THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

312-Cameo-Word Up!

1986-Number 3 single.

Best Bit-At 1.14. When Larry Blackmon sang about ‘Sucker DJ’s’ he was actually referring to the ‘Old School Rappers’ of the early 1980’s who would Rap about the negative rather than the positive, thankfully he wasn’t singing about you (if you’re a DJ) or me.

Cameo were formed in New York City, United States, in 1974 by Larry Blackmon, the original line up consisted of 14 members. Initially they were called ‘The New York City Players’ but in order to avoid any confusion with the ‘Ohio Players’ (see also best songs 506) they changed the bands name to Cameo. They were active until 2001, but reformed as a four piece in 2016, and remain active at the time of writing, in total there have been 32 different members come and go. Cameo have released 17 studio Albums between 1977-2000, and 44 singles between 1975-2019. In America on the Billboard Hot 100, three of their singles have reached the top 40, while in the UK eight of their singles have charted.

Larry Blackmon was born on May 24th, 1956, in New York City, United States. He started his music career as a session drummer, he played on some of the tracks recorded by the American R&B group ‘Black Ivory’ whose songs have been extensively sampled by the Hip-Hop community. Prior to forming Cameo, Blackmon was a member of a band called ‘East Coast’ which included six future members of Cameo, as well as the singer Gwen Guthrie (1950-1999) who would go on to have four UK top 40 singles in the 1980’s, including the 1986 Number 5 single ‘Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ on But the Rent,’ as East Coast’ the septet released one self titled Album in 1973. Larry Blackmon is known for his unique vocal style, including his signature ‘Ow!’ which has been used in many Cameo songs. He is also known for his elaborate ‘Hi-top fade’ haircut, and a daring ‘Codpiece’ over his trousers, which was made famous in this songs official video.

‘Word Up!’ was taken from Cameo’s 12th studio Album of the same name, and was released in 1986, it represented the group’s most successful period, as the Album also contained the bands other best known song ‘Candy.’ Both of those songs were co-written by Larry Blackmon, and fellow band member Tomi Jenkins, the songs were produced by Blackmon. ‘Word Up’ was a slang term used in 1980’s New York, and other U.S. areas, it was a cooler way of saying ‘I agree,’ or ‘You bet.’ Larry Blackmon developed a character around the saying and wrote lyrics about what he would say. Blackmon called the character ‘Vicious’ and had him tell all the ‘negative’, Rappers that they should be creating music you can dance to.

‘Word Up’ has charted on three other occasions in the UK. In 1994 the Scottish Rock group ‘Gun’ took their version to Number 8, while in 1999 ex Spice Girl Mel B took her recording to Number 13, and in 2014 the girl group ‘Little Mix’ recorded the song for ‘Sport Relief,’ and their version made Number 6.

‘Now all you sucker DJ’s who think you’re fly, there’s got to be a reason and we know the reason why, and act real cool, but you got to realise that your acting like fools.’