"Light Years Away" is the second single by the hip hop group,

Warp 9 Warp 9, an American sci-fi themed electro-funk, hip hop group is best known for its ground breaking, influential singles including " Nunk," "Light Years Away," and " Beat Wave," which ranked among the most iconic groups of the electro hip hop ...

, released in 1983. Written by

Lotti Golden Lotti Golden (born November 27, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, poet and artist. Golden is best known for her 1969 debut album '' Motor-Cycle'', on Atlantic Records. Winner of the ASCAP Pop Award for songwriting and RI ...

and Richard Scher and produced by

, Richard Scher, and

John "Jellybean" Benitez John Benitez (born November 7, 1957), also known as Jellybean, is an American musician, songwriter, DJ, remixer, and music producer. He has produced and remixed artists such as Madonna, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and the Pointer Sisters ...

, the song appears on the group's debut album '' It's a Beat Wave'' (

Prism Records Prism Records was an American record label formed in 1978 by Len Fichtelberg (d. November 4, 2010). It was originally an independent label, focusing on the New York City R&B and disco scene of the day with groups like Erotic Drum Band and disco ...

) charting on the '' Billboard'' R&B and dance charts. Described as "the perfect instance of hip hop's contemporary ramifications," Warp 9's second record exemplifies the

afrofuturist Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic, and philosophy of science and history that explores the intersection of the African diaspora culture with science and technology. It addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through technocultur ...

influence in hip hop, "born of a science fiction revival."Toop, David (2000). ''Rap Attack 3: African Rap To Global Hip Hop''. (Expanded Third Edition) Serpent's Tail, London N4 2BT pp. 146, 148, 150-151 . The UK media outlet, the Guardian, on May 14, 2014, described "Light Years Away" as a "cornerstone of early 80's beatbox afrofuturism." "Light Years Away" a

sci-fi Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...

tale of ancient alien visitation, partially inspired by " The Message", also pays homage to

Sun Ra Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...

's film Space Is the Place. Music journalist Rob Fitzpatrick characterizes "Light Years Away" as a cut above: "this new track was something else, a brilliantly spare and sparse piece of electro hip-hop, LYA traversed inner and outer space, matching rolling congas with vocoder voices and the hiss and sizzle of cutting edge synth and drum machine technology." The rhyme in "Light Years Away" invokes a stark, cyberpunk Philip K. Dickian vision of the future. ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'' highlighted the song's experimental use of

vocoders A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was i ...

and sci-fi street imagery in "Language Arts & Disciplines: Sci-Fi Street Sounds.""Scifi Street Sounds"
(1983) Newsweek, volume 153, Issue 5 The 12" recording employed other innovative features for its time, such as incorporating both singing and rapping, a feminist rap by Ada Dyre, live Latin percussion overdubs in combination with Roland TR-808 beats, and a unique take on the snare (backbeat). The snare is syncopated so that the backbeat arrives a 1/16th note early on the second beat of each bar; the fourth beat is not syncopated.

References

{{authority control 1983 singles Electro songs Dance-pop songs East Coast hip hop songs Songs about outer space Songs written by Lotti Golden 1983 songs