Today in Hip-Hop — September 5: Stone Cold Rhymin’ at 37, Young MC Had Already Written Everyone Else’s Hits

September 5, 1989. Young MC put out Stone Cold Rhymin’ on Delicious Vinyl — a debut album from a 22-year-old who had already written two of the biggest rap singles of the year for somebody else. While Tone-Lōc’s “Wild Thing” was moving two-and-a-half million copies and “Funky Cold Medina” was riding right behind it, Marvin Young — economics degree from USC, born in London, raised in Queens — finally put his own name on a record. The audacity was quiet. The receipts were already platinum.

Three Platinum Records. One Songwriter. Same Year.

Here’s the part most rundowns skip: Young MC co-wrote “Wild Thing” for Tone-Lōc while his own album was still being recorded. That song sold over 2.5 million copies and became one of the best-selling rap singles up to that point. Then he wrote “Funky Cold Medina.” Also platinum. Both records produced by Matt Dike and Michael Ross — the same Delicious Vinyl duo who built the instrumental for “Bust a Move.”

Young MC met Dike and Ross at USC while studying economics. He was the academic in the crew — the kind of writer who could build a 16-bar narrative about getting rejected at a party with the same precision he’d apply to a supply-demand curve. “Bust a Move” peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped charts in Australia. Stone Cold Rhymin’ hit #9 on the Billboard 200. For a debut nobody outside Delicious Vinyl had been anticipating, that’s a ceiling-smashing entrance. The golden age class of ’89 — De La Soul, Public Enemy, NWA all running at full speed — did not make room for anyone who wasn’t ready. Young MC was ready.

The First Televised Rap Grammy — and Flavor Flav Crashing the Stage

At the 32nd Grammy Awards in 1990, “Bust a Move” won Best Rap Performance — the first time the rap category was televised. The year before, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince won for “Parents Just Don’t Understand” but boycotted the ceremony specifically because rap was kept off-camera. In 1990, rap was back on the national telecast. New Kids on the Block presented the award. Young MC accepted with a grin and said he’d try not to drop the trophy. Then Flavor Flav crashed the stage. Peak 1990 in three minutes flat.

The irony of “Bust a Move” winning the first televised rap Grammy is that the song is, at its core, a comedy about a dude who cannot talk to women. Young MC leaned into storytelling, humor, and clean bar construction at the exact moment hip-hop was getting harder and more political. NWA’s Straight Outta Compton had dropped the year before. Public Enemy was mid-run on It Takes a Nation. The culture was wide enough to hold all of it. For a few months in 1989, Marvin Young was holding three of the biggest pieces simultaneously.

Also Today in Hip-Hop

• Rich Homie Quan (September 5, 2024): Two years ago today, Atlanta’s Quan Armory — Rich Homie Quan — passed at 33, accidental overdose. “Type of Way” wasn’t just a record; it was the melodic blueprint that shaped the Young Thug, Gunna, and Lil Baby era. The hook-rap lane he helped carve is now one of Atlanta’s dominant exports. Gone too early, felt everywhere.
• Jackson 5 “Dancing Machine” turns 52 (September 5, 1974): The title single hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the R&B chart. That syncopated machine-funk groove became producer gold — sampled, chopped, and looped into more hip-hop beats than anyone has fully catalogued. Every time a producer went digging in the crates, Dancing Machine was in the stack.
• Young MC’s origin reads like hip-hop’s alternate universe: Born in Highbury, North London. Raised in Hollis, Queens — the same neighborhood that produced Run-DMC. Took his pen to USC’s economics department. Wrote two platinum records for a labelmate. Then wrote his own. The pipeline from London to Hollis to Delicious Vinyl to a Grammy podium is a story that never got the documentary it deserves.

Stay creative — The Custom Creative Team