"Buffalo Gals" is a 1982 hip hop single released by

Malcolm McLaren Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English impresario, visual artist, singer, songwriter, musician, clothes designer and boutique owner, notable for combining these activities in an inventive and provoc ...

and

the World's Famous Supreme Team The World's Famous Supreme Team was an American hip hop radio show duo and recording group active from 1979. The original members were Sedivine the Mastermind (Larry Price) and Just Allah the Superstar (Ronald Larkins Jr.). Career The group's ...

, from McLaren's 1983 album ''

Duck Rock ''Duck Rock'' is an album released by British impresario Malcolm McLaren. It was originally issued in 1983 by Charisma Records, Virgin Records, and Chrysalis Records, and later re-released on CD in 1987. The album mixes up styles from South Afr ...

''. The song is composed of extensive

scratching Scratching, sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ and turntablist technique of moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable to produce percussive or rhythmic sounds. A crossfader on a DJ mixer may be used to fade between two record ...

with calls from

square dancing A square dance is a dance for four couples, or eight dancers in total, arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, facing the middle of the square. Square dances contain elements from numerous traditional dances and were first documente ...

. The music video prominently features the

Rock Steady Crew Rock Steady Crew is an American breaking and hip hop group which has become a franchise name for multiple groups in other locations. The group's 1983 international hit song " (Hey You) The Rock Steady Crew" (from the group's first studio album ...

History

While in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

looking for a support act for

Bow Wow Wow Bow Wow Wow are an English new wave band, created by manager Malcolm McLaren in 1980. McLaren recruited members of Adam and the Ants to form the band behind 13-year-old Annabella Lwin on vocals. They released their debut EP '' Your Cassette ...

, McLaren got the idea for the song when he went to an outdoor concert (known as a "Block Party") by

Afrika Bambaataa Lance Taylor (born on April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (), is an American DJ, rapper, and producer from the South Bronx, New York. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenc ...

and

Universal Zulu Nation The Universal Zulu Nation is an international hip hop awareness group formed by and formerly led by hip hop artist Afrika Bambaataa. The Universal Zulu Nation promotes the idea that hip-hop was created to sustain the ideals of “peace, love ...

. This is where he was exposed to hip-hop for the first time and discovered the scratching technique he would use on this song. Most of the scratching and the beat of the song were composed by

Trevor Horn Trevor Charles Horn (born 15 July 1949) is an English music producer, label and recording studio owner, musician and composer. He is best known for his production work in the 1980s, and for being one half of the new wave band The Buggles (wit ...

. Charisma Records were not initially keen on releasing the song, but relented after a strong positive response to the first broadcast of the track by DJ

Kid Jensen David Allan "Kid" Jensen (born 4 July 1950) is a Canadian-born British radio DJ and television presenter. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began as a radio DJ on Radio Luxembourg. Jensen was later a broadcaster for the BBC from 1976 ...

Recording

In the liner notes for ''Duck Rock'', McLaren wrote that this track was "recorded with the World's Famous Supreme Team and Zulu singers backing them up with the words 'she's looking like a hobo.' The performance by the Supreme Team may require some explaining, but suffice to say they are DJs from New York City who have developed a technique using record players like instruments, replacing the power chord of the guitar with the needle of a gramophone, moving it manually backwards and forwards across the surface of a record. We call it scratching." Trevor Horn recalled the recording: "By the time Malcolm McLaren arrived, I'd got a Fairlight ... By the time I did McLaren I'd bought an Oberheim sequencer and drum machine, a DMX and a DSX. I told the World's Famous Supreme Team to tell me their favourite drum beat. It took a couple of hours for them to actually communicate it to me, but once I'd got it, that was 'Buffalo Girls': 'du du — cha — du du — cha'. That was done on this DMX and DSX and they just scratched on top of that."

Re-release

McLaren and the World's Famous Supreme Team released a record based on the song that includes several remixes, released on September 25, 1998 by

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

, entitled "

Buffalo Gals Back to Skool ''Buffalo Gals Back to Skool'' is a CD by Malcolm McLaren that was released on September 25, 1998. It is based on McLaren's 1982 single "Buffalo Gals". Track listing # "It Was A New York Phenomenon" (Malcolm McLaren) - 1:57 # "Class In Sess ...

". The record features artists such as

KRS-One Lawrence "Kris" Parker (born August 20, 1965), better known by his stage names KRS-One (; an abbreviation of "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone") and Teacha, is an American rapper from New York City. He rose to prominence as part of ...

