"Mass Appeal" is a song by American hip hop group

Gang Starr Gang Starr was an American Hip-hop, hip hop duo, consisting of Houston-born record producer DJ Premier and Boston-based rapper Guru (rapper), Guru. Gang Starr was at its height from 1989 to 2003, and is considered a widely influential MC-and-pr ...

, released on February 8, 1994 by

Chrysalis A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages the ...

and

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

as the second single from their fourth studio album, ''

Hard to Earn ''Hard to Earn'' is the fourth studio album by American hip hop duo Gang Starr. It was released on March 8, 1994, by Chrysalis and EMI Records in North America. The album featured the singles " Dwyck" (featuring Nice & Smooth), " Mass Appeal" (t ...

'' (1994). The song reached number 67 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number 42 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' R&B chart. It was also featured on the soundtrack of the video game ''

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4'' is a 2002 skateboarding game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision under their Activision O2 label. The game was ported by different developers to various systems. It is the fourth installment in the ' ...

''.

Background

According to DJ Premier, "Mass Appeal" was recorded to poke fun at radio when it came to hip hop music:

"It was recorded as a joke. We just wanted to make fun of the radio on what it sounded like to get airplay. That’s why I made the background melody real simplistic. I was making fun of the radio, but I’m going to make a funky version of making fun of it. Everything’s a vision, and your brain has to be that intense to be able to capture that. What the radio played, when it came to hip-hop, it sounded too watered down. That was making fun of it, but that record did real good for us".

The track samples

Vic Juris Victor Edward Jurusz Jr. (September 26, 1953 – December 31, 2019), known professionally as Vic Juris, was an American jazz guitarist. Music career Juris was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, but he moved with his family to Parsippany-Troy Hill ...

' 1980 song "Horizon Drive." as well as vocals from Pete Rock's remix of

Da Youngsta's Da Youngsta's is an American rap group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United Stat ...

1992 track Pass Da Mic as well as well as Big Daddy Kane's 1987 track "Raw""

Music video

The music video was released in March 1994, shortly after ''

'' was released. The first verse featured Guru rapping inside an old apartment complex. The second verse featured Guru rapping inside a moving car, and the third verse featured Guru rapping on a beach. DJ Premier mentioned that the video was filmed on a very cold night in

Far Rockaway Far Rockaway is a neighborhood on the eastern part of the Rockaway peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is the easternmost section of the Rockaways. The neighborhood extends from Beach 32nd Street east to the Nassau County li ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

1994 songs 1994 singles Gang Starr songs Song recordings produced by DJ Premier Songs written by DJ Premier Chrysalis Records singles {{1990s-hiphop-song-stub