Download Song Ice Cream
Pinkie Pappalardo
"C.R.E.A.M." (a backronym of "Cash Rules Everything Around Me") is a song by the American hardcore hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, released on January 31, 1994 by Loud Records, as the second single from their debut studio album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993). The song was produced by the group's de facto leader RZA, and contains a sample of the Charmels' 1967 song "As Long As I've Got You" throughout. It features two verses from members Raekwon and Inspectah Deck, who discuss their upbringings while living in New York City, and Method Man, who sings its hook. Its music video, featuring all Wu-Tang Clan members in New York City, was released in 1994.
"C.R.E.A.M." achieved lukewarm commercial success, peaking at number 60 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1994. The song received universal praise from music critics, many of whom described it as one of the best songs on Enter the Wu-Tang. Since its release, the song has been called one of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time, with some who even described it as one of the greatest songs of all time. It has since been sampled by numerous artists and was certified Gold in the United States in 2009.
The song has received universal acclaim from music critics, calling it one of the best songs on Enter the Wu-Tang. Brody Kenny of Consequence of Sound called it "iconic and somber" and praised Inspectah Deck's verse, describing him as the most underrated member of the group (having never had a RZA-produced classic solo album).[16] The song was described as a "classic" by Classic Hip Hop Magazine in their review of the album in 2018.[3] When reviewing Enter the Wu-Tang in 2013 for its 20th anniversary, Jason Lipshultz of Billboard praised the production, calling it "still devastatingly layered."[17] Lipshultz found it to be an odd choice to place the track between two less serious tracks ("Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothin' Ta Fuck Wit" and "Method Man") but found it to be "the beauty of the Wu: after entertaining listeners with braggadocio and jokes, they can flip the switch and deliver poignant realism."[17]
Since its release, multiple publications have listed "C.R.E.A.M." among the best hip-hop songs of all time, with some even describing it as one of the greatest songs of all time. In 2011, Time included the song on its list of the All-Time 100 Greatest Songs.[18] ThoughtCo. ranked the song number 20 on their list of the 100 Best Rap Songs of All Time. Their description reads "Never has there been a wildly influential hip-hop song so soothing by a group so blunt as Wu-Tang's "C.R.E.A.M." That is the genius of The RZA."[19] In 2012, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song number 11 on its list of The 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time, writing "Part of Wu-Tang's greatness was their messy, multitudinous sprawl, but the best song on their debut is ruthlessly efficient: just two breathless verses, plus the catchiest acronym in history, laying out the ground rules of street capitalism."[20] The magazine would later include it in their 2021 revised list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time at number 107.[21] The song was also included on The Source magazine's 100 Best Rap Singles list in 2015.[22] The song was voted number 13 on VH1's 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs list in 2008.[23]
On the US Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart, the song debuted at number 27 for the issue date of February 19, 1994, and entered the top 25 of the chart by climbing five places the following week to number 22.[25] The same week as its debut on the Hot Rap Songs chart, the song entered the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at number 84.[26] The song debuted at number 96 on the US Billboard Hot 100 for the issue dated March 12.[27] "C.R.E.A.M." eventually peaked at number 60 on the Hot 100 on April 23, 1994.[28] That same week, it peaked at number eight and number 32 on the Hot Rap Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts respectively.[26][29] By having reached number 60 on the Hot 100, the song stands as the highest charting Wu-Tang Clan track ever.[30] In 2009, "C.R.E.A.M." was certified Gold in the United States by the RIAA for sales of 500,000 units, 15 years after its original release.[31]
The song was featured in the 2002 film 8 Mile.[34] Composer Ramin Djawadi, notable for scoring the soundtracks for HBO's series Game of Thrones, covered the song for the HBO series Westworld, appearing in the fifth episode of the show's second season, "Akane no Mai".[35] Djawadi's cover was praised by Julia Alexander of Polygon, who compared it to Djawadi's other Westworld covers, including "Runaway" by Kanye West and "Heart-Shaped Box" by Nirvana.[36] Drake and Jay-Z interpolated the song's hook for their song "Pound Cake / Paris Morton Music 2" on the former's 2013 studio album, Nothing Was the Same.[37] For her 2019 EP She Is Coming, American singer-songwriter Miley Cyrus sampled the song for her promotional single "D.R.E.A.M." (an acronym for "drugs rule everything around me"), which features Wu-Tang Clan member Ghostface Killah.[38]
Just stumbled over "White Room" by Cream and the few notes in the beginning (sec. 0-23) instantly gave me vague memory of another song, presumably another popular rock song from that era, but rather sad.
