ORANGE KRUSH: LIGHTS, CAMERA... posted by O.W.

Orange Krush: Action
From 12" (Mercury, 1982)

I've been reading Ronin Ro's upcoming biography of Run DMC, Raising Hell, which is a great, compelling story of not just the group's rise to fame but an entire era of hip-hop as it bum rushed the world.

Ro writes about Orange Krush's "Action" in some detail since it was not just Russell Simmons first big hit but the drum break for the song found its way into several other important early rap songs including the Treacherous Three's "Action" and Run DMC's "Sucker MCs" (the latter was a drum machine interpolation by Larry Smith, who produced Orange Krush). I didn't realize that at first but then I listened to "Sucker MCs" again and realized - yeah, it is a drum machine replay of "Action's" break.

Basic facts: the drummer on the song is Trevor Gale, the singer is Alyson Williams, and Larry Smith and Russell Simmons produced the single.