Rick James, Ghetto Life | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 98^th edition of Throwback Vibez (2023), we recollect and reflect on “Ghetto Life” by Rick James.

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 98^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2023), we recollect and reflect on 🎵 “Ghetto Life”, performed by 🎙 Rick James. 

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“When I was a young boy / Growing up in the ghetto / Hanging out on corners / Singing with the fellas.” The late, great 🎙 Rick James (1948 – 2004) was one of a kind. The most important album of his career was his 1981, platinum certified effort, 💿 Street Songs. The highlights include 🎵 “Fire and Desire”, 🎵 “Give It To Me Baby”, and the biggest hit of them all, 🎵 “Super Freak”.  Still, if those three songs are ‘the big three’ from Street Songs, the set’s actual third single,  🎵 “Ghetto Life” is no slouch.  Following “Give It To Me Baby” on the track list, James keeps the funk alive and kicking.  “Ghetto Life” wouldn’t chart on the pop charts, but critically, it is one of Rick’s very, very best.

On “Ghetto Life,” Rick James is serving up real talk.  The albums isn’t titled Street Songs for nothing, right? “You wanna know what I’m talking ‘ bout / Talking ‘bout ghetto life.” In the second verse, James memorably sings about “This little cute girl” (named Nancy), with “Pigtails to her shoulders” who “Was young and kinky” and “Laid her pigtails down on me.” Ghetto indeed! The third verse moves behind sex, finding James “Playing tag with winos / The only way to have fun.”  He also makes it clear that the ghetto itself is going nowhere.  He receives assists from 🎙 Mary Jane Girls as well as 🎙 The Temptations.  The music is electric on this self-penned and self-produced classic, which includes rhythm section and  horns (saxophone, trumpets, trombone) among its instrumentation. 🎵 “Super Freak” may be the Rick James song to beat but 🎵 “Ghetto Life” is a surefire vibe as well!

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Also, check out 🔻:

• Rick James, “Fire and Desire”: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 67 (2023)
• Rick James, “Give It To Me Baby”: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 82 (2023)
• Rick James, “Super Freak”: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 97 (2023)

🎙 Rick James • 💿 Street Songs • 🏷 Motown • 🗓 1981

Rick James, “Ghetto Life”: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 98 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Motown; John Alan Sperry, PIRO via  Pixabay]