When Behemoths Shook the Ground

1989: The Summer of Spike, Rosie punching her way out of a wet paper bag, Yee-aaahh, Baw-yeeee, and cabana suits with knee-highs and Jordans on every homeboy north of Canal St. Strange beasts, lumbering leviathans roamed the streets, dark and heavy, their ass-ends converted into reflex bass bins at Uncle Steve's or someplace equally sinister by sly Chinamen. These urban ass-ault vehicles, slow to move if they were moving at all, were too kustom to be government surplus but they were called Jeeps just the same, as if some weird new evolutionary form had sprung intact following a meeting in Detroit between Max Fleischer and Mark the 45 King.

The strangest aspect of these behemoths was this howl or war whoop or mating call they emitted, seemingly nonstop. It went "WHOWW" "YEH" "WHOWW" "YEH" over and over at an unbelievable volume till you wanted to scream back. Upon closer inspection it was revealed that this was not an animal sound at all, but a recording. Take a snatch of the drum break from "Scorpio" or "Apache" or "The Funky Drummer" or something, overlay with a clip of James Brown hollering "YEH" followed by Prince snapping his larynx like a sissy with a bullwhip on the "WHOWW." Loop and simmer.

The cut that dominated Jeepsville that summer was "It Takes Two" by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock. And despite having a full set of lyrics (one supposes?can't say I ever noticed them), it wasn't a singsong like "Miss You" or "Rockaway Beach" so much as it was a sonic event. The track that "It Takes Two" was laid over actually existed years before. It could be heard on the Colors soundtrack behind a Roxanne Shanté number, but as we all knew then, hiphop and girls don't mix and you can't keep a mighty sample down. So it was appropriated for a bunch of other artists, and these jokers ended up with the hit.

But what's remarkable is that what we're discussing is not even a song. It's a piece of tape looped over and over?perfect for MTV-sapped attention spans?that holds its place as a pure bookmark in time. And although, like the mastodons, Jeeps have become extinct, replaced by the more family-friendly SUV, it's impossible to hear "It Takes Two" and not recall a time when Sonic Youth was being courted by major labels. It's the ultimate Jeep Beat, and as such was and is, literally, ground-shaking.