On the youtube version of the song and the video there isn't any different song but when i was listening to it on Spotify the original version there is totaly different beat and in the beginning i would say it sounds like saxophone or somethin an was wondering if it just as a intro or a whole different song
"Nigger Love A Watermelon Ha! Ha! Ha!" merits the distinction of the most racist song title in America. Released in March 1916 by Columbia Records, it was written by actor Harry C. Browne and played on the familiar depiction of black people as mindless beasts of burden greedily devouring slices of watermelon.
I came across this gem while researching racial stereotypes. I was a bit conflicted over whether the song warranted a listen. Admittedly, though, beneath my righteous indignation, I was rather curious about how century-old, overt racism sounded and slightly amused by the farcical title. When I started the song, the music that tumbled from the speakers was that of the ever-recognizable jingle of the ice cream truck. (For the record, not all ice cream trucks play this same song, but a great many of them do.)
I wondered how such a prejudiced song could have become the anthem of ice cream and childhood summers. I learned that though Browne was fairly creative in his lyrics, the song's premise and its melody are nearly as old as America itself. As often happens with matters of race, something that is rather vanilla in origin is co-opted and sprinkled with malice along the way.
For his creation, Browne simply used the well-known melody of the early 19th century song "Turkey in the Straw," which dates to the even older and traditional British song "The (Old) Rose Tree." The tune was brought to America's colonies by Scots-Irish immigrants who settled along the Appalachian Trail and added lyrics that mirrored their new lifestyle.
The first and natural inclination, of course, is to assume that the ice cream truck song is simply paying homage to "Turkey in the Straw," but the melody reached the nation only after it was appropriated by traveling blackface minstrel shows. There is simply no divorcing the song from the dozens of decades it was almost exclusively used for coming up with new ways to ridicule, and profit from, black people.
The ice cream crossover happened concurrently: 19th century ice cream parlors played the popular minstrel songs of the day. After World War II, the advent of the automobile and the ensuing sprawl required parlors to devise a way to take their products to customers. Ice cream trucks were the solution, and a music box was installed in them as a way to announce their presence in neighborhoods. Naturally, the traditional minstrel tunes of the previous century were employed to evoke the memorable parlor experience.
Here in the nation's capital, the cherry blossoms have come and gone. This means the warm weather will soon bring out the ice cream trucks, and I'll be confronted once again by their inconvenient truth. It's not new knowledge that matters of race permeate the depths of our history and infiltrate the most innocent of experiences, even the simple pleasure of ice cream (who can forget Eddie Murphy's famous, NSFW routine about the poor black experience with ice cream trucks?). However, when the reach of racism robs me of fond memories from my childhood, it feels intensely personal again.
Whenever I hear the music now, the antique voice laughing about niggers and watermelon fills my head. I can live with this, but what's to be done on the summer day when my children's eyes light up at the far-off sound of the familiar melody, and they dash in a frenzy toward me for change? Do I empower them with the history of our country, or encourage the youthful exuberance induced by the ice cream truck? Is it my responsibility to foul the sweet taste of ice cream with their first taste of racism?
The answer is intellectually complex, but parental intuition provides clarity. When teeth fall out, I blame the dollar under their pillow on the tooth fairy. When presents appear overnight under the fir tree, I say Santa Claus is the culprit. And so when a song about niggers and watermelon fills the suburban air, I will smile and hand over money from my pocket. The sight of my children enjoying a Good Humor ice cream bar will fight back the racist song that lampooned black people who happened to be in good humor. The delivery of the cold hard truth can wait until another day.
As in many other (maybe all) Prince songs there are many ways to interpret this one. Many layers of meaning are possible. To me, this is Prince working up mojo. This is him saying, yeah I have moments when I don't feel equal to what is being asked of me or what I'm asking of myself and I need to build up my confidence. This is huge, to me. I mean, he's Prince! So even musical geniuses need to work on their confidence from time to time?!?