Case featuring Foxy Brown "Touch Me, Tease Me"

Album: The "Nutty Professor" Soundtrack/ Case (Def Jam; 1996)
Songwriters: Mary J Blige, Kenny Kornegay, Inga Marchand, Jesse Weaver, Case Woodard and Daryl Young
R&B Peak Position: #5

"Hold on tight and don't let go/ Baby I'm about to explode..."

Back in 1985, Philly rapper Schoolly D emerged as an early figure in rap's looming hardcore turn with "P.S.K. What Does It Mean?", a minimalist-styled tribute to his hometown street gang, the Park Side Killers.

With a skeletal beat that consisted of little but a clattering drum rhythm and the slicing scratch work of partner DJ Code Money, "PSK" had all kinds of people fuming with it's day-in-the-life narrative shaded in R-rated themes. Led through the streets of Philadephia in his Mercedes, with cheeba and a brew kept by his side, he relays first-hand accounts of a one-off fling with a 'round-the-way "whore" ("She got me to the crib, she laid me on the bed/ I fucked her from my toes to the top of my head") and a pistol-toting confrontation with a "sucker-ass nigga tryin' to sound like me". Since rap had rarely sounded this hard and graphic, "PSK"'s edgy lyricism and brittle soundbed wasn't taken too kindly by many, fanning the negative criticism that the still-infant genre had been handed for years.

Amongst the hip hop community, though, "PSK" was embraced as an instant classic, it's realistic story-telling planting the seed of inspiration for future West Coast-based giants like Ice-T (who was moved to record his seminal "6 In The Morning" soon after he heard the Schoolly tune) and NWA. Sadly, those influenced would greatly improve upon "PSK"'s humble blueprint, and in time, Schoolly began to feel more and more irrelevant in relation to the style that he had helped create.



DL: "P.S.K. What Does It Mean?" (YFH)

A decade later, "P.S.K."'s iconic soundtrack was revisited, albeit for less controversial subject matter, on Case's breakout hip hop-soul concoction, "Touch Me, Tease Me". The former background singer kicked off his Def Jam signing with the Nutty Professor single, co-written by and featuring vocal work from one-time girlfriend Mary J Blige as well a cameo from rising labelmate Foxy Brown.

Lathering the booming Schoolly D sample with some silky R&B keyboards, "Touch Me..." found Case spewing lightweight "freak-you-up" sex talk against Brown's materialistic chatter. "I'll spend the night with you," he states, as long as she agrees to make his wildest dreams come true. The songwriting was forgettable and Case didn't offer much to make him stand out from the rest, but his edge-of-whiny tenor and "Touch Me"'s mind-sticking hook was pleasant enough, especially when lain over such no-brainer production.

Going Gold, "Touch Me, Tease Me" was one of a few hit singles to be birthed from the soundtrack, an outlet that emerged quite popular in the urban music world during the nineties, and became the basis for some of Case's biggest future successes (Rush Hour's "Faded Pictures" and The Best Man's "The Best Man I Can Be"). In 2002, British boy-band 3SL and a pre-"American Boy" Estelle covered the track to Top 20 UK success.

Best Moment: The beat!

Case - Touch Me Tease Me
Uploaded by R33f

DL: "Touch Me, Tease Me" (YFH)