TRAINWRECKORDS: "Zingalamaduni" by Arrested Development

What’s weird about that is that the Beastie Boys are also hip hop for people who don’t like hip hop, and the only thing that really killed their career was one of them dying.

That single was so good; she deserved more than the one hit!

Professor of Q-manities Laura McKerracher (Mick-care-uh-ker)

3 Years... being probably a lot of people’s only rap album at the time is ironically a big part of why people wrote them off I feel.

Anthony Pierre Coco

I loved 3 Years... at the time and it was the only rap album I owned back then. Had I known there was a second album, I think I would have checked it out. But somehow I had fallen under the impression that they had broken up after the first album and never released a second. I was floored when Todd posted this. It's only anecdotal, but maybe there is a little something to the band's blaming part of this album's failure on lack of publicity.

Erik Robbins

I always wanted Todd to do an episode on Arrested Development. That first album was so good and Tennessee is an all time classic. But man, I don't like Speech anymore.

apocalypsethen

One Hit Wonderland on Dionne Farris?

Kristopher Bluth

Reading about Arrested Development, I think what also cost them credibility in hip-hop was that they were seen as the hip-hop group for people who didn't like hip-hop with all the mainstream awards and acclaim cementing that perception

As someone who really loves the history of Hip-Hop, I enjoyed it. I don't know how informative you want it to be, but if you like the subject, I think you'll like the series.

Yeah there was a general feeling that AD was aimed more at concerned adults(I.E. parents, teachers and preachers) then at teens and college students and it soon became very uncool to like them(Hootie and the Blowfish suffered the same fate later on). They feel like a band Ned Flanders would listen to.

RedBedroomRecords

Yeah for me AD's condescending holier then thou attitude erases whatever positives the music itself has. It almost feels like their music was aimed at placating groups like the PMRC that were attacking gangsta rap head on.

RedBedroomRecords

Oh, and what's a Nubian?

Kristopher Bluth

I was in my senior year of high school when the first album came out and trust me, Arrested Development looked like the future of music. Funny how noticeably sillier stuff from '92 ("Jump", "Jump Around", even "Baby Got Back") has aged so much better than this.

Kristopher Bluth

There was a PBS sheen to the whole alt-rap movement: It could be cool and different, but you know someone was trying to get their point across....at times quite bluntly. Also gangsta rap scared parents while they probably wanted you to be listening to Arrested Development. That's a quick barometer right there.

Justin V

Just noticed Ease My Mind is the second-to-last track on the album--didn't Todd say that's where bands/artists put the lead singles they're least proud of? Also, Shell has to be one of the worst examples of "preaching to the converted" in music. God damn.

I am the incorrect kind of marginalization for this to be for me, and this is obviously a modern perspective, but yeahh. The songs themselves have a good beat but GOD not only are they preachy they feel like... aggressively centrist? They give you JUST enough to give you an idea what shitty opinions they have and those opinions are victim blaming. It's the kind of positivity that reminds me of that one viral photo of a photo on an elevator that was turned off to promote "health" with a sign saying "there is no elevator to sucess, only stairs" with the person in the wheelchair in front of it. Remember the only disability is a bad attitude! Racism can be defeated by pride! Stop black on black crime! It's got an undertone of victim blaming and I am legitimately unsurprised if black people threw this album in the trash over it.

Katastrophe

I vaguely heard of them when Spectrum Pulse was mentioning how lousy a year 1993 was for hit songs, I was looking at the year-end chart and saw Arrested Development on there.

RedBedroomRecords

Pretty sure this is the first episode of this where I've never heard of the artist, although to be fair I am young and white

Athena Alexandra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kga2soqvMF0 surprised you didn't mention this

Also like Arrested Development, PM Dawn were criticallly acclaimed. Their first album landed 5th on the Pazz n Jop Critics Poll, right behind U2’s Achtung Baby

Dyl

I had never heard their name before but I know 4 of their singles well enough to sing along to - that doesn't happen often to me anymore! Thanks for this!

Andreas Stahl

I think at 18:00, you should instead put in the clip of Michael Bluth saying, "I don't know what I expected."

Jack Rosen

For Exhibit B of Popular Pure Positivity Rap Acts obliterated by Gangsta's rise, I present to you PM Dawn.

Sykonee

I had a book from a Troll book fair as a kid in the 90s called Hot Rock. It had profiles of the usual rock acts of the time like Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Smashing Pumpkins. But for some reason it also had Arrested Development in it (as well as SWV and Boyz II Men) which I suppose speaks to their popularity for a brief period in time. But even when I got the book which was around 1994, I only vaguely knew who they were. Interesting episode as always, I don't ever remember seeing this album cover. I have always wondered why they seemed to have disappeared from the conversation so quickly.

Vanessa Picard

Great video, I was always curious if you'd ever tackle alt rap! Sidenote, I've been dying for some musical retrospectives/documentaries lately; would you recommend Hip-Hop Evolution that you mentioned early on?

Jaime Paradise

I was thinking the exact same thing. I get the impression that, like Hopsin, Rap Critic would still stan them.

Sol Rabbit

Dated influences, incessant preaching to the most popular form of hip-hop at the time, incredibly uncomfortable display of personal drama in a song. The impression I get from this video is that Arrested Development was the Hopsin of the 90s.

Isaac Jackson

I like that the intro to this video feels like a more detailed analysis of a one-sentence insight from the 'This is America' review 2 years ago. It makes for great cohesion.

Franco del Rosario

Also, I absolutely love the beat for "Mr. Wendal", but you're right that it's ridiculously preachy. It sounds like the theme song to an after-school special.

Jacqueline Sailer

At least Dionne Farris had a huge hit of her own a year after this flop. In hindsight, that song ("I Know") sounds a lot more powerful if you see it as a response to the gross, self-righteous misogyny of "Warm Sentiments", even though she had already abandoned Arrested Development by the time the album was being made.

Jacqueline Sailer

Some of the audio early on in the video, particularly 2:06 and 2:22, could be better quality.

Jacqueline Sailer

i think you need to remember your audience. Yeah, maybe a lot of white millennials don't remember them, but most black folks still love that first album.

Ella Phillips

I only noticed one editing error, at 3:58, but other than that, the video's fine

This is an instant classic.

Im a $10 patron, yet no mention in outro😢

Danny Merritt.... Merritt

I think there's an editing error at 3:58ish

Adequately Sized Dog

Just going through the vid and posting things as I see them, so if this is a mad edited comment that's why <3 - The dialogue is completely missing from 3:59 - 4:05