"Rockit" is a composition recorded by American jazz pianist

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of ...

and produced by

Bill Laswell William Otis Laswell (born February 12, 1955) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, wo ...

and

Michael Beinhorn Michael James Beinhorn is a North American record producer, composer, author, and musician. He has produced albums for Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, Hole, Korn, Kensington and Marilyn Manson. Career 1977–1983: early years, Material, Her ...

. Hancock released it as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

from his twenty-ninth album, ''

Future Shock ''Future Shock'' is a 1970 book by American futurist Alvin Toffler, written together with his wife Adelaide Farrell, in which the authors define the term "future shock" as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies, and a ...

'' (1983). The selection was composed by Hancock, Laswell, and Beinhorn. The track was driven by its deejay scratch style, performed primarily by DXT, and its music video created by

Godley & Creme Godley & Creme were an English rock duo formally established in Manchester in 1977 by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. The pair began releasing music as a duo after their departure from the rock band 10cc. In 1979, they directed their first music v ...

, featuring the robotic art of

Jim Whiting Jim Whiting (born 1951) is a British artist and inventor. He was born in Paris and spent his early childhood in Salisbury (now Harare), Zimbabwe before returning to the UK with his family in 1959. He studied Electronic Engineering & Systems Cont ...

, which was put in high rotation on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

. "Rockit" won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance in 1983, and it won five

MTV Video Music Award The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...

s in 1984. In 2022 and 2025, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' and ''

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 ...

'' magazine included the song in their lists of the best dance songs of all time.

Recording

"Rockit" was constructed and composed during the recording process, first at BC Studio in

Gowanus, Brooklyn Gowanus ( ) is a neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 6, Brooklyn Community District 6. Gowanus is ...

, with additional overdubs at RPM Studios in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, then Hancock's home studio in

West Hollywood West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. History Most historical writings about West Hollywood be ...

, and finally at Eldorado studio in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The production duo of

Material A material is a matter, substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an Physical object, object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical property, physical ...

(bassist Bill Laswell and synth player

) were based at

Martin Bisi Martin Bisi (born 1961) is an American producer and songwriter. He is known for recording records by Sonic Youth, Swans, John Zorn, Material, Bill Laswell, Helmet, Unsane, The Dresden Dolls, Cop Shoot Cop, White Zombie, Boredoms, Angels of L ...

's BC Studio, recording experimental,

no wave No wave was an avant-garde music genre and visual art scene that emerged in the late 1970s in Downtown New York City. The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music. Reacting against punk rock's recycling of rock and r ...

and underground club music. Hancock's 25-year-old manager, Tony Meilandt, approached Laswell to write a new track for Hancock, whose career needed a boost. To gauge this potential new direction for his career, Hancock accompanied Laswell to hear a set of popular club DJs including

Afrika Bambaataa Lance Taylor (born April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (), is a retired American DJ, rapper, and record producer. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of ...

and D.ST spin at

Roxy NYC The Roxy (sometimes Roxy NYC) was a popular nightclub and former disco roller rink located at 515 West 18th Street in New York City. Located in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, it began as a roller disco in 1978, founded by Steve Bauman, R ...

in front of an enthusiastic crowd. Warily eyeing the crowd, which to him looked like a riot, Hancock needed more convincing by Meilandt before he contracted with Laswell's team to deliver two tracks. Meilandt later said "Herbie was very much ready" to try a new kind of sound. At BC Studios, Beinhorn used a new

Oberheim DMX The DMX is a programmable Digital data, digital drum machine manufactured by Oberheim Electronics, Oberheim. It was introduced in 1980 at a list price of and remained in the company's product line until the mid-1980s. The Oberheim DMX was the se ...

drum machine to lay down a basic beat, and Laswell brought in Daniel Ponce to augment this with Afro-Cuban

batá drum The Batá drum is a double-headed hourglass drum with one end larger than the other. The percussion instrument is still used for its original purpose as it is one of the most important drums in the Yoruba land and used for traditional and relig ...

s. Ponce played the three drums one at a time during three recording passes, to make it sound like three drummers invoking a

Santería Santería (), also known as Regla de Ocha, Regla Lucumí, or Lucumí, is an African diaspora religions, Afro-Caribbean religion that developed in Cuba during the late 19th century. It arose amid a process of syncretism between the traditional ...

spirit. Grand Mixer D.ST came to the studio with two deejay friends from his group Infinity Rappers to scratch for the track, bringing his own vinyl which included "

Change the Beat "Change the Beat (French and English Rap)", also referred to as "Change the Beat (Male Version)", is a song written and recorded by Fab 5 Freddy and produced by Bill Laswell’s group Material. The remix by female vocalist Beside (Ann Boyle) of th ...

" by

Fab Five Freddy Fred Brathwaite (born August 31, 1959), more popularly known as Fab 5 Freddy, is an American visual artist, filmmaker, and hip hop pioneer. He is considered one of the architects of the street art movement. Freddy emerged in New York's downtown ...

, (which had been recorded in the same studio). D.ST found an interesting portion of the 12-inch vinyl near the end– the voice of manager Roger Trilling saying "Ahhh! This stuff is really fresh" through the studio's

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''vo''ice and en''coder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder wa ...