Rakim William Michael Griffin Jr. (born January 28, 1968), better known by his stage name Rakim Allah or simply Rakim (), is an American rapper and record producer. One half of golden age hip hop duo Eric B. & Rakim, he is widely regarded as one of t ...

, Henri Scars Struck and

Stephen Hague Stephen Hague (born 1960) is an American record producer most active with various British acts since the 1980s. Early life Hague was born in Portland, Maine in 1960. Early career Hague started his musical career in the mid-1970s as a session k ...

, among others.

Samples and covers

The World's Famous Supreme Team sampled the line "First Buffalo Gal go 'round the outside" in their 1984 song " Hey DJ". Malcolm McLaren was not involved in creating the song; however, he received credits on the A-side. The line is also referenced by

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

at the beginning of his 2002 single " Without Me", with the lyric being changed to "Two trailer park girls go 'round the outside".

Neneh Cherry Neneh Mariann Karlsson (born 10 March 1964), better known as Neneh Cherry, is a Swedish singer-songwriter, rapper, occasional DJ and broadcaster. Her musical career started in London in the early 1980s, where she performed in a number of punk roc ...

's 1989 hit "

Buffalo Stance "Buffalo Stance" is a song by Swedish singer Neneh Cherry, released from her debut album, '' Raw Like Sushi'' (1989), in November 1988. The song peaked at 3 on both the UK Singles Chart and the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and it reached No. 1 in ...

" is loosely based on "Buffalo Gals", and samples the song. The song is also sampled in the Sublime single "

Doin' Time "Doin' Time" is a song by the American band Sublime for their self-titled third album. The lyrics tell of a cheating girlfriend, whose infidelities and poor treatment of her lover makes him feel like he is in prison. It was released as a singl ...

and in "

I Wish I WiSH was a Japanese pop group consisting of two members, Ai Kawashima and nao. Ai is responsible for the vocals and occasionally plays the piano also with nao on the keyboard or piano. Their most notable track is and was in the Oricon ranking ...

" by

Skee-Lo Antoine Roundtree (born March 27, 1975), better known by his stage name Skee-Lo, is an American rapper. He is best known for his 1995 song "I Wish", which became a hit in several countries and reached No. 13 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. His fir ...

. Hip hip trio

The Beatnuts The Beatnuts are an American hip hop group and production duo from New York City. Its current members are JuJu and Psycho Les. JuJu (born Jerry Tineo on December 14, 1968) is a Dominican American from Corona and Psycho Les (born Lester Fernande ...

sampled the song in their debut album '' Intoxicated Demons: The EP''. The sample is used in the opening song, "World's Famous Intro", which is a nod to The World's Famous Supreme Team. The song was again featured on their 2005 Greatest Hits album, '' Classic Nuts, Vol. 1''. "Buffalo Gals" was also sampled on the

Public Enemy "Public enemy" is a term which was first widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society, though the phrase had been used for centuries to describe p ...

album ''

Fear of a Black Planet ''Fear of a Black Planet'' is the third studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy. It was released on April 10, 1990, by Def Jam Recordings and Columbia Records, and produced by the group's production team The Bomb Squad, who expanded ...

'', in a track called "Brothers Gonna Work It Out". Elements from

's recording are sampled in the song "

Powerless (Say What You Want) "Powerless (Say What You Want)" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado from her second studio album, ''Folklore'' (2003). The song was written and produced by Furtado, Gerald Eaton, and Brian West. It contains a sample of Malco ...

" by

Nelly Furtado Nelly Kim Furtado (; ; born December 2, 1978) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. Furtado has sold over 40 million records worldwide making her one of the most successful Canadian artists. She first gained fame with her trip hop-inspired deb ...

. It was also sampled in

Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time, having sold over 80 million records worldwide. She has been recognised for reinve ...

KylieFever2002 KylieFever2002 was the seventh concert tour by Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue, in support of her eighth studio album, ''Fever'' (2001). The tour began on 26 April 2002 in Cardiff, Wales at Cardiff International Arena and concluded on 16 Aug ...

world tour performance of "

Cowboy Style "Cowboy Style" is a song recorded by Australian recording artist and songwriter Kylie Minogue, for her sixth studio album ''Impossible Princess'' (1997). The song was released as the fourth and final single on 5 October 1998 through Mushroom Re ...

". " Double Dutch" was also sampled in this performance.

Charts

References

External links

* {{authority control 1982 debut singles Malcolm McLaren songs British hip hop songs 1982 songs Charisma Records singles Songs written by Trevor Horn Songs written by Anne Dudley Atco Records singles Island Records singles Atlantic Records singles Songs written by Malcolm McLaren