Del The Funky Homosapien - Made In America 12"

Elektra (1993)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

If you've been reading any of my Wednesday posts, you've definitely read mention of Del The Funky Homosapien. He & his Hieroglyphics crew are responsible for my favorite releases in the history of hip hop. I had decided that I needed to get my hands on the various golden era singles from those groups as the B sides and remixes were sorely missing from my collection on vinyl.

Made and America is essentially a standalone single that came out in 1993.  It was after I Wish My Brother George Was Here, but before No Need For Alarm was released in November of that year.  The song originated on the soundtrack for the film of the same name starring Ted Danson and Whoopi Goldberg.  Had I not Googled the name of the movie, I wouldn't have known that.  Never heard of the film and it's pretty odd that one, Del is on this soundtrack and two, his song got a single and a video when Gloria Estefan and DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince also have songs on it.

While I do not remember ever seeing the video played on Yo MTV Raps, I do remember the cassingle of this popping up in 1993 at some point.  It's a fun single that has three different versions of the song.  The main one is Whoopi's Mix and that's the one that appears on the actual soundtrack and is the version the video was made for.  Solid song for sure and I dig the percolating bassline that the track is built on.  Del's lyrics are sort of in an in between stage as well, he's not delving into the more complicated rhymes that would become the calling card of No Need For Alarm, but he's definitely upped the ante when compared to some of the songs from his debut.

The other two remixes, one by the SD50s and the other helmed by Del, are also good takes on this song.  I think I probably like Del's version the best of the three as the beat us upbeat and the bass riff is a head nodder.  While I wouldn't rank any of these versions if I were to list the very best Del tracks, that's not a knock on these.  Del's discography is pretty much the best one in the history of hip hop, in my humble opinion.  These tracks float around in the middle of the pack, but it's mostly due to how incredible his body of work is.

Del The Funky Homosapien - Made In America (Whoopi's Mix):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2DL6l9EvQk&ab_channel=UPROXXVideo

Del The Funky Homosapien - Made In America (Del's Mix):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QP1L4Q0-PY