Dazz Band, Let It Whip | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 182^nd edition of Throwback Vibez (2023), we recollect and reflect on “Let It Whip” by Dazz Band. 

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 182^nd edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2023), we recollect and reflect on 🎵 “Let It Whip”, performed by 🎙 Dazz Band.

“We both are here to have good fun / So, let it whip.” 🎵 “Let It Whip” appears as the opener on the 1982, gold-certified album, 💿 Keep It Live, by 🎙 Dazz Band.  The record was penned by 🎼 ✍ Leon “Ndugu” Chancler and Reggie Andrews with Andrews also producing it. The biggest success by the Cleveland, Ohio collective, the single reached an impressive no. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100.  It performed even better on the R&B charts, to the tune of no. 1 for five weeks. Adding to the accolades, “Let It Whip” won the 🏆 Grammy for Best R&B Performance By A Duo or Group with Vocal at the 25^th Annual GRAMMY Awards. Sweet, particularly considering they were the first group out of Cleveland to win this award!

So, what makes “Let It Whip” the premiere bop that it is? The groove plays a sizable role. Besides the use of ample rhythm, the backdrop is funky as albeit.  Colorful keys and synths, idiomatic of the 1980s, still catch the ears to this date.  Furthermore, electrifying guitar riffs go a long way in locking down the funk, PERIOD.  Throw in expressive vocals filled with personality and soul, and the perfect gem is constructed.  The falsetto, the playful vocal approach, and the harmonies all encourage us to “let it whip!” The ad-libs are simply decadent.  Of course, the section of the song everyone loves the best is none other than – wait for it – the chorus:

“So let it whip

(Let’s whip it, baby) child

(Let’s whip it right) get a grip

(Let’s whip it baby, work it all night)

Well, what’s your trip?  (No, no) child

C’mon let it whip

Ooh-hoo.”

🎵 “Let It Whip” = one of the funkiest joints of all time!

🎙 Dazz Band • 💿 Keep It Live • 🏷 Motown / UMG Recordings, Inc. • 🗓 1982

Dazz Band, Let It Whip: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 182 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Motown / UMG Recordings, Inc.; John Alan Sperry, PIRO via  Pixabay]