– and he scratched through that section. Trilling had been playing with the vocoder in the studio, mocking

Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the ...

executive

Bruce Lundvall Bruce Lundvall (September 13, 1935 – May 19, 2015) was an American record company executive, best known for his period as the President and CEO of the Blue Note Label Group, reporting directly to Eric Nicoli, the Chief Executive Officer of EMI ...

who was in the habit of sitting back in his chair and declaring a song "fresh" if he liked it, without knowing that the word ''fresh'' was current in hip-hop subculture. This moment was captured on tape, and Laswell worked it into the conclusion of "Change the Beat". The 2-inch 16-track master tape containing rhythm parts and scratching needed to be transferred to 24-track 2-inch in order for Hancock to work with it at his home studio. Laswell and Bisi took the tape to RPM Studios in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

, but instead of simply transferring the format, they added some extra sounds, especially a

stab STAB or stab or stabs may refer to: *Stabbing, penetration or contact with a sharp object Places *Stab, Kentucky, US * St. Anne's-Belfield School, a college preparatory school in Charlottesville, Virginia, US People and characters * Staff capta ...

of guitar taken from a

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...

song on the album '' Coda''. Using the repeat hold function of a

Lexicon A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...

Prime Time digital delay, they attempted to capture a Led Zeppelin snare drum sound, but a moment of inattention resulted in the guitar stab, which Laswell found better suited his purpose. Hancock first heard the work-in-progress in West Hollywood at his home studio, a former guest house in back of his main residence. Hancock determined that the track needed a melody line. Hancock, Laswell and Beinhorn composed one on the spot by humming out loud to each other. Then Hancock recorded his ideas on three different synthesizers, performing on them one at a time. When Hancock suggested performing some vocoder vocal scat, Laswell and Beinhorn said they could instead sample lyrics from a hit song, specifically the line "Rock it, don't stop it" from " Planet Rock", which was at that time a hit for Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force. This lyric sample produced the title "Rockit". A final recording session was convened at Eldorado Studios located at Hollywood and Vine, Hollywood, Los Angeles. To round out the

turntablist Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects, mixes and other creative sounds and beats, typically by using two or more turntables and a cross fader-equipped DJ mixer. The mixer is plugged into a PA syste ...

sounds, D.ST flew out from New York along with his colleague Grandmaster Caz. Session engineer

Dave Jerden David Jerden (July 25, 1949 – February 5, 2025) was an American record producer, audio engineer and mixer. He is best-known for producing, engineering and mixing albums recorded by a variety of bands from the mid-to-late 1980s and 1990s, inc ...

remarked to Beinhorn that Hancock appeared hopeful about the track, but that he did not realize what he had. After the brief 90-minute session, the New York contingent went to a local stereo shop to pass the time before their flight home. Carrying a cassette tape of the final mix, they listened to "Rockit" on some loudspeakers at the shop, attracting the attention of children from the neighborhood who were amazed and curious. Judging their reaction, Laswell told D.ST, "That's a hit record."

Personnel

– synthesizers, composition *

– samples, production, composition *

–

synth drums,

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

percussion, processed vocal, additional electronics, composition * Daniel Ponce –

s * D.ST – main turntables *Mr. C of the Infinity Rappers – additional turntables *Boo-Ski of the Infinity Rappers – additional turntables *

– engineering at BC Studio and RPM Studios * Grandmaster Caz – additional turntables *

– engineering, mix at Eldorado Studios

Music video

The music video for "Rockit", directed by the duo of

Kevin Godley Kevin Michael Godley (born 7 October 1945) is an English singer-songwriter, drummer and music video director. He was a singer and drummer of the art rock band 10cc and later was part of collaboration duo Godley & Creme with Lol Creme. Early ...

and And or AND may refer to: Logic, grammar and computing * Conjunction, connecting two words, phrases, or clauses * Logical conjunction in mathematical logic, notated as "∧", "⋅", "&", or simple juxtaposition * Bitwise AND, a Boolean oper ...

Lol Creme Laurence Neil "Lol" Creme ( ; born 19 September 1947) is an English musician and music video director, best known for his work in 10cc. He was later one half of the duo Godley & Creme, with 10cc drummer Kevin Godley. Creme has collaborated with ...

, featured robot-like movable sculptures (by

) dancing, spinning, and even walking in time to the music in a "virtual house" in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The video garnered five MTV Video Music Awards in 1984, including Best Concept Video and Best Special Effects. Hancock himself appears, and plays keyboard, only as an image on a

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

receiver, which is smashed on the pavement outside the front door of the house at the end of the video. The video also won two ''

'' Video Music Awards, one for most innovative video, and another for best art direction.

Performances

"Rockit" was performed at the 1985 Grammy Awards Ceremony in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, in a

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

jam with contemporaries Howard Jones,

Thomas Dolby Thomas Morgan Robertson (born 14 October 1958), known by the stage name Thomas Dolby, is an English musician, producer, composer, entrepreneur and teacher. Dolby came to prominence in the 1980s, releasing hit singles including "She Blinded Me ...

, and

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...

Legacy

In July 2022, ''

'' ranked "Rockit" number 131 in their list of the "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time". In March 2025, ''

'' magazine ranked it number 39 in their list of "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time".

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1983 singles 1983 songs 1980s instrumentals Herbie Hancock songs Music videos directed by Godley and Creme Songs written by Herbie Hancock Electro songs Columbia Records singles Song recordings produced by Bill Laswell Song recordings produced by Michael Beinhorn American funk songs