The Forgotten Men of Hip-Hop: Dana Dane

This is Slick Rick, he’s a famous rapper whose popularity peaked in the late 1980s. He raps with an English accent and tells hilarious first-person stories, he’s a genius.

 

Nothing says ‘genius rapper’ like gold rings and eye patches

This is his lesser known friend, Dana Dane, whose popularity also peaked in the late 1980s. Like Rick, Dana also raps with an English accent and tells amusing first-person anecdotes about his adventures and how cool he is. I love him

 

Nothing says “1987” like a Kangol hat

Slick Rick was born in South London and moved to New York as a child. Dana Dane is a big fat phony, he’s New York born and raised. He used to be in a rap crew with Rick and I would wager that Dana stole the accent gimmick from him.

 

 

London: Home of Dana Dane apparently

 Back in 2010 I stumbled upon his Wiki. I learned that there was this guy called Dana who used to bum around with Slick Rick and pretended to be British. I was sold immediately. The trusty guys from AllMusic.com informed me that his first album was basically a collection of amusing stories and gave it an impressive 4.5/5 stars.

 

AllMusic’s word is Oak

I needed no more encouragement and checked out his 1987 debut, Dana Dane With Fame and it was great. It is certainly no Great Adventures of Slick Rick but that does not mean that it is not without his charms.

The first thing that you notice about Dane is that he really thinks that he is the hot shit, so cool in fact, that it borders on delusional.

 

Dana Dane’s love letter to himself

 

Pretty much every song involves some sort of story about how girls find him amazingly attractive and are physically unable to resist his charms. It’s brilliant. My personal favourite example of this can be heard on the track Delancey Street.

 

Delancey Street Apparently

So he starts by telling us how good of a rapper is and that Delancey Street is a pretty rough part of town, so far so good. So, Dana’s on the dreaded Delancey Street and is minding his own business when suddenly a group of women come up to him and start flirting. He drops his guard and they pull out some guns and try and rob him. Dana’s like “fuck this” and runs away.

 

In today’s modern hip-hop everyone cares about their tough guy image too much to even dare to tell a story in which they are chased by anyone, let alone by a group of women. I find Delancey Street a refreshing tale from a simpler time.

 

So anyway back to the story. The women catch up to Dana and make him strip, but as he takes off his jacket the ladies realise that he is infact that man Dana Dane. They give up the robbery and are so overcome with lust that they have sex with him right then and there.

 

Artist’s Impression

 Delancey Street says everything you need to about Dana and why his album is so great. He’s Dana Dane world renowned ladies man and all-around cool guy. He doesn’t really boast much, he just informs the audience in a very matter-of-fact manner that he is basically the shit and that women love him. On another song he is going to visit a doctor, once he gets into the office he tells the receptionist who is, and she loses her shit.

 

Clearly the man has major delusions of grandeur, he not only thinks that he is English, but he also thinks that he is one the of the most attractive men to ever walk the face of the Earth. It makes for a great album. He is also quite the rapper and he excels at telling stories.

It is a crying shame that the world forgot Dana Dane, with more exposure he certainly would have become a hip-hop legend.

 

Anyway, I give Dana Dane With Fame 4 Kangol hats out of 5

 


 As soon as Kangols come back into fashion I am going to get one in every colour

Host of Culture Hash, writer of music, TV and film opinions

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