldn't believe it. That shit is incredible. We were rocking."
It was the same all over town. Two weeks after the release of "Keep On Movin'", Soul II Soul's first American single, the song's sexy, Afro-Caribbean meltdown of hip-hop and house music seemed to be everywhere, like Public Enemy's "Bring The Noise" two years before.
Dropping subsonic bass, liquid and passionate, it rocked like a cradle on a slow "Bo Diddley" beat. If Milli Vanilli was hype, this was cool. Floating a slinky melody amid hanging piano notes and disco strings, the jam was in no hurry to get anywhere.
B-Boys loved it; house people moved to it. Bonz Malone wouldn't shut up about it. Teddy Riley, the producer of the moment, souped it up on the remix. It was one of those English cross-cultural hybrids that really work.
On a good car system, it did damage.
- written by John Leland
