#135: Principal’s Office by Young MC

Peak Month: February 1990
16 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG Chart
Peak Position ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #33
YouTube: “Principal’s Office”
Lyrics: “Principal’s Office”

Marvin Young was born in 1967 in London, UK. His parents, both Jamaican immigrants, left England when he was three-years-old. They moved the family to Queens, New York, when Marvin was eight. While he was a student at the University of Southern California, he rapped over the phone to two owners of an independent record label in Hollywood named Matt Dike and Michael Ross. After he performed his rap on the phone, Young was given a record contract while he was  still talking to Dike and Ross. In 1989 he cowrote with Dike, Ross and Tone Lōc on the songs “Wild Thing” and “Funky Cold Medina”. These two rap rock singles crossed over from the Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart to the Billboard Hot 100, where they respectively peaked at #2 and #3.

In October 1989 Young MC released his debut album produced by Qunicy Jones titled Stone Cold Rhymin’. The release resulted in ecstatic reviews like this one from the Chicago Tribune’s Greg Kot: “Rap`s hottest record is this offering from Marvin Young (a.k.a. Young M.C.), who graduated from USC in May with an economics degree, and also cowrote Tone Lōc`s monster hits, ‘Funky Cold Medina’ and ‘Wild Thing.’ Young`s ”Bust a Move” is just as irresistible with its James Brown chicken- scratch guitar, huge funk groove and crisply-delivered rap. Elsewhere, the mix of serious messages (”Just Say No”) and playful narratives. ‘Principal`s Office’ is consistently engaging.”

Marvin Young was born in 1967 in London, UK. His parents, both Jamaican immigrants, left England when he was three-years-old. They moved the family to Queens, New York, when Marvin was eight. While he was a student at the University of Southern California, he rapped over the phone to two owners of an independent record label in Hollywood named Matt Dike and Michael Ross. After he performed his rap on the phone, Young was given a record contract while he was  still talking to Dike and Ross. In 1989 he cowrote with Dike, Ross and Tone Lōc on the songs “Wild Thing” and “Funky Cold Medina”. These two rap rock singles crossed over from the Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart to the Billboard Hot 100, where they respectively peaked at #2 and #3.

The album contained Young MC’s single released in 1988 “I Let ‘Em Know” and “Know How”. The second of these cracked the UK Singles chart in 1988. But it was the third single from the album, “Bust a Move” that changed everything. The song spent 17 weeks on the pop chart on CKLG in Vancouver (BC) peaking at #1. According to Brian Tarling’s Vancouver’s Charted Songs – ’79 to ’93, “Bust a Move” was ranked at #94 on his list of the Songs On The Chart The Longest from January 1979 to June 1993. The single also peaked at #1 in Australia. In 1990 Young MC won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance for “Bust a Move”. He was up against some stiff competition, beating Public Enemy (“Fight The Power”), De La Soul (“Me Myself and I”) and Tone Lōc (“Funky Cold Medina”).

A fourth track from Stone Cold Rhymin’ was “Principal’s Office”.

“Principal’s Office” was written by Young MC. He describes a day at school, running late, he arrives in class and sits on a wad of gum. Stuck to his seat, he wants to go to the bathroom. The teacher already unimpressed with his being tardy, tells him to go to the principal’s office. At the cafeteria, he has some applesauce. But something in the applesauce (a seed from an apple?) makes a crunch and he breaks a tooth. Young MC heads off to see the school nurse who doesn’t believe his story and sends him to the principal’s office. Back in the classroom, Young MC is passing notes with a girl he likes and would like to get to know. He writes her a love letter, and the teacher intercepts it and reads it to the whole class. Then Young MC is once again sent to the principal’s office.

Songs about the trials of coping with going to school have been a subject of numbers of pop hits since the dawn of rock ‘n roll. In 1957 Chuck Berry in “School Days” sang about the drudgery of school, and waiting to head out to a juke joint after it was over:

“Up in the mornin’ and out to school
The teacher is teachin’ the Golden Rule
American history and practical math
You study’ em hard and hopin’ to pass
Workin’ your fingers right down to the bone
And the guy behind you won’t leave you alone

Ring ring goes the bell
The cook in the lunchroom’s ready to sell
You’re lucky if you can find a seat
You’re fortunate if you have time to eat
Back in the classroom open you books
Gee but the teacher don’t know
How mean she looks

Soon as three o’clock rolls around
You finally lay your burden down….”

