The Ignorant Three Plus None

Attention, Chubb Rock completists (and if you're not a Chubb Rock completist, you should be; so get on it). Here's one you probably missed. "Summer In America" by The Ignorant Three Plus None, which consists of Chubbs, Mr. Blue (who produced "I Will Survive" on the Chubbster's The Mind LP) and A-Love (I'm guessing on the spelling of this last one... his name isn't printed anywhere, he just says it in the song).

Unfortunately, this isn't available on vinyl (Japanese bootleggers, your mission has just been laid before you) or even CD... it's only available on the DVD of the film, Wet, Hot American Summer. It plays during the closing credits of the film in a truncated form, and better still, it's available to be heard complete and separately as an extra, under "Songs With Production Stills." Here are the full credits of the song, as written out in the credits of the film:

"Summer In America"
Written by A. Morenoff and R. Simpson
Performed by Mr. Blue & Chubb Rock
Courtesy of Race Music
Contains sampled copyrighted material under license from Tappan Zee Records, Inc.

It's really a crazy, fun song, using the basic drums and bells of Run DMC's "It's Tricky" but with extra horn stabs and what-not. And the lyrics go from 80's nostalgia ("Ice cream cone, it's gonna run... all over my Pumas, suede, it's '81, y'all. Who? It's A-Love and I'm on the scene. I got three Big Wheels and a Green Machine. I got Slip 'n' Slide and Sit 'n' Spin; and now it's time for my mellow; Chubb Rock begin!") to "Ya Bad Chubbs" references ("I'm Chubb Rock risin', and I'll break your leg. And I'm more than a 40oz.; I'm more like a keg. So just sip this, rip this, before you miss this. And get hemmed up if you land on my shit list.") to parodying "The Message" and "Rapper's Delight" ("Did you ever sneak to your girlfriend's momma's house 'cause the moms is lookin' good? Then you slide off the panties and lick on the fanny, but the pussy tastes like wood. So you leave, drink water, go find the daughter, 'cause she definitely ain't the wack. She got a pink bra and a g-string and a see-through in the back"). The three MC's constantly pass the mic back and forth (i.e. "Crooklyn Dodgers" style, as opposed to each MC rocking one whole verse each: "Return Of the Crooklyn Dodgers" style), making for a really fun song. And this came out in 2001, when Chubb Rock had all but stopped putting out new records (though he did have that one 12", also with Mr. Blue, on Fully Blown that year).

Well, I say he's all all but stopped putting out new music, but he puts up new songs every so often on his myspace page, and talks of putting out a new album (fingers crossed). He had a song up called "Da Ting" before, an ode to his phallus; and as of this writing has a song up called, "Ol' Skool Flava," which unfortunately is just another of the hundreds of name-dropping songs, where he lists old school rappers. Seriously, we all know the list. None of need to hear another song naming them... so f'ing boring. If you're gonna rap about old school hip-hop, guys, say something about it. Don't just name the same names. We stopped handing out bonus credibility for that years ago.

Tags: Chubb Rock