adapted it for his career-defining rap anthem “Juicy.” As a funk-laden pop song, it's a masterpiece there's something undeniably human about the melody and the way Tawatha Agee sings it, even as the beat’s roomy beat leaves an eerie chill in its wake.
The title song-clearly the album’s boldest and most beautiful work-became a huge hit, and was subsequently canonized after the Notorious B.I.G. In an era before hip-hop took over, songs like “Hips” and “Hip Dip Skippedabeat” assumed the demeanor of what would become gangsta rap: cold, slow, ineffably heavy. A twinkling of keyboard and guitar is the only extraneous decoration. “Green Light” reduces the beat to a bulbous bassline and the consistent crack of a drum machine. The production is at once more skeletal but also more muscular than on previous albums. By the time Juicy Fruit appeared in 1983, Mtume had dropped any lingering indicators of the satiny '70s and completely refurbished their sound for the tough and glossy '80s.