In 1958, Jerry Lee Lewis sang about going to high school dances in “High School Confidential”.  And in 1959 the Coasters sang about “Charlie Brown” who is a bit of a juvenile delinquent. In the lyrics, “Who calls the English teacher ‘Daddy-o’?” is a reference to the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle where high school students mock the surname of a new teacher, Richard Dadier, changing “Dadier” to “Daddy-o,” a then-current slang term for a father. The term ‘seven come eleven’ is a reference to the dice game craps, and refers to an ‘in school’ illegal gambling session.

“Who’s always writing on the wall.
Who’s always goofing in the hall.
Who’s always throwing spit balls.
Guess who (who, me) yeah, you.
Who walks in the classroom, cool and slow
Who calls the English teacher, Daddy-O.”

In 1960, Sam Cooke sings about a guy who gets poor grades in every subject. But, images in “Wonderful World” that things would be alright if he could win the love of a girl in class.

“Don’t know much about geography
Don’t know much trigonometry
Don’t know much about algebra
Don’t know what a slide rule is for

But I do know one and one is two
And if this one could be with you
What a wonderful world this would be.”

In 1963 the Beach Boys encouraged listeners to show their school spirit in “Be True To Your School”.

“I got a letterman’s sweater
With a letter in front
I got for football and track
I’m proud to wear it now
When I cruise around
The other parts of the town
I got a decal in back.
So be true to your school now
Just like you would to your girl or guy.”

In 1972, Alice Cooper offered that school is a total waste of time:

“Well we got no class
And we got no principles
And we got no innocence
We can’t even think of a word that rhymes

School’s out for summer
School’s out forever
My school’s been blown to pieces.”

In a similar vein, Pink Floyd sang in “Another Brick In The Wall” in 1979 that children are better off without teachers and schooling. It’s all social control.

“We don’t need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone.”

In 1980-81, Rockpile’s “Teacher Teacher” detailed a teens crush on his school teacher. As well, the Police sang about this kind of attraction in “Don’t Stand So Close To Me”.

In 1986, Timbuk 3 sang about getting good grades in school in “The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades”.

“I study nuclear science, I love my classes.
I got a crazy teacher, he wears dark glasses.
Things are going great, and they’re only getting better.
I’m doing all right, getting good grades,
the future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.
I’ve got a job waiting for my graduation.
Fifty thou a year, buys a lot of beer.”

In 1991 Pearl Jam san in “Jeremy” about a boy who takes his own life in school. And in 1979 the Boomtown Rats narrated in “I Don’t Like Mondays” the news story the shooting spree of 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer, who fired at children in a school playground at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California, on 29 January 1979, killing two adults and injuring eight children and one police officer. Spencer showed no remorse for her crime; her explanation for her actions was “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.”

“Principal’s Office” peaked at #3 in Vancouver (BC) and #9 in Buffalo (NY). In America the song stalled at #33 on the Billboard Hot 100, but climbed to #5 in New Zealand and #8 in the Netherlands.

The fifth track to be released as a single from his debut album, Stone Cold Rhymin’, was titled “I Come Off“.

Young MC released seven more studio albums between 1991 and 2008. However, none of these came close to the initial buzz that earned him accolades with his debut album.

In December 2004, Young traveled to Vancouver to commence shooting for the film The Zero Sum. As an actor Young played Mr. Henderson, a publishing company executive. Film director Raphael Assaf and screenwriter Armen Evrensel asked Young to help create the film, for which he is a co-executive producer. Young also teamed up with Baltimore rapper KNOXX to create “Brotherly Love”, the film’s theme song. On January 25, 2006, Young MC appeared in concert at the Plaza Club in Vancouver.

In 2009 Young MC had a cameo appearance in the film Up in the Air. Young MC performed in concert in Vancouver at the PNE Amphitheatre on August 23, 2018.

Over the years Young MC has been involved in advertisements for Pepsi, Taco Bell and Burger King.

July 29, 2022
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Young MC: About,” Youngmc.com.
Greg Kot, “Young M.C.Stone Cold Rhymin` (Delicious Vinyl) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)Rap`s…,” Chicago Tribune, October 19, 1989.
Chuck Berry, “School Day,” ReasontoRock.com.
Ben Gerson, “Schools Out,” Rolling Stone, September 20, 1972.
Eduardo Crasta, “Another Brick In The Wall: The Meaning of Pink Floyd’s Song,” auralcrave.com.
“One-Hit Wonders: Timbuk 3’s ‘The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades,” Classicpop.com, August 1, 2016.
“CKLG Top 40,” CKLG 730 AM, Vancouver, BC, February 12, 1990.

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