R&B/Hip-Hop

One of hip-hop’s earliest hitmakers is back on the Billboard charts, returning with his first new song to reach the rankings in more than two decades. Young MC’s “Fun Part,” released on the rapper’s Disco Theory label, lands a No. 38 debut on the Rhythmic Airplay chart and gives its creator his first visit to a Billboard chart with a new song since “Heatseeker” in 2002. Among other placements, “Heatseeker” reached No. 6 on the Hot Singles Sales chart and No. 92 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs list.

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“It feels exhilarating and nerve-wracking at the same time,” Young MC tells Billboard upon his new track’s entrance to the charts. “On the one hand, it’s a validation for all the hard work I’ve put in over decades to grow as an artist and a producer. But at the same time, I feel the pressure to keep the momentum going. I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

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Born Marvin Young, the artist who later became Young MC first came to prominence as a songwriter on two 1989 hits for Tone-Loc that broke barriers as some of hip-hop’s earliest crossover success stories on the charts. “Wild Thing” soared to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 – at the time, the genre’s highest peaking hit on the flagship chart – while “Funky Cold Medina” nearly duplicated the feat, reaching a No. 3 best.

That same year, the rapper also touched a third classic, but this time, as the main attraction. “Bust a Move,” which features the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea on drums, flew to No. 7 on the Hot 100 and won a Grammy Award for best rap performance. The single has lived on with countless uses in pop culture, including in films such as Dude, Where’s My Car? and The Blind Side, a 1997 commercial for Priceline in which William Shatner recited some of the song’s lyrics, and moments on TV’s Glee and The Big Bang Theory.

Thirty-five years on from his first hit, landing a new one in a new generation of hip-hop isn’t lost on the pioneer. “It’s wild to think that many of the people listening to ‘Fun Part’ weren’t even born when I released ‘Bust a Move’,” he says. “I’m finding the delicate balance of appealing to them while not alienating those people who were fans of ‘Bust a Move’ when it was out and still come to shows to see it today.”

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An underlying reason for Young MC’s return? Last year’s celebrations surrounding the 50th anniversary of hip-hop’s creation, dating to its accepted 1973 origin in New York City, and virtually every major music publication and organization’s salute to the genre’s expansion from a potential fad to a world-conquering sound. “I can only speak for myself, but I was impacted by seeing all the Hip-Hop 50 stuff flying around. I reflected on what I had personally given to hip-hop during the 50 years and if I could possibly give more.”

And he isn’t the only one of his generation back in the game. LL Cool J wrapped a decade-long hiatus from music with the September release of The Force album, his first since 2013. Its current single, the Eminem-assisted “Murdergram Deux,” begins at No. 39 on Rhythmic Airplay, directly below “Fun Part.” The dual resurgences, to Young MC, feel connected. “I can relate to all the legacy artists putting out new music today – for most of us, it’s a ‘want to’ more than a ‘have to,’” he explains.

But at least the response to his latest song gives him peace over those concerns about whether he still had more to offer: “’Fun Part’” proves to me that the answer to that question is a resounding ‘yes!’”