FEATURE:
Groovelines
Kris Kross – Jump
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ON 6th February…
one of the biggest songs of the 1990s turns thirty. Jump is the hit debut single by American Hip-Hop duo Kris Kross. It was a single from their debut studio album, Totally Krossed Out. Whereas some see the song as a bit of a novelty, I feel it is actually a terrific song that should be focused on more. Infectious and uplifting, it is no surprise that music buyers around the world helped make it a success! Even though Kris Kross could not follow the success of their debut single, one can definitely look fondly at the tremendous Jump. Stereogum looked at the song earlier in the month. In a very extensive feature, I wanted to highlight a few sections:
“But Kris Kross also made straight-up rap music. In terms of age and geography and subject matter, Kris Kross were outliers within rap music, but they still made music that could sit comfortably next to Public Enemy or EPMD in a DJ set. “Jump,” Kris Kross’ debut single and only #1 hit was, in its time, the most credible version of rap music that had ever made its way to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. In its time and for many years afterwards, “Jump” was also the biggest rap hit of all time.
“Jump” is a ridiculously catchy and memorable song, and that definitely helped it hit the way that it did. But the real difference-maker for “Jump” was probably timing. “Jump” was targeted directly at the kids in my micro-generation, the ones who had never known a pre-rap world. The two members of Kris Kross, Chris “Mac Daddy” Kelly and Chris “Daddy Mac” Smith, were parts of that exact same micro-generation. (I was born in September of 1979, the same month that “Rapper’s Delight,” the first rap song to reach the Hot 100, came out; both members of Kris Kross were about a year older than me.) If you were a little kid when “Jump” came out, then these two guys immediately seemed like the coolest human beings in existence.
While both members of Kris Kross were kids, they weren’t really that much younger than the guy who discovered and assembled the duo. Jermaine Dupri grew up fully immersed in the R&B industry. Michael Mauldin, Dupri’s father, was a road manager for funk acts like Cameo and the SOS Band. In the early ’80s, a very young Dupri jumped onstage to dance with Diana Ross at an Atlanta show that his father booked. As a kid, Dupri found work as a dancer, touring with Cameo, Herbie Hancock, and early rap groups like Whodini and Run-DMC. Dupri was the little kid pop-locking in Whodini’s 1985 “Freaks Come Out At Night” video.
Chris Kelly and Chris Smith, both from Atlanta, had been friends since first grade. That day at Greenbriar Mall, the two of them were shopping for sneakers, and they walked up to Silk Tymes Leather to ask for autographs. Dupri, who wasn’t too much older than those two kids, saw a whole lot of charisma in them. In Fred Bronson’s Billboard Book Of Number 1 Hits, Dupri remembers the meeting: “They were real fresh. I thought they were some teen stars I wasn’t hip to. So I said, ‘Who are you? What do y’all do?’ They said, ‘No, we ain’t no group.’ Everybody else in the mall was looking at them the same way. People were paying attention.” Right away, Dupri decided that these two little kids should be a group and that he should turn them into one.
The two Chrises didn’t write their lyrics. Jermaine Dupri wrote and produced everything on Totally Krossed Out, the Kris Kross album that came out in March of 1992. Dupri had been to a concert and noticed that “people were just into jumping.” In the Bronson book, Dupri says that he wrote “Jump” in an hour, though he probably spent a whole lot longer putting together the beat. Like most other rap hits of that early-’90s moment, “Jump” is a stitched-together collection of samples, and in an age where all those samples have to be cleared, it would probably be prohibitively expensive to release. The main instrumental hook of “Jump” is a needling, wobbling synth-loop that’s taken from “Funky Worm,” the 1973 funk workout from former Number Ones artists Ohio Players. (“Funky Worm” peaked at #15. Before “Jump,” “Funky Worm” samples had already appeared on a couple of N.W.A tracks.)
The “Jump” single came out in February of 1992, almost two months before the Totally Krossed Out album. It took a couple of months for “Jump” to gather steam, but after Kris Kross performed the song on an early-April episode of In Living Color, the song suddenly soared up the chart, leaping from #61 to #12 in a single week. (Kris Kross probably would’ve been prime targets for In Living Color mockery if they hadn’t actually been on the show; whoever got them booked was very smart.)”.
I was keen to mark thirty years of a ‘90s classic. Maybe you can call Kris Kross a one-hit wonder. Jump definitely captured a mood and resonated with the public. If all critics were not on board, there were plenty who reacted positively to the song. This Wikipedia article combines some critical feedback:
“Steve Huey from AllMusic called the song "irresistible", adding, "actually, the miggeda-miggeda-mack bit proves they're not bad rappers". Larry Flick from Billboard wrote that "energetic pop/hip-hopper showcases fast-talking, baby-voiced male rappers that may initially draw comparisons to Another Bad Creation." He also described the song as "radio-friendly" and "melodic". Randy Clark and Bryan DeVaney from Cashbox commented, "For such young guys, they deliver some pretty impressive lyrics and have a slammin' music track on their debut single. You can be sure to hear more from this group in the near future." James Bernard from Entertainment Weekly noted, "Play the group’s hyperactive platinum single ”Jump” at any party and watch the floors quake. To their credit, the two rappers don’t rely on their production team’s musical prowess. Smith (who calls himself Daddy Mack) and Kelly (Mack Daddy) grip their microphones with so much confidence that if they didn’t sound so youthful, you might forget they’re just barely out of grade school." Dave Sholin from the Gavin Report stated, "These two twelve year-olds from Atlanta are about to bounce in only one direction—to the top of the chart." Bruce Britt from Los Angeles Daily News described the song as "bubble gum rap".
Pan-European magazine Music & Media commented that "these 12-year-old boys have formed a real rap posse. They sound as determined as Michael Jackson at that age." Alan Jones from Music Week stated that "against an unusually fresh and eclectic backdrop, the two 13-year-old rappers make a highly infectious noise incorporating some ragga influences". James Hamilton from the magazine's RM Dance Update deemed it a "jaunty "jump, jump" prodded jiggly lurcher". A reviewer from People Magazine said that "their best trick is inserting catchily melodic refrains in the middle of their free-stylin' raps. That should help them kross over to pop. And cheek the speed at which they spin out their ragamuffin rhymes on "Jump" and "Warm It Up". Obviously the tongue matures before the rest of the body.” Hannah Ford from Select wrote that the song "is a beautiful hip hop track that gets your goose bumps quacking. It's Public Enemy's wailing sax break with Naughty By Nature's b-line." Bunny Sawyer from Smash Hits gave it five out of five, commenting, "Their tune's a work of hip-hop genius that comes complete with easy-peasy dance steps to make us all look as cross as them." Sunday Tribune described it as a "infectious rallying cry”.
It is a shame that we did not hear more songs from Kris Kross that equalled the stature and catchiness of Jump. In any case, they could be proud of a song that was a huge chart-topper. Even to this day, Jump is ranked alongside the best tracks of the 1990s. That is no small feat! As its thirtieth anniversary is on 6th February, I would suggest people put the song on and…
PLAY it loud.