Retro Video of the Week: "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" by Us3

Tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of the release of British jazz rap group Us3's debut album, Hand on the Torch.  Presumably most people didn't know jazz rap was a thing until they heard the debut single off the album, "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)."  But I'll be damned if it didn't work.  

Us3's record label was iconic jazz label Blue Note Records, and the album was unique in that it featured a lot of sampling, which was still in its nascent stages.  Every song on the album samples songs from old Blue Note recordings.  You may be saying to yourself, "For some reason, I knew that Us3 recorded for Blue Note."  That's likely because of the intro to "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" -- by Pee Wee Marquette from 1954's A Night in Birdland, Vol. 1, a live album by the Art Blakey Quintet -- which says, "Ladies and gentlemen, as you know we have something special down here at Birdland this evening:  a recording for Blue Note Records."  Then the song kicks in, and it's just so damn catchy.  The title comes from the song that is sampled throughout, Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island."

"Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" is another example of something weird that came out in the '90s that no one batted an eye at, instead just accepting that it was a good song, even if you didn't listen to jazz or have any idea that the song sampled a '60s jazz classic (that was certainly the case for me).  The song reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the group's only song to chart in the U.S.  Hand on the Torch peaked at #31 on the Billboard album chart and was eventually certified platinum in the U.S. -- the first Blue Note album to achieve platinum